Rope of Entanglement Question??!!

[Balrog]

The other night at our session, one of the PCs whipped out his Rope of Entanglement and tried to use it on a fellow party member who had come under the will of an evil sword. luckily, the sword was in the hands of the guy who could do the least amount of damage with it, our bard. But nevertheless, the sword was deadly( i think it was a +5 unholy Lifestealing intelligent longsword) and the bard only picked it up because he was counting on his strong will to counter the sword ( a 1 is a 1 though!!).

Anyway, my question is: should PC #1 ( a ranger/ Lasher ) have to make a melee touch attack with the rope before making the grapple check to hold the Bard? The Lasher argued that as it was a magic item and since it didnt say explicitly in the item description, he shouldnt have to make the touch attack like a normal grapple, but just go straight to the grapple check with the Bard....The DM ruled against him, and we had quite a little argument over it. In the end we got the sword away from the bard and into safe hands (NONE!) but the issue was still confusing. Personally, i think the rope should still have a chance to miss its target in melee , but I can see the Lasher's player's point. Has this come up for anyone else and how did you handle it? Is there errata or Sage Advice somewhere that I missed that might answer this? Any hints in the general direction would be much appreciated.

Thanks
The Flame of Udun

 

[green slime]

Hello Balrog.

Firstly, the contents of the SRD have this to say about this item:

From the SRD:
Rope of Entanglement

A rope of entanglement looks just like any other hemp rope about 30 feet long. Upon command, the rope lashes forward 20 feet or upward 10 feet to entangle a victim, using a grapple attack with a +15 attack bonus (including +4 for being Large and +6 for its Strength score of 22).

The rope cannot be broken by sheer strength. It must be severed by an edged weapon. The rope has an AC of 22, 12 hit points, and a hardness of 10. Damage repairs itself at a rate of 1 point per 5 minutes, but if a rope of entanglement is severed (all 12 hit points lost to damage), it is destroyed.

Caster Level: 12th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, entangle, animate rope, animate objects; Market Price: 21,000 gp; Weight: 5 lb.

SO after reading this my OPINION is:

A ranged touch attack is made, but not by the ranger. The rope itself has been commanded to attack, so it does so with its +15 attack bonus.

At least, that is how I'd play it.

 

[Henrix]

And the DMG says exactly the same thing as the SRD about Rope of Entangement.

ASFAIK, there's no errata or Sage advice regarding this.

Some sort of touch attack would be needed, as it does not say anything else, but I think it would be either a ranged touch attack by the PC activating the Rope*, as per the Animate Rope spell, or a touch attack by the Rope itself, whichever is greater.

But the Rope's touch attack would only be +10 (i.e., not including a +4 grapple bonus for being Large, but a -1 to hit for being Large).

* Including the Lasher's Weapon Focus: Whip, for pity's sake.

 

[Balrog]

Thanks for the info......that pretty much confirmed my first instinct, which was that the lasher should have to make a touch attack with the Rope to start the grapple. The DM decided over the Lashers strong objections that he DID have to make an attack roll at +10 with the Rope....so all is well that ends well

I guess the main reason I was asking around is because I DM also in our group and for future reference I wanted more clarification before that came up with me too.........(If not that situation, i am sure a new problem will arise....it always does with the argumentitive people..)

again, thanks

The Flame of Udun