D&D 5E How broken is tunneling speed?

[MarkB]

Another thing to bear in mind is that burrowing without some variant of tremorsense means you're essentially deaf and blind once you're below ground. So, does this race have some kind of extra senses, or does the character get lost very easily once they're underground?

 

[Stormonu]

Also, if you are burrowing with no tunnel left behind, there is the likelihood air is limited and could run out. Might want to consider a burrowing creature needs to hold its breath while burrowing.

 

[NaturalZero]

Aw, I hope you find a way to make it work. I think this would be a very fun thing to play, and would result in countless stories to tell about your game, and is worth figuring out how to balance it.

What if you required a bonus action to activate burrowing? That would cease the use of cunning action.

Another thing to bear in mind is that burrowing without some variant of tremorsense means you're essentially deaf and blind once you're below ground. So, does this race have some kind of extra senses, or does the character get lost very easily once they're underground?

What I'm working on is rebooting of some of the magic of incarnum classes with real-world terminology - I.E. chakra magic instead of incarnum, manifestations instead of soulmelds. I'm beginning with one of my favorite classes, the totemist, which has the ability to channel the disembodied soul energy of magical beasts and form them into pieces of armor on a character's body, granting them the features of creatures from D&D lore.

In 5e, creatures that used to fit the old magical beast type are almost uniformly all monstrosities, and a lot of the ones that were made into soulmelds for the 3.5e class are present in 5e. Purple worm and bulette were 2 that the totemist had access to in 3.5 and I wanted to port them with the new design philosophy I'm using with 5e manifestations. Both creatures have tremorsense and burrow speed, so I was looking at giving characters access to these as part of one or the other creature's manifestation. If I included both, there would certainly be a way for one character to have both tremorsense and burrow speed on the same build.

 

[Stalker0]

If the burrower is not leaving a tunnel, they become completely surrounded by earth the moment they enter that square diagonally down from you.

I think for a game that wanted to introduce burrowing speeds as a default could go with the interpretation that "there is a tunnel for a few seconds, that then closes in behind the person".....allowing for an OA with cover.

Its one of those things the rules don't REALLY specify, I mean I agree with MarkB's interpretation, but if a DM wanted to use the interpretation I just mentioned to make a burrow speed a little more balanced I wouldn't blink an eye.

 

[MarkB]

I think for a game that wanted to introduce burrowing speeds as a default could go with the interpretation that "there is a tunnel for a few seconds, that then closes in behind the person".....allowing for an OA with cover.

Its one of those things the rules don't REALLY specify, I mean I agree with MarkB's interpretation, but if a DM wanted to use the interpretation I just mentioned to make a burrow speed a little more balanced I wouldn't blink an eye.

That's a perfectly reasonable way to handle it.

 

[MarkB]

What I'm working on is rebooting of some of the magic of incarnum classes with real-world terminology - I.E. chakra magic instead of incarnum, manifestations instead of soulmelds. I'm beginning with one of my favorite classes, the totemist, which has the ability to channel the disembodied soul energy of magical beasts and form them into pieces of armor on a character's body, granting them the features of creatures from D&D lore.

In 5e, creatures that used to fit the old magical beast type are almost uniformly all monstrosities, and a lot of the ones that were made into soulmelds for the 3.5e class are present in 5e. Purple worm and bulette were 2 that the totemist had access to in 3.5 and I wanted to port them with the new design philosophy I'm using with 5e manifestations. Both creatures have tremorsense and burrow speed, so I was looking at giving characters access to these as part of one or the other creature's manifestation. If I included both, there would certainly be a way for one character to have both tremorsense and burrow speed on the same build.

As a class feature it's certainly a lot easier to balance than as part of a race / lineage. The closest comparison would be the druid's wild shape, and while that feature places level-based restrictions upon flying and swimming creatures, it doesn't do so for burrowing.

If a druid can turn into a giant badger at 2nd level, it's probably not too broken to allow similar capabilities to a class feature, though if you're going for a burrow speed equivalent to walking speed, plus special senses, it'd probably be better to leave until, say, 4th-5th level.

 

[NaturalZero]

As a class feature it's certainly a lot easier to balance than as part of a race / lineage. The closest comparison would be the druid's wild shape, and while that feature places level-based restrictions upon flying and swimming creatures, it doesn't do so for burrowing.

If a druid can turn into a giant badger at 2nd level, it's probably not too broken to allow similar capabilities to a class feature, though if you're going for a burrow speed equivalent to walking speed, plus special senses, it'd probably be better to leave until, say, 4th-5th level.

The big issue that I'm trying to tamp down is OP combos. The druid wildshape is fairly combo-proof in 5e because it shuts off every other racial or class power when it's active, so you don't have greatsword paladin badgers with cunning action popping in and out of the ground with smites (or whatever). If someone has full class abilities, burrowing, and can cunning action every round, that's super strong.

Right now, I'm really leaning towards leaving burrow speed totally out. I've already looked at the purple worm manifestation - Wormtail Belt - and dropped tunneling in favor of a quake attack based on the wurm from the Ravnica book. The bulette manifestation - Landshark Boots - is going to be completely based around landing and knocking targets prone. Tremorsense still seems alright though.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Landshark boots (soulmeld):
You gain a burrowing speed in loose earth, mud and sand equal to your walking speed until the end of your turn as an action. While in underground, you have tremorsense in a range of 30 ft, you are prone, you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, you can't take reactions, and the only action you can take is a bonus action to use the feature from this soulmeld to emerge or burrow deeper.

 

[NaturalZero]

Landshark boots (soulmeld):
You gain a burrowing speed in loose earth, mud and sand equal to your walking speed until the end of your turn as an action. While in underground, you have tremorsense in a range of 30 ft, you are prone, you have disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws, you can't take reactions, and the only action you can take is a bonus action to use the feature from this soulmeld to emerge or burrow deeper.

I think that making it take an action is a decent idea but most of the stuff like prone, disadvantage on saves, etc, seems extraneous since you have total cover anyway. I'd word it something like: "Burrowing: As an action, you can move through the sand, earth, and snow with a burrow speed equal to your walking speed. While burrowing, you have tremorsense with a range of 30 feet."

This does let you combo a bonus action disengage and be underground when it's your enemy's turn, but you have to blow your whole action every round to keep it up. This gives you invulnerability in a lot of situations but you essentially have to give up all of your offense to achieve it.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I think that making it take an action is a decent idea but most of the stuff like prone, disadvantage on saves, etc, seems extraneous since you have total cover anyway. I'd word it something like: "Burrowing: As an action, you can move through the sand, earth, and snow with a burrow speed equal to your walking speed. While burrowing, you have tremorsense with a range of 30 feet."

This does let you combo a bonus action disengage and be underground when it's your enemy's turn, but you have to blow your whole action every round to keep it up. This gives you invulnerability in a lot of situations but you essentially have to give up all of your offense to achieve it.

Yup sorry, I copy pasted the Withdraw feature of the tortle. Its indeed extraneous.