How would you rule for pulling yourself free from manacles?

[Storyteller01]

Thinking grim and gritty here...

"You've been taken prisoner by Khazen, the ruling overlord, and shackled outdoors for public humiliation before tomorrows torture and execution.

Your in luck... the guards have fallen asleep.

You've tried forcing the manacles open, but they won't budge. You try to finesse them off, but your hands are just too big. There's only one option left...

You stifle a scream as something in your wrist cracks. You'll make up for it when your village healer resets the broken bones."


Figuring that bone gives much sooner than metal, what DC would you give this? What Fort saves would you give (fainting, temporary Dex damage, permanent damage, etc), if any?

 

[Ferret]

I roll on the strength to break, and rule that what was needed was the amount of damage you did to your self. I'm not sure if at higher levels you would need more penalty, or to do Dex damage.

Just what I would do without thinking about it too much.

 

[Teemu]

I roll on the strength to break, and rule that what was needed was the amount of damage you did to your self.

Well, I think that's too much, considering that a strong 1st-level Commoner would be instantly killed if he or she rolled 15 or so. Using the Damage to Specific Areas variant from DMG (page 27), a character whose hands are damaged would get a -2 penalty on a bunch of skill and attack rolls. Forcefully pulling your hands from manacles should probably deal Dex damage - 1d4?

 

[Ferret]

But would breaking or dislocating parts of your hands be as painless as that? Would non-lethal damage to escape and the penalty work better? I haven't seen the strength DC to beat recently, is it that high?

 

[robjh]

Hmm, perhaps a DC 20 Will check to damage hands enough to try. But personally I'd roll as an Escape Artist check; that's why it's there. How else are you going to encourage players to put points in EA?

 

[Storyteller01]

Hmm, perhaps a DC 20 Will check to damage hands enough to try. But personally I'd roll as an Escape Artist check; that's why it's there. How else are you going to encourage players to put points in EA?

That's my point! Take points in EA, or you may be forced to do this...

 

[Quickleaf]

Thinking grim and gritty here...

"You've been taken prisoner by Khazen, the ruling overlord, and shackled outdoors for public humiliation before tomorrows torture and execution.

You stifle a scream as something in your wrist cracks. You'll make up for it when your village healer resets the broken bones.


Figuring that bone gives much sooner than metal, what DC would you give this? What Fort saves would you give (fainting, temporary Dex damage, permanent damage, etc), if any?

Very "grim and gritty" indeed, and a good house rule to have handy too!

Bleeding Out of Manacles
Assuming they're iron, let's assume the manacles have a 30 break DC, 10 hardness, and 10 hit points. The base Escape Artist DC is 30.
A person of sufficient will may opt to either cut themself, using their blood as a lubricant to facilitate their escape, or may break their own wrist/hand(s) to rip themself free. In both cases, the manacles are left undamaged.
Blood as Lubrication: This requires a DC 20 Will save, or else the character can't bring themself to perform the act; this save may not be retested unless the GM rules otherwise. By losing 10% of their total hit points (rounded up), the character gains a +2 bonus on their Escape Artist check, or on their ripping free check (see below).
Ripping Free: This requires a DC 24 Will save, or else the character can't muster enough insane determination to attempt it; this save may not be retested unless the GM rules otherwise (e.g. witnessing beloved about to be sacrificed, or taunted by villain). Either one or both hands can be ripped free on a successful DC 20 Strength check. The character must pass a DC 12 Fortitude save or become fatigued. However, this costs the character 10% of their total hit points (rounded up). In addition, the hand(s) ripped free is unuseable until healed. It cannot be used to wield weapons (though a shield can still be strapped to the forearm), grapple (-4 grapple), open doors, or cast spells.

How's that?

 

[Storyteller01]

Very "grim and gritty" indeed, and a good house rule to have handy too!

Bleeding Out of Manacles
Assuming they're iron, let's assume the manacles have a 30 break DC, 10 hardness, and 10 hit points. The base Escape Artist DC is 30.
A person of sufficient will may opt to either cut themself, using their blood as a lubricant to facilitate their escape, or may break their own wrist/hand(s) to rip themself free. In both cases, the manacles are left undamaged.
Blood as Lubrication: This requires a DC 20 Will save, or else the character can't bring themself to perform the act; this save may not be retested unless the GM rules otherwise. By losing 10% of their total hit points (rounded up), the character gains a +2 bonus on their Escape Artist check, or on their ripping free check (see below).
Ripping Free: This requires a DC 24 Will save, or else the character can't muster enough insane determination to attempt it; this save may not be retested unless the GM rules otherwise (e.g. witnessing beloved about to be sacrificed, or taunted by villain). Either one or both hands can be ripped free on a successful DC 20 Strength check. The character must pass a DC 12 Fortitude save or become fatigued. However, this costs the character 10% of their total hit points (rounded up). In addition, the hand(s) ripped free is unuseable until healed. It cannot be used to wield weapons (though a shield can still be strapped to the forearm), grapple (-4 grapple), open doors, or cast spells.

How's that?

Much closer to what I'm looking for, but I think the 10% hp loss (to lubricate, not to damage) may be a bit much. Then again, blood isn't that great a lubricant... .

Possibly add that the character can gain an additional +1 to the Str check to pull free for each additional -2 hp they voluntarily take? This +1 would also increase the save DC against fatgue/damage (the more damage you endure, the higher the save against fatigue).

would it be a full0-round action? Could we improve it to a standard action if the hp taken is increased (say, by 50%)?

*brainstorming on the fly. Apologies for errors and such*


Sacry thought: I think we just quantified 'coyote ugly' rules for D&D!!!

 

[Storyteller01]

On a similar vein (maybe I can use these rules as a guide), what are the rules fr getting caught in bear traps?

 

[genshou]

I like the idea above, although 10% of current HP is a bit hard for me to decide one way or another on. I don't have the best of wisdom on the subject, but I'll offer what I can (take it for what it's worth):

Let's say the one in shackles has a +8 EA. Using the "lubrication" rules above, they could escape by taking 20 on EA. But what about characters who don't have a +8 or higher EA skill? Are they utterly doomed, with no hope of ever escaping? The core rules say three things I can think of at the moment. The first and most obvious is the answer to the above question: "yes." The second is "the DM is always right." The third is "D&D is not an accurate portrayal of reality." So...

Step One: Roll a Will saving throw (no retry until at least [5 rounds?/1 minute?] have passed) as described in above post, in order to muster the willpower necessary to perform such an action. Then, take either [50%?] of your maximum HP or [2d6?] damage, whichever results in the lower amount of damage (this keeps low-level characters from killing themselves but also doesn't deal ridiculously high damage at high levels). The damage is dealt directly to the hand you are freeing, so you suffer the penalties as described in the previous post.

Step Two: One thing that stuck out to me is Action Points. If you are using a rules set which does not normally allow Action Points, you can still decide to give them to characters under certain circumstances. In this case, after taking the necessary damage, you gain an Action Point to modify your EA check. The exact amount this Action Point adds to the roll (either as a static number or as a die roll) is up for suggestion!

I've always believed that "Where there's a will, there's a way!" Life is not an amalgamation of skill modifiers and DCs. It's true that it takes a great deal of skill to slip out of manacles, but that doesn't make it impossible for anyone who lacks extensive training.