More Variety/Balance Changes to Chaplain Weapons

[Veterankyl]

So I took a peak at the chaplain's list of Null rood variant options, and I was pretty surprised to find that there are almost ten variants of the weapon that are effectively the same. This is present in pretty much all the sword options, which have 30% melee block chance, sharp. Bulky, and Belt slot properties. And then you have weapons like the Relic War Hammer, which is the same as the Null rod, but bulky instead of tiny, making it a downgrade from the default. I think the chaplain weapon options need updating to make them more unique and viable. This is just a list of potential ideas. No exact numbers since there'd need to be discussion on how to balance them. A list of what the weapons do as is can be found here. With that said, here are my ideas for weapon updates.

• Holy Claymore/Dark Blade: A weapon from the age of knights and mages. This one is tempered with enchantments that shield the user from magic, at the cost of not being able to block weapons. While wielded, any wizard spells that make contact with the chaplain will fizzle out. The wielder will also be protected from touch spells. However, weapons such as the singularity hammer will still exert their effects on the sword wielder, nor are you protected from any minions he might summon.
• Sacred Chainsaw Sword: Found outside a portal to hell, along with the remains of over a hundred hellspawn. This weapon excels at rending satanic creatures such as slaughter demons and devils, dealing bonus damage against them at the cost of blocking.
• Force Weapon: A blade that emits a strange field around it. At the cost of the weapon being able to block, it instead gives the wielder an armor bonus (Something small, like 5 melee and ballistic). In addition, any person the chaplain blesses will also receive a small armor boost. (That's right! A reason to actually bless people aside from requesting admemes.)
• Extradimensional Blade: Another weapon with a possible bless mechanic. Blocking is removed, and is instead able to form special connection to those that you bless. Should a person you have blessed die while the weapon is in your possession, you'll receive an alert that one of your followers has perished. You won't be given the location of where they died, and if more is needed to balance it, the weapon may not even give the name of who died.
• Relic War Hammer: A weapon made for beating back the creatures from the grave. Deals additional damage to ghosts, zombies, and other undead. For balance, may exclude vampires and revenants, instead dealing the standard Null rod damage and effects to them.
• Unholy Pitchfork: This weapon has a connection to the creatures of hell. While wielded, you will receive a notification or the weapon will glow whenever a demon or devil is nearby, even if it is invisible.
• Holy Salt: More of a meme item, but could potentially be used to pour salt piles onto the ground that stun any revenant that passes over it, and annoying the janitor to no end.

[Eler00]

The main issue I see with this is it encourages the chaplain to leave his null rod untransformed and pick his weapon form based on what the antag turns out to be. I prefer it if it's more of a fluff/personal preference choiuce.

[Veterankyl]

The thing is, unless someone is memeing, this is often what I see from chaplains anyways. God Hand is strong against Blob,  the Prayer beads are strong against Cults and Vampires, the whip is strong against shadowlings, and most other weapons only come out when there is a valid antag around like nukies. Since chaplain isn’t normally allowed to go hunt antags, aside from memeing or cosmetic, they don’t really have a reason to change their null rod, nor are they equipped to even fight quite a few supernatural threats like demons and wizards. So as is, most of the time, a chaplains null rod just sits in their pocket the whole round till they need to change it.

Edited September 27, 2019 by Veterankyl

[McRamon]

force them to pick a null rod variant roundstart, like when they choose religion name.

 

but i think this rp role is getting too much mechanics attention. i would rather see different variants of captain's rapier

[Gaty]

The weapons are not actually for combat purposes but for RP purposes.

Having multiple reskins of the same weapons is made so you can choose the skin that sticks better with your religion.

[Veterankyl]

If it's for RP reasons, then I find it odd how there are weapons that have completely different purposes compared to the others. The Prayer Beads for example is one of the two non combat forms of the Null Rod, and probably the most useful for fighting cult and vampire. The whip does bonus damage to Shadowlings. If the Null Rod variants are meant to be for RP purposes, then it's odd that there are variants that are objectively more useful for certain situations than others.

[McRamon]

 

9 minutes ago, Veterankyl said:

If it's for RP reasons, then I find it odd how there are weapons that have completely different purposes compared to the others. The Prayer Beads for example is one of the two non combat forms of the Null Rod, and probably the most useful for fighting cult and vampire. The whip does bonus damage to Shadowlings. If the Null Rod variants are meant to be for RP purposes, then it's odd that there are variants that are objectively more useful for certain situations than others.

Only sith deal in absolutes. Like, give me either only reskinned nullrods or make each variant unique!

Yes, rp purpose. But someone got a fun idea of a nonweapon nullrod. They gave it some powers. Of course you cant ideally balance it out. But you are encouraged to pick a certain chaplain null rod variant because of your religion, not because you look for the most powerful. 

[Gaty]

43 minutes ago, Veterankyl said:

If it's for RP reasons, then I find it odd how there are weapons that have completely different purposes compared to the others. The Prayer Beads for example is one of the two non combat forms of the Null Rod, and probably the most useful for fighting cult and vampire. The whip does bonus damage to Shadowlings. If the Null Rod variants are meant to be for RP purposes, then it's odd that there are variants that are objectively more useful for certain situations than others.

Remember that you, as a chaplain, are not supposed to fight shadowlings/cults/vampires unless you become part of sec.

The abilities given to you are also for the sake of RP, a chaplain should be scary for a vampire just like in the movies and they should also be one of the enemies of the cult as they workship another god.

[Veterankyl]

So what about other supernatural creatures like demons and devils? RP wise, they too should be in some way vulnerable to the chaplain, yet mechanically there's nothing the chaplain has that gives them an advantage when fighting them.