So this is probably a silly thing of RAW vs. flavor text, but when reading through the sterling dynamo main feature, there's one bit that leaves me scratching my head a little. So, with the sterling Dynamo, specifically the ruling on the manually controlled vs. automated dynamo.
So how it reads initially to me is, you can make a strike with the dynamo while holding something in that hand, but can do more damage if that hand is free, but the wording of the manual control makes it seem, at least in the flavor, like your other hand has to be free to use the increased damage size.
Since I just can't land on a definitive conclusion myself, I was wondering what others thought, or if there's an official ruling on this?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Let's see if we can puzzle this out...
Most dynamos are automated, so they don't require a free hand to use, like other unarmed attacks. However, you can instead choose to make your dynamo be manually controlled via a handheld switch, lever, or other device; to make an attack with a manually controlled dynamo, you must have a hand free to operate it, but the benefit is great control and a more devastating strike. This increases the damage die by one size, to a 1d8 for a power drive dynamo or 1d6 for a percussive striker dynamo. Arm dynamos are always manual, but they use the hand on that arm to operate the dynamo when making strikes. Manual control is required only in the heat of combat, not for less strenuous adventuring or everyday activities.
Breaking down line by line
-Most dynamos (whether they're augmented limbs, replacement limbs, or additional limbs) simply function on their own.
-You can choose to use a free hand to increase the damage of your dynamo with a switch, lever, or other mechanism (I am picturing a tail with a hand-controlled lever simply to avoid confusion between free hands and the dynamo)
-Arm dynamos can only be used manually, which seems like a logical conclusion of the fact that they already 'use' the otherwise 'free hand' by virtue of being the free hand.
-Finally, always-manual hand dynamos go automatic out of combat, Sorry, this line actually refers to non-arm dynamos that have been modified for manual use. Arm dynamos are always manual because they are the 'mano'.
It seems it's just the victim of descriptive text organized in a circle, and possibly of the assumption that a dynamo is usually a hand-prosthetic.
In short: Most dynamos are automatic and do not require a free hand because they could be any kind of limb and are not necessarily an arm-prosthetic. Arm dynamos are always manual, since they already take up that arm. If you choose to give your dynamo a manual control (or have a normal arm-dynamo), it upgrades the damage, since it now requires a hand to 'wield' it. Even if you have added a manual control to your non-arm dynamo, it can still operate automatically outside of combat (so, for example, your dynamo leg does not need you manually operating the lever to keep walking).
Does that cover your confusion? I suspect your answer lies primarily in the little bit of text that specifies that an arm dynamo can be the free hand that wields it.
Yeah, this covers everything up for me, I definitely was working under the thought process of only picturing it as an arm which is what was messing with my perspective for sure