10-29-2016, 01:05 AM | #1 | |
Join Date: May 2016
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Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
I rolled for random loot for one of my players and got the Miraculous Toolbelt, shown here:
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I'm also wondering if anyone had some clever adventurer-centered uses for such a kit. |
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10-29-2016, 01:39 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
Ropes (and pulley) are certainly tools of masonry and others skills.
Explosives (if existing in setting) are a tool for civil engineers ! +1 axe, pickaxe, Knives, billhook, scythe, forging hammer... are +1 weapons as well as tools. I don't even want to think about the various adventuring use of a 800 lbs pocket anvil but I hope you will forbid that one... |
10-29-2016, 02:42 AM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: USA, Arizona, Mesa
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
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GURPS and Dungeon Fantasy define “esoteric” skills as those with cinematic or supernatural prerequisites: Chi skills, spells, and so on. As far as I can recall, the only such skills in DF that actually take equipment modifiers are Alchemy, Esoteric Medicine, and Exorcism. |
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10-29-2016, 02:57 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: USA, Arizona, Mesa
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
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Even despite those examples, it is still a very useful tool for any adventurer! Need a drill to get through the wall and disable that trap? You've got one! Need a file to cut through those bars? In this pouch! Did someone curse the party, and everybody broke their weapons and armour at the same time? Don't worry, I can fix it! |
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10-29-2016, 03:17 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
I agree on NO for explosives and full-sized anvil, if my post didn't make it clear.
Ropes on the other hand are a given imho, and likely one of the most usefull to get. I haven't read Wilderness in detail yet, but that is a fair and clear ruling for weapons . Thanks. Still, a belt of polearms and paring knives, even unbonused, is a nice thing to have. A supply of Chalk and wax crayons is always usefull too. Would cooking pots and pans comes from the belt or the hypothetical backpack ? And how could we forget the stereotypical 10 foot pole ? And its sister the 6 foot heavy crowbar. Last edited by Celjabba; 10-29-2016 at 05:46 AM. |
10-29-2016, 07:40 AM | #6 |
Join Date: Feb 2014
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
The 10-foot pole would be a common measuring stick for many crafts. The crowbar would be useful for masonry or demolition (or forced entry).
I personally would rule that the items only appear when attempting a skill roll and only exist as long as they are used for the appropriate skill, and only by the wearer (no building a lean-to with 10-foot poles even if it is a woodworking roll; they disappear when you're done measuring; also no sharing tools with assistants). Whether it works for a default roll is unspecified (mentions a craftsman, so implies someone who knows enough about the skill to know what tools are needed; e.g. Knowing you need a tension bar as well as picks for TL6+ locks). "Pocket" anvils or stake anvils weighing 5-20 pounds definitely exist in real life, and would be more common in more ancient settings. If the GM forbids anvils, then stones and stumps work in a pinch, but a hammer & tongs giving +1 to smith skill wouldn't really offset the use of TL1 trench-forges. As above, I'd rule that dropping the anvil on to an opponent just makes the anvil disappear. If you wanted to attack something with these tools, it would have to use the apporiate skill somehow, like chopping down an evil treant frozen in place (just a tree), or using masonry or civil engineering skill to demolish a wall to make the wall fall on enemies. Creative uses still abound: "I measure the seeming 8-foot gap with my ten-foot pole, and I take extra time, allowing our Smurf friends enough time to cross the gap." |
10-29-2016, 08:48 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
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I've always assumed the 10-foot pole in D&D 1e appeared as a reference to the idiom "I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole". The pole here is probably one used to push barges (as "... with a barge pole" is an earlier form of the expression). But poling barges is an occupation, not really a craft. There's also the surveying rod, but that's 5.5 yards long (1/320th of a mile). It's also 1/4 of a "chain", which word suggests how long lengths would normally be measured. But surveyors certainly carried about actual rod-long rods. Even today, you'll see levelling rods used to sight a theodolite, and they're marked to determine slopes (the grade). If you want to control possible abuse of the magic item, you might take the description literally. It says "a craftsman searching the pouches will always find...", so one thing a GM might do is allow characters only to produce tools for craft skills they actually possess at 12+. You need sufficient familiarity with the tools for the belt to produce them based on your need; it doesn't just create anything you vaguely remember or imagine. |
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10-29-2016, 10:17 AM | #8 | |
Untitled
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: between keyboard and chair
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
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On the other hand, the intent is that the character gets the tools she needs for the task she's carrying out at the moment, so turning around and hitting somebody over the head with that barge pole is likely to make the pole disappear since the task being carried out has changed. (Also, weapons are usually not defined as tools, and the text specifically says "tools".)
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Rob Kelk “Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.” – Bernard Baruch, Deming (New Mexico) Headlight, 6 January 1950 No longer reading these forums regularly. |
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10-29-2016, 11:50 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
Well, combat has been called a craft... and most weapons in history are repurposed tools.
But the suggestion about the conjured items disappearing if used outside of their skill may prevent most combat use and various free raw material abuse if that is what the GM want. Although clever player will certainly try to find ways of getting around that, which should be amusing. Outside of combat however, it is an amazing item, basically a lot of aspected gizmo or extradim payload with a lot of signature gear. |
10-29-2016, 12:08 PM | #10 | |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: Miraculous Toolbelt Uses?
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I would say that it shouldn't generally produce a specific +1 tool. It produces a toolkit that collectively provide a +1 to the task at hand. It the task suddenly changes (you get ambushed while fixing a wagon wheel) what you have in hand could still serve as makeshift weapons or improved tools.
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. Last edited by RyanW; 10-29-2016 at 12:12 PM. |
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Tags |
dungen fantasy, magic items, miraculous toolbelt |
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