Basic (?) Help with Hazards (PoS spoiler?)

[Obryn]

So, I'm reading through the Treacherous Ice Sheet from Pyramid of Shadows. By and large, I can get the traps to do what I think they should do, but this one leaves me scratching my head.

Here's the meat of the obstacle...

Trigger: The ice attacks when a creature enters or begins its turn in a square of treacherous ice. It also attacks when a creature stands up from prone in a square of treacherous ice.

Attack
Opportunity Action
Target: Creature on the ice
Attack: +8 vs. Reflex
Hit: 1d6+2 damage and fall prone. If the creature is already prone, no damage, but its turn ends immediately.

So, does the hazard only attack once on each character's turn? Does it attack every time they move to a new square, or stand up in their current square?

The trigger line leads me to believe the latter, but the Opportunity Action line leads me to believe the former. After all, enemies only get 1 opportunity action per opponent's turn. But, if this is the case, why even mention that it attacks when they try to stand up? Hasn't it already attacked them by virtue of their turn starting?

Thanks, folks...

-O

 

[Regicide]

The trigger line leads me to believe the latter, but the Opportunity Action line leads me to believe the former. After all, enemies only get 1 opportunity action per opponent's turn. But, if this is the case, why even mention that it attacks when they try to stand up? Hasn't it already attacked them by virtue of their turn starting?

Looks like an opportunity attack. It having two triggers isn't really an issue, it may be possible to not be able to attack them at the start of the turn but can when they're doing their turn such as if they started their turn invisible or unattackable or something. Weird... but true.

I think it's all sorts of silly. What happened to balance checks? Anyway, I'd drop the opportunity part and the fact that it's an attack and just go with the very high reflex rolls it has (man, that is crazy slippery and deadly) whenever a player starts their turn on it.

 

[webrunner]

So, I'm reading through the Treacherous Ice Sheet from Pyramid of Shadows. By and large, I can get the traps to do what I think they should do, but this one leaves me scratching my head.

Here's the meat of the obstacle...



So, does the hazard only attack once on each character's turn? Does it attack every time they move to a new square, or stand up in their current square?

The trigger line leads me to believe the latter, but the Opportunity Action line leads me to believe the former. After all, enemies only get 1 opportunity action per opponent's turn. But, if this is the case, why even mention that it attacks when they try to stand up? Hasn't it already attacked them by virtue of their turn starting?

Thanks, folks...

-O

It is possible to be granted a move action outside of your own turn, it might just be to make sure that happens.

 

[Nail]

That *is* an interesting one, isn't it?

The fact that it's a OA is the clincher, I think. Only one attack per creature's turn. The Trigger just "clarifies" what provokes the OA.


......unless......


...unless you treat each square as a separate trap, and thus each square has its own OA.

 

[Nail]

The more I think about it, the more I think that the intended way do deal with this is per square. Each square gets its own OA, since each square of Treacherous Ice is a separate trap.

Sucks!

 

[Obryn]

I think it's all sorts of silly. What happened to balance checks? Anyway, I'd drop the opportunity part and the fact that it's an attack and just go with the very high reflex rolls it has (man, that is crazy slippery and deadly) whenever a player starts their turn on it.

No, I'm more or less with you. I'd rather let the players feel active with an Acrobatics check, rather than attack their Reflex defense, in this case. It's not like there's no precedent for it. Maybe just flip it around to DC18 Acrobatics or somesuch, to make the people with Acrobatics and light armor happier. (And to make it so shields don't help against it...)

The fact that it's a OA is the clincher, I think. Only one attack per creature's turn. The Trigger just "clarifies" what provokes the OA.


......unless......


...unless you treat each square as a separate trap, and thus each square has its own OA.

You see, that's what I was thinking. That each square is kind of like a different trigger. But the opportunity action was messing with me.

Yep, looks like I'm re-writing this one. I know that formatting traps as monsters was supposed to clear up confusion, but this one is insane.

-O

 

[Regicide]

Maybe just flip it around to DC18 Acrobatics or somesuch, to make the people with Acrobatics and light armor happier. (And to make it so shields don't help against it...)

Oh man, shields, lmao, had not thought of them. I can't think of any offhand but I'm sure there is gear that will boost balance checks that should help against this (spiked boots maybe), but won't boost your reflex. Yeah, definitely change it to an active roll for the player instead of an attack by the ice. Doing it as an attack was a horrible construct.