02-05-2018, 04:44 PM | #11 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
I've used Extra Arms fairly often and even built a Third edition martial artist with what now might be foot manipulators,
Here is a race I recently converted from Third to Fourth for my primary fantasy setting.
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02-06-2018, 07:03 AM | #12 | ||
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
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Second, octopodes do seem to grapple way above their weight class, taking on sharks which are larger than themselves, and reportedly sometimes even tearing stuff out of humans' hands. And yes, octopodes, for all we know, can multitask their limbs the way you describe (IIRC they have 60% of their motor decentralised to enable such arm autonomy). Extra Arms on their own seem to be a pretty decent deal; the problem is that applying Extra-Flexible to all of them hits diminishing returns very fast, but the total cost of the enhancement scales linearly with arm count. It's a situation where one part of the package has diminishing returns and another doesn't. Having Extra-Flexible cost [5] for one arm and [10] for all arms (like in 3e) would be fairer, IMHO; I'm not sure why the change was made. Last edited by vicky_molokh; 02-06-2018 at 07:08 AM. |
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02-06-2018, 07:07 AM | #13 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
That seems to result in fiddly outcomes, such as doing less damage if you buy Extra Arms. This gets even fiddlier if you have Switchable Extra Arms (whether through Improvised Morph or just buying EAs with Switchable).
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02-06-2018, 10:03 AM | #14 | |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
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I agree that octopodes grapple above their weight class. Just not at +12, which is what 6 extra arms gets you. Above I eyeballed it at +4. It should also be noted most of the time octopodes are up against poor grapplers. Octopodes still can't do with one arm what you can do with one arm. They can grab and move things around, but they don't have fingers. there is some complexity to the grip of each tentacle, but nothing like what a hand has. If you made me choose between 8 vertebrate limbs and 8 tentacles, I'm going to choose the vertebrate structure for everything but prying open clams and retrieving objects from cracks. I do agree that the eight limbs of an octopus are better at manipulating objects that my two arms and ten fingers. I just don't think they're as good as eight arms and eighty fingers.
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02-06-2018, 10:46 AM | #15 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
You get full damage if you use half your arms, no matter how many arms you have.
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02-06-2018, 10:49 AM | #16 | |||
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
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02-06-2018, 10:52 AM | #17 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
Quote:
"I want to pick up a shield, a bow and a torch without dropping my zweihander and without needing to recalculate DPS". |
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02-06-2018, 11:10 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
True, but it also eliminates an entire class of problems related to grappling and lifting.
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02-06-2018, 11:32 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
Extra Arms base cost is probably fine for the base cost.
Its when you start stacking modifiers like Extra-Flexible, Long and Short that I feel there is a problem. Extra-Flexible +50%, or 5 points per arm. counters positioning issues. Long +100%, or 10 points per arm. +1 per die for Swing damage and extra reach. Compare to Long on Extra Legs where it is not per leg but by an increasing number of them. Also compare to simply buying up ST which would apply to them all. Extra Legs are 5, 10 and 15 points. So how about taking a page from Extra Legs Extra Arms cost 10 for 3; 20 for 4; 30 for 5 or 6; 40 for 7 or more. This takes into account the diminishing returns you get for a lot of extra arms. Change the Grappling bonus to +2;+4; +6, +8 rather than +2 per arm. And consider it a general and situational bonus for things like Climbing where the GM feels they would help.
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02-06-2018, 04:12 PM | #20 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#51): Extra Arms
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Though one thing to keep in mind about using the Extra Legs path: each Extra Arm allows using one Extra Attack without having to buy Multistrike, and unlike legs, arms can wield (force-multiplying) weapons. |
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Tags |
advantage, advantage of the week, extra arms, week, [basic] |
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