D&D 5E Pedantic Equipment Complaints

Tormyr · Aug 13, 2014

orangefruitbat said:
*do elephants really only cost 200 gp? (1/2 the cost of a warhorse). I know I shouldn't, but my next character is going to totally load up on elephants... Maybe this is how you get Beastmasters to not suck . (This is probably a simple errata issue and the cost should be 2000 gp).

Its a razors and razor blades issue. The elephant is cheap. They nail you in all the Purina* elephant chow you have to buy.

*Reference to Secondhand Lions

Henrix · Aug 13, 2014

Ball bearings?
Ball bearings?

1000 (sic!) ball bearings for 1gp?

How do you even make ball bearings en masse without industrial manufacturing technology?
And what do you use them for?

steeldragons · Aug 13, 2014

Henrix said:
Ball bearings?

And what do you use them for?

Ever seen a Batman show/cartoon/movie? I'm sure there are other references. But this was the immediate one that popped to ming. Every Rogue PC in creation is gonna eat these up!

I'd probably DM something like: "Ball Bearings: Dumping a minimum of 50 into a 10x10 area forces a Dex. roll, with Disadvantge, from creatures with up Large size and/or up to 6 legs to avoid falling prone. A second successful Dex check is needed to regain one's footing. All/any movement is halved within the area containing the ball bearings for 3 rounds, after which they have all been scattered enough/rolled out of the way to allow normal movement. Creatures without legs/feet, such as oozes or snakes, are uneffected."

But ymmv.

Tormyr · Aug 13, 2014

orangefruitbat said:
*why does the hooded lantern have 2x the illumination radius of the non-hooded lamp?

Because the hooded lamp casts light only in a focused 60' cone. It is like having the same bulb in a flashlight/torch and an electric lantern. The flashlight casts a longer beam in one direction.

Wednesday Boy · Aug 13, 2014

steeldragons said:
But ymmv.

The Basic rules say, "As an action, you can spill these tiny metal balls from their pouch to cover a level area 10 feet square. A creature moving across the covered area must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. A creature movign through the area at half speed doesn't need to make the saving throw."

Henrix · Aug 13, 2014

steeldragons said:
But ymmv.

Perhaps I need to be more precise:

What the blazing torches do you use ball bearings for in a quasi-mediaeval setting?

They're pretty hard to make. (And important part of the industrial revolution, for that reason.) (In particular if they are to do much use, which requires them to of very hard steel, which.. etc.)

And this society uses and manufactures them in such quantities as to sell thousands of them at a time.

What do you use them for? Do they put ball bearings in the wooden wagon wheels?

(I could see the need for them in many of the fanciful mechanical traps around, mind you.

)

My immersion broke down totally when I read about them.

Beleriphon · Aug 13, 2014

Henrix said:
What do you use them for? Do they put ball bearings in the wooden wagon wheels?

Clearly they are normally used for the bearing hub in any wheels. This is why you have prices for wagons in the PHB but not wagon wheels. Otherwise you'd end up with friction damage to the axles of the wagons, but the highly intricate gnomish bearings mediate that by providing "fictionless" movement.

jrowland · Aug 13, 2014

Henrix said:
Perhaps I need to be more precise:

What the blazing torches do you use ball bearings for in a quasi-mediaeval setting?

They're pretty hard to make. (And important part of the industrial revolution, for that reason.) (In particular if they are to do much use, which requires them to of very hard steel, which.. etc.)

And this society uses and manufactures them in such quantities as to sell thousands of them at a time.

What do you use them for? Do they put ball bearings in the wooden wagon wheels?

(I could see the need for them in many of the fanciful mechanical traps around, mind you. )

My immersion broke down totally when I read about them.

Earth elementals dig out just the right amount of Iron and is mixed with Carbon to make a 96% Fe, 4% carbon mix. This is then dumped into the fire plane via portal. The resultant molten mix then rolls into micro-portals that close and open at high frequency allowing only a precise amount of melt into the portal which leads to the plane of vacuum. In this zero G environment, the melt coalesces into perfect spheres which (due to momentum) drift lazily to another portal leading to the plane of water where they are quenched and collected by friendly merfolk who trade them with humans for bacon.

Mmmmm...Bacon. What are we talking about?

random.brown · Aug 13, 2014

Tormyr said:
But anyone wearing it can make a free shocking grasp attack once per short rest.

I see what you did there...

Henrix · Aug 13, 2014

jrowland said:
Earth elementals dig out [....] and collected by friendly merfolk who trade them with humans for bacon.

All that to give some pesky adventurer's a chance to inflict a DC 10 reflex save on some poor goblins for the cost of half a shovel? Wow!

Your campaign seems a tad more high magic than mine tend to be.

What's wrong with old-fashioned mud from the quasielemental* plane of ooze? That ought to do the trick just as well.

* Or is that a paraelemental plane? I confuse those two.

D&D 5E Pedantic Equipment Complaints

Tormyr

Hero

Henrix

Explorer

steeldragons

Steeliest of the dragons

Tormyr

Hero

Wednesday Boy

The Nerd WhoFell to Earth

Henrix

Explorer

Beleriphon

Totally Awesome Pirate Brain

jrowland

First Post

random.brown

First Post

Henrix

Explorer

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