Draft:Whip

Omega 0.90.4

Whip)Base damage rating4Base hit bonus+8Normal attack typeStrikingHands1Julie's price (Au)200Weight20

A whip is a light, one-handed weapon that can entangle an opponent. Its low physical damage makes that movement restriction its main attraction. The separate acid whip shares its unidentified appearance.

Generation

Julie's sells identified, uncursed +0 whips for 200 Au. Whips also occur in random treasure, pawn-shop stock and acquirement, with item level 2 for ordinary random generation. A found item labelled only whip does not establish whether it is the ordinary or acid variety, nor whether it is cursed.

Entangling

On a landed attack, the whip has a 50% chance to immobilize a target that lacks physical immunity. It then delivers an ordinary physical hit. Entangling does not require a positive damage roll, but physically immune creatures resist both the entangling effect and normal damage.

Immobilization prevents ordinary movement; it is not paralysis. An adjacent victim can still attack, and ranged attacks or special abilities remain possible. The whip does not assign a timed recovery period to the effect. Special movement or other effects must be considered separately from the ordinary movement check.

Throwing a spare whip invokes the same entangling attack after a successful hit, then normally leaves it on the ground for recovery. The physical damage uses current character damage plus the throwing Strength bonus, not the spare whip's rating of 4. A cursed whip in use cannot be thrown.

As a striking weapon, it avoids the weapon-damage check on tunneling mishaps. Its digging contribution is only 4, however, so even a club contributes more to breaking resistant walls.

Strategy

A whip can create room to withdraw from a physically vulnerable melee opponent, but first the hit must connect and then the entangling roll must succeed. Do not remain adjacent expecting a helpless target: step away once movement is restricted, and remember that a spellcaster or ranged attacker may still threaten you.

For straightforward melee damage, the cheaper mace has the same +8 hit and three times the base damage, at greater weight. A spare whip instead makes a compact ranged entangling option while another weapon supplies the character's damage. Recovery may require revisiting the opponent's position, so this is more suitable for a spare than for a weapon you cannot afford to leave behind.

The acid whip combines stronger ratings with acid damage and the same movement effect. It can harm some physically immune creatures, but physical immunity still prevents its entangling effect; neither variety provides universal crowd control.