Zaq
2015-02-16, 01:02 PM
I've never seen this mentioned anywhere, so I may as well bring it up.
I recently got my hands on Red Hand of Doom, which I'm updating to Legend. However, this topic is 3.5 in nature, not Legend. Anyway, on page 126, it gives the stats for a new exotic weapon, the dragonchain. It's a two-handed bludgeoning weapon, non-reach, 1d6 damage, crits on a 19, can be used to disarm or trip—and it has a very interesting property. I'll quote it.
"Constrict: If the wielder successfully initiates a grapple while wielding the dragonchain (succeeds on the touch attack and beats his opponent's grapple check), he can loop the weapon around the opponent. He constricts the opponent for 1d8 damage (plus 1-1/2 times his Strength modifier). On subsequent rounds he can use the dragonchain to deal constriction damage with a successful grapple check. In addition, the chain provides a +2 circumstance bonus to grapple checks made to deal this constriction damage."
It's not worded quite the same way that many other sources of Constrict are worded, so it's probably not quite as useful. It looks like it might only work when you make a grapple check specifically to constrict, not just as a rider whenever you make a grapple check for any reason, the way some other Constricts are worded (a Grappling Vine's constrict seems to work automatically, as does Crushing Weight of the Mountain, from Magic of Eberron and Tome of Battle, respectively.) Still, I don't recall seeing any other weapons that specifically get better when you grapple with them, or that provide the same options that the dragonchain does.
So, is there anything interesting we can do with this? Any weird avenues of optimization this opens up? It doesn't seem overwhelmingly powerful, but it does seem to be rather unique, so there might be something weird that it makes possible. What do you make of it?
I recently got my hands on Red Hand of Doom, which I'm updating to Legend. However, this topic is 3.5 in nature, not Legend. Anyway, on page 126, it gives the stats for a new exotic weapon, the dragonchain. It's a two-handed bludgeoning weapon, non-reach, 1d6 damage, crits on a 19, can be used to disarm or trip—and it has a very interesting property. I'll quote it.
"Constrict: If the wielder successfully initiates a grapple while wielding the dragonchain (succeeds on the touch attack and beats his opponent's grapple check), he can loop the weapon around the opponent. He constricts the opponent for 1d8 damage (plus 1-1/2 times his Strength modifier). On subsequent rounds he can use the dragonchain to deal constriction damage with a successful grapple check. In addition, the chain provides a +2 circumstance bonus to grapple checks made to deal this constriction damage."
It's not worded quite the same way that many other sources of Constrict are worded, so it's probably not quite as useful. It looks like it might only work when you make a grapple check specifically to constrict, not just as a rider whenever you make a grapple check for any reason, the way some other Constricts are worded (a Grappling Vine's constrict seems to work automatically, as does Crushing Weight of the Mountain, from Magic of Eberron and Tome of Battle, respectively.) Still, I don't recall seeing any other weapons that specifically get better when you grapple with them, or that provide the same options that the dragonchain does.
So, is there anything interesting we can do with this? Any weird avenues of optimization this opens up? It doesn't seem overwhelmingly powerful, but it does seem to be rather unique, so there might be something weird that it makes possible. What do you make of it?