[Crunch] One Arm?

[limetom]

So, this has been bugging me all night: the affects of having only one arm.  Sure, there are things like regenerate to get your character their arm back, but having one arm just looks bad-ass.

The Dungeon Master's Guide, on page 27, mentions the short-term effects of damage to specific areas, stating that damage to the arm affects, "Climb and Swim checks, attack rolls, [and] Strength checks."  That is all well and good when my character's arm gets temporarily damaged, but I am looking for something more, specifically, what happens when my arm is gone permanently?

I have seen several solutions to this, but from what I understand about limb loss, they really deal with the period right after limb loss, where one is still adjusting to the loss of an arm.  One of the things I always hear is an impaired sense of balance.  I am sure this is true shortly after the loss of an arm, but I one of the guys who was in my high school's band with me congenitally did not possess and arm, and I never saw him lose balance once.  The only thing I ever saw him have trouble with is using various implements designed for two handed people, though the trumpet didn't seem to give him much trouble.  The several times I talked to him, he said the only thing he couldn't do is drive a manual car.

So, based off of that premise, I have come up with the following, somewhat based off of the DMG:

*Since the D&D v3.5 rules no longer specify hand-dominance, the loss of an arm has no effect on attacks or damage other than the character's inability to use two-handed weapons, their inability to wield weapons in two-hands, their inability to use bows and slings, and their inability to reload crossbows.  One-armed characters take twice as long to fold or refold nets.

*Armor for one-armed creatures costs 3/4 its normal cost, and weighs 3/4 its normal weight.  Unless a character is only using a shield, or using a buckler, one-armed characters cannot use a shield and a weapon.  If donning armor alone, it takes a one-armed character twice as long.  With help, donning armor takes half the normal time, as usual (see PHB, p. 123).

*When a character looses their arm, Climb checks, Swim checks in rough or stormy water, and certain Strength checks treat the character's Strength score as effectively half of its actual value.  Which Strength checks this applies to are up to the DM; kicking in a door would not take a penalty, but attempting to drag (but not lift) heavy objects may (see PHB, p. 162).  The rationale behind the difference between dragging and lifting is that, ideally, lifting is done with your legs, or improperly, with your back.  Your upper body strength plays little part aside from holding the object itself.

*Loss of an arm imposes a -2 penalty to Disable Device checks, due to them being originally designed by and for two-handed creatures.

*Loss of any limb imposes -5 penalty to Disguise checks, due to its fairly obvious nature.

*Loss of an arm gives a -2 penalty to the following uses of the Escape Artist skill: escaping ropes, escaping nets, the

animate rope spell, the entangle spell, or escaping a grappler.  Manacles of any sort cannot be used on a one-armed character.

*Loss of an arm gives a -2 penalty to the following uses of the Heal skill: first aid, treating a wound from caltrops, the spike growth spell, or the spike stones spell.

*Loss of an arm gives a -2 penalty to Open Lock check, due to locks being originally designed by and for two-handed creatures.[/list]
In situations not covered above, use your common sense.  One-armed people in real life are able to do almost everything that two-armed people can, except certain tasks which specifically require two hands, so think long and hard before applying penalties to certain actions, or, more importantly, disallowing a certain action.

Comments, concerns, questions?

[So-Keher]

There are a lot of situations that may come up during gameplay that could be affected by loss of an arm that don't deal with numbers as well. Of course, this would be primarily up to the DM's digression (I think I spelled that wrong).

I think that there has to be some benefit to not having an arm, otherwise why would you want to? Unless of course you are only speculating on the effects and do not wish to apply them to any specific character. Which in that case I would have to suggest adding a penalty to Tumble or Balance. For the Balance penalty, it is more akin to being harder to keep you balance since your weight is shifted is situations like walking a thin ledge or rope or if you are on a very shaky platform or something. A feat or two could also remove some of these penalties.

Also, is -2 enough for a Disguise penalty? I mean, being one-armed is pretty dramatic in terms of appearance. I know kids who have only a section of one arm (to the elbow or wherever) and that isn't as noticeable but being completely without an arm is I would think.

Very interesting concept! Great work.

[limetom]

I think that there has to be some benefit to not having an arm, otherwise why would you want to? Unless of course you are only speculating on the effects and do not wish to apply them to any specific character. Which in that case I would have to suggest adding a penalty to Tumble or Balance. For the Balance penalty, it is more akin to being harder to keep you balance since your weight is shifted is situations like walking a thin ledge or rope or if you are on a very shaky platform or something. A feat or two could also remove some of these penalties.

have[/i] trouble balancing once they adjust to it.  I am, however, thinking about making up some feats, so we shall see what happens later.

Very interesting concept! Great work.

Thanks.

[Cantus]

Just a couple of things I disagree with, other than that this looks good.

Hand Crossbows are 1 handed weapons, esentially a pistol shooting a bolt, so I see no reason to disallow that, and with the light crossbow the only problem I see is with acurately aiming it, due to the lack of a second hand to stabalize the other side of it.

And swimming.  I'd probably only do the str penalty when they're trying to swim really fast or really far, otherwise they'd probably just use the sidestroke, which only uses one of your arms anyways, ergo the loss of the other arm is a moot point in that case.

[limetom]

Hand Crossbows are 1 handed weapons, esentially a pistol shooting a bolt, so I see no reason to disallow that, and with the light crossbow the only problem I see is with acurately aiming it, due to the lack of a second hand to stabalize the other side of it.

load[/i] them, rather than fire them, with one hand.  I have no problem with a one-armed character firing a crossbow, but reloading one would be a major problem.  You need the second hand to reload a crossbow of any sort.

And swimming.  I'd probably only do the str penalty when they're trying to swim really fast or really far, otherwise they'd probably just use the sidestroke, which only uses one of your arms anyways, ergo the loss of the other arm is a moot point in that case.

Fair enough.  I'll revise that bit.

Again, thanks.

[Cantus]

No, you don't need a second hand to reload a crossbow.  All you'd need to do is either pull the string back or lever it, as the case may be, with your foot in a loop of metal or leather at the firing end to keep the crossbow from follwing the string before it locks in place.

[So-Keher]

How would you do that with a hand crossbow though? It is too small to stabilize with a foot... Just make a rule that they are a one-shot deal unless someone else in the party can reload it for you (adjacent square, twice as long as normal).

[limetom]

D&D rules for crossbows[/url] (or PHB, p. 115-116) clearly state that you need two hands to reload a crossbow.

[So-Keher]

And limetom plays the trump card ;)

[limetom]

And limetom plays the trump card ;)

Meh.  Cantus could have won the argument, but I finally decided to look at the crossbow rules (I hadn't looked at them while designing the rules), and that's just how it works.  And I'm not about to go changing crossbow rules just for this; I don't expect it to be used often by anyone, myself included.

EDIT: I clarified the crossbow issue above.  They can fire them, but in combat, it's really a one-shot deal.

[Cantus]

Heh, not the first argument I've lost because of the wonderfulness of WotC's rules.  I'll concede defeat.  :D