Adding lasers to gearsmen: Will this screw thing up later?

[Sean_Powell]

Hello,

I need to kill time with my party while they are heading to Alderons grave and Scrapwall, plus I won't have the full party. I was thinking that a wandering encounter with 2 gearsmen and a pack of ghost-wolves barbarians would be a good mix. It gives them a combat and a roll-play when the (wounded) ghost wolves are suspicious of their technology.

The only ranged attack a gearsman has is throwing it's spear... That's kind of a crappy way to build a robot IMHO. I'd like to make their cyclopean eye the equivalent of a laser pistol. I was also debating giving it a +2 strike bonus for a full round action (if it stands still).

I have skimmed "Choking Tower" and am re-reading "Lords of Rust" but have gotten no further. I know that Gearsmen figure heavily in later modules... Am I going to screw things up with this addition? Is there a reason Gearsmen don't have ranged weapons?

Thanks,
Sean

[Ascalaphus]

I think it's because standard gearsmen are sort of a "chassis" creature. They're provided as pretty simple but you can of course add features to them.

[Eric Clingenpeel]

In the Aurora part of Choking Tower the gearsmen have TW laser pistols. So there's no reason they couldn't have them. You'll just want to decide what tech you're giving to the party and if it's worth giving the tech to the party earlier.

[Ascalaphus]

Well, you can hide behind the "you can't loot integrated weaponry" excuse, but I think that's a bit feeble.

[Cantankerous Rules Lawyer]

Gearsmen don't have integrated weapons, you're doing it wrong!!

:-)

[Ascalaphus]

I like Combined Arms. Integrated Weaponry is a bit annoying; "what do you mean I can't Sunder his lasers?", "what do you mean we can't take his lasers?"

[Freehold DM]

It's what I'm doing in my game.

[Duiker]

There are a bunch of alternate gearsmen load outs at the end of one of the books (maybe #5). Other than their hardness they tend to be pretty weak and I buffed them quite a bit.

[Sean_Powell]

Hmmm. I don't want to give the party Meyendas pistol, and then a TW laser pistol before they even get to Alderonds grave. The "No looting integrated weapons" is already partially broken as I allowed one character to scavenge a net-gun and re-mount it on a rifle stock... but I don't have a logical reason why a Gearman would have a primitive ranged weapon like a crossbow.

Of well I may just have him throw rocks or something. If the party is smart enough to try and kill him from range then they deserve the rewards from being smart.

[Ascalaphus]

Well, gearsmen are smart enough to learn new weapons, so it could if it had to. It's capable of looting, too.

[Sean_Powell]

End result was the party engaged poorly and without a plan. The melee fighters got to it before the casters could hit it with AOE. It was almost a TPK. I had to have a NPC who was fighting the other gearsmen bail them out with a trip to keep it down while they pummeled on it.

First round of combat nat 20 to hit the rogue, nat 20 to confirm crit and near max damage on all dice with the crit was not an auspicious start. At least the party knows what a Cardioamp does now.