Urban Planar Items

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Erik's picture
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Urban Planar Items

Yeah, I figured people would have all sorta zany ideas for how tech, magic, and the planes would interact. Here're a few I've thought up:

Firstly, some trial rules for firearms on the planes:
Firearms are odd weapons, seen from a planar perspective. In places that are fueled entirely by blind belief, weapons based on logic do not function too well, mostly because physics work slightly differently on all the planes. Consequently, firearms take a -1 on to hit and damage rolls on outer planes(except Logos). When transported to a new plane, they take an additional penalty of -1 per plane they were moved(like magical items). This last penalty can be removed by recalibrating the weapon, an action taking one hour per plane removed from the last calibration. Each hour this goes on, the recalibrator must make a DC 30 Craft(mechanical) check. If this check fails, the hour is wasted.

The Snail Gun: Invented by the bytopian branch of Snail Outfitters(it's speculated that the gnomes were directly responsible for its creation), the Snail Gun is pretty much a legend on the outers for its extreme customisability. The gun is basically an assembly set, and Snail Outfitters provides several upgrades, addons, and styles(these last have been added only after the guns' release onto the planes as a whole.). These range from different barrel lengths and calibres, to two- three- four- or six- fingered grips, to barrels with integral and attachable silencers and red-point scopes, as well as drum-magazine and belt-fed magazines(of several different sizes, of course). Due to the extreme ease of assembly, the time a calibration takes is halved.
In addition, a character may make a Craft(mechanical) check DC20 which takes an hour, and if successful the Snail Gun counts as mastercrafted(this doesn't let it be enchanted, though) for a number of days(24 hours each) equal to the amount the check result exceeds the DC.
Initial stats for an unmodified(these are rare among professionals) Snail gun are as follows:
Damage: 2D6 ballistic
Critical: 20
Range: 40ft
ROF: Single
Mag: 15 box 9mm
Size: Small
Weight: 3 pounds

The Sodkiller:
This bullpup style SMG is standard issue to the Sodkillers' special forces teams. It incorporates a pump-action grenade launcher, flashlight, scope, and twin magazine feeds. Enchanted specimen aren't exactly rare amongst officers.
Damage: 2D8 ballistic
Critical: 20
Range: 40ft
ROF: Single, auto
Mag: two 80 box 10mm
Size: Small
Weight: 8 pounds

Näïlo:
These Olympus-manufactered rifles are regarded as prizes amongst gun collectors across the multiverse, and rightly so: Each is said to have been made over several years, and only five are known to exist. The origin of their name is unknown: some speculate that it refers to their creator(as "Nightbreeze" is actually a pretty common name amongst elves), while others believe that it refers to the near total lack of sound they make when fired. Despite them being totally nonmagical, the rifles are said to posess several unusual abilities, amongst them being:
Lack of any penalty for being on the planes.
Always counting as using subsonic ammo(without the penalties), even when they aren't.
Being integrally silenced(this, combined with the subsonic rule, means that it takes a DC 15 listen check just to hear the shot)
Näïlo rifles are always mastercrafted, but can not be modified to use a scope without losing all properties besides being integrally silenced(treat it then as with other longarms).
Damage: 2D12 ballistic
Critical: 18-20
Range: 200ft
ROF: Single,
Mag: 1 internal .50
Size: Huge
Weight: 8 pounds

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Urban Planar Items

If you thought hackers were annoying before just imagine hackers with the Magical Laptop with 1337, AweXome, and RoXXoR enchantments.

If you are going to go with the penalties for firearms like that, I really don't think the penalty should apply on either of the three strongly lawful aligned planes at all (the Arcadia, Mechanus, and Archeon equivalents, whatever their names end up being), logic and order reign in those areas fairly strongly. I'd make it for every step away from one of those three planes, making it really damn difficult to get it to work on Limbo. I'm not a fan of the idea to begin with though, it's just a needless complication, but I was never a big fan of the magic item movement penalty system to begin with because it just encourages just keeping massive amounts of weapons with a Pokemon "Gotta Catch Em All" type of attitude (which is already prevalent in 3.5 thanks to needing 75 billion different combinations of weapons to be prepared to fight various damage reduction enemies), and needless book keeping.

I can just see it:
Okay, I need a holy gun for fighting evil guys. But I need one calibrated to the Abyss if I plan to shoot there (just sitting around for hours calibrating it is asking for trouble if you are already in the abyss). Oh, and I'll need one pre-calibrated for Baator . . . and every other plane. Never know when you'll have to go to a plane and won't have time to calibrate that evil slaying gun.

I need an unholy gun for fighting good guys . . .

Fire gun for . . .

Yar! I be festooned with pistols like a scurvy dog!

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Urban Planar Items

how about an Elixir/lubrecant of local physics Attunement, kind of like silversheen, but rmoves the Planar penalties for...

X many days, or...

X many shots. which gives me an idea...

Attuned Ammo: removes planar penalties, but Purchase DC is +1 (and can probably only be purchased on the relevant plane, or in Sigil)

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Well, you could just set the thing to work on the Astral, and you'd be pretty much set on the Outers.

Or, possibly, a feat that lets you fire a weapon on a specific plane without suffering any penalties(not even the one for being on the Outers).
Requirements would be Int 14, and having visited the plane at least once.

Anyways, on with the show!

Positive pacemaker
This small, unseemly device appears as simply a small(maybe 2 inches in length), cylindrical container of unmarked metal. However, those using detect magic will see a plethora of magical wards designed to keep some extreme amount of positive or negative energy(both versions of the item has been recorded, but only intelligent undead use the negative version) from escaping.
Typically, the item is surgically implanted(though it can, theoretically, be attached to a device controlling blood pressure) in the users’ collarbone. Upon the death of the user, the wards will be broken, and the user will be revived with 1d100+10 hitpoints. If this is above his usual max hitpoints, they will be added as extra hitpoints(treat these like the ones gained from staying on a positive-aligned plane). In addition, an area of ten feet around the user is turned into its’ positively aligned element(that is to say, fire to radiance(bright light), earth to crystals and metals, air to lightning-filled air, water to steam) Treat this as if the area around the user has gained the traits of all the quasi-elemental planes for three rounds(it follows him around, for the record, and he gains no immunity to the effects). Of course, if there is no fire near the user, the area will not gain the radiance traits, and so on with the other elements(So in a vacuum, nothing happens). On a negative-enfused plane(like dust, or the negative energy plane itself), except Void(as there’s nothing there at all), the plane’s traits are simply ignored within the area for the three rounds. On a positive-enfused plane(Lightning, Mineral), the area gains the major positive-aligned trait for the three rounds. On the positive energy plane itself, nothing happens in the area(well, nothing noticeable). Reverse effects for the Negative Pacemaker. If the areas of a Positive and Negative Pacemaker overlap, they cancel each other out.

H4XX0r|n6 D-\/|<3
This small device looks like a common data storage device, and plugs into the USB ports of personal computers. It is activated by writing a certain command sentence(generally gibberish, like “| R t3|-| 1337Z0r357 H4XX0r”) on the PCs text editing program, after which it grants a +20 circumstance bonus to any check made while performing an illegal action(generally, accessing a private network, but on Logos there’re plenty of rules preventing you from, for example, playing certain games, in which case the device works by boosting all checks made in-game) on the computer for 2 hours or until it is removed. Nobody really knows how to create the things, how they work, or even whether they’re magical. Rumours go, however, that they’re created by a hacker deity in Cyberspace(quite illogical, as Cyberspace is completely inaccessible by physical objects), by the essences of rogue Modrons(which is actually entirely possible), by cells of the Revolutionary League situated in Logos, and other, even wilder theories. Facts are, the only place they’ve ever been found is in the shop of A’kin, who gladly parts with them(albeit for a hefty price). Pretty much everyone is investigating, but A’kin’s notoriously secretive.

Interplanar Cellphone
This looks like a completely ordinary cellphone(albeit with a somewhat over-sized antennae), and can certainly be used as such(although, it requires no subscription to any phone company whatsoever). However, pressing an alternative code upon turning the phone on allows a user to call a specific person instead of a phone number. This works even across planar boundaries(presumably running through Cyberspace), and makes whatever phone(doesn’t matter if it’s not turned on or connected to the telephone lines) is nearest the recipient ring with a distinct tone. If someone else than the intended picks up the phone, it simply continues ringing.

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Urban Planar Items

I really like the Interplanar Cellphone. That's quite a cool idea. The Positive Pacemaker is good, too. It's single-use, I assume?

My main critique is on the size of the Sodkiller. It feels like that should be a medium weapon. Other than that, great job. Especially on the Snail Gun. It seems, somehow, rather planar to have a completely customisable weapon.

__________________

Pants of the North!

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Urban Planar Items

Lazy Gun

Created by a mysterious, long-dead, solar deity called Halo, the lazy gun is the last surviving member of a set of 7 that once terrorized the prime material worlds. The power chained inside the lazy gun is of such magnitude and perplexity that it is capable of destroying any one single target through a variety of effects. The catch is that the wielder is never in control of how the lazy gun destroys the intended target. Pointed at a demon, it may bathe and then freeze the creature in solid holy water. Pointed at an goblin, it may drop a conjured house on it. Pointed at tree, it may vaporise it...and the surrounding forest.

This is an artifact of chaos, and acts unpredictably in the method of destruction. The last lazy gun was used to assassinate a proxy of Thoth in a prime metropolis. The lazy gun created a pin-sized black hole in the centre of the city, destroying everything within 500 km of the target. The wielder did not survive, but the lazy gun was said to have transported itself to safety.

The appearance of the last lazy gun is cloaked in myth. It is said by the Darkseekers that it resembles an ornate chrome-and-copper steam engine with a multi=pronged barrel. In this configuration it has to be balanced on the shoulder and pointed at the destination, much like a MANPAD. Others claim that it looks like any other small, silver pistol, but made out of a metal that defies analysis.

Damage: 10d10 x 10, but reduce multiplier by 1 for every alignment plane removed from the Prime or from Limbo.
Damage Type: varies, can be anything
Critical: Always
Range: 300ft
ROF: 1 shot, then unusable for 2d6 weeks.
Mag: n/a
Size: Large
Weight: 25 pounds (?? unknown)

So I was feeling a little whimsical. 10 points to anyone who gets this reference. Smiling

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Urban Planar Items

Er... It's... Ergh.... Aw crap, I can't remember where it's from. Sounds like the HHGTTG, though it probably isn't.

Anyways, about the Sodkiller: think an MP5 with fully unfolded stock(with two magazines sticking out in 45 degree angles at the end) for size comparisons.
The interplanar phone is based on a somewhat similar item from UA, which is really the coolest repository of wondrous items I've seen yet.
As for the Pacemaker, yeah, it's one-use.(*e* I just thought of an Idea: Maybe, on a critical hit, have a risk of the device activating early, as the wards are disrupted?)
The Snail Gun was inspired by a thread in the Wizards' UA forum, detailing race-specific firearms. Someone suggested that gnomes would make a "swiss army knife" equivalent, and, well... Eye-wink

Anyways, I think it'd be not-nice to post without adding something, so here comes....

DRAGONKILLER
5d12 ballistic
range 120 feet
crit 17-20 x5
10 box cased 50mm
Huge
30 pounds
Manufactered as one of the few "specialist" firearms produced by Snail Outfitters, the slogan of it is "When REALLY, REALLY big just isn't big enough."
And, as pretty much anyone who's used it can attest to, it fits. The gigantic weapon is a one-shot wonder, capable of taking out a balor or old dragon in a single shot. However, the thing focuses so entirely upon hitting hard, that pretty much everything is ignored. It comes with a bipod that it must be mounted upon(it takes five rounds to deployed), or the shot takes a -8 to hit, as well as hurling the firer, if medium or smaller size, into a prone position 10 feet in the opposite direction. If fired within an enclosed space, everything within ten feet is deafened permanently, unless they wear protective gear. Outside, the user is only deafened for three rounds. Additionally, it takes the weapon six rounds to cool down from the shot. If another shot is fired before that, it takes a -4 penalty to hit, and there is a 50% chance that the weapons' barrel quite simply melts from the hit.
In addition to the standard ammo used in the example above, the rifle can also take explosive(causes 1d12 damage in a ten-feet radius around the impact point) and AP(ignores all damage reduction) rounds. Needless to say, this weapon is a favourite of snipers all across the planes.

Summary: BIG GUN.

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Edited: misunderstanding resolved.

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Didn't mean it like that! :oops:
I meant it as "Aw, crap, I can't remember!" Not a "It sucks." I'm gonna edit that, if I can. Sorry man.
But, now that I look at it again, I do notice something: it does, at most, in Limbo, 1000 hp of damage. Sorry, but I don't think 800 will be enough to wipe out a metropolis. Maybe make it X100 -10 per plane instead?

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My apologies. I misread your intent.

You're right, it should do more damage overall, but I was thinking (though not writing) that it does the stated damage to every individual object. So each building door, window, person, etc. would take that damage, if the random effect warranted it. Unfortunately I'm not familiar with structural damage in d20 so I can't say what it would take to level a city. x100 -10 per plane removed sounds good. I didn't want it to be a god-killer though. That would be way overboard. Eye-wink

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I just got a hillarious image in my head from the positive pacemaker.

A guy has this thing implanted and is killed. It revives him and gives him back his 10 + d100 hit points. This brings him up to more than double his normal amount of hit points and he explodes Smiling

The image of that happening during a fight would be awesome. "Yes we killed him! Oh wait . . . he's back . . . and now he has exploded and is dead again . . ."

Or if an assassin slipped poison into someone's drink at a dinner party. The guy takes a drink, starts choking, slumps over in his chair dead, revives and looks full of life and then explodes. It'd be weird to be a witness to that (just imagine this at a formal dinner party full of executives of major businesses acting all high up and hob nobby noble and whatnot).

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"Krypter" wrote:
10 points to anyone who gets this reference. Smiling

I remember hearing about something like that from Mage, but I'm not sure if that's quite what you meant.

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"Persephone Imytholin" wrote:
"Krypter" wrote:
10 points to anyone who gets this reference. Smiling

I remember hearing about something like that from Mage, but I'm not sure if that's quite what you meant.


I'd say the same.

But it also reminds me of something from a very old Doctor Who episode from the 70's.

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Awright, a few replies, in chronological order:
No need to apologize, Kryppy. Honest mistake.
As for the damage, I think it would work fine, now that I've had it explained to me. A small nuke in Modern does 400 damage to a quarter mile surrounding the detonation, as well as the radiation.
Though, really, I think it should be like "the speed of plot". Whatever collateral damage it needs to do, it does.

Also, Legato, that's the entire point of the thing.
Anyways, you forgot a single thing in the "business meeting": the Guy With The Cigar, who suddenly blinds everyone at the table, while the entire scene gets electrocuted, unlucky people get ozone poisoning, and the floorboards start sprouting branches. Not to add that all successful high-ups have a precious stone or metal somewhere on their person. This would grant them extra hp, too, as the element:mineral gets morphed into energy:positive.
To add a little to the zaniness of the thing, use the variant I posted above. Would add to the "gambler" feeling of it.
Sadly, I doubt the PCs will be fighting anything who'll blow up from it, otherwise, as it should be pretty expensive(read: high-level bodyguards and such).

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Hmm... Dis place be a-dead, mon.
*THREADOMANCY*

Cigarettes of good health
This looks like an entirely normal pack of your everyday cancer-inducing nicotine bombs, but once opened, the buyer will notice that where other cigs are white, these fellas are one of several colours. Only people touching the cigarettes with bare skin can see the colour; other people see normal cigs. Lighting a cigarette is a full-round action(if using a lighter, match, or other conventional modern firemaking tool), but it can also be lit by any spell dealing fire damage(so, you could light it with a fireball, even if you'd get pretty singed). They last for 10 minutes(100 rounds) before they lose their effect, and they cannot be put out before then. In addition to their other magical abilities, Cigarettes of good health don't cause addiction or cancer.
Their effects depend on colour;

Blue: Gives the smoker water breathing.

Black: Casts Obscuring mist, centered on the cigarette, once per round.

Silver: The smoke from this cigarette reveals any illusions it envelops. During combat, this means any illusions in the same square as the smoker.

Red: Allows the smoker to breathe fire as a standard action, with the damage and a save DC as if the smoker had the breath attack of a red half-dragon.

Green: The smoker may cast either Cloudkill or Stinking Cloud as a standard action, centered on himself. However, he gains no special defence or resistance towards those spells.

Checker-board: The smoker(and any breathing creatures in his space) become immune to airborne diseases, gases, spells(cloudkill, for instance), or attacks(such as the merge thingy that biochemical homunculi can do).

Orange: Once lit, it can be used as a flame sword(as the druid spell).

Where applicable, effects are treated as caster level 10. Cigar versions of these items have been claimed to exist; these have CL 15.

*e* Not dead, then... Coma?

Anyways,
Universal interceptor
This looks a completely ordinary AM/FM radio, even if it has access to some channels most people wouldn't exactly consider "legal"; This is unimportant. When a command word is spoken, a small illusionary hologram pops up on the side of it, and it can with a DC 10 computer use check pick up broadcast TV(or similar visual data) whose signal is being sent through the air or cables or whatever within 200 feet. Another command word puts it on "Magical intercept" mode(a small MI instead of the FM or AM.), where it can, with a computer use check against DC 15, snatch up and play any magical or psionic message sent to, from, or through any point within 200 feet. A DC 20 intelligence check on the part of the intended reciever can detect that the message that been heard. If the caster is aware of and attempting to defend against such listening attempts, he adds his caster level to the computer DC to snatch it up. The Universal Interceptor can also pick up almost any other type of message(at up to 200 feet away), so here are some sample computer use DCs:
Attached to phone line: DC 5
Remote phone line: DC 8
Pick up all cellphone chatter within 200 feet: DC 10
Pick out a single cell phone in the chatter: DC 13(only 10 if you know the number)
Encrypted signal: +Encrypters' computer use check result-10
A spells' incantation: 5*(2+spells' level), then immediately make a DC (25+spells' level) spellcraft check to actually understand and be able to scribe it in your spellbook/PDA spellfiles/whatever.

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'Krypter' wrote:
Lazy Gun

Created by a mysterious, long-dead, solar deity called Halo, the lazy gun is the last surviving member of a set of 7 that once terrorized the prime material worlds. The power chained inside the lazy gun is of such magnitude and perplexity that it is capable of destroying any one single target through a variety of effects. The catch is that the wielder is never in control of how the lazy gun destroys the intended target. Pointed at a demon, it may bathe and then freeze the creature in solid holy water. Pointed at an goblin, it may drop a conjured house on it. Pointed at tree, it may vaporise it...and the surrounding forest.

This is an artifact of chaos, and acts unpredictably in the method of destruction. The last lazy gun was used to assassinate a proxy of Thoth in a prime metropolis. The lazy gun created a pin-sized black hole in the centre of the city, destroying everything within 500 km of the target. The wielder did not survive, but the lazy gun was said to have transported itself to safety.

The appearance of the last lazy gun is cloaked in myth. It is said by the Darkseekers that it resembles an ornate chrome-and-copper steam engine with a multi=pronged barrel. In this configuration it has to be balanced on the shoulder and pointed at the destination, much like a MANPAD. Others claim that it looks like any other small, silver pistol, but made out of a metal that defies analysis.

Damage: 10d10 x 10, but reduce multiplier by 1 for every alignment plane removed from the Prime or from Limbo.
Damage Type: varies, can be anything
Critical: Always
Range: 300ft
ROF: 1 shot, then unusable for 2d6 weeks.
Mag: n/a
Size: Large
Weight: 25 pounds (?? unknown)

So I was feeling a little whimsical. 10 points to anyone who gets this reference. Smiling

Aha.....try to blind us with allusions to Iain M. Banks's Against a Dark Background, will you? You'll have to be quicker than that..... Eye-wink .

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