3.P - RWBY-esque Custom Weapons!

[MaxiDuRaritry]

RWBY weapons: They're weird, they're wonderful, they're also a gun.

What RWBY-esque weapons can you come up with?

I have a character with prehensile feet similar to Jurassic Park's "velociraptors," thumb-claws included (he's a mix of lots of different races, which include a tanuki, a kobold, a dragon, and several anthropomorphic animals, including a monkey -- don't ask), and he uses deep crystal foot-gauntlets that are built as 2-handed weapons (as prescribed in Savage Species). They have wand chambers with built-in wand bracers that act as revolver chambers, loading the chamber with whichever wand is selected, pretty similar to Weiss's Myrtenaster. So I can fire fireballs and magic missiles and orbs of acid (oh my!). And they can also be used to punch-slash-kick people, with all the benefits that 2-handers get.

I imagine him using a capoeira style, punching, kicking, and firing magic in a constant barrage. A nice mental image, for sure!

Now I just need to figure out how to fire a wand as an attack action...

[upho]

RWBY weapons: They're weird, they're wonderful, they're also a gun.

What RWBY-esque weapons can you come up with?

What's a RWBY weapon? "Really Weird Blaster Y-front"? "Rapid Wonky Booming Young-gun"?

I imagine him using a capoeira style, punching, kicking, and firing magic in a constant barrage. A nice mental image, for sure!

I won't ask, and yes, I sure find it nice!

Magic monkey-style capoeira by cute(?) chimera-dragon-raccoon-thingy.... Yeah, that certainly flies in my world. (Does he happen to literally do so also in your world?)

Now I just need to figure out how to fire a wand as an attack action...

Oh, that should be easy in a 3.P game: take 3 levels in magus and get the Wand Wielder arcana. Voila! Each full attack can be complemented with a free action wand casting, at the cost of requiring a "free hand", -2 to attacks, and barring "normal" TWF. As a bonus, you also get spellstrike, which can sorta get you that TWF attack back as a deluxe version if you want, your RWBY foot-gauntlets also delivering a magus touch attack spell you cast with spell combat.

There may be an archetype or two of other classes able to do something similar, but not as well or early as a magus AFAIK. But at least if your game also includes PoW (it should) and/or Bloodforge (also by DSP), I think there may be some related additional odd/potent/fitting stuff your weird spell-kicking bastard of scales and fur could be interested in.

EDIT: Oh wait, did you look for a way to use wands as an attack action specifically? If so, that makes me curious. What exactly are you up to? Vital Strike-ing orbs? /EDIT

[MaxiDuRaritry]

What's a RWBY weapon? "Really Weird Blaster Y-front"? "Rapid Wonky Booming Young-gun"?

RWBY is an anime-esque video series by a company called Rooster Teeth (and is the brain-child of a really great animator named Monty Oum, may he rest in peace). It's really fun!

And RWBY stands for a couple of things. The characters' names are Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, and they're also color-coded! Red, White, Black, and Yellow!

All the characters have interesting fighting styles, and they wield really unusual weapons. Ruby (the girl in the Red Trailer) uses a sniper rifle that becomes a bolt-action sniper-scythe.

It's really wacked-out, but really awesome at the same time.

I won't ask, and yes, I sure find it nice!

Magic monkey-style capoeira by cute(?) chimera-dragon-raccoon-thingy.... Yeah, that certainly flies in my world. (Does he happen to literally do so also in your world?)

Imagine a skinny humanoid raccoon with slitted eyes, scales running along his back, and furry, prehensile, velociraptor-like legs and feet. See my avatar? That's him.

Mechanically, he's a Dragonwrought Kobold with some different racial feats, such as Human-Blood, and Old Blood (3rd party feat that lets you count as another race when beneficial to you, such as for prereqs).

You know how wizards and various aberrations like mixing and matching monsters together to get new ones? Yeah, he's one of those.

Oh, that should be easy in a 3.P game: take 3 levels in magus and get the Wand Wielder arcana. Voila! Each full attack can be complemented with a free action wand casting, at the cost of requiring a "free hand", -2 to attacks, and barring "normal" TWF. As a bonus, you also get spellstrike, which can sorta get you that TWF attack back as a deluxe version if you want, your RWBY foot-gauntlets also delivering a magus touch attack spell you cast with spell combat.

There may be an archetype or two of other classes able to do something similar, but not as well or early as a magus AFAIK. But at least if your game also includes PoW (it should) and/or Bloodforge (also by DSP), I think there may be some related additional odd/potent/fitting stuff your weird spell-kicking bastard of scales and fur could be interested in.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing this!

[edit]

EDIT: Oh wait, did you look for a way to use wands as an attack action specifically? If so, that makes me curious. What exactly are you up to? Vital Strike-ing orbs? /EDIT

Yeah, an attack action. I just want to make a flurry of attacks while firing shots off gun-fu style, like RWBY does. Watch the four trailers linked above for more details.

[Swaoeaeieu]

I forget what book its in. But look for the weapons called the spikard and the warspikard. A spear and warhammer with a crossbow built into them. Enchant the crosbow amunition, add wand chambers. Go nuts!

In the homebrew field, there is Lemmy's custom weapon creation system. Where Lemmy made a system that lets you make completely customized yet balanced weapons. I'm a big fan of that homebrew and in the thread we even recreated most of the RWBY weapons' stats. (Can't link it right now cuz mobile... but its on these forums or a quick google search away)

[PraxisVetli]

There's a material in one of the Eberron books that gives the Morphing enchant to anything made from it.
But I cannot, for the life of me, find it or remember what it's called.

[Vizzerdrix]

I forget what book its in. But look for the weapons called the spikard and the warspikard. A spear and warhammer with a crossbow built into them. Enchant the crosbow amunition, add wand chambers. Go nuts!

In the homebrew field, there is Lemmy's custom weapon creation system. Where Lemmy made a system that lets you make completely customized yet balanced weapons. I'm a big fan of that homebrew and in the thread we even recreated most of the RWBY weapons' stats. (Can't link it right now cuz mobile... but its on these forums or a quick google search away)

Eberron campaign setting, or magic of Eberron. One of the two. They only discharge the bolts on impact though.

[upho]

RWBY is an anime-esque video series by a company called Rooster Teeth (and is the brain-child of a really great animator named Monty Oum, may he rest in peace). It's really fun!

Just watched the four intros, and... OMFG!

It's really wacked-out, but really awesome at the same time

I definitely agree. I'm usually not much into the "standard manga girly-girls with ridiculously oversized weapons" thing at all, but this... This put a big smile on my face. Over-the-top larger-than-life super-stylish and beautifully choreographed crazy manga ultra-violence ballet at its best. Yeah, this rocks. Hard.

And it's (in my eyes) also surprisingly artsy and original in many ways, which makes it so much more enjoyable than the seemingly infinite number of superficially similar but boringly standardized "magical girly-girl" manga IMO. Thanks a lot for introducing this to me, really appreciated.

And RWBY stands for a couple of things. The characters' names are Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang, and they're also color-coded! Red, White, Black, and Yellow!

I kinda expected something like a manga, but I'm gonna have to admit that some silly/sick/childish part of me is really disappointed that "Really Weird Blaster Y-front" turned out to be wrong...

All the characters have interesting fighting styles, and they wield really unusual weapons. Ruby (the girl in the Red Trailer) uses a sniper rifle that becomes a bolt-action sniper-scythe
...
Yeah, an attack action. I just want to make a flurry of attacks while firing shots off gun-fu style, like RWBY does. Watch the four trailers linked above for more details.

Ah, when you say "attack action" you're referring to any attacks made as part of any action (such as a full attack action), not the specific standard action known as an "attack action" (which typically includes only a single attack), correct? If so, that makes it much more clear to me.

Anyhow, now that I've seen a bit of this weird fantastic gun-scythe/sword/gauntlet-fu, I think there might be quite a few PF things in addition to/instead of the magus able to mechanically capture both RWBY weird weapons and the related fighting styles really well in a 3.P game. For example:

• One or more dagger pistols with the Versatile Design weapon mod (monk fighter group).
• 1+ levels of stalker (Wis) or warlord (Cha) Privateer for the Gun Training, Salt in the Wound and Sea Combat ploys.
• 1 level of Master of Many Styles monk for free IUS, Ascetic Style (dagger pistol) and simultaneous use of two style feats.
• 1+ levels of Hawkguard warder.
• Seize the Opportunity, Tempest Gale Style (and eventually also Tempest Gale Storm), Cloak and Dagger Style, Combat Style Master, Dirty Fighting, TWF/MWF, Weapon Finesse (and possibly Deadly Agility), and maybe Dirty Trick Master at 11th-ish (stupidly powerful as written for this kind of build so remember to check for DM/group approval). Many of these and their prereq feats can and will be granted through means other than spending regular feat slots in most games, so the large number of feats isn't nearly as problematic as it may initially appear.
• The usual ranged feats (Rapid Shot, Deadly Aim, Rapid Reload etc).
• Fool's Errand, Tempest Gale and Solar Wind maneuvers plus perhaps Broken Blade Stance at 5th for insane full attack flurry (add Riven Hourglass and/or Radiant Dawn if you'd also like to show the game's action economy who's boss.)
  

The net result is a gun-ho superstar who does secret "boom-fist" kung-fu techniques to blind, daze, nauseate, stagger or just plain murder up to several opponents per round with his flurries of "dagger-pistol-fists" at range vs touch AC as well as in melee (up to more than 5 full bab attacks in a full attack as early as 5th level), including on AoOs which he can make at range (and with Winds of Vengeance Stance at 11th also against opponents who hits an ally within 60'). Plus potentially tons of additional hilarious over-the-top combat stunts and shenanigans, including stuff like energy damage boosts, at-will move action poofaporting and super-senses. Can be made extremely powerful in combat, just like RWBY!

I believe there are plenty of other kinds of RWBY-style builds possible with Path of War stuff, and many of them could also be made very effective and versatile combatants and adventurers throughout all levels.

Oh, and speaking of a system for designing own weapons mentioned by Swaoeaeieu, PF happens to have an official such system you should check out. Should be useful if you wanna create additional crazy RWBY murder tools.

See my avatar? That's him.

I kinda suspected this. So yes, cute!

[Vizzerdrix]

Oh, and speaking of a system for designing own weapons mentioned by Swaoeaeieu, PF happens to have an official such system you should check out. Should be useful if you wanna create additional crazy RWBY murder tools.

So wait. Do you split the build pool for double weapons, or does each end get its own? And can you even do melee/ranged?

[Swaoeaeieu]

So wait. Do you split the build pool for double weapons, or does each end get its own? And can you even do melee/ranged?

i dont know about the official pathfinder system. But in (shameless plug) this homebrew system a double weapon would be two weapons, each wich their own pool of customizations, but they both have to take the 'double' feature to become a double weapon.

[upho]

So wait. Do you split the build pool for double weapons, or does each end get its own?

The instructions say:

"Double: The weapon gains the double special feature. You pick the damage type of each of the weapon’s ends separately. If you choose the additional damage type or the improved damage quality with the weapon (see below), treat each end as a separate weapon when determining the Design Point cost of that quality."

So with the exception of the above mentioned additional damage type and improved damage qualities, all qualities you choose affect both ends of a double weapon (such as shield, reach or improved crit range).

And can you even do melee/ranged?

No, not by using the system alone. You can however easily tweak existing such weapons radically, like the dagger pistol I mentioned in my previous post. I'd also recommend using this method (carefully) if designing weapons similar to existing ones with properties which don't agree with or aren't found in the system, such as the barbazu beard, butchering axe, split-blade sword, elven branched spear or elven curve blade (value of qualities exceed the system's max possible 12 design points by a whopping 50%).

Note also that the system is intended as a guideline for GMs, and isn't available as a player option per the rules. It allows for creating some potentially pretty silly and/or very strong weapons, at least for certain specific combat styles and especially if you go bananas tweaking existing weapons with more odd properties.

(If you're wondering about the RWBY-ish dagger pistol combat style I outlined in my previous post, it uses only existing options, but can do a lot of very weird/unusal/cool things both ranged and melee. In large part because all attacks are treated as unarmed strikes for all effects/feats/abilities which augment unarmed strikes.)

[Uncle Pine]

If your table allows spell storing arrows/bolts, loading a spikard- or warspikard-esque weapon with spell storing ammunitions might work for shooting spells with melee weapons.

EDIT: Using the MIC rules to combine a magic weapon and a rod of many wands (Complete Mage) would make for an expensive, if satisfying, melee weapon with a ranged death beam mode. However, it still won't shoot spells as an attack action.

[Clementx]

MIC p61 lists sword bows, which can switch between melee and ranged as a free action. Swapping out bow for whatever semi auto firearm/repeating crossbow stats you have available and greatswords for a scythe gets you the base style that Qrow uses, but a lot of what Ruby does is tied to her semblance. Personally, I think of it as reducing her mass to that of rose petals, conserving momentum to increase her velocity.

Dust use beyond normal gunpowder seems to be best modeled as alchemical items with oil chambers or regular spellcasting with weapons as foci/component pouches depending on the character. But someone like Weiss would probably use wands spam as above.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

I just found this link, which has ways to expend a charge on a staff or wand as a ranged attack action (Wand/Staff Expertise). So long as you have a ranged attack available, you can use those feats. So use a staff as your variable RWBY weapon, or add a wand chamber to your weapon.

Too bad they're [Epic] only. Unlike most [Epic] feats, they're actually pretty nice (which, ironically, should place them as pre-Epic, since most [Epic] feats are far worse than a lot of normal feats).

[edit] Now I just need to find a way to use either casting/manifesting or psionic soul crystals (from MoI) as wands for this purpose...

[edit edit] The Master Wand/Master Staff feats in CArc let you expend spells to power your wands or staves instead of using charges. So you can blast enemies with kicks and punches using the stick in your hands or wands in your weapon chambers as ranged attack actions. If you had a way to boost wands to your CL, this might be acceptable.

[Ramza00]

Lets be honest, RWBY is merely having Catch Off-Guard (Combat) as a free feat for all huntress or aspiring hunters. Make those improvised weapons have no penalty with a single feat.

Most of the weapons are both ranged and melee weapons with one aspect of the weapon being "improvised" (but you suffer no penalties with said improvised weapon), or more rarely you have an improvised weapon that has multiple damage types. In theory we could also do this with "exotic weapons" as well.

So yeah a Pepperbox Rifle 1d10 for Medium with a 4 shot capacity and a misfire on 1 or 2. Oh it also acts like a club / mace and in a pinch it can be used as flying broom.

What is the price of an Eternal Wand of Fly once a day? (5400 + 100 gp rod) for 5 Rounds of RWBY flight. Eventually upgrading it to real Broom of Flying which is 17,000 GP in pathfinder for 9 hours of flight.

Maybe also add the ability to grant yourself the "Shield 1st level Spell" for several rounds as an eternal wand as well.

[Heavenblade]

If we go third party, you can build a DSP soulknife with vigilante (hangman) dip

that shapes his blade as a mind dagger
Emulate melee weapon for a glaive
Uses bladed brush feat to treat glaive as one handed P/S weapon
Take pyrokneticist to treat it as a whip
Take equipment trick to use the whip as a rope-use the rope as a spiked chain
Take the vigilante dip to treat the rope as a noose

Now you have a 1H P/S thrown noose-whip-spiked chain-glaive


I imagine it as something similar to the weapon the villian from kung fu panda 3 uses, but it also burns

Edit - and if you play around some more with the equipment trick you can create Blake's weapon, polearm version

[OGDojo]

So i have always been a fan of the Bo Staff/Nunchucks/pistols that Sun uses, if i were to build it tho it would be basically the price of a masterwork set of 4 pistols (adding an extra 1200 to the cost of the weapon) so that they could all interlock and the cords/chains/cable that attaches the nunchuck pistols.

[Heavenblade]

If we go third party, you can build a DSP soulknife with vigilante (hangman) dip

that shapes his blade as a mind dagger
Emulate melee weapon for a glaive
Uses bladed brush feat to treat glaive as one handed P/S weapon
Take pyrokneticist to treat it as a whip
Take equipment trick to use the whip as a rope-use the rope as a spiked chain
Take the vigilante dip to treat the rope as a noose

Now you have a 1H P/S thrown noose-whip-spiked chain-glaive


I imagine it as something similar to the weapon the villian from kung fu panda 3 uses, but it also burns

Edit - and if you play around some more with the equipment trick you can create Blake's weapon, polearm version

Juds adding that the weapon counts as both one handed and two handed for feats abilities etc., and that it counts as all three types of damage (BPS I mean)

[OGDojo]

the way i would handle RWBY-esque weapons from a rules and pricing standpoint would be this

For each form that the weapon morphs into add 400gp (covers the cost of masterwork, the materials and the mechanics and the Labor of building the weapon)
it can only be made by gnomes (cuz gnomes are the basic class that usually builds wierd contraptions)
switching forms is a swift action

must have the weapon proficiencies of each form it takes (if it can switch to a Katana, then morphs into a pistol, you need the Exotic weapon proficiency (katana) And the Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Pistol) in order to use the weapon to its fullest potential, otherwise you gain the -4 for using a weapon you aren't proficient in while in the form your not proficient in.

damage is calculated based on the form. if its a Katana, use the Katana damage, if its a Bow, use the longbow damage, if its a hammer use the hammer damage.

crit range is based on the form with the worst crit range, have the form of the Rapier but also the form of a warhammer? you take the warhammers crit range

Crit multiplier, is based on the best crit multiplier. normally a x3 but sometimes its a x4 (if you use the Greathammer from monster manual... 4? its from the great horned minotaur.

i would consider this balanced, cuz you can get the weapon you want, if you build it yourself you still have to make the rolls as if your building masterwork weapons, and you can tweak it or add more forms as long as you make the checks. as for the skill needed for modifying or building it? well use "Craft arms and Armor" you could also add a feat if you wanna make it more difficult to build one. i would suggest:

Craft Morphing Weapon.
Due to your dealings and training by the Gnomes you have found a way to make weapons that can mechanically change their purpose and usage, you may now make a craft (arms and armor) check to add masterwork quality weapons to a morphing weapon (use prices for masterwork weapons +100gp for materials) a morphing weapon changes forms as a swift action but you must have the prerequisites for wielding those weapons otherwise you gain a -4 for using the forms that you arent proficient in.