D&D 5E Thief Rogue throwing Ball Bearings everywhere

[EscherEnigma]

I can imagine that climbing cleats would negate the danger of ball-bearings. But outside of suitable environments (snow, muddy-but-not-too-muddy ground, etc), they'd also give a movement penalty.

But seeing as you can avoid the dex save of ball bearings by moving half-speed already, I'm not sure this provides much of an advantage.

If I wanted to provide advantage, I'd probably go towards magic. Let's say... boots or slippers or something that lets you levitate an inch above solid ground. That doesn't avoid very many hazards (most difficult terrain would still be difficult), so (as a GM) I probably wouldn't make it require attunement. Assuming that magic item creation is setting and adventure appropriate, I'd allow it's creation.

 

[Undrave]

FFS people, if you put a handful of cubic, six-sided dice on a racing track, you would cause serious injury. Yes, those cubes you roll every game night. Cubes. You do not need perfectly identical, mirror-polished spheres to trip someone up.

Imagine a d12! Or a d20!

And Egyptians used to make icosahedrons (d20s)

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Imagine a d12! Or a d20!

And Egyptians used to make icosahedrons (d20s)

And there's a reason D4s are called "caltrops" (I mean, besides the fact we're all nerds)

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

FFS people, if you put a handful of cubic, six-sided dice on a racing track, you would cause serious injury. Yes, those cubes you roll every game night. Cubes. You do not need perfectly identical, mirror-polished spheres to trip someone up.

D4s are pretty much caltrops.

 

[R_J_K75]

Ball bearing cover a 5 foot area. Jump over them.

I was waiting for someone to bring this up. Ball bearings cover a 10' square according to Roll20s website. Id rule that they are only useful from end of the turn of player who drops them until the start of their next when then roll to the lowest point in the room. Caltrops as well. Even if a player spent an entire round to spread caltrops I'd still go by their 5' area description regardless if they take a full round and I wouldn't allow them a bonus action to lay more. If they argued and tried to spread more over a larger area, I'd say OK go ahead, then rule that they either spread them so much that they're useless or maybe they even fall in their own pile of them. Both are meant to be a minor inconvenience for a very short period of time at best.

If I were to invest time and resources, instead of going with the anti ball bearing rollerblades I'd opt for the ball bearing/caltrop bazooka or blunderbuss. Not only will it slow them down but put a nice hole in them first.

Blunderbuss

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) Fifth Edition (5e) Equipment, Gear, & Items - Blunderbuss - Firearms are a new and volatile technology, and as such bring the...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[MarkB]

Ball bearing made out pewter. Ball bearings made out clay. Ball bearing made Dwarf apprentices to work on their smithing skills.

Indeed - and the ones sold to adventurers are probably the rejects; the ones with seams that can't be polished out, or that aren't entirely spherical, or aren't quite the right size. None of those things really matter to someone who's going to be mostly deploying them as a tripping hazard.

 

[R_J_K75]

Indeed - and the ones sold to adventurers are probably the rejects; the ones with seams that can't be polished out, or that aren't entirely spherical, or aren't quite the right size. None of those things really matter to someone who's going to be mostly deploying them as a tripping hazard.

Are you kidding me? Every single ball bearing in the multiverse was forged by Moradin himself and has passed his rigorous GD&T standards and testing. For shame a lowly PC gets bilked out of a few SP on a few bum ball bearings.

 

[Charlaquin]

so, the easiest way to bypass caltrops and ball bearings is to jump over them. The jumping rules state that you can clear an area a distance equal to your strength in Feet. Ball bearing cover a 5 foot area. Jump over them.

I actually consider ball bearings and caltrops to be pretty useless if you know where they are. You have to place yourself in a way that your enemies are forced to step in them, usually by making sure you are adjacent to the square where the ball bearings are placed so that when they come to attack you, they are forced to step in the space. Otherwise, your allies can circumvent ball bearings all over the battlefield just by hopping over the space. No special shoes required.

EDIT: Jump: Strength in feet if you get a 10 foot run, 1/2 strength if no 10 foot move. Therefore, anyone with a STR of 10 can jump over a space with Caltrops without needing to move 10 feet.

I would never have considered this, but it is an excellent point.

 

[Charlaquin]

Indeed - and the ones sold to adventurers are probably the rejects; the ones with seams that can't be polished out, or that aren't entirely spherical, or aren't quite the right size. None of those things really matter to someone who's going to be mostly deploying them as a tripping hazard.

This is untreated to the discussion at hand, but I’d say an adventure who uses a bag of a thoudand small metal spheres primarily as a tripping hazard isn’t thinking creatively enough.

 

[R_J_K75]

This is untreated to the discussion at hand, but I’d say an adventure who uses a bag of a thoudand small metal spheres primarily as a tripping hazard isn’t thinking creatively enough.

Or severely underestimating their opponent at times.