Crossing the Rift

[the-golem]

Still plugging away at my next adventure segment, and this room is slightly complex.

Essentially, it's got a big rift, crossed by a rope bridge, and at the far end, two orc archers using natural stone pillars for superior cover.

The PCs have to cross the bridge and take out the archers before they rush forward and cut the bridge. The rift drops 200 feet into an underground river.

Because its a rope bridge, its really unstead and sways alot, and anyone crossing it is slowed (max move 2). The rift (and the bridge) are 6 squares long, meaning it'd take 3 rounds to cross it. Well 4 I guess, as at the beginning of the 4th round, the first step would be on to solid ground.

When a PC gets 2/3 across, one of the archers races forward to cut the bridge ropes, and must cut both for them to fall.

The way I see it, I've got two options. Treat the bridge as a "hazard" or run the thing as a skill challenge.

Opinions and ideas?

PS: For what it's worth, I'm converting the Forge of Fury from 3E.

 

[Mesh Hong]

I would consider making the bridge difficult terrain, and allow an acrobatics check to move normally. I would then redesign the length of the bridge to match the number of turns you want to cross it (as difficult terrain).

The thing with adding a hazard like this is that there should be a real danger of falling off, or else it is pretty pointless. Depending on your PCs level a 100ft fall might be a problem, you could get round this with a smaller drop into mild acid (for athletics checks and ongoing acid damage).

Using the above acrobatics option will allow for a rogue or ranger to dash forward and stop the Orcs from cutting the ropes. WHich might play out pretty cool in the encounter. The key will be judging when to start cutting......

 

[the-golem]

Oh, there is most definately a danger of falling off.

It's a 200ft drop to an underground river tunnel, which moves very rapidly, and is lightless and airless. Any creature that actually falls takes 20d6 damage (roughly averages to 60). If anyone is lucky enough to survive the fall, they are sucked into the river and gone for good.

The simple movement balance check is a DC 8, which is pretty easy, but if you get knocked off-balance, the reaction balance check is a DC 18, which is failable at level 3 (the PCs level).

Of course, there is an Eladrin in the party, and he can get around the problem easily with his teleport.

Keeping the gap at 6 squares is just enough for a rogue-ish character to do a wall-run, a la Prince of Persia.

 

[Kingreaper]

Oh, there is most definately a danger of falling off.

It's a 200ft drop to an underground river tunnel, which moves very rapidly, and is lightless and airless. Any creature that actually falls takes 20d6 damage (roughly averages to 60). If anyone is lucky enough to survive the fall, they are sucked into the river and gone for good.

Will the PCs have any opportunity to catch each other/themselves on the way down?

Because insta-death like that could be distasteful to some.

YMMV of course, and you know your group better than I.

EDIT: oh, and your average damage is 70.

 

[the-golem]

Yes. The answer was in the very next paragraph, but might have been unclear.

When you move, make a check with a DC 8 to stay balanced, anyone trained in athletics or acrobatics will practically auto-succeed. Failing triggers the DC 18 check to recover and save yourself.

Getting hit by an arrow also triggers the check at DC 8, and failing that triggers the DC 18 check again.

PS: I'd have figured it closer to 65, but 70 works.

Edit: Okay, so I just saw in PH1, p284 that Falling Damage is now d10 per 10feet, instead of d6.
On a side note, I had a player in my game that insisted the average damage of a d6 was "3" and not "3.5". I tried explaining to him about how the opposite sides add up to 7, etc, and if you roll a 1 and a 6, adding them together and dividing gets you 3.5 ... but he wasn't having any of it. Oh well.
Smart characters that tie themselves together, forming a daisy chain, won't have to worry about any of that.

 

[the-golem]

Alright, I re-read the bridge text again, and missed a vital detail. Here is the full text, regarding the bridge. I've updated the skills and damage to reflect the 4E versions.

Crossing the Bridge is difficult enought to warrant a, Acrobatics [Balance] check at DC 8. Each success allows a character to traverse a distace equal to half his or her Speed as a full action* or one-quarter his or her speed as a partial action**.

Climbers who fail their checks make no progress. If they fail by 5 or more, they may fall from the bridge. Allow characters a second Acrobatics check (DC 18) to catch themselves; otherwise, they plummet almost 200 feet to the underground river blow, striking the rocky walls along the way. The damage of the fall is 20d10 [20d6], and the river sweeps away anyone who somehow survives into a lightless, airless torrent of churning water. The characters can prevent fatal falls by roping themselves together before crossing. Of course, this may be difficult with the orcs firing arrows at them every round.

Some Notes:

*Full Action: In 3E, as we all know, a full-round action took up your whole turn, except for free actions. In 4E, half movement for the fast characters is 3 (7 squares/2 = 3.5, always round down), for the slowest, it's 2 (5/2 = 2.5). I'd like to treat it as a double move, it's basically the same thing, in this case.

**One-Quarter movement for everyone would be 1 square. I think this is too slow. It'd take 6 rounds moving 1 square at a time.

My judgement is to rule their movement as slowed, which reduces all movement to 2. A double-move allows them to move 4. (As far as I know, the Slow condition doesn't inhibit extra actions.

Maybe mechanically give the bridge an "aura" that impedes movement"
Alternatively, I could treat it as difficult terrain, and use those rules.

I don't really want to increase the size of the rift. Anything more than that, and the PCs wouldn't have any way to get across it, assuming the orcs are successful in cutting the bridge down.

@Kingreaper, to better answer your question: I was mistaken. I'd thought failure instantly triggered the fall, but instead, as I found out, they'd hafta fail by 5 or more.

 

[Amaroq]

Are you willing to re-write rather than convert?

How are you imagining the rope bridge?

I typically write out my DC's with a bit more "range" to them than simple "success or failure", and I also hate "failure equals death" scenarios, so I'd come up with something like this:

Bridge: Entering the first square of the bridge ends a characters Move action. When beginning a Standard action or Move action while on the bridge, the character must make an Acrobatics check as below.

Jostled: when a character falls Prone, takes a Run move action, or catches themselves from Falling while on the bridge, the bridge begins to sway violently. This gives those on the bridge a -5 penalty to all Skill Checks and Falling saving throws until the start of this character's next turn. This penalty does not stack, but can be extended by further jostle actions.

Jostle the bridge: Anybody adjacent to the bridge can inflict the "Jostled" status on the bridge as a Standard action. Anybody on the bridge can inflict the "Jostled" status on the bridge as a Move action.

Any character who exceeds 2 squares of movement while on the bridge, in a single turn, automatically Jostles the bridge.

On bridge: Acrobatics Check as part of any Standard action or Move action:
- DC <= 3: Fall
- DC 4-7: Grant Combat Advantage, unable to move or stand from Prone
- DC 8-12: Slowed, maximum walk of 1.
- DC 13-17: Slowed, maximum shift of 1, walk of 2, or run of 3.
- DC 18-22: Slowed, maximum shift of 1, walk of 2, or run of 4.
- DC 23+: May take their full Move. However, exceeding 2 squares of movement jostles the bridge.

Falling: Make a Saving Throw
- DC <= 4: now falling / unsupported in the air. Takes 10d10 damage at start of his next turn (when he lands in the water below).
- DC 5: grabs onto edge of rope bridge, hanging beneath the bridge.
- DC 10: falls prone on the bridge
(Any result of DC 5 or higher Jostles the bridge.)

Hanging: automatically grant Combat Advantage.
Athletics Check as part of any Standard action or Move action:
- DC <= 1: Fall
- DC 2-7: Unable to move or pull oneself up
- DC 8-14: Can "hand over hand" move 1 square.
- DC 15: Can pull self up to prone on the bridge, or hand-over-hand move 2 squares.

Starting one's third or later turn while Hanging requires an Endurance check:
- DC <= 3: Fall
- DC 4-8: Immobilized, cannot pull self up.
- DC >= 9: Can take a full set of actions this turn.
Apply the number of turns the person has been hanging as a penalty to this check.

Pull someone up: Standard action, Athletics Check, on the bridge
- DC 10: grants the target an automatic success on his next Endurance check, and a +2 bonus to his next "pull myself up" check.
- DC 15: grants the target an automatic success on his next Endurance check, and a +5 bonus to his next "pull myself up" check.
More than one character can apply these bonuses to a single target; the target may not take "hand over hand" movement.

 

[Amaroq]

One interesting note about having Falling damage occur at the start of the character's next turn, is, it gives everybody a chance to react to the fall.

You get very very interesting behaviors this way - a neat sub-goal in the middle of an encounter thats a lot more fun than insta-death.

For example, we had one character fall. Another character took actions as follows: Move action to teleport into the air next to him. Standard action to Grab him. Action Point. Standard action to teleport both of them back to solid ground.

It played out so cinematically - in fact, just like Nightcrawler's mid-air rescue of Rogue in X-2.