Needlestorm

Needlestorms were invented in the Far East, where they are weapons of choice for elite and epic assassins. A variation on the repeating blowgun, a needlestorm is a larger blowgun capable of firing dozens of darts simultaneously without risk for the user.

Ultimate Equipment Guide II

Author Greg Lynch, J. C. Alvarez
Publisher Mongoose Publishing
Publish date 2005

Ranged Weapons (Simple)
Weapon	Cost	Dmg (S)	Dmg (M)	Critical	Range Increment	Weight	Type	Special
Needlestorm	300 gp	1	1	x2	10 ft	2 lb.	Piercing	-—

It looks like a metallic and wooden tube, tapering to a narrow mouthpiece and handle on one end and seven (not just one) dart holes on the other. The tube rotates at a great speed as the wielder blows on the mouthpiece and grabs the handle, allowing an large number of darts to be fired on a single round. Needlestorms use common blowgun darts; they can hold up to 100 blowgun darts at any one time.

In competent hands, a needlestorm fires so many darts on a single round it does not need an attack roll. Rather, the target of a needlestorm attack must succeed on a Reflex save (DC 25) or be hit by 2d4 darts. These are common blowgun darts, dealing negligible damage (one point each) but usually coated with deadly poison. A creature that is denied its Dexterity bonus to Armour Class for any reason is not allowed a Reflex save against a needlestorm attack. A creature with evasion, or an armour bonus equal to +3 or greater, is only hit by 1d4–1 darts on a failed save. A creature hit by the poisoned darts of a needlestorm must succeed at a single Fortitude save to resist it, with a bonus to the DC equal to the number of darts he was hit with.

If the wielder of a needlestorm does not have proficiency with the weapon, he may still fire as many darts as allowed by his number of attacks per round, making a separate ranged attack roll for each dart.

If a nonproficient character rolls a natural 1 while attacking with a needlestorm, he immediately swallows one of the darts and must succeed at a Fortitude save against the poison, as appropriate.

Needlestorm: Two-handed Simple Weapon; 300 gp; Dmg 1 (S or M) (per needle); Critical x2; Range 10 ft.; 2 lb.; Piercing