Minotaurs can't get lost????

[calighis]

Now he points out to me that Minotaurs, according to the description in MM1, can never get lost. This is of course the first thing he mentions when I finally trap the characters in the labyrinth. I read up and behold it is indeed true. Minotaurs can never get "lost".
Now just what the hell that means is anyones guess.
Does this mean that they can easily navigate their way through a maze knowing exactly how to get from one place to another even if they have never been there? Or does it mean that they know how to get back to any place they have previously been?

 

[Derro]

Does this mean that they can easily navigate their way through a maze knowing exactly how to get from one place to another even if they have never been there? Or does it mean that they know how to get back to any place they have previously been?

The latter for sure. It's an extraordinary ability not supernatural. I think the former implies a supernatural insight. Now if the minotaur had a relatively accurate map maybe then he could unerringly navigate to an unknown location.

 

[Elethiomel]

I've always played with the Minotaur ability only affecting mazes; they have an affinity for them and live in them. I'd say that a Minotaur can extrapolate the design of a maze after seeing a fair part of it so that they can find their way more or less directly to the exit after bumbling around for a while.

But that's my interpretation.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Also note that any character with 5 ranks in Survival can always intuit the direction of true north, which might help greatly with being lost.

EDIT: Also, the Maze spell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/maze.htm) seems to lend credence to the idea that a Minotaur doesn't need previous knowledge of the maze or the area around it to find his way out.

 

[Wolv0rine]

Well, as I'm sure many people 'round here know, the ability comes from the original Minotaur of greek myth. The Minotaur lived in the Labyrinth, which was a maze so clever it could not be navigated except by the Minotaur who was able to find it's way within just fine somehow. So, I'd say take it in the intended spirit of the ability, and don't worry about "how the ability is worded in the RAW". But that's just my advice.

 

[calighis]

well here is the issue. He is not trying to get out of the Labirynth he is trying to get to the center. Soi does he just know how get there?
Doesnt that sort of take out the challenge of the entire thing>????

 

[Wolv0rine]

well here is the issue. He is not trying to get out of the Labirynth he is trying to get to the center. Soi does he just know how get there?
Doesnt that sort of take out the challenge of the entire thing>????

I'd say it's just a matter of the minotaur has a natural gut-instinct for knowing which turns will take him where he wants to go within a maze of any kind. Kind of like someone who never seems to get lost even in a city he's never been in, or that guy who somehow always seems to go from the entrance directly to the boss-room (or directly to the stairs to the next level) in Diablo II, even though the dungeons are randomized and he has no clue which direction leads to it. (I do this ALL the time, and considering I'm usually trying NOT to find those places first, it annoys the crap out of me)

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

The OP might want to make his first posting clearer. It wasn't until reading through the thread that I realized it was a PC asking and that he was trying to find his way through a maze.

Seriously though, mazes can be incredibly boring to play. You come to a T-junction. You go left. You come to a T-junction. You go right. Ad nauseum.

If this happened to me (not saying it wouldn't but putting a PC minotaur into a maze didn't twig something?) I'd just move around the important encounters so the party ran into them on their way to the centre. Or I'd spontaneously change the maze so that walls moved randomly. Once the party sees a wall moving, you can then say that the minotaur's innate ability is confounded by the everchanging maze.

 

[billd91]

Picking a labyrinth as a challenge for a minotaur PC isn't the best choice. But since you've made it, let the PCs shine with a minor ability from time to time.

 

[lukelightning]

Minotaurs can never get "lost".

It means that just like the rest of us, minotaurs can never understand what the heck is going on in the show "Lost."