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Cwellan

   
Cwellan

This was taken from the Rhapsody series of books by Elizabeth Hayden, so I am guessing the name will have to be changed or she will have to be credited somehow.

The cwellan looks similar to a crossbow but without the 'bow' part of the guard. Instead, it has a smaller crossection there instead, used for sighting. It is trigger propelled and expels three edged discs at a time. These discs are smaller and much thinner than an average shuriken and are loaded into the weapon's shaft through the back. The weapon is designed so the wielder may target one single opponent or up to three at a time. Each target must be within 5' of the previous, and implementing a cwellan in this manner does not induce penalty.

Reloading a cwellan is a move action which provokes an Attack of Oppoturnity and requires the use of two hands. To aim/fire a cwellan requires one.

Exotic Weapon
Cost: 150
Damage, small: 3d3, or 1d3 separately (opponents must be no more than 5' apart)
Damage, medium: 3d4, or 1d4 separately (opponents must be no more than 5' apart)
Critical: 20/x3
Range: 80
Weight: 6
Piercing

Ammunition (30) 5gp
Standard ammunition rules apply

Very nice idea. I don't like the name anyway; I'd suggest changing the name and crediting the author in a footnote anyway, because it's appropriate to credit sources regardless of whether you modify the idea

How about calling it a "spinbow", "discbow", "bladebow" or even "blade launcher"?

Edit... I know it's cheesy, but "triblade spinner"? XD

You could probably also make a wrist version like in "Jingle All the Way" when the Governator dresses up as TurboMan and shoots the discs outta his wrist shooters.

Probably charge 500g for them because of the way it has to be scaled down to fit on someone's wrist, but essentialy deals the same ammount of damage but in a more concealable form.

Nope; wrist version is too small to have the force necessary to fire it and actually penetrate flesh. Consider: modern disc launcher toys run on batteries, with a motor firing the discs. Here, we're working with the tension from a bowstring; can't be miniaturised so easily.

What you could do is make a seperate item: a small, single-disc launcher dealing 1 or 1d2 damage with a range increment of about 20-30 ft.

I don't get it. It has a sight instead of a bow, and is propelled by the trigger? So one yanks the lever really hard to fire? Shouldn't a disc be slashing damage? So, is it a separate attack roll for each disc? I think it would need be, for criticals and different targets and to not break it -- 3-12 a round with a ranged weapon while holding a shield or another weapon without penalty is huge. Probably a bit too much.


Quote:
Here, we're working with the tension from a bowstring; can't be miniaturised so easily.
Spring?

Good point. I'd still say shorter range from a spring, than.

I missed the trigger-propelled bit on Cleo's post, too. That would... not be a very effective weapon. If you modified it to have a bow string like a crossbow, it might.

Well, in the book series, the character that uses it does have much higher than normal strength (making it possible for the tension to be that much more). I don't recall exactly what the propelling motion of the weapon was...though when I was reading I always imagined it to be a hand-crossbow with different amunition.

Loading/Firing
It was my impression from the book that it was a spring loaded weapon, released by a catch. It's been years since I read, however, so my impressions by now are blurry, I'm sure. But I was imagining the discs themselves being top loaded into a cavity with a heavy spring underneath, with another spring-like device that is tightened by the loading motion. So by releasing the catch you are releasing springs from beneath and behind.

Another argument could be the dart thrower from underdark has a mid range and is about the size of a hangun. Increase the size to that of a crossbow and the range should increase, the strings/springs/mechanisms that fire it should be thicker/stronger/heavier. So that makes sense, no?

Multiple Attacks
Originally it was a seperate attack roll for each disc but I ruled that out for these reasons.
1. Proficiency. Taking the feat (or class) to be proficient in the weapon should mean the wielder knows how to use it.
2. An extra attack roll for 1d4 damage hardly seems worth it.
3. The actual instances where you will be able to shoot at multiple enemies (5ft apart) isn't likely to be often.

Also, I should note here, and I will change the first post, that any extra damage is only associated with the first disc. This includes sneak attack/skirmish type damage as well as magically attributed damage. LOP was the one that pointed that little fact out. Sneak attack damage 3x on seperate opponents would just be too much.

Damage Type
I thought piercing as well, but if you fire a projectile from any weapon source, it is going to stick inside, not slash. Also, the weapon was designed so that each disc would hit the one previous, embedding the one before it even deeper. In all actually, this should be a wounding weapon, where removal of the disc does 1 point damage per round, or something like that, but the balance factor comes in play here so we can't do that.

... There was a pic I found once that a fan had drawn of Achmed with his cwellan. I'll find it again and post it here. I'm not sure if it had the crossguard or not...

1. Proficiency. Taking the feat (or class) to be proficient in the weapon should mean the wielder knows how to use it.Yeah, it does. But if that's part of its use, then that means nothing - the prof. means you know how to use a hand crossbow in each hand, but you still need a free hand to reload one.
2. An extra attack roll for 71d4 damage hardly seems worth it.
It's already in the rules. It's called at level 16 fighter with a sai. Or even less damage, a shuriken.
3. The actual instances where you will be able to shoot at multiple enemies (5ft apart) isn't likely to be often.
The opportunities for a TWFing warrior to hack and slash a handful of foes in one full attack is often, either. It would still require separate rolls.

While I do see where you're coming from, this could be very powerful. Consider that this weapon has the average damage just shy of a longsword in two hands, with a wielder's Str of 14 (7.5 vs 8 = 4.5 + [2 * 1.5]). It's also got a good range, high crit multiplier... what would you rather use, this or a shuriken? A hand crossbow?

I'd maybe suggest making it the three rolls, and taking a standard action to fire - ie, no getting 12 of them off a round.

Stuff standard action to fire. Make it a move, standard or full round action to reload, which cuts that out immediately. Then, allow the option of firing all three at once or firing them each seperately as attack actions, which would allow someone to shoot at multiple targets in different places... according to their BAB.




 

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