Arnott's Arcane Armature
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Arnott's Arcane Armature
Grizt ducked under the low door, the blasting heat of the forge making her eyes water. She couldn't see anything amidst the smoke and sparks.
"Arn? Arnott? You in here?"
Somewhere deep in the room, a sudden hissing sizzle as hot metal is plunged into ice-cold oil and a grunt of effort.
"Arn? You ok? We've not seen you in the hall for a week now, the guildmasters have sent me down to check on you? Hello?"
Grizt bumped into a workbench in the haze, heavy and wooden. A pair of mugs clinked loudly atop it, each spilling in a little of their long-cold tea onto the papers there. Quick as a flash, a metal claw leaps out of the smoke, grabbing a mug and whisking it off again.
"Thank you Grizt, I am fine! Fine! Nothing here!" came the slightly manic reply
Grizt, undeterred, stepped deeper into the room, closer to the forge. The smoke began to clear, revealing the tall form of Arnott, hunched over an anvil, hammer in one hand, tongs in the other, and the sword itself being held tight in a long iron arm coming from Arnott's back.
"W-what is that thing?"
Arnott spins, his eyes wild and his hair wilder. He clearly hasn't seen sleep in a fair while.
"It's my arcane arm! It can do all sorts! See! See!"
And the arm begins to wiggle in the air, flicking the half-forged sword back and forth as Grizt slowly backed out of the workshop...
Arnott's Arcane Armature
Look, I just wanted to give a man a hand eh?
I’ve always felt more could be done with the tails of various characters in DnD, Tabaxi and Teiflings get them, but don’t really do much with them. And whilst I’m not overhauling that, the idea here is to fill in some of what I want to do with them
The design inspiration here is dense, there is a bit of Doc Ock, a bit of Adeptus Mechanicus, a bit of Tank Girl, and a bit of Mad Max.
I want this to feel like the collision of arcane powers (the control) and metallurgy (the arm itself), that this isn’t some magical item from before time, but a modern creation, forged by mortal hands - janky and awkward as it is. It’s meant to be useful more out of combat than in, thus the restrictions, you’re never going to be able to control it as well as your standard arms - so dis on the dex checks, attack rolls, and AC, but it adds strength, so the adv on strength. It offers options to combat sure, but most of them are going to be bad, but options are still options!