Taking damage while Spider Climbing

[Nareau]

Last night, the bad guy tried to escape by climbing up the walls; he was affected by a Spider Climb spell. The PC's had 2 or 3 rounds worth of shooting at him, and hit a few times. Should I have forced him to make climb checks each time he took damage?

Climb Skill:
Any time you take damage while climbing, make a Climb check against the DC of the slope or wall. Failure means you fall from your current height and sustain the appropriate falling damage.

Spider Climb:
The subject gains a climb speed of 20 feet; furthermore, it need not make Climb checks to traverse a vertical or horizontal surface (even upside down). A spider climbing creature retains its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class (if any) while climbing, and opponents get no special bonus to their attacks against it. It cannot, however, use the run action while climbing.

Climb Speed for Monsters:
Climb: A creature with a climb speed has a +8 racial bonus on all Climb checks. The creature must make a Climb check to climb any wall or slope with a DC of more than 0, but it always can choose to take 10 even if rushed or threatened while climbing.

As near as I can tell, by the rules, the bad guy should have had to make a climb check DC 25 when he was hit. However, he could have taken 10 on it, and would have a +8 racial bonus on the check. Assuming he's got a decent strength or has maxxed out his Climb skill ranks (+7 total), hitting that DC 25 every time would be automatic.

Any thoughts? I could see house-ruling that the Spider Climb text "it need not make Climb checks to traverse a vertical or horizontal surface (even upside down)" extends to "it automatically succeeds at any climb check it is forced to make."

Spider

 

[shilsen]

Any thoughts? I could see house-ruling that the Spider Climb text "it need not make Climb checks to traverse a vertical or horizontal surface (even upside down)" extends to "it automatically succeeds at any climb check it is forced to make."

That's how I'd handle it. And I can't believe that someone called Spider is posting this question

 

[Len]

If you don't do it that way you run into problems - like, if you're hit while spider-climbing on the ceiling, what would be the DC of the Climb check? (There's an answer in the ELH, but I don't think it's in the PHB or DMG.)

 

[Lasher Dragon]

The thing that I don't like about the Spider Climb spell is that you must use your hands & feet to climb. However, with slippers, one can walk on the walls/ceiling, leaving ones hands free to fire a bow, use a weapon, etc..

 

[TheEvil]

My GM answered this problem by ruling you could tumble if your Spiderclimb required hands (eg- the spell) but not if you only used your feel, as in the slippers. You would be amazed how quickely the rogue took to a non-slipper route.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Tumbling up a wall and across the ceiling - that's comedy

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

The thing that I don't like about the Spider Climb spell is that you must use your hands & feet to climb. However, with slippers, one can walk on the walls/ceiling, leaving ones hands free to fire a bow, use a weapon, etc..

And then all the arrows in your quiver fall out, your back pack falls and dangles from your shoulders and hangs below your head, etc... First time I threw that little tidbit at a player wearing Slippers of Spider Climbing the look on his face was priceless!

 

[Len]

My GM answered this problem by ruling you could tumble if your Spiderclimb required hands (eg- the spell) but not if you only used your feel, as in the slippers. You would be amazed how quickely the rogue took to a non-slipper route.

My rogue/Shadowdancer still prefers the slippers. I don't think he's been in a situation where he needed to tumble across the wall, but he needs to be able to fight up there.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

And then all the arrows in your quiver fall out, your back pack falls and dangles from your shoulders and hangs below your head, etc... First time I threw that little tidbit at a player wearing Slippers of Spider Climbing the look on his face was priceless!

If that were the case, I would think your arrows would fly out of your quiver during a simple tumble check.

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

If that were the case, I would think your arrows would fly out of your quiver during a simple tumble check.

Well, that was from a 1e game before Tumbling was an issue... lol