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View Full Version : Pathfinder Sweeper Mod, Scathach's Magic Holster, and Handheld Siege Weapon [PEACH]



Marigu.goke00
2016-08-06, 01:08 AM
Boy, it has been a VERY long time since I posted on here. This is in fact, the very first homebrew item set I've ever posted. So be nice. Or don't. Whatever.

Anyway, the sweeper mod and the magic holster were designed with Numeria in mind, and the handheld siege weapon kinda sprung from the holster.

Sweeper mod: This conical device fits snugly onto the barrel of an arc rifle, emp rifle, gravity rifle, laser rifle, sonic rifle or zero rifle. When installed, it causes the weapon to fire in a 20 foot cone rather than a single beam as though it were a shotgun or blunderbuss. A gravity or sonic rifle so modified deals damage as though it were one size smaller (1d10 in the case of a medium weapon), and a gravity rifle cannot produce a concentrated beam. A weapon with a sweeper mod installed cannot be used to fire as a single shot. As with a shotgun or blunderbuss, each attack roll is rolled individually, as is damage. Precision damage never applies when the sweeper mod is installed. If either the weapon or the sweeper mod is timeworn, and a glitch is rolled, roll once on the weapon glitch chart. If both are timeworn, roll once to confirm the glitch, and if the glitch is confirmed, roll twice on the weapon glitch table and take the least desirable result. Removing or installing the sweeper mod is a full round action which provokes attacks of opportunity. If the user has the rapid reload feat, it is a move action which provokes attacks of opportunity. Since this device is essentially a carefully crafted set of mirrors and lenses, it does not consume charges itself.

I'm not sure how to price this guy. HALP!

Sweeper Mod, Improved This device functions as a sweeper mod, but may be adjusted to fire a single shot as a move action which does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

X+300, where X is the price of the regular version.

Handheld Ballista: Essentially a giant crossbow, this weapon cannot be wielded without the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Heavy Weapons) feat, and even then, the wielder must possess a strength score of 22 or greater if they are smaller than large. The wielder also takes a -4 penalty on attack rolls for each size smaller than large they are. This weapon deals damage as a light crossbow. The wielder must use two hands to fire and load this weapon, which takes 2 full round actions (or one full round action if someone assists, also as a full round action), which is never reduced by rapid reload. A medium creature wielding or carrying (unless it is in an extradimensional space) a handheld ballista has their movement speed reduced as though they were wearing heavy armor, though dwarves are also affected by this, as the weapon is not only heavy, but incredibly cumbersome. A large creature may wield this weapon even if they are not proficient (though at a -4 penalty), and huge or larger treat this weapon as though it were martial.

Handheld Cannon: Essentially a cannon with two handles, this weapon cannot be wielded without both the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Heavy Weapons) and Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Firearms) feats, and even then, the wielder must posses a strength score of 22 or greater if they are smaller than large. The wielder also takes a -4 penalty on attack rolls for each size smaller than large they are. This weapon deals damage as a cannon. The wielder must use two hands to fire and load this weapon, which takes 5 full round actions (though this is reduced to 3 full round actions if the wielder has one person assisting as a full round action for each of those rounds, or 1 full round action if the wielder has two people assisting as a full round action), which is never reduced by rapid reload. A medium creature wielding or carrying (unless it is in an extradimensional space) a handheld cannon has their speed reduced to 10, if their movement speed is naturally 30, or 5, if their movement speed is naturally 20. This affects even dwarves, as the weapon is not only heavy, but incredibly cumbersome. Large or larger creatures may wield this weapon even if they are not proficient (though at a -4 penalty for each requisite feat they lack), and huge or larger creatures may ignore the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Heavy Weapons) requisite.

6,000gp

Scathach's Magic Holster: This item is a backstrap and takes up the body slot. This holster looks similar to a soft leather quiver, but it used to hold ranged weapons. It has a variable number of slots that can be used to contain ranged weapons, but not ammo or thrown weapons. Blowguns, amentums, atlatls, poisoned sand tubes, tube arrow shooters, hand crossbows (and their repeating variety), wrist launchers, coat pistols, dagger pistols, double barreled pistols, dragon pistols, pepperboxes, pistols, revolvers, arc pistols, dart guns, death rays, emp pistols, flare guns, gravity pistols, laser pistols, mindrenders, sonic pistols, stun guns, and zero pistols each occupy half a slot in the holster. They may be drawn as a move action, or part of a move action, if the wearer has a base attack bonus of +1 or higher, both of which provoke an attack of opportunity, or as a free action which does not provoke an attack of opportunity if the wearer has the quickdraw feat. All crossbows except for hand crossbows, all bows, buckler guns, sword cane pistols, blunderbusses, fire lances, muskets, axe muskets, double barreled muskets, warhammer muskets, rifles, pepperbox rifles, shotguns, double barreled shotguns, arc rifles, autograpnels, emp rifles, gravity rifles, id rifles, laser rifles, sonic rifles, and zero rifles each occupy one full slot, and may be drawn as a standard action which provokes attacks of opportunity, or as a move action which does not if the wearer has the quickdraw feat. Culverins, double hackbuts, atom guns, grenade launchers, nuclear resonaters, plasmathrowers, railguns, rocket launchers, vortex guns, and x-lasers each occupy 3 slots and may be drawn as a full round action which provokes attacks of opportunity, or as a standard action which does not provoke attacks of opportunity if the wearer has the quickdraw feat. For unusually strong wearers, handheld ballistae and handheld cannons occupy 5 slots, and may only ever be drawn as a full round action, which always provokes attacks of opportunity.

5 slot (4,000 gp), 10 slot (8,000 gp), 15 slot (12,000 gp) 20 slot (22,000 gp), 25 slot (35,000 gp)

Aergoth
2016-08-06, 02:10 PM
I'm no expert in tech weapons, but I'll have a look at your siege weapons and magic holster. They're a little hard to read at the moment (paragraph breaks are your friend) but here we go.

Scathach's Magic Holster
Problems:
There's no space on your holster to store ammunition or whatever tech ammo is appropriate. Many holsters or bandoliers would accomodate a place to hang a powder horn, or a pouch of some kind, since they're basically type of tool belt. It also doesn't seem to be a magical item, which begs the question of why it costs so much.

For the price of the five slot variety, you could purchase a haversack which would solve the problem of retrieving any of these without provoking an attack of opportunity, as well as an efficient quiver, which would hold bows, spears or staves and reduce their weight, and it's slotless to boot.

The endless bandolier will hold firearms and reduce their weight, while still costing less than the five slot item (and it holds four of them, as well as two two-handed firearms and sixty rounds of ammunition). It also takes up the chest, rather than body slot.

The beneficial bandolier (a belt slot item) gives space for scads of ammunition, a gunsmith's kit and powder, while also reducing the weight of all of this, and you can reload a firearm 1/round as a swift action.

So the holster doesn't perform as well as comparable magic items and it costs more than any two of them, and doesn't itself seem to be magical? It doesn't reduce the weight of a carried weapon, may increase the time it takes to retrieve a weapon and cause it to provoke attacks of opportunity, and the rules text is cumbersome.

Solutions:
At the moment, the item is a little hard to work and price because you're working with several lists of disparate weapon types/shapes that you're trying to balance. It would make some sense to split this into two, one that would hold pistols or "small" longarms, and the other that could support larger longarms and heavy weapons, however you propose to divide the categories.

Slot-wise, there are slotless items that are comprable, and I think this falls in with them. I personally think the bandoliers should be slotless as well, but that's beyond my control.

Ammunition, it's something that any of these are going to need, particularly the firearms. If you don't reduce the price, do include a place for some.

Last, there needs to be a greater benefit here. You call out the quick draw feat a few times, and I think this is one that could synergize with it. Allow the wearer to benefit from quick draw, and permit greater benefits for those who already have the quick draw feat (if drawing the weapon would generate an AoO, avoiding it).

Handheld Ballista
Problems:
So this is a less efficient light crossbow, by RAW. RAW tends to assume that weapons are sized for medium sized creatures (since this is most PCs). I assume you mean that the weapon would deal damage as a large sized light crossbow. This still means we're only doing... wow 3d6. And I spent a feat to be able to use it?
But this still means that for all the encumbrance on it, this is a really suboptimal weapon for anyone to be carrying around, and one that a spellcaster can replicate better to boot. I'm not even talking about blasting spells or summoning better help, I'm talking about the ability of a single spellcaster to enchant and operate an entire, full-sized, siege weapon by themselves, also I believe it's possible to shrink them down to carry them around.

Solutions:
You want to write out the table for this weapon first I think, and write the rules starting with the medium character. Characters trained in siege weapons should probably have a lesser penalty to non-proficiency since they're at least famliar with the moving parts. Large creatures take fewer penalties or get bonuses, since it's easier for them to use it. (I've always been fond of the concept of Detritus' Piecemaker from Discworld). I also can't imagine the hill giant or what have you carrying this requiring the two full-rounds to reload it properly.

The Light Balista does 3d8 as written, and requires two rounds for a creature to reload. Reducing this to 3d6 and permitting the (medium) wielder to take a single full-round or standard action with assistance would be a good middle point, bearing in mind that this is still a rather large piece of equipment, since it demands the heavy weapon proficiency.

This is also a perfect weapons to allow dwarves to carry unencumbered, gearheads as they tend to be. I'd say the bigger problem would be people trying to wear armor and carry one of these, so permitting only one to apply makes heaps of sense. Either this encumbers you, or the armor does.

Pretty much everything there goes just as much for the portable cannon.

Hope this helps