Burrow Speeds Excessive

[lord_banus]

Has anyone else come to the conclusion that the burrow speeds of many creature are very excessive. I can understand some of the more fantastical creatures but I fail to see how a badger can burrow for 10 feet in 6 seconds it would an awful lot longer than that. Has anyone houseruled something for this?

 

[dcollins]

Sure, they're excessive compared to "reality". Haven't bothered to house-rule it or anything.

 

[lord_banus]

The issue came up with a Hengeyokai Badger Sorcerer who may be looking to abuse the sense of realism. I guess I will see how it plays out before I make a judgement.

Anyone have any idea about what a more realistic digging rate might be. How about 1 foot per strength modifier point per minute.

 

[Scion]

Probably have to use hardness and damage dealt by the claws.. 'destroyed' ground would be loosened and shunted behind. So burrow speed would directly relate to amount of damage able to be dealt.

It would make more sense, and give a good guideline of how fast they could burrow through harder things, but would it be worth the extra amount of work? hmm

 

[reiella]

Hmm, I'd simply introduce an environment modifier to how 'dense'/hard the earth is if you want to adjust speed for realism.

However, note for combat reasons, 5 feet is really the shortest distance a creature could 'move' without restricting burrow to a FRA (which is still 10 feet/rnd, but nothing else at least).

 

[lord_banus]

I guess the question becomes, should a character/creature be able to burrow during combat anyway. The only useful combat scenario is to dig to escape combat but even that would give a number of free hits before they were deep enough.

Just got an idea.

How about 10' of displaced earth per round. ie for a medium sized creature going at 10' burrow speed can dig 2 feet down per round. That is a medium figure can dig up enough dirt for a 5'x5' to move 1' per 5' of movement
eg
10' burrow = 2' per round
20' burrow = 4' per round
30' burrow = 6' per round

Earth density can then be a modifier on this 1'. Really soft earth might be 2' or 3' while densly packed earth can be 1/2' or 1/4'.

This leaves room for burrowing monsters to soften up earth in their lairs to make it easier to travel quickly.

the based on how far each person has gone equals the degree of cover. So while a humanoid might take 3 rounds to get to full cover, a badger might be able to do it in a round.

Works for me..

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Every time he starts burrowing, just start singing this song until he stops.

 

[andargor]

I cannot recall where I saw this, but it was a clip of a Bulette ("land shark") moving through the earth. Or maybe it was a worm from Tremors, heh.

Anyway, it seemed like supernatural movement. The earth parted and reformed behind the creature as it moved, as if in water.

So maybe burrow speed is excessive for "mundane" creatures, but for others it may be just right.

My 2 half-coppers.

Andargor

 

[Wolffenjugend]

The burrow speeds for smaller creatures (i.e. badgers) might be accurate if the terrain was sand. Just adjust it accordingly for denser substances.