Imagine having a weird crocodile arm that makes you do wild magic surges.

Magic smagic, give me a peg leg, a hook and a glass eye and I'll have those scallywags begging for mercy.

Those artificer when they give you that anaesthetic you see the word "placebo" written on it make a dex save to avoid gangrene.

So when will we be getting a table technician book.

0:20 "And that's how I lost my medical licence."

I've had a character sitting around for ~2 years now with a detachable Mimic as a prosthetic arm. They're a Changeling, and they keep the fact that their arm is a Mimic a secret. To everyone else, the arm just looks like an animated hunk of wood.

A third category, "Organic" would indeed be pretty cool, infact idk why you didn't just make that a part of this if you already thought it through. Maybe you have to go out into the wilds and expose yourself to a symbiotic parasite that will take your arm's place, and give abilities in exchange for nutrients. Depending on where you go to find it, It could be a beastial animal and pet-like once you master it, _or_ sentient, able to talk and have it's own alignment and agenda (esp if its an extraplanar entity, cursed, or created by otherworldy races like ilithid, devils, or aboleths). Maybe a powerful druid, dryad, sylvan or Fey nature spirit can bond your stump with a living plant that takes the shape of a new arm with utility and powerful abilities. However abusing those powers risks the plant growing a little too far into your body every time, unless you take steps to maintain a perfect harmony with the plant taking root in you. The possibilities are endless and a perfect fit for players who whos characters are either all about weird entities, or all about animals/nature! Existing npcs already in your campaign like important druids, nature clerics, deities and even Archfey Warlock patrons could be the one to bestow the new limb, to make for an especially cool story moment.

Aww yeah, a video on prosthetics. I love having fun with all this sort of stuff.

So incoming wild magic artificer wearing a plague doctor outfit to sell wacky limbs to players

0:16 What ?. Never get your *blank* by a goblin before ?

In my current campaign, one of my players is a dwarf ranger that recently lost his arm to an exploding dungeon and has it replaced by a sekiro-type grapple arm. It is magically powered though, so I should consider a beholder perhaps...

And now Artificer's Armorer Subclass basically removes the need as your armor automatically gives you new limbs to replace the old ones while you wear it. Course, homebrew can spice that up and yadda yadda yadda

tfw I realize that my character's ancient dwarven magical metal arm won't function in an antimagic field. and last session we found out we're getting hunted by a magic hating antimagic using cult. uh oh.

Step 1: grow living plant arm (use a spell that makes plants grow into the desired shape) Step 2: Awaken spell Result: living sentient plant arm bonded to host Why would you want this? Good question. Of course, at this level, regeneration is probably the more logical option.

Here’s a magical and living mix: a small fire elemental becomes you’re new arm. Pros: it’s a fire elemental; it can burn stuff, change shape, etc. Cons: Well, ITS A FIRE ELEMENTAL; also, assuming it’s still conscious, you might need to get it to like and listen to you. Good luck with that.

Honestly, for the longest time I’ve had this idea for a Fighter-Battlemaster character with a mechanical prosthetic arm that has a large flail instead of a hand, and some abilities branching off from that to tie in with or play off of their Battlemaster maneuvers. This video really helped rekindle that idea and helped me think up ways to balance the thing, so thanks!

how about grafted on extra limbs would they count as alternative appendages also prehensile tails are considerd limbs as well my younger brother played a mad scientist/doctor/engineer? a while back his character would perform experimental surgeries on himself and on fellow party members going as far as to rip out the heart of a god and replaceing his own with it he also claimed he managed to forge and create soul contracts which he made his party members and even a few very powerfull npcs sign in effect binding them to him he would go as far as grafting extra limbs and appendages onto himself to make himself all the more efficient at his experiments and also he played the demon contracts under the guise they where essentaily waivers that kept him safe if anything went wrong he was chaotic neutral my point is you don't need to loose a limb to have one of these

Oh wow here I though slapping a wand in the stump on a wizard's wrist was good enough

Parasitical/living limbs sounds its own category.

THAT… Works incredibly well with the campaign I'm building as one of the main minions of the BBEG DOES HAVE a prostethic arm!! Thank you!! This is a lot of help!! :3

Imagine being a warforged and getting an organic living appendage replacement, I know what character I'm building next

2:02 something about that d4 looks off

I’d “code” these like TF2 weapons. EX: Lover’s left arm Lore: the severed arm of a loved one attached to their lover + take 1 proficiency from the loved one that requires a hand - disadvantage while using the arm for proficiency as the arm is blind

Beholder's telekinesis tentacle for an arm, discuss

When I heard the phrase "Alternative Appendages" I was imagining a video about races without human-like arms, and how they can be effective adventurers.

I love the idea of a living limb that you have to pet to keep it happy

Shop open Pirate: give me a cannon leg You: I"ll have what he having

Trying to be creative with artificial limbs, I see? *Adeptus Mechanicus wants to know your location.*

I had a fighter who lost an arm, and I got a runestone (small stones in our campaign which have cantrips infused into them) which he wore as a necklace. The cantrip on the stone was mage hand, which he used as a normal hand for the campaign since (you can't use mage hand to attack, but you can use it as the second hand to support a greatsword)

Sounds like my "Gobblinpachworks" They are fast scrapworkbuilds wich create +1 gear (non magical) wich break after the first critt.

I love the idea of emotionally caring for your own pet squid arm.

Now I want to make a character who has 3 different prosthetic: Mechanical (which requires regular maintenance), magical (which tends to be a bit unstable and is susceptible to certain Magic’s), and as mentioned in another comment, organic (which constantly needs to be kept in check, either because it keeps trying to take over the body or because it’s sentient and won’t always obey commands). I feel like it could be really cool balancing the different advantages and disadvantages of these different appendages. Maybe one of them replaced or supports an internal organ, while one replaces an arm and another replaces a leg. I feel like that could be really interesting. If it needs to be balanced further, each one could require attunement so in order to fully function you lose the ability to attune to other magic items

So like: Springs can make you jump higher and possibly run faster, but they're also not the most stable of things, so you suffer massive penalties in rough terrain. Also as a safety mechanism most prosthesis are designed to fall off or break before they can deal damage to their user.

As a disabled person this means so so much to me. It's so refreshing and amazing to see people start to move out of the stereotypical perfectly able bodied players and move into more realistic ones. I would love to see how this type of mechanics work with other types of disabilities like spell components needing a verbal component being done through hand or drawn signs instead or a visually disabled player depending on other senses or magical tools. I really hope this video starts to get people excited about including disabled players in their games bc it's a big creative tool ppl are afraid to use bc they think less of disabled ppl Edit: comment chain just proves my point about the think less of disabled ppl. Everyone act surprised.

I enjoy the GURPS system for its modularity in scenarios like this. You can create prosthetics for many different settings and fine tune things like fine motor skills that are normally lacking in real life prosthetic.

This topic is one of my favorites, glad you covered it

Heck yeah! Arms n' Legs!

Also there is the 4th option of mundane replacement limbs like a hook hand or peg leg. The limb has little to no maintenance needed and is non-magical but it has a major drawback like "you can only use your arm weapon or "your speed is reduced".

You brain is interesting, I love how you organize ideas in light set of rules.

Can we please get an HD version of the image at 4:26 for meme purposes please?!

Man, thank you for this vid! I’m planning a mix of Fantasy and Sci-Fi campaign and I had the idea of prosthetic limbs once. You just gave me the mechanics I would need to gift my players with some boosts after a ferocious battle!

Bard: "Tentacle limbs?" *snap* "Oh, it appears as though my arm was broken by a dragon." Party: "Tf are you talking about?" Bard: "He was very small, and invisible, and retreated at the speed of light."

This fucking ROCKS. You actually inspired me to write a character with a prosthetic that acts as a ‘recalling weapon’. Where the arm disappears, can punch a dude like forty feet away, and then be recalled back to your body. Thanks!

Man now I want a magical intestines that let me belch fire, or a monster stomach that makes me resistance to acid damage and immune to poison

I had a wizard who lost all the fingers on his left hand. His hand was turned to stone and then broken. A few hours of work and he had it etched with a bunch of runes he would then stick his hand into sand, mud, whathaveyou and cast a spell that he created using a combination of Mold earth and mage hand. To create a functional left hand out of shifting sand or mud.

When do we get the third party “Moduland” supplement with all of this stuff and examples and us being able to support you and some of your sick art work?!?!

I was thinking of a warlock patron that's a living arm from which you fire all of those eldritch blasts. You're not doing any of the magic, this thing's doing it, and if you don't cater to its needs and demands, you ain't doing any more magical shit. I was inspired by a french comic series where a dude loses his arm and it gets replaced by a demoness with amnesia called Amy, and he's just one of five extremely interesting main characters! It was love at first sight, and I feel like this would fit in so well with D&D.

0:22 I like how the artificer's assistant is also afraid of her.

Thanks so much my bard had his entire arm blasted off

I had a druid that flavored regenerate as a tree like plant growing as replacement limb it was pretty cool I only gave it a weakness to intense fire which after would grow back with enough sunlight. The only mechanical befit it gave was +1 to unarmored AC

I had a prosthetic arm for 1 of my characters, it was a arm made of fire 1d6 fire punch and it shot magical slugs which sang in perfect harmony. No damage. Actual slugs like the animal. I had a firearm which shot slugs. It made me happy

This mechanic sounds awesome! Can't wait to see how this plays out in my game :D

Mechanical limbs are always a lot of fun. I have a character (not a d&d character but fun nonetheless) who had both her arms destroyed in... an accident... And they were replaced with basically fully jointed mechanic arms. Since she fights a lot in her universe there are additions to the arms like fold out shields, metallic claws, a gun, etc... It sounds like a lot but scifi is like that. I love arm alternatives lol

thank you so much! Not only is this video awesome with all your best in it, but I tend to run games where people lose limbs...like, all the time XP so getting a second opinion on fantasy prosthetics is awesome!

I can see the "minus 5 to all movement" for getting a prosthetic leg as being a temporary drawback Like, after 1D4+1 weeks (or maybe 2D8+4 days, if that's too long for you) you finally become familiar enough with it that it now feels like a real leg to you, and you no longer suffer a movement penalty This creates a temporary challenge for the player, acting as incentive to not lose a limb in the first place, but in the even that they do, they are not punished for it permanently Alternatively, if the limb is mechanical, you could instead put in "recovery time" where instead of adding a temporary penalty, you instead have the player to rest for x amount of time as their body acclimates You can have it be a choice, take a penalty for x days/weeks, and keep questing, or recover for half that time, but in the process fail the time-sensitive quest you are currently on

Why is this so *good!!!!* I love this entire system.

Now I want to create a character that is slowly turning themselves into a warforged.

I once had a character who had a wise cracking demon as an arm. The arm unfortunately didn’t stay around for too long but it was really fun to work with.

Love your work bro, used your potion system in my last game and gotta say, changed my whole outlook on that sort of thing. I used to hate when players started asking about making potions, now I love it! After watching this I've mentioned that loss of limbs might be a thing in tonight's game...

Watching this game me a great idea, the players I have often visit a chain store called the artificers slate where they can cash in magic items, parts of monsters, and other odds and ends. At this point the only one without one or more prosthetic or body mod is the warforged in the group. But when I heard the dispel magic weakness it made me think of a possible villain that has been following them and can deactivate all of their modifications.

Super cool! Glad you turned around and explored living options again; I'm a sucker for biotechnology and eldritch stuff like that. A good drawback to that would counting, for the purposes of spells and abilities, as having the aberration or fey racial type in addition to your original racial type. Or any other type as relevant! This system could work really well as a way to give people Warlock-like invocation stuff related to game events, temporary or otherwise.

I gave my Wizard a magic appendage once, it was basically this necrotic damage blast that cost a spell slot to use. Depending on what level the spell slot was determined how power the blast was. I don't recall the dice I used, but I think it was something simple like 1d8 per spell slot. He was being super utility base so I gave him this option as a means to give him some more offensive options when he prepared spells that weren't useful that day.

I'm liking the idea of an Organic arm, I already have an idea for a "Venom" style arm. It would not only be alive but sentient with its own thoughts feelings and goals, it could even be its own separate character depending how you're playing. It would provide increasing power in exchange for more control over its host which could provide an interesting gameplay dilemma where the host character has to balance the arm being powerful without it taking them over complely, maybe killing the character, and being too resistant to the point that the arm is worthless or worse just pops off in search of a more compatible host.

I’m super happy every time I see you upload, and I’m proud to see AJ Picket gave you a shout out and link during one of his livestreams

one of the super important npcs in my current campaign has a mechanical hand because his real one was lost in conflict with a snotty noble. in the back of that hand is an ancient magical crystal that symbolises what his organization works for but also gives him a colossal AC. the hand itself, though, is pretty bad. its slow, squeaky, and difficult for him to maneuver. luckily enough, one of our... louder(in the best way) party members is proficient in tinkering, so when they cross paths again it'll be pretty interesting to see how things go.

i really like the idea of a pet arm you have to feed and maintain

i really loved this :) my current character is an aasimar paladin/ranger and she was born without any arms so he has prosthetics. totally sharing this with my dm to work out any details now!

Thanks to this video it actually inspired me to have a prosthetic for my character - altho it doesn't do anything since I'm quite bug brained and won't be able to keep up with it if it does anything big - however I'm still going to have fun!

Definitely going to incorporate something like this for a standard of my game, you're the best, Kane, ilu.

Great stuff as always!

I actually made an artificer subclass very similar to this. It uses shit tons of gold to fill, “augment slots,” of which each pc has them and their number depends on their race (Halfling has three, human has 4, half Orc and dwarf have 5) you spend large amounts of gold and a few long rests to craft prosthetic limbs or something entirely different (For example replacing your left eye with a mechanical orb that has a targeting system and a 1 time use per rest laser attack, giving you a +1 to attack roles and a d8 radiant damage attack) it’s my favorite thing I’ve ever made and it’s super complex but the flesh welder is my baby.

This has given me a wondeful idea for a new character. A moderately famous artist/musician who lost their dominant arm. They are desperately seeking a way to regain their missing limb, when something calls to them and offers to given them a new, better, arm. In exchange for a new limb, the artist must bind themselves in service to the creature. They immediately agree, becoming a level 1 Warlock (probably either Archfey or Great Old One) who, due to their pride, must now do their patron's bidding if they wish to keep their new appendage.

It’s been 3 years but my character FINALLY lost an arm, back for my rewatch

I need this in my games! Thanks! I made a gnomish artificer/alchemist when I got the Eberron book (Doctor Donella Wizzlebock) who made biotech artificial limbs by growing them in vats and then grafting them to the patient.

One of my earliest characters in Pathfinder got his left arm cut off while dueling the god of tyranny. He woke up with a demon grafted to the stump, which promptly tried to choke him to death. The arm granted him a claw attack, natural armor, and a boost to his already ridiculous strength, but it had to be healed with negative energy, and occasionally it would try to attack me.

I lovd this and if any of my PCs lose a limb this will be implemented~~ thank you Kane~!

My kobold artificer actually has something kinda like this! He's not missing any limbs, but he does have what's basically the Clutch Claw from Monster Hunter.

Make a magic limb with back-up mechanical mechanisms. Like, it uses magic for fine-tuning and for most spell casting, but in case of emergency (like fighting a beholder) it also just has a straight up tiny high-power crossbow built into it, as well as mechanisms to allow it to still function in an anti-magic field.

I just had an idea. A Parasite that can be used As a prosthetic limb. It could work by interweaving itself with the nerve System of the host, feeding off of the tiny electric signals that nerves emit. As a tradeoff it completely replaces any missing limb.

I actually rolled up a character for a new campaign that's missing her right arm for a new campaign 2 weeks ago. She's an artificer with the armorer subclass so when her power armor is activated it acts as if she still had her arm.

reminds me of my first character, a dwarf barbarian/artificer who worked better when drunk, his left arm was replaced with a mechanical arm with a crossbow attached to it, there was no downside cause I figured that the downside of being able to only fire bolts would be enough. it worked well actually

0:31 Kanekuo whenever he gets to draw goblins or kobolds

I had a system where a limb grants a temporary bonus to ac, anything that hits in this bracket does actually hit the player but has the option for it to hit the arm, the arm then takes the damage (this dosent work with psychic damage) the arm then has its own hit dice and hit points the hit dice are d6, and depending on the type has bettween 1-3 hit dice, if the appendage goes bellow one quarter of its hp it ceases to function, with arms this means you only have one arm, and with legs this halves your movement and gives dissadvantage on acrobatics if the leg goes above the knee, to repair the arm you spend half an hour to restore one hit dice to your arm to do this requires tinkerers tools or the mending cantrips. If a limb is lost or reduced to 0 hp then it is broken beyond normal repair, and a new one must be built from at least 30 gold's worth of mechanical parts sutch as gears pulleys strings, metals and joints. Plus ten gold worth of materials to add an extra hit dice by reinforcing or armouring the limb. For each hit dice the limb has you gain a temporary AC bonus of +1 to a total of +3 this temporary AC is is negated if a sheild is worn on the appendage arm. If you have multiple prosthetics the AC bonus does not stack, however the two limbs both have individual hp, if a limb is attacked then the player may chose which limb takes the damage (within reason) limbs that are reduced to 0 hp cannot take damage for you. Limbs can be customised with special features each limb can have as many features as could logically for on their, which items are integrated are down to DN discretion but common examples include a built in tool, a built in weapon, a limited use atack or spell or a storage compartment for small objects.

Your videos are so useful and helpful!

So in my campaign I have a shop called the Oiltorium. In it is a bunch of oil themed items. Including in that us a prosthetic arm that allows you to light a finger like a candle. Or even fire a small glob of oil for a small amount of fire damage

If Kenshi has teached me something is that mechanical limbs are simply the best option.

Oh man I really want to use this now

my kobold artificer has slightly enchanted hand braces because he basically burned his hands to an unusable crisp. they give him advantage on slight of hand/tinkerer's tools checks, but when they aren't on for whatever reason, he has disadvantage with anything to do with his hands.

*hardcore fantasy realism exists* time for roleplay of lost limbs. having a prosthetic player sometimes have them relapsing nightmares about losing their limb

This would be great for a campaign that uses the optional dismemberment rules. I really like the organic/symbiotic relation with a sentient creature idea.

love the art

This is amaizing dude i love it

Thanks, I've been trying to build a "cybernetic" character for a while. While I knew I had to go for artificer, I just couldn't get my head around the How

Very similar to how I've handled limb loss in the past actually, love the ideas you have though. Especially with the living entity thing, very warlock.

I like it. I may use the third option in my upcoming starfinder game i will be dming.

How do you manage to make all your art look SO DAMN GOOD?!?!!?!

My current Kobold Artificer has a prosthetic arm, and though it has not become an issue- I fully anticipate the DM using it against me at some point. Also good thing to know- there is a basic prosthetic that I have worked with and helped assemble in real life that while not impressive- it is good enough to get a solid grip on things like shields and swing around with some care. It is actually the type of prosthetic my character uses within the campaign- and one I could say he would have been able to make with a bit of help.

I actually had a cool idea for a Mechanical One awhile ago that could be powered up with some magical fuel to make it more powerful. It essentially had a sort of ‘gasoline’ power source that let the user fire a tony stark style palm blast. The fuel could be stored inside it and was insulated to protect from Leakage. That’d be one way I give a powerful ability, it requires a certain fuel source (Spell Slots, external resources, Etceteras) or has limited uses for a Recharge Time as it draws in loose unused magical energy. Personally I also like the Living Appendage idea the most since it has some basis in reality (Mutualistic Symbiosis) and could provide some cool ideas. Is the Appendage a Familiar summoned by a 1 Armed Wizard or Warlock? Is it an Alien creature with no hostile intent but is required by its biology to attach to someone? Is it actually a part of you that grew out due to a magical mutation or experiment that eventually gained sentience? Is it a swarm of thousands of microscopic puppies who all huddle together and see you as mix between their Alpha and God? The potential is vast.

I am already seeing a new character... A Goblin Artificer with a mechanical arm that can fire syringes of whatever potions you load it with. A downside being that the syringes are fairly weak in that they are one use before they have to be repaired. You could make it either a single shot and remove the weak syringes or make it a 5-6 shot revolver style with the weakened syringes. Imagine your tank is down and your healer is out of spells and you just come in and save the day with healing syringes, or maybe you are an assassin and use it like a dart gun to inject poisons. God now i wanna play a campaign with this system in place.

I think he has a thing for pillars and I think he would like the pillar men