Grafts, Grafts everywhere! But are they any good?

[User3]

A lot of recent 3.5 books have been publishing a new(ish) form of gear - or self-augmentation if you will. That is - 'Grafts'. Things you stick on your bod, with the help of graft-creating feats or cities where such graft implementers do business. Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness, and especially all the Eberron books are hot on these things.

I have yet to see one in action. Yet I'm sure a creative min~maxer out there has evaluated the pros and cons of all the various grafts in these books.

Anyone have a take on them?

Are any better than magic equipment? Are the graft creation feats worth it?

[User3]

Some of the arm grafts which give inherent bonuses to Strength are super cheap for what they do. Other then that, grafts are mostly just overpriced, slotless magic items.

They might do some AMF user a bit of good, but if you're cheesy enough to abuse AMFs you'll probably be using Initiate of Mystra of Extraordinary Spell Aim anyway.

[MrWaeseL]

Going from memory, most grafts in the FF are underpriced for what they do.

[Username17]

1130246412[/unixtime]]Going from memory, most grafts in the FF are underpriced for what they do.

Sort of. You get a price break for the item being non-removable. Which is odd, because that's advantageous as often as it is a detriment. Unfortunately, what you get is often really crappy.

For example:

The Stone Spitter. It costs 2000 gp and is essentially a +1 Sling. But it doesn't use up a hand slot and it does one size larger damage for no additional cost. In short: it sucks,but is nominally cheaper than such a worthless item "should" cost.

Example2:

Climbing Legs. You get a bunch of carrion crawler legs sticking out of your body - I don't know how you get into armor. Functionally, it works just like Slippers of Spider Climbing. It only costs 4000 gp - an 800 gp savings, all at the cost of having a bunch of extra legs sticking out of your body. Of course, this was written in regards to the 3.0 Slippers of Spider Climbing, which only cost 2000 gp, so really it's double priced and makes you look like a banana slug.

Example 3:

A Clawed Hand costs 50k and gives a +4 unnamed bonus to strength with that hand. Also it can make bonus attacks. Unfortunately, this bonus attack is a medium sized humanoid claw attack - so it does a d4. Whoopty-doo. Also it comes with extra disadvantages that if you aren't evil or ever try to socially interact with NPCs who aren't evil (including animals), you get boned. Totally not worth it.

--

In general, a graft is a crappy item that you don't want that has been heaped with various weird advantages to try to con you into getting it anyway.

There are some crazy things you can do with them - the Beholder Eye Graft allows you to pay 195,000 gp to get 3 EX eye rays a day, usable as a standard action, with a frickin fixed DC. That sucks, but it means that you technically have a beholder eye on your head and can sacrifice it to a level of beholder mage to cast an extra free action spell every round for the rest of your life.

But in general, do not bother. Anything really cool you can dumpster dive to get out of that pile of weirdness is something your DM probably won't let you have.

-Username17

[User3]

The mogg gripping hand (or whatever it's called) graft is well-priced. Also possibly lets Kensai use Metaline on their unarmed strikes..

[Username17]

The Maug Locking Hand is a half strength locking gauntlet that costs 2000 gp. It costs roughly 200,000 times as much as the previously available model - the scrap of cloth that you tie your weapon to your body with.

And no, the Maug Locking Hand is explicitly made out of Stone, and is not available in any metal forms at all. It is the most laughably worthless piece of gear in that or any book. I didn't even list it because I didn't want to appear to be unfair to the grafts.

Dissing on the Maug Locking Hand is so easy that it's cheating.

-Username17

[User3]

1130294072[/unixtime]]
Dissing on the Maug Locking Hand is so easy that it's cheating.

-Username17

Maybe you didn't notice that they give a bonus to grapple checks. At low levels (that is, before Freedom of Movement), that can be very signifigant, and quite affordable. Plus, you don't have to worry about all the junk with opening locked gauntlets.

I believe that Metaline works on 'minerals,' but I could be very wrong.

[PhoneLobster]

Mr P pities the fool who wears locking gauntlets.

A defender using a weapon attached to a locked gauntlet gets a +10 bonus to resist being disarmed.

Mr P chooses to wear spiked gauntlets.

A defender wearing spiked gauntlets can’t be disarmed.

Mr P won't be disarmed of ANY of his stuff any time soon.

[Kirin_Corrigan]

Nice, taking a line of the "Combat" section out of context and forgetting the rule in the "Equipment" section.

Gauntlet, Spiked: Your opponent cannot use a disarm action to disarm you of spiked gauntlets.

If you take it all into context, it's self-evident that the rule in the combat section means "a defender wearing Spiked Gauntles cannot be disarmed of his Spiked Gauntlets".

[PhoneLobster]

No Foo is gonna make a Foo out of Mr P.

If you is wearing spiked gauntlets then of COURSE

"Your opponent cannot use a disarm action to disarm you of spiked gauntlets."

because...

"A defender wearing spiked gauntlets can’t be disarmed."

But the spiked gauntlets are extra plus good because even if you aren't wearing them...

"Your opponent cannot use a disarm action to disarm you of spiked gauntlets."

Mr P pity the Foo who fails to realise that there is nothing in the item description which contradicts or qualifies the quality as granted by the combat section.

Mr P ain't no fool who doesn't cross reference before he posts.

Mr P also points out that the locking gauntlet either grants +10 resistance vs disarming against EVERYTHING while locked to any weapon, or just +10 all the time regardless of locking, or both stacking depending which bit of Foo rules written by Foo rules writers is being read.

Mr P also points out that since the bonus appears to be unamed every additional locking gauntlet locked to a weapon (and/or presumably slung about some Fools neck on a gold chain) grants an additional +10 (or +20).

But Mr P prefers blanket immunity over fool plusses in multiples of 10 so Mr P ain't no fool he wears Spiked Gauntlets (tm)

[Kirin_Corrigan]

Come back when you veisalgia is definitely over, Mr P.