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Gahrer
2010-10-07, 04:16 PM
Long, odd question:

I'm currently preparing a campaign in GURPS 4ed and would like some help from someone a little bit more familiar with the system.

One of my players want a magical weapon (fantasy setting) conjured up with psionic power. After looking around we decided that Innate attack with the Melee only and Psionic limitations looked nice. I also judged that instead of the Innate attack skill he would use the Melee Weapon skill that most closley matched the apperance of his mindblade.

The problem is that he wants the blades damage to be based soley or partially on his swing/thrust damage like a normal sword instead of buying damage dice directly with innate attack. Any idea how I should price that in points?
If damage is based on ST he will have to spend extra points on ST or Arm ST then, but high ST / Arm ST is usefull in a lot of other things as well so its not like thoose points benefit only the mindblade (he will be using other weapons to for example).

Toptomcat
2010-10-07, 04:30 PM
Doesn't Striker work?

a_humble_lich
2010-10-07, 10:11 PM
You have several options that I can see, none are very good. You could buy it as an innate attack and just buy enough damage dice equal to the damage you would do from your strength. You could buy snatcher with the limitation (only swords), but that will be expensive and you'd want to buy off the fatigue cost and the time it takes). You could buy a striker (although that usually is for extra limbs) or claws, but both of those only do thrust damage, not swing.

I'd say that just make an advantage which summons a sword. I would say that For an object that does swing/cut or thrust/imp with a reach of 1 should cost about 15 points (compared to claws which don't do swing/cut and have no reach but only cost 8).

ShneekeyTheLost
2010-10-07, 10:34 PM
Does 4e have actual psionic rules? I remember in 3e, you could make a Telekenetic Blade, and it did Sw/Cut or Th/Imp using your TK power as the ST score. So if you had a TK score of 20, it would do SW/Cut or Th/Imp based on a ST of 20. Of course, it was 100 character points for a TK power of 20, but hey...

I'm not as familiar with 4e, so this may no longer be a viable solution.

Tael
2010-10-07, 10:47 PM
Just use a ST based innate attack. I believe the rules for it are in powers.

Spamotron
2010-10-07, 11:52 PM
There's an advantage enhancement for Innate Attack called alternative attacks. I forget if its in the main book or Powers. Its for powers that have multiple attack types that aren't accessible all at once. Guns with multiple types of ammunition for example. How it works is that you stat up two or more attacks representing each type. You only pay full points for the most expensive attack for all the others you pay one fifth. In this case a sword that can thrust (Impaling attack) or swing (cutting attack).

DukeofDellot
2010-10-08, 01:01 AM
Melee Attack: ST-Based appears on page P103, though I've never been able to figure out if that enhancement bases it off of Thrust or Swing damage... Part of me wants to say it's Swing, but I'm not sure.

You can also use "Follow Up: Punch" on page B105 to represent this and "Special Effect" that it's actually an energy blade that he's stabbing with rather than just a regular punch.

dariathalon
2010-10-08, 01:05 AM
Does 4e have actual psionic rules? I remember in 3e, you could make a Telekenetic Blade, and it did Sw/Cut or Th/Imp using your TK power as the ST score. So if you had a TK score of 20, it would do SW/Cut or Th/Imp based on a ST of 20. Of course, it was 100 character points for a TK power of 20, but hey...

I'm not as familiar with 4e, so this may no longer be a viable solution.

Yes, such rules do exist though not in the isolated form they did in 3rd edition. Most abilities that do roughly the same thing are covered by the same advantage then enhancements and limiters are applied to change the cost of the power and the way that the power works. Making a power psionic can be a limiter, but the old rules for psionics are gone and replaced by a powers approach.

There is no more TK 20. Now you buy the individual things you want to be able to do with your mind seperately. So you might take flight, telekinesis (which is now just moving objects around), an innate push attack, and some DR (representing a telekinetic forcefield). You can modify each one of those abilities individually giving them enhancements and limiters to change how powerful they are and how they work in general. Each one of them will also have a limiter stating they are part of the psychokinesis psionic power, which allows other people with psionic nullifiers to stop your powers from working.

This is, by the way, more or less the same as if you had gotten the power from another source (granted the power through a pact with a demon or god, for example). The magic system still exists in isolation, but I know a number of GMs have thrown it out and replaced it with the powers method and just relabeled the powers spells.

Gahrer
2010-10-08, 09:28 AM
Just use a ST based innate attack. I believe the rules for it are in powers.

Hmm... I think the player in question knows someone with that book or something... he mentioned having skimmed it. Ill check it out.

Gahrer
2010-10-10, 04:57 PM
Yep, he had that book. That enchantment solved it beautifully. Thanks guys!