Pirate character in Aihrde pt. 2

[tylermo]

Hi, guys. Me again. I've got a guy wanting to play a pirate character in Aihrde. I'm not sure that gunpowder and firearms are in the setting. As you know, I typically am not a firearms in fantasy kind of guy(by and large), but I'm trying to find a way to accommodate this. Probably using ckg stats vs. Freeport, but there's a mishap table in Freeport that I may use. My player asked an important question about availability of gunpowder in Aihrde. I'm thinking this weapon is very rare, takes a ton of time to reload, and powder is HARD to find. What say all of you? Another issue. This character wants to use a hook hand so to speak. His left hand is okay. The right hand has two good fingers(the thumb and fore finger). He still has the right hand, but three fingers are out of service. He's going to wear hook over the hand that can be manipulated by the thumb and fore finger. Apparently, this hook can grasp weapons and utilize them as well. He says the character is ambidextrous. How does that work in C&C? Seems like some of this is too over-powered or out of place for this setting, but I'm trying to find a way. Bare minimum, that right hand would have to take a penalty due to three missing fingers. Help? Please?

[tylermo]

I wish I could scan his drawing of the hook. It's one of those Captain Hook type models, not Claw from J. Bond Live and Let Die. Apparently, the hook has some sort of hinge along the curve that makes the hook grasp things. There's some sort of trigger inside the cuff(manipulated by his thumb and forefinger)that closes the hinged hook around a weapon, bag of gold, or whatever. Seems to me this is too advanced for Aihrde. Not to mention how easy it would be for an opponent to knock items out of his hand(I would think). He's changed his mind a bit. Maybe the hook is just a weapon in itself(d4 or d6 damage), but it could still be manipulated to fire the flintlock pistol? He's talking about ambidexterity, but there has to be some sort of penalty for that hand at least, IF I allow this. Crazy questions today, but help needed before tonight's session. I told him this character is taking longer to make than a spellcaster.

[Tadhg]

There is a list of guns in the Codex of Erde that may be helpful. Page 203 ( and additional descriptive info on the next page). There may be other info in the Codex, but since I don't have guns in my World of Aihrde, I can't recall reading anything further.

[Relaxo]

you could make the hook a magic artifact taht 'eats" charges from other magic items (rings being the obvious choice) so Pirate Steve would wear a non-fuctioning magic ring on the hook and it eats a charge every day to operate as a magical hand (as described above)... out of charges, a mundane hook.

just thinking out loud.

in 2nd ed, gun power was implied to be so rare that it was practically a magic item, so that work, IMO.

grain of salt: I was always a very permissive DM when it came to accomodating wacked out character ideas for players.

[tylermo]

He's now said he could forgo the gun, and use his hook as a weapon. He might also try to pull the trigger of a crossbow with it. I could roll with that perhaps. Still not sure about this hook hinge thingy, but otherwise that might work. He's talking ambidexterity, but I have to find that in the rules to see. If he's got that partially-functioning hook hand and no penalties on either hand(except for multi-action)that's not fair to the other players.

[TheMetal1]

Why not! Sounds like a fun thing. If the Player wants to have this crazy hook that can manipulate stuff - pull a trigger, pick up a bag of gold, whatever. Let 'em go for it. Just wave your CK hand and say, "Make it so."

I'd make it a hook of Gnomish origin - as they are gknown for tinkering. Perhaps he won, stole or discovered on his pirate adventures - make him come up with how he got and lost his fingers. But I'd have him develop a series of bad things (and humorous things that happens to it numbered 1 through 10. So whenever he botched a roll with a (1,2, and maybe a 3) on any check (or just make it combat and Dexterity) then he has to roll on the 'Hook Horror' table. It's only a 15% chance with 1 through 3.

As far as being ambidexterious, what it comes down to, is the two-weapons fighting. As it stands anyone deciding to fight with 2 weapons (except for a Monk) has a -3 on the good hand and -6 on the bad, then adjusted by your Dexterity Bonus. If he wants to be good at it fine, the mechanic is already there for him - increase his Dexterity stats, just make him give you a one for one ability score increase decrease.

Plus with the background you've got a great plot "hook" now. That gnome could be named Condaleany and Condaleeny wants his hand (or hook back).

[Wasgo]

I'm confused, does the hook provide him with any advantages, or is it just reskinning a normal hand?

[tylermo]

What if the character makes a one-handed attack and it's the off hand? Is the penalty -3(short of the Dex modification if any)?

[tylermo]

Well, it's a flavor sort of hook hand, but there is a functioning fore finger and thumb. The cuff is strapped on to the re-skinned hand or on the wrist perhaps. He says a disadvantage is that he can't be disarmed.

[TheMetal1]

What if the character makes a one-handed attack and it's the off hand? Is the penalty -3(short of the Dex modification if any)?

Not a lot of detail on that in the C&C PHB (4th Printing/Crusade). Just that a PC chooses which is his or her Primary and Off Hand. When using two-weapons at the same time, you are allowed two attacks on your turn in the round, but the Primary Hand gets a -3 to hit, and the Off Hand gets a -6.

Off handed fighting is pretty difficult - especailly off-handed shooting, if you've never practiced it. I'd keep it at a -6.

I checked out the 3.5 SRD and this is what it says about Two-Weapon Fighting.

Two-Weapon Fighting
If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. You suffer a -6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a -10 penalty to the attack with your off hand when you fight this way. You can reduce these penalties in two ways:

•If your off-hand weapon is light, the penalties are reduced by 2 each. (An unarmed strike is always considered light.)
•The Two-Weapon Fighting feat lessens the primary hand penalty by 2, and the off-hand penalty by 6.
Table: Two-Weapon Fighting Penalties summarizes the interaction of all these factors.

Double Weapons
You can use a double weapon to make an extra attack with the off-hand end of the weapon as if you were fighting with two weapons. The penalties apply as if the off-hand end of the weapon were a light weapon.

Thrown Weapons
The same rules apply when you throw a weapon from each hand. Treat a dart or shuriken as a light weapon when used in this manner, and treat a bolas, javelin, net, or sling as a one-handed weapon.

Code: Select all

Circumstance                      Primary           Off-Hand

Normal penalties                   -6                     -10 
Off-hand weapon is light        -4                     -8 
Two-Weapon Fighting feat     -4                     -4 
Off-hand weapon is light and
Two-Weapon Fighting feat     -2                     -2

A lot more detail and higher initial penalties if you want to include that in your game.

[tylermo]

With light and heavy crossbows...are these two handed use weapons? He's also considering a blow gun. No listing for ammo as far as I can see. Thanks for the info, Metal

[tylermo]

Looks like his hook hand is going to be the off hand, and left hand primary. May have solved that issue other than the aforementioned weapons questions.

[alcyone]

Blow gun ammo is going to be a poison delivery system mainly; it sort of treads on the assassins ground. You need two hands to fire the light or heavy crossbows, and definitely two hands to load and crank/cock. A hand crossbow is one-handed though, maybe loadable one handed because it's braced on the other hand.

[tylermo]

Until we get or make some poison. Is there some sort of it does 1d4, 1d3, or 1d2 model we can go with? He was thinking about darts through the thing, but I bet they're too big and heavy to blow out anyway.

[alcyone]

Blowgun does 1 point of damage.

This character dominates at least 3 topics now; I hope he doesn't die in his first outing!

[tylermo]

You're telling me. He's opted for throwing darts. You guys are very patient with us. So, the poison is applied to what sort of ammo for the blow pipe and is there an associated cost?

[Relaxo]

just go whole hog and make the darts shuriken already... only a ninja pirate is cooler than a pirate! LOL

[tylermo]

I'm already coping with a pirate in lord of the rings(so to speak), the last thing I want is a ninja. I like pirates, but I'm definitely NOT an oriental fantasy fan.

[tylermo]

BTW, we're kind of wondering about the price of this hook. We'll go with somebody's suggestion that it was tinkered by some gnomes. I'll give it that little bit of hinged manipulation(mainly for small stuff), and 1d4 damage. It's silver-tipped or made of silver. Any thoughts on a price tag? I assume ev 1 and weight of 2 or so.

[TheMetal1]

A gaff is 2 gps in Freeport. I'd vote against it being silver personally. I'd make him work for that, if he wants it add later he can find a gnome craftsman or a silver smith to do that.

[tylermo]

That was kind of my thought. BTW, the character did not die in his first outing. Another successful session.

[TheMetal1]

Good deal, my adventure last night (pirate themed as well) went a bit south for the PCs. 2 of the 4 and an NPC fell to Giant Rats. Ah well, still a chance to live if they other 2 manage to defeat the big baddy. The party was splity by a trap in two different areas, so we'll have to see.