TYPES OF PROSTHETIC LIMBS
You've got arms and legs. And… yeah, that's about it.
Okay, okay, serious time. When I say types of prosthetic limbs, I'm really talking about levels of armor.
Civilian prosthetics have no armor and no weapons. They are exactly what they look like, replacement limbs after somebody gets amputated. Theoretically, giving someone one of these doesn't even NEED to include implanting a generator in their fleshy bits. They could hook it up to a recharging station or plug-in converter or something when they take it off to go to sleep.
Combat prosthetics are entirely different beasts. They DO require implanted generators, and how "heavy" they are determines what weapons they carry and how much surgery needs to be done before hooking them up. They can have 1 passive upgrade and up to 4 active systems.
Light combat limbs don't have armor plating, exactly, though they can use cloth-type armor like Kevlar and metalweave. Weapon-wise, they can have built-in hardlight weapons or lasers, but mechashift is out of the question. On the upside, they need essentially no additional surgery beyond putting in the connection plate (which is something that has to be done for all manatech prosthetics anyway).
Medium combat limbs have armor plates on their hands and forearms (or feet and shins if we're talking legs), and soft or lightweight armor on the upper part of the limb. Mechashift weapons are now possibilities, but they are limited to the hand and foot. Hardlight and directed energy weapons can still be placed anywhere. Because of the weight of these prosthetics, the recipient will need surgical reinforcement of bones and muscles that connect to where the prosthetic is attached.
Heavy combat limbs are fully armored, from connection plate to the end of the limb. Weapons of any type can be placed wherever they are wanted. On the flipside, no amount of reinforcement is enough to bear the weight of these limbs, and so to have one of these puppies installed a surgeon has to completely replace organic bones and muscles with synthetic equivalents that will attach to the new limb.
PASSIVE UPGRADES
There are two types of passive upgrades that can be placed on combat prosthetics. The first is
Subdermal Voltaic Lattice, which can be placed on any combat prosthetic. It is a mesh of conductive wires that partially disperse energy-based attacks.
Carbon Fiber Plating, on the other hand, adds additional plates to help tank physical blows. They can only go on medium and heavy prosthetics.
Or you could decide you don't want to put either of these on. That's your decision.
ACTIVE SYSTEMS
We'll talk defensive options first, then take a look at offense.
Defense can work two ways. There's the defense of not taking damage, which means hardlight shields. The
round shield is a… round shield.
Normally 2-3 feet in diameter, it looks like a Greek aspis shield (or Captain America's shield for the Marvel fans among you). In addition to defense, it can be used as a melee weapon as well. The
tower shield, in contrast, is more reminiscent of a police riot shield and is only for defensive use, which it honestly does better at than the round shield because of its larger area.
The other type of defense is that of healing. If you install
Nanomachine Distribution Channels into a prosthetic, the limb can actually repair itself after a fight so long as it is provided with the necessary raw materials.
Offense is varied, and for simplicity I will break it up into limb regions since you can only have one weapon per region.
UPPER ARM/LEG
The upper limbs are awkward places for weapons, so they would almost by definition need to be mechashift. If you recall from above, that means they are limited to heavy combat limbs.
FOREARM
These are also limited to heavy limbs.
- Mechashift weapons, like a sword or whip. It's exactly what it says on the tin.
- A high-power laser beam unfolds from the forearm and from there can fire a laser that cuts through thick armor or material with ease. Have a military tank you want to slice apart? This will do it in style. Just don't fire it into a crowd, please, unless you want to fill the streets with body parts.
- The particle cannon is the blast equivalent of the high-power laser beam. It will kill anyone who doesn't possess thick armor or a defensive power of some kind, and maybe even then. It uses mechashift to reconfigure the hand into a set of prongs that create an electromagnetic lensing effect to focus the blast. Power can be an issue, so each particle cannon has a built-in capacitor to store its "rounds". Because the hand unfolds, palm weapons are out of the question.
- Ah, the rocket punch. A detachable, thruster-powered fist sounds like a joke until it hits you at near Mach 1. It can then be retracted thanks to a chain connecting it to the forearm. You cannot mount any other weapons on the hand, though.
DORSUM (back of the hand)
- Thermal beams melt and burn their target, making them great for cutting through doors or walls, but they have no impact.
- In contrast, a kinetic blast will hit with force, but it is a blunt impact that cannot cut.
- Hardlight weapons have nearly no weight and, being attached to the hand, can be wielded exactly the same as if they were held in the palm.
- Thanks to Tim's Temporal Manipulation skill, time itself is your plaything. Dilation blasts are fire-and-forget weapons that will stop an enemy in place for up to twenty seconds at a time. Sadly, multiple blasts will not stack. If you're that worried about someone unfreezing, you could instead use the dilation beam. It will freeze someone in place for as long as you keep it focused on them.
- The gravity grapple uses gravitic manipulation to pull objects towards you and then throw them away. Be careful not to use it on objects heavier than you, though, because if you do you'll find yourself moving instead.
- A mechashift dagger is a good hidden weapon. A twitch of your fist deploys from one to three telescoping blades for rapid stabbing and slashing.
PALM
- Thermal beam
- Kinetic blast
- Hardlight weapon
- Dilation blast
- Dilation beam
- Finally something new. A pain beam will cause unbearable pain in the target, incapacitating them until they have a chance to recover. Just don't use it for too long, or you can cause permanent nerve damage.
- Or if you are in the market for something a little more healing-related, you can go in the opposite direction and install an anesthesia beam to dull and prevent pain.
FINGERS
- Hey, more mechashift. Claws will unfold to reveal extremely sharp edges to cut your enemies. They are far from the most damaging weapons on this list or even that can be built into the fingers, but they will still be a nasty surprise and have surprising utility.
- If you can't build mechashift into your fingers or just don't want to, plasma claws are also an option. Burning rather than cutting, they don't risk your opponents bleeding out. You might want to watch out for fires, though.
- For the ambush fighters among you, try the mechashift syringe. Located in the tips of the fingers, they can deliver up to three different injectable solutions (max three doses total). They don't need to be offensive, either; a teammate will probably forgive you for stabbing them if it's to inject a Boost serum. You can't use any kind of dorsum weapon, though.
- Do you want to go full assassin? Do you dream of playing a support role? Use the forearm-based injection expansion. It gives you five extra doses for each of the three serums in your syringes, so a maximum of 18 doses if you're only using one type of serum. Unlike other forearm systems, this does not require mechashift and can be put on a medium combat arm.
- Thermal beam
- Kinetic blast
- The wireless taser located at the base of the fingers shoots arcs of lighting up to 10 feet. Ever wanted Sith lightning? You got it. It can also be used as a contact weapon, and if you have a mechashift weapon in the forearm, the taser can electrify the weapon to give it that extra bit of flair.
SHIN
- This is an awkward place to put weapons, but if you are fond of kicks, the mechashift saw may be up your alley. It deploys a chainsaw blade along the front of your shin.
- Hardlight spikes are another way to give your legs more damage-dealing capability. They are simple points that perforate perfidious perpetrators.
- A kinetic pulse is a difficult weapon to get used to, but it gives you a long-range option to "kick" blasts of force at people.
CALF
- The knee thruster, despite its name, is not part of the knee. It is a gravitic thruster mounted at the calf that rockets the knee upwards at high speed. It is limited to medium and heavy legs because without armor plating, you would do just as much damage to the prosthetic as the target.
- A gravity plate does not offer the flight the way a full gravitic flight harness would, but it is still useful. By always marking the direction your legs are pointing as "down", it allows you to run up and around on walls.
FOOT
- Mechashift claws
- Plasma claws
- Mechashift blades can unfold from the top of the foot to cut and slice with each kick.
- If using feet to attack people just seems silly, you could also try the monkey's paw. By adding a hand to the end of your leg instead of a foot, you gain the ability to grab things as well as use dorsum, palm, and finger weapons at the cost of having an admittedly difficult-to-use prosthetic and, you know, looking like a freak. (Note: this does NOT require a power slot.)
Oh, and let's not forget simply hitting people harder.
Synthetic musculature gives a Brute's strength to any armored component of the limb, which means the hand or foot of a medium limb and the entirety of a heavy limb.
