10-20-2019, 08:17 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2015
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[LT/UT] Vibroblade Spear + Laser Pistol Combination Weapon
I want to design a spear that doubles as ranged weapon and this is my first attempt. Does it feel right?
I don't think Combination Gadget rule applies for weapons, but it was the closest thing I found so I went ahead and used anyway to combine a Vibroblade Spear with a Laser Pistol. I've also used the Combination Weapon rule from MA to recalculate minST (it also matches with LTC2). Code:
SPEAR (DX-5, Polearm-4, or Staff-2) Dmg Reach Parry Cost Weight ST Vibro Spear thr+2(3) imp 1* 0 $1,420 5.3/C 11 Two Hands thr+3(3) imp 1,2* 0 - - 10† BEAM WEAPONS (SPEAR) (DX-4, other Beam Weapons-4) Damage Acc Range Weight RoF Shots ST Bulk Rcl Cost Laser Beamer 3d(2) burn 3[1] 200/600 5.3/C 10 33(3) 11[2] -6[3] 1 $1,420 [1] It's configuration is similar to Beamer so Acc is reduced. [2] Same ST as using the spear (melee) mode of attack with one hand. [3] Bulk from spear when using Thrown Weapon (Spear). |
10-20-2019, 10:48 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [LT/UT] Vibroblade Spear + Laser Pistol Combination Weapon
A few points of note here.
Weapons above TL6 IIRC are considered Fine by default, for +1 to damage, for thr+3 and thr+4, respectively. You have enough real estate with a spear-sized weapon to aim decently well, provided you equip it with sights of some sort. I'd probably keep pistol Acc (indeed, you could justify boosting it to something more akin to laser rifle Acc). There's no good reason to throw your weapon when you can use it to shoot people. The spear is therefore rather unlikely to be weighted for throwing. I suggest using the type of spear head that the heavy spear and short spear have (both of which aren't weighted for throwing, but get +1 damage when used for a tip slash). Due to vibroweapons getting an additional +1d when used for cutting, I'd suggest adding in lines for the tip slash damage. This is normally -2 relative to impaling, for thr+1d+1(3) and thr+1d+2(3), respectively (for a Fine spear). If you use my advice from above, however, this becomes thr+1d+2(3) and thr+1d+3(3), respectively*. You may wish to consider making the weapon Superfine. This would boost the cost to $2,060**, but would give a further +1 to damage (as for Very Fine) and an armor divisor of (5). An ST 11 soldier using it in two hands would thus deal 1d+4(5) imp with a normal thrust or 2d+3(5) cut with a tip slash. The thrust (average damage for penetration 37.5) can get through any flexible armor at TL 10 (but will be stopped if trauma plates come into play) and will get past most lower-TL armor, while the tip slash (average damage for penetration 50) can make it past light clamshell or the limb armor of a combat hardsuit. Your current build, with only 1d+3(3) imp (19.5 penetration) or 2d+2(3) cut (27 penetration) will fair far worse against armor. Finally, I'd argue that only the weight of the spearhead (1 lb) should be considered for determining the drain on the energy cell, so a C cell can work for up to 300 seconds. If you use the same energy cell for the laser portion as for the vibroblade, each shot uses up 9 seconds. Note also the vibrations may throw off the weapon's aim, although these vibrations being more predictable than the inherent shakiness of the normal weapon platform - a Mk I human - the microcomputer controlling the range adjustments for the laser can probably compensate well enough for you to not notice any difference. *Yes, this means a vibrospear will almost always perform better with a tip slash than a normal thrust. If, like me, you find this problematic, you may wish to consider boosting the armor divisor of impaling vibroweapons. **Arguably, Superfine was meant for swords and the like, not spears, so should have a higher cost (like how Very Fine is +19 CF for swords, but +49 CF for spears). However, UT also uses the outdated multiplicative modifiers rather than the additive CF of current GURPS books. Changing to CF, Superfine would be +5 CF and Vibroblade would be +9 CF (rather than the two together becoming x30); Superfine for a spear would this be something like +14 CF, for a total of +24 CF, which would actually cost less than the above.
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10-21-2019, 06:58 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [LT/UT] Vibroblade Spear + Laser Pistol Combination Weapon
It is still an odd choice when you can have TL10 heavy pistol deal 8d(5) imp inc damage with Viper HEMP rounds (skill 14) for $2.04 per bullet. Since piercing damage is replaced with HEMP damage and user skill is replaced with bullet skill, 1/2 D range is a meaningless concept, meaning that you can engage at the full range of 2,000 yards. By comparison, vibroblades are sort of pointless, as laser pistols, for military purposes.
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10-21-2019, 07:56 AM | #4 | ||||||||
Join Date: Jan 2015
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Re: [LT/UT] Vibroblade Spear + Laser Pistol Combination Weapon
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On the other hand, Kromm confirms tip slash is treated as cutting for all purposes, so by RAW it should include the bonus damage. The problem here is the interaction with older rules that assumed thrust damage is going to be much worse than swing damage (though not so much for average humans). Quote:
I definitely want Superfine, however, so actually using it as spear might be more worthwhile. I think at least for the moment it would be better to use the RAW cost of x30 from UT, upping the final cost to (40*30)+(1100*.8)=$2,080, perhaps rounded down to a nice $2k. Quote:
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Last edited by Sorenant; 10-21-2019 at 08:09 AM. |
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10-21-2019, 09:29 AM | #5 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [LT/UT] Vibroblade Spear + Laser Pistol Combination Weapon
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*Realistically, lasers need to be designed to focus on a specific point, rather than just sending out a beam of constant width, in order to get the impressive ranges seen in UT. This can roughly consist of something akin to a camera's rangefinder and autofocus, and to prevent it from getting stopped by leaves/debris between you and the target, it may need a built-in camera with a pattern recognition program running to prevent it from autofocusing on illegitimate targets (a simple laser rangefinder would fail at that). However, with the oddities of your setting, you could easily disregard this - lasers go *PEW PEW* and burn stuff, probably with visible beams.
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10-21-2019, 10:06 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [LT/UT] Vibroblade Spear + Laser Pistol Combination Weapon
If it is just cinematic 'Hoplites in Space', I would suggest building weapons as gadgets or modified Signature Gear. For example, you could have a melee Impaling Attack with an alternate attack of a ranged Burning Attack as a gadget or you could just add extra damage and armor piercing to a combination weapon as Signature Gear. Either way, it is a more flexible route to take with the design.
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10-21-2019, 11:42 AM | #7 | ||||
Join Date: Jan 2015
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Re: [LT/UT] Vibroblade Spear + Laser Pistol Combination Weapon
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Regarding the Acc itself, I'm going to keep it at 3 for now because it fits perfectly in the Beamer description from Blaster and Laser Design: "The weapon is handheld but has no stock or hand-grip and no special aiming systems." I think sights could work like a Panzerfaust, but HT gives Acc 0 to it and using it one-handed could be awkward. HUD Link gives +1 too Acc and I don't think there's a problem with this, Laser Sight also could work well. Quote:
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One idea is also applying the Armor-Piercer option from LTC2: -1 to imp damage for AD(2). In this case, the AD would increase the existing AD by one step to (10), like you suggested. Quote:
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