Mechanik’s Union

First developed in 592 AR by a pioneering mechanik and pirate sailing out of Five Fingers, this handy little device was a stopgap for the sea-dog with less limbs than sense. Tired of hauling out those he had outfitted with mechanikal replacement limbs every time one fell into the drink, this mechanik developed a variation of the ever popular punch piston design. Incorporating additional expansion chambers and pumps for compression, a spool of metal cable attached to a powerful clockwork spring-coil, reflexive wrist-locking mechanisms and solid metal ratchet locks for the fingers.

With this mechanikal addition to a prosthetic arm, the wearer may charge the compression pumps and launch the arms hand as a full round action upon making a DC 15 Concentration check. The hand can shoot up to 40ft in the desired direction, and automatically attempts to clamp and lock onto whatever it hits. The wearer of the prosthetic arm may as a free action will the hand to unlock, however rewinding it back into the arm requires a standard action which provokes an attack of opportunity.

If the wielder is using the arm to winch themselves towards whatever object the hand has attached itself to, the speed at which the rewinding occurs depends on the characters weigh, for example a standard action for light or no encumbrance and a full round action for medium encumbrance, heavily encumbered characters are usually to much for the clock-coil spring to handle, unless a more powerful motor is installed into such a device by a mechanik who knows his gear-stuff, then the character will likely just have to climb the cable.

Since its invention and spread through the Fingers steamshops, many adventurous sorts have found other uses for this ‘handy’ extension of their mechanikal limbs. With a DC 18 Concentration check, the wielder of a Grapple Hand may used it as a ranged attack dealing 1d8 damage on a successful hit. In addition to clobbering their opponents from a relatively safe distance, a skilled user might even try immobilizing them as the more common wrist harpoon is want to do by grabbing them in its crushing grip. This action required a DC 18 Concentration check and is subject to the usual attacks of opportunity a grapple attempt provokes, although in this case the attack would be directed at the prosthetic limb itself. As you might expect, the extended cable of the Grapple Hand means it can be used to make Trip attempts, such are subject to the usual rules for attempting a trip, but in the case of this device, the wielder cannot avoid being tripped in turn by dropping the Grapple Hand. Use of the Grapple Hand as a weapon in this manner without the traditional -4 penalty to attack rolls requires an Exotic Weapon Proficiency: grapple hand.

Although not in the original design blueprints, a few other like minded bodgers have added their own innovative modifications to this device. One of which bulks up the arm considerably by adding a second launching device and cable spool, resembling a small harpoon projecting from the rear of the prosthetic arms elbow.  This addition can be launched as part of the full round action as mentioned above, increasing the concentration check by +3, or on its own with a DC 15 Concentration check. If the harpoon section and the hand section of this modified device are attached to solid objects, the wielder of the prosthetic arm may use it as a rip line. This modification does however have its drawbacks, removing the harpoon from a solid object requires a DC 20 strength check, which can prove fatal if the wielder of the prosthetic arm would like to be elsewhere fast.

The Grapple Hand is not a precise instrument and as such is not of much use for grabbing fine or delicate items from across a room, even if it where to get hold of them its powerful grasping action would likely crush the item it was trying to retrieve.

Exotic Weapon – Grapple Hand:

• Damage – 1d8 x3 [bludgeoning]
• Damage additional harpoon – 1d4 x3 [piercing]
• Range – 40ft
• Special – passive +2 to all climb checks when hand is retracted
• Hit Points – +2 (+4 for  rip-line device)
• Cost – 1500 gp

{-500 gp if the arm already has a Punch Piston installed, in which case the Grapple Hand replaces the Punch Pistons function, +1000 for rip-line device]