Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran
Unless wielding brass knuckles with your hands requires spending points on a new attack, I don't see why putting a similar object on a tail would either.
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The hands are meant for holding things - it's why you get such a discount for No Fine Manipulators. A better comparison for a tail would be the foot, which doesn't hold things, and does get a damage boost for wearing armor.
However, armor just makes the foot a better striking surface, and "better striking surface" is already built into the Striker Advantage. Additionally, the point of a Striker is to give the character an extra mode of attack, not an extra limb.
For my
Feuyaner, I opted to build their tail as a new Advantage, in large part so they could be used as a base for a Natural Weapon or Weapon Mount. It looks something like this.
Tail [5]: You have a substantial tail, which can be used to strike, as a punch (thr-1 cr), at Reach C. It can be used to strike to the Rear instead at Reach C,1. It lacks the ability to be used as a fine manipulator or to hold a weapon, and is armored, targeted, and crippled as a Leg. A character can have multiple such tails - buy each separately.
Enhancements
Extra-Flexible: Your tail has full Reach in a larger arc. This is +20% if it applies to the Sides and Rear, or +40% if it can always be used at full Reach.
Long: Your tail has longer Reach than your size implies. This is +100% per +1 to SM for determining Reach.
Limitations
Clumsy: Your tail isn't very accurate. This is -20% per -1 to skill.
Flexible Armor Only: Your tail is treated as crippled if wearing rigid armor. This comes in 2 levels. If only the tip of the tail can have rigid armor (for 1/6 protection generally), this is -20%. If none of the tail can have rigid armor, it is instead -40%.
Limited Arc: Your tail cannot reach around your body. This is -20% if it can only strike to the Sides and Rear, -40% if limited to Rear. Note the first level is not incompatible with the first level of Extra Flexible (combining the two is a net +0% to have full Reach to the Sides and Rear, and no ability to strike the Front).
Short: Your tail is shorter than normal, and can only strike at Reach C. This is -40%.
Such a tail can serve as the base for a Striker (Limb), Natural Weapon, or even a Weapon Mount, which default to the same Reach and arc as the tail at no additional cost. Characters who can wear rigid armor on the tip of the tail (or all over the tail) can mount a weapon to such (simply wearing rigid armor on the tip improves damage to thr cr). This weapon is used with the same skill as when held, but is at -2 to hit unless the character has a skill-specific Perk (Tail Fighting) to negate this.
Tail could
probably be modified to cover similar "limbs," like ridiculously-long (and strong) tongues, non-prehensile tentacles, and similar. The only changes that would need to be made would be an expansion of some of the Enhancements and Limitations. First, there'd be an Enhancement for a front-mounted "tail" so that it gets full Reach to the front, reduced to the Sides and Rear. I'd eyeball that at +20% (full Reach everywhere would still be +40%, to Front and Sides only probably +30%). For Limited Arc, Front and Sides only is probably -10%, Front Only is -20%.