Making a blowpipe-wielding small character useful

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Icelander

How much alchemical substance could one deliver with a typical blowpipe dart? Maybe 15% of the dart weight?

Depends on whether you want it to still function as a dart. If you don't, a blowpipe is perfectly capable of firing spherical projectiles that will be mostly payload (you need enough structure to survive being fired).

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Depends on whether you want it to still function as a dart. If you don't, a blowpipe is perfectly capable of firing spherical projectiles that will be mostly payload (you need enough structure to survive being fired).

Well, it has to be usable in the same blowpipe as the spikes or darts used to kill small animals and poison larger foes. It also has to be useful at ranges of 10-15 yds, at least.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Well, it has to be usable in the same blowpipe as the spikes or darts used to kill small animals and poison larger foes. It also has to be useful at ranges of 10-15 yds, at least.

Not an issue. My old blowpipe (it was a 3' long blowpipe) had an aperture diameter of about 1/2 an inch, the darts ended in short cones that fit perfectly.

I knew a guy who made a blowpipe to fire those lead pellets for pellet guns and had good striking power with it (enough to stun birds).

[Polkageist]

I did a few back of the envelope calculations, since this is kind of a fascinating use for things and a good way to expand the usage of some niche tools.

Consider that a flask of something out of DF is ~1/2 to 1lb, or if you want to count fluid ~8-16oz of some substance. It's all pretty approximate so let's go ahead and give things the benefit of rounding and making math easy. Base ten is easy, so let's say that a little flask of something-or-other is 10oz that gets the book effect, the rest is the little flask. Or cc's, or grams, it doesn't matter.

So, a blowdart is smaller, but as the previous poster said not THAT small. 1/2" diameter actually launches a sphere that's ~2 cubic inches of volume, or roughly 2oz. That is also, coincidentally, a reasonable diameter for a flute.

10oz of fluid in the flask means five 2oz measures for a blowdart delivered substance. Blowsphere. Pick the appropriate delivery vehicle.

So what do we have? Book effect, cost, etc. roughly divided or adjusted by 5. Or to make cost less funky, one book-cost dose makes for 5 blowdart delivered uses.

Acid: 1d-3 corr book, call it 1 corr damage. Piddly damage, but goddamn cheap like pennies per shot. Maaaaybe erode 1 point of DR. Why not, it needs a little boost. Fantasy. Or, treat 5 darts to be 'acidic' for +1 damage. Kinda competes with Monster Drool below and doesn't need a HT roll so... I dunno, cheap but not as cheap as drool?

Alchemists fire: 1d/sec burn over 30secs book, go for 1burn/second over 6 seconds. Not bad, land a couple on someone that's a good effect. Even one is quite reasonable.

Glow vial: I don't know, a splat of glowy goop that lasts ~2 hours. Fantasy paintball! Obviously not a combat useful thing.

Bladeblack: Nasty stuff, put on a dart itself and rock the stock effect and enjoy paying some serious cash for the privilege. Or, to divide by 5 for dart effects then a vial treats 5 darts and causes a HT roll or 1d damage (plus the dart poke).

Demon's Brew: Great for blowsphere delivery and it's gassy so bypass DR. Dialed in for darts means 2 damage or HT roll for 1.

Monster drool: Easy, dart +1 damage on a failed HT roll. Cheeeeap.

Oozy Doom: You should know the drill, 2 damage or 1 damage with a HT roll in DR seconds.

That's the mundane stuff, the magic stuff may as well follow the same rule.

[thrash]

Originally Posted by Polkageist

So, a blowdart is smaller, but as the previous poster said not THAT small. 1/2" diameter actually launches a sphere that's ~2 cubic inches of volume, or roughly 2oz.

Better check your envelope: a 1/2" diameter sphere is 1/15 cubic inch. Note that eight of them would fit in a cube 1" on a side.

[Polkageist]

Originally Posted by thrash

Better check your envelope: a 1/2" diameter sphere is 1/15 cubic inch. Note that eight of them would fit in a cube 1" on a side.

Haha, wow, whoops. That's what happens when you don't pay attention and use diameter instead of radius.

So the math is borked, but I stand by the concepts.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Polkageist

Haha, wow, whoops. That's what happens when you don't pay attention and use diameter instead of radius.

So the math is borked, but I stand by the concepts.

If you reduce the effect by a further factor of 30, all the damage effects go far below HP resolution, though.

Fantasy glowing paintballs do have some anti-stealth use in combat against targets with fantasy chameleon-like capabilities or in the dark.