I'm going to be running a D&D game with a tactical focus for my party, who are into Swat fiction and wargames.
I want to also have a lot of fun with consumables and especially grenades and want to know what would best simulate stuff like flashbangs and teargas. I know alchemist fire is a good start.
Just give some relevant fantasy names to the stuff. A vial of faerie dust, bottled blue dragon's breath, generic sun god's light.
That's fair, but I was just hoping for suggestions on stuff that has rules because I worry that I would homebrew something too overpowered and it would end up outshining the actual spellcasters, which is my concern.
Just trying to figure out gear that isn't like, unfairly powerful because gadgets are fun if they're not TOO good.
Partially this is also because the enemy I'm putting them up against will be using them too.
Thunderstones are a good option.
obligatory
Could you even get a bag of holding small enough to fit on an arrowhead? Wouldn't that shit be unwieldy as fuck? Isn't there a massive chance the head doesn't land properly and either the rod fails to break cleanly/at all or the portable hole catches inside and fails to slide back into the bag of holding? Don't bags of holding weigh 15 pounds? Wouldn't it be more convenient in terms of getting loot to fill the bag of holding with 500 pounds of white phosphorous or something else that burns on contact with air or maybe just a shitton of knives and put a weight behind the bag to invert it on impact?
If daddy DM says it works, it works.
>Wouldn't it be more convenient in terms of getting loot to fill the bag of holding with 500 pounds of white phosphorous or something else that burns on contact with air or maybe just a shitton of knives and put a weight behind the bag to invert it on impact?
that would deal damage, this straight up erases area of effect from existence, reagardless of hitpoints, saves, immunities, or other protections
>this straight up erases area of effect from existence, reagardless of hitpoints, saves, immunities, or other protections
Right, and that area is at your feet if you critical fail your shot and drop the giant 15 pound arrow.
there's no rule about critfailed attack hitting yourself, and DMs that houserule it to work that way are best avoided completely
It's not hitting yourself, it is dropping and going off. It erases everything within ten feet of where it lands, so unless this shitty, unwieldy device actually flies more than 10 feet, then your ass is getting sucked in. Bag of holding/portable hole cheese has never been funny.
no risk no reward
isn't bag of holdings pretty expensive to use as a bomb?
In fairness, a bomb is pretty expensive to use as a bomb IRL.
not necessarily, boomers knew how to DIY for cheap
https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/terrorism_and_pyrotechnics/explosives/MISC/Anarchist%20Cookbook%20-%20William%20Powell.pdf
>The anarchist cookbook
Half the recipes in there will go off before you've finished making them. The book is a legitimate psyop, put together by the alphabet agencies to trick radicals into blowing themselves up. Extremely dangerous DIY explosives, would not recommend.
Pic related is the real deal, though. Actually the best DIY sabotage and general hell-raising manuals were made by the US government and sent to their allies during various wars, The OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual is a great example.
>D&D
>tactical
You can only pick one.
It's not hard if you fix the initiative system, which is incredibly easy.
And get rid of advantage/disadvantage.
And rework skills into tangible categories instead of making the DMs do the company's job, or get rid of skills altogether.
And balance magic or don't use magic.
And change the action economy.
And make every class that isn't a caster not suck balls.
At that point, may as well make your own game, with how much needs rewriting.
Your concession that D&D isn't tactical is accepted.
A source of non-magic fire to throw into the room followed by Pyrotechnics. Thunderstones if you're playing 3.5.
I don't know which edition you're playing, but in 3.5, there are everal alchemical items (they're kind of bad, but can be expanded on if you choose). Stuff like Alchemists Fire (liquid that bursts into flame when it contacts air), Thunderstones (emit a loud damaging sound when struck), throwable acids, etc. Additionally, there's the 3.0 Arms and Equipment Guide (very easy to find PDFs) that also has a list of alchemical items, but several other books have a small handful in their new items sections.
I did find this site https://orbitalflower.github.io/rpg/dnd3-extended-alchemy-items-list.html
if you're interested in looking. It has every alchemical item as far as i can tell at a glance and gives basic info and the source books, but doesn't have the specific rules for each item.
In typical play, some of these items have niche use, but they're not very good on average, so most players will keep a bottle or two on hand, but don't usually focus on them much.
Much appreciated, thank you!
Baldur's Gate 3 actually has a bunch of cool ideas for this kind of thing: "void" (black hole) grenades that pull enemies toward a spot, spike grenades that inflict the "bleeding" condition, acid grenades that lower enemy AC, and of course straight-up bottles of liquid fire.
remember the man hack of half life 2, make it go boom