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ARMOURY: Overview (Part 2)

To reduce the clutter of having too many items of questionable value I convert them into ammunition types.  For example instead of a fire extinguisher I created the Aqua Canister which can fit into any nanite using weapon and modifying their property.  This gives the nanite weapons and tools much more veristiality.  I also decided that tech items are essentially magic items but they do no require attunement.  Since most tech items are timeworn or dependent on expensive ammunition I thought this was a fair tradeoff.

WEAPONS
 “There are two things we make sure to bring when we encounter new xenos-breeds: our faith in the Emperor and our guns. Guess which brings us more respect?”

–Rogue Trader Helmut Kranzelle the Ill-Counselled

FIREARM PROPERTIES
Firearms use special ammunition, and some of them have the burst fire or reload property.

Ammunition. The ammunition of a firearm is destroyed upon use. Renaissance and modern firearms use bullets.  A special type of ammunition called batteries powers futuristic firearms. A battery contains enough power for all the shots its firearm can make.

Burst Fire. A weapon that has the burst fire property can make a normal single-target attack, or it can spray a 10-foot cube area within normal range with shots. Each creature in the area must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or take the weapon’s normal damage. This action uses ten pieces of ammunition.

Reload. A limited number of shots can be made with a weapon that has the reload property. A character must then reload it using an action or a bonus action (the character’s choice).

AMMUNITION
Without ammunition a gun is just a glorified club, the Nimmerian adventurer must insure the continuing supply of this vital component —bullets for solid shot weapons, grenades for launchers, shells for shotguns, charge packs for las weapons, fuel for flamers, melta canisters for melta weapons, containment flasks of dangerous, volatile photonic hydrogen for plasma weapons, and so on.

For simplicity sake all energy weapons use batteries and all other weapons use nanite canisters as ammunition.  Different ammunition can have different affects when loaded.  Elder technology does not need either, as it is mechanically identical to a standard magical item.  Special ammunition types are tracked separately however.

A standard nanite canister can be bought easily enough in most places within Nimmeria for 500gp each.  Batteries can also be bought for 100gp each but are much more difficult to find.  A character will need to make a DC 20 Charisma check to find someone willing to sell a single battery.

BATTERY
Technological Gear, Common
Weight 1 lb.

Most Nimmerian technological items are powered by electricity. While one can use the electricity provided by a generator, Screen Shot 2015-02-26 at 14.53.15these are rare, expensive, and rarely portable. It’s more common and practical to charge such items with batteries. A battery looks like a small silver disk that’s etched with strange lines—the people of Nimmeria have taken to calling batteries “silverdisks” and sometimes use them as coins. A battery contains 10 charges when full; to charge an item with a battery, one simply slips the disk-shaped device into the proper slot on the item. The battery’s charge instantly fully depletes, and the item’s internal capacitors fill with 10 charges as it does so. If the item had fewer than 10 open slots in its capacity, the  excess charges the battery once held are lost. A battery can be kept within an object indefinitely, or it can be ejected from the object for the purposes of recharging it or storing it elsewhere without affecting the item’s charge. Inserting or ejecting a battery is a move action.

Placing a battery in a generator’s charging slot can recharge it. However, each time a battery is recharged, there’s a 20% chance that the battery is destroyed in the process. A destroyed battery is worth only 10 gp.

The bulk of Nimmerian “silverdisks” in circulation today are destroyed batteries; one can tell a functional battery from a destroyed one by the way the circuitry seems to shimmer slightly when reflecting light. The circuitry in a charged battery glows with a soft blue radiance equal to that of a candle.

NANITE CANISTER
Technological Gear, Uncommon
Weight: 1 lb., Disposable.

Screen Shot 2015-02-26 at 14.53.09A nanite canister is used to power technological devices that use nanites—such items generally don’t require other sources of power, as the nanites themselves do the bulk of the work when the object is activated. The canister contains a small, independent power source and a supply of nanites. A single canister contains enough nanites to provide 10 charges for a nanotech item or weapon.

EMP Canister
EMP canister can be used with any nanite-configured weapon and changes the damage type to lightning.  This electromagnetic energy cannot harm living creatures, but deals terrible damage to robots.  An EMP load can harm androids and creatures with cybernetic implants, but they take half damage from a hit.

A creature that is critically hit by an EMP round and takes damage from that hit must succeed at a DC 15 Fortitude save or be incapacitated for 1 round.

Aqua Canister
This special purpose canister was used mainly for firefighting duties on board.  It removes the damage property of any loaded weapon and a creates a 15-foot cone of misty vapour that swiftly extinguishes fires within its area of effect.  Against magical fire effects, such as those created by a wall of fire or similar spell, the fire extinguisher only extinguishes the part of the larger effect its vapours directly contact.

Continual magic flames, such as those of a flaming weapon or fire creature, are suppressed for 6 rounds before they automatically reignite. To extinguish an instantaneous fire effect or spell, the wielder must use a readied action with a aqua primed weapon to counter the effect; this can cancel the entire effect, provided the source of the effect is in the extinguisher’s area of effect.  This is an exception to the rule of not normally allowing readied actions.

When used against a creature of the fire subtype, a blast from a fire extinguisher deals 4d6 points of water damage (Dexterity DC 15 halves). A breathing creature exposed to a direct blast from a fire extinguisher is not harmed as long as the area is relatively well-ventilated—using a fire extinguisher in a confined area with poor or no ventilation can result in slow suffocation (at the DM’s discretion).

Art credit for banner: Headwires by NicolasRGiacondino
Art credit for nannite and batteries: Paizo Publishing

Posted in Dungeons & Dragons, Iron Gods

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