Strange fantasy contraptions

[ZeroGear]

We all know that fantasy worlds have a lot of interesting gadgets, odd technologies, and unusual weapons.
What is your favorite/most interesting piece of technology in your worlds? Or, if you haven't created a campaign, what unusual contraption would you like to make.

Personally, after watching the Mythbusters re-visit of the confederate rocket, I have the strange urge to let the orcs steal some dwarven technology, re-fit it, and build a guided missile...with meat as a fuel source.
I can't wait for this encounter:

Orc: "Fire the Meat Missile!"
Party: "Wait...WHAT?"

I imagine the look on their faces will be priceless.

[Cowardly Griffo]

First one that comes to mind is from a Dungeon World one-shot quite a while back. The Artificer playbook always lends itself to this sort of nonsense, but I think the top spot has to go to the Ectoplasmic Beam Goggles.

Pretty straightforward negative energy weapon, made hilarious by the description: "It lets you shoot ghosts from your eyes."

[Jeff the Green]

Trebuchets made of riverine. Because they can't be broken by physical means, you can have arbitrarily heavy counterweights and payloads. They're manned by ghosts with the Ghostly Grasp feat: anything they grab becomes incorporeal (and weightless) until they let it go. And of course you can't just send in cavalry with axes to destroy them; you need disintegrate at a minimum to deal with them.

[golentan]

The Behemoth Ballista.

A self reloading ballista enchanted with a bunch of accuracy buffs, splitting bolts, and, oh yeah, a custom magic property based off of the Summon Monster line of spells. There was a dial to set your preferred mode of firing, which could be anything from a ludicrously large number of snakes to an elder fire elemental or Tyrannosaurus, transformed midflight from a ballista bolt into an angry collection of teeth and muscle.

[ZeroGear]

The Behemoth Ballista.

A self reloading ballista enchanted with a bunch of accuracy buffs, splitting bolts, and, oh yeah, a custom magic property based off of the Summon Monster line of spells. There was a dial to set your preferred mode of firing, which could be anything from a ludicrously large number of snakes to an elder fire elemental or Tyrannosaurus, transformed midflight from a ballista bolt into an angry collection of teeth and muscle.

1) That...is...AWESOME!

2) Reminds me of my idea for the summoner's crossbow. Specially made magical weapon that, when the user sacrifices a spell slot, turns the bolt into an animal mid-flight. (Lovingly inspired by the 'Squid-launcher' of 'Despicable Me'. OH YEAH!)

[Cowardly Griffo]

Oh! That reminds me, Pathfinder has launching crossbows, which let you launch splash weapons as ammunition. Mostly notable and relevant because Alchemists can brew up some wacky splash weapons–like bottled oozes.

Who needs tanglefoot bags when you can launch gelatinous cubes at people? :D

[daremetoidareyo]

I ran a city campaign where wearing armor was outlawed in city limits. One of my 2 PCs made a tank. After a stern warning by the local deputy at the end of level 1, this character helped a gnome tinker find and save his brother in return for which he received a set of straps that criss cross his chest with a big red button in the center. Hitting the button,makes the armor pop out, batmobile style. Now he can upgrade it by paying the gnomes. And he can walk around a populated city with some protection on.

[Erik Vale]

Trebuchets made of riverine. Because they can't be broken by physical means, you can have arbitrarily heavy counterweights and payloads. They're manned by ghosts with the Ghostly Grasp feat: anything they grab becomes incorporeal (and weightless) until they let it go. And of course you can't just send in cavalry with axes to destroy them; you need disintegrate at a minimum to deal with them.

*Looks at ghostly grasp feat* [Libris Mortis]
Uhh... No... Unless there's another version of the feat I'm missing.

But if this did work, I'd... I'm not sure...


I made a plane. A barge+2 strong guys with rings of flight+My ability to teleport. Archers with explosive arrows then served as missiles/bombs, with a telepath acting as a radio. [Heroes, not DnD]

[Khedrac]

If you want the really silly stuff try to find a copy of AC11 - The Book of Wondrous Inventions.

Although it was published for B/E/C/M D&D it had some stuff for AD&D in it just to confuse.

Anyway this is the place for a flying rocket, a fire-elemental powered train (and a cooker) and other things like that. Nearly all of the guaranteed to go wrong somehow.

[IllogicalBlox]

we all know that fantasy worlds have a lot of interesting gadgets, odd technologies, and unusual weapons.
What is your favorite/most interesting piece of technology in your worlds? Or, if you haven't created a campaign, what unusual contraption would you like to make.

Personally, after watching the mythbusters re-visit of the confederate rocket, i have the strange urge to let the orcs steal some dwarven technology, re-fit it, and build a guided missile...with meat as a fuel source.
I can't wait for this encounter:

Orc: "fire the meat missile!"
party: "wait...what?"

i imagine the look on their faces will be priceless.

i love it.

[Milodiah]

So, there's a tribe of artificer-gnomes in the far eastern mountains of my setting. They've got airships, but some of the mountains are so high they actually project above an airship's service ceiling?

The solution? Just add spider legs!

[Jeff the Green]

*Looks at ghostly grasp feat* [Libris Mortis]
Uhh... No... Unless there's another version of the feat I'm missing.

But if this did work, I'd... I'm not sure...

It's not part of the feat but the incorporeal subtype. Anything an incorporeal creature carries becomes incorporeal itself. Normally, this only applies to Ghost Touch equipment, but Ghostly Grasp lets it apply to anything. I kind of doubt this was the intended purpose of the feat (it probably was meant to have the equipment remain corporeal), but I'm not sure and outside of this one instance I don't think it significantly breaks anything to use it as written.

[Erik Vale]

I'm not sure about that logic...

However with said logic, a ghost that picks up a player could then pull them underground and let go, trapping them underground.

[Milodiah]

What's the upper limit on something this can "grab", anyway?

I mean, I can technically "grab" the city wall.

[Jeff the Green]

I'm not sure about that logic...

However with said logic, a ghost that picks up a player could then pull them underground and let go, trapping them underground.

I think I paraphrased in a misleading fashion. It specifies equipment worn or carried, which a creature emphatically is not. Moreover, Ghostly Grasp doesn't let one grapple corporeal creatures.

Walls would also be iffy since they probably aren't equipment and it's hard to describe a human-size creature as carrying one even if they had the requisite Strength.

By the most strict definitions, one may need to use unusually heavy weapons (e.g. colossal lead Orc shotpoots) or similar, but that's a minor concern.

[Necroticplague]

A computer made out of the undead. By having a bunch of mindless undead each given very simple instructions to put their arms and fingers is certainty configurations, and ones later with similar instructions based on seeing those configurations, you can get a crude computer going. The hard part is the lack of a UI, though by taking advantage of arm-up/down and each finger-up/down, you get ridiculous capacity. Shove them all in a bag bigger on the inside, and presto. Of course, since it didn't really have a mouse, keyboard, or monitor, it was pretty much just a really fancy calculator/hard drive (it was used to remember NPC names). Had to debug it when some of the zombies started to wear and tear, found it significantly more reliable (and less smelly) after switching to skeletons.

[Cazero]

A computer made out of the undead. -snip-

I love it.
Did you consider making an automaton out of it, rather than a multi-purpose computer? The lack of UI becomes a one time problem, and with an undead workforce your automated factory can pretty much run forever without your input.