New weapon for Unarmed characters (Discussion for TFN 1.2)

How many of you NEVER invest much XP into Unarmed or use it as your main method of attack because it only does Bashing damage? Come on, raise your hands, don't be shy....... ?????

I've always hated in TFN, CE, or vanilla Bloodlines the fact that Unarmed is a completely useless feat to invest in. Sure you can feed on the unwilling but in the long term, it's just not an effective offensive ability. Whenever I start a new character I have to decide, do I want my PC to be good at fighting Melee or Ranged/Guns? And that's just sad because Unarmed COULD be so much fun!

Well a new item is coming to you in TFN 1.2 that will change this major flaw! After completing the Plaguebearers quest for Strauss, you can talk to him about purchasing a special arcane artifact called "The Fang of Vukodlak". The price will range from $500 - $1200 depending on your Haggle score. What this new occult item does is... when worn, the rage of the Methuselah Vukodlak will pump in your veins making your Unarmed attacks deal Lethal damage instead of Bashing. Here are some screenshots below!!

Unfortunately I can't show you guys screenshots in Windows 7 because whenever I take a screenshot, it just says "Loading...". If someone knows a fix for this, let me know and I'll get some shots of this new item in game.

Good idea, though I'd suggest you make this thing deal aggravated damage (superclawbite), and offer brass knuckles for less money to do lethal brawl damage. The source could be Trip, one of the beachhouse guys, or one of the Jimmy Reed guys. Or put a set into Carson's trunk for good lockpickers...

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Childe of Malkav wrote:

Good idea, though I'd suggest you make this thing deal aggravated damage (superclawbite), and offer brass knuckles for less money to do lethal brawl damage. The source could be Trip, one of the beachhouse guys, or one of the Jimmy Reed guys. Or put a set into Carson's trunk for good lockpickers...

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Unfortunately this won't be possible for many different reasons...

1.) I can't make the model look properly on the PC for brass knuckles.
2.) Aggravated fists would be overpowered for several reasons.
2a.) Fists are fast so if they were aggravated, they would be much more powerful than fiery fists or Serpentis claws.
2b.) Aggravated fists wouldn't cost anything, blood, ammo, nothing, making them a superior weapon to use.
3.) I've run out of selectable weapon items to use. I had to use zombie fists just to make these and now I'm out.

I've played with these lethal fists alot and they work REALLY well, almost too well. I'm going to play test them even more but aggravated would just be overpowered, lethal is PLENTY.

Normally I go like aChef: slice and dice

Unarmed is only useful for Gangrel, coupled with claws...

I must admit I like your idea, Zer0.

Just clearing up a misnomer: unarmed is definitely NOT "worthless" in the vanilla game (with or without unofficial patches). That is because feeding was damned overpowered, and the unarmed feat determined how successful you were feeding in combat.

Feeding is less powerful in CE/TFN, but can still be powerful. It's great when fighting hunters in the Apartments downtown or in the Sin Bin (Feed on the melee hunter from an angle that puts him between you and the ranged hunter... human shield power activate!). In fact, it's the easiest way to take out Chastity if your unarmed feat is high enough.

And you can still make a pretty wicked feed build in TFN if you are playing a clan with fortitude (doubly so if you are playing Salubri). It takes a ton of exp though, since fortitude/bloodheal/obeah are all more expensive in TFN.

That said, a lethal damage item for unarmed would be nice. Followers of set don't have the same "oomph" for unarmed that gangrel did (Cobra commander form isn't as good as gangrel warform from a stats perspective).

Feral wrote:

Unarmed is only useful for Gangrel, coupled with claws...

I must admit I like your idea, Zer0.

Unarmed is very useful for Baali and Setites now too, since their transformation forms now use Unarmed like they are supposed too.

Sezneg wrote:

That said, a lethal damage item for unarmed would be nice. Followers of set don't have the same "oomph" for unarmed that gangrel did (Cobra commander form isn't as good as gangrel warform from a stats perspective).

And it wasn't supposed to be... being that Apep's Semblance is a tier 3 power in TFN, and Warform is a tier 5 power in CE.

But you're right, I forgot about the autoheal while feeding in vanilla so I stand corrected on the usefulness of Unarmed in vanilla. In TFN however, I still think Melee and Ranged is much more worth your precious XP than Unarmed ever was... until now.