tomBitonti
Hero
Some rules questions:
A party is walking along a long 5' wide path along a high cliff face (say, 500' up).
A summoned earth elemental (this one was 15' wide) walks through the wall to
appear just above the party.
The elemental uses bull rush against three party members on the ledge;
The elemental has improved bull rush, so no avoiding the rush.
First, are all three party members really rushed (I would say so);
Second do they get any bonus for all three being rushed (say, a +2 circumstance
bonus, which is what we used, and is OK for me);
Third, can they avoid falling by catching on the edge of the ledge, and if
they do, what mechanic to use? There is a rule for catching yourself
against a wall while falling in the SRD (DC == 20 + Climb DC), in this case,
20 + 10 for there being ledges in the wall. Or, would you give a reflex save
to catch the ledge before falling? We gave the characters a Reflex save,
but I don't remember the DC.
Fourth, if some of the characters make the strength check for the bull rush,
and others do not, what happens? The element doesn't move forward, but
do the players who failed the strength check still fall off? We had the failing
character get pushed back, which is how the rules read, and which made
sense to me, but others may have different ideas of what should happen.
In any case, an interesting encounter, with the party wizard flying down to
teleport a falling character to safety, and the party cleric creating a wall of
stone to reduce the falling damage for three others to just 12d6, and to
keep those three from falling into the clutches of a horde of evil dwarves
far below.
A party is walking along a long 5' wide path along a high cliff face (say, 500' up).
A summoned earth elemental (this one was 15' wide) walks through the wall to
appear just above the party.
The elemental uses bull rush against three party members on the ledge;
The elemental has improved bull rush, so no avoiding the rush.
First, are all three party members really rushed (I would say so);
Second do they get any bonus for all three being rushed (say, a +2 circumstance
bonus, which is what we used, and is OK for me);
Third, can they avoid falling by catching on the edge of the ledge, and if
they do, what mechanic to use? There is a rule for catching yourself
against a wall while falling in the SRD (DC == 20 + Climb DC), in this case,
20 + 10 for there being ledges in the wall. Or, would you give a reflex save
to catch the ledge before falling? We gave the characters a Reflex save,
but I don't remember the DC.
Fourth, if some of the characters make the strength check for the bull rush,
and others do not, what happens? The element doesn't move forward, but
do the players who failed the strength check still fall off? We had the failing
character get pushed back, which is how the rules read, and which made
sense to me, but others may have different ideas of what should happen.
In any case, an interesting encounter, with the party wizard flying down to
teleport a falling character to safety, and the party cleric creating a wall of
stone to reduce the falling damage for three others to just 12d6, and to
keep those three from falling into the clutches of a horde of evil dwarves
far below.
