ftafp
2020-11-19, 11:57 PM
I hate the prosthetic limb in Tasha's. I could go into a rant about it, but my general frustrations boil down to two things:
A metal hand should be better at punching than a fleshy one
Combat prostheses are made to be broken
When I bring this up, the general response seems to be either "ask your dm for an arcane propulsion arm" or "homebrew it", but to me personally these are terrible suggestions that I don't want to work with. With that in mind I wanted to compile a list of by-the-book, DM fiat-free ways to get a better prosthetic arm and see what other people could add to it
The Arcane Propulsion Arm Infusion: it gives you enhanced punching alright, but it's not available until level 14 which makes it kind of pointless
The Armorer's Arcane Armor: For a far more reasonable 3 level dip you can get a suit of armor that replaces any lost limbs and builds in either a thunder gauntlet or lightning blaster for free, both of which can use INT instead of the normal ability score. The downside is you're locked in to the subclass
Homunculus Servant: This is a strange one. The homunculus servant can take any form and occupy your space, so it easily can be used as an arm. It's also destructible (and disarmable if you rule that wearing it counts as it being mounted on you), which is nice, but it might be a bit too destructible given its tiny hit point pool, and the only attacks you can make with it are ranged ones
Hand-shaped Sidekick: These are some options. Available at level 1, some choices include the Crawling Claw, the Homunculus and Juvenile Mimic. Of course, this is still a matter of DM fiat, but it is a by-the-book solution. That said, your limb is mortal and you won't be able to fix or replace it easily if it dies, which it very well could
Mage Hand: No.
Telekinesis: Better, but still no.
A metal hand should be better at punching than a fleshy one
Combat prostheses are made to be broken
When I bring this up, the general response seems to be either "ask your dm for an arcane propulsion arm" or "homebrew it", but to me personally these are terrible suggestions that I don't want to work with. With that in mind I wanted to compile a list of by-the-book, DM fiat-free ways to get a better prosthetic arm and see what other people could add to it
The Arcane Propulsion Arm Infusion: it gives you enhanced punching alright, but it's not available until level 14 which makes it kind of pointless
The Armorer's Arcane Armor: For a far more reasonable 3 level dip you can get a suit of armor that replaces any lost limbs and builds in either a thunder gauntlet or lightning blaster for free, both of which can use INT instead of the normal ability score. The downside is you're locked in to the subclass
Homunculus Servant: This is a strange one. The homunculus servant can take any form and occupy your space, so it easily can be used as an arm. It's also destructible (and disarmable if you rule that wearing it counts as it being mounted on you), which is nice, but it might be a bit too destructible given its tiny hit point pool, and the only attacks you can make with it are ranged ones
Hand-shaped Sidekick: These are some options. Available at level 1, some choices include the Crawling Claw, the Homunculus and Juvenile Mimic. Of course, this is still a matter of DM fiat, but it is a by-the-book solution. That said, your limb is mortal and you won't be able to fix or replace it easily if it dies, which it very well could
Mage Hand: No.
Telekinesis: Better, but still no.