So. I'm working on the Gimblebock encounter and it occurred to me...

Ropes shouldn't be able to be cut by arrows or bolts. Maybe a thrown axe or Fire Bolt, but shouldn't ropes and statues and such be virtually impervious to missile weapons? Seems a bit off that I can cut that rope with the massive stone with a single bolt.

Aside from skill it would take to hit a rope with 100% accuracy, yeah it sounds like such rope would be cut that easily.

Meh, still I am more then willing to apply "rule of cool" here, but I still believe that enviroment objects should have their own AC.

I was thinking AC and resistance and vulnerability.

Rope is resistant to piercing and bludgeoning but vulnerable to fire and slashing. HP 10. Something like that.

Statues are resistant to piercing and slashing and pretty much all elements but vulnerable to bludgeoning. HP varies but substantial.

I agree that objects should have an AC, HP and some form of hardness (which I think is already implemented since the cave-in at Grymforge is very hard to damage). You shouldn't hit ropes and chains with 100% accuracy when the boulders/pits/whatever they release are often as powerful as insta-kills, like in that encounter with the tomb robbers.

Oh look... 5e has rules for that too. Larian just chose not to implement because gimmicks need to succeed always? :eyeroll:

So a rope would be about AC 11, 5hp. Still very easy to cut. But the cool thing is that higher level characters would do such things much more reliably, while low levels can sometimes miss. Character development! Making everyone a Legolas level archer from level 1 is, in lack of a better term, dumb.

And it's more fun when you succeed, if it's also possible to fail.

I'm more curious why there's a giant stone boulder hanging right there in the first place.

Larian also forgot to allow the robbers a Dex save to avoid damage from the falling boulder. (Much like they forgot to allow Grym roll a Dex save, even though the DC of that anvil thingy should be very high. Do Void Bulbs allow a save now?)

I think more often enemies should use the environment against the PC's. We are infiltrating their lairs, fighting on their turf, after all. But I would REALLY hate it if they dropped a boulder on me and my Rogue would not get a Dex save to evade.

Or, maybe, this whole encounter could be made into a tutorial on the object interactivity in the game with a separated tooltip. In general, I like rolling dices, so I definately agree with the majority here!

+1 to giving interactive items different resistances.

The boulder is tied to a makeshift wooden crane. It looks as though the mechanism lifts it and lets it drop - and has already done it a few times because the floor is already cracked. I assume some other tomb robbers (before Gimblebok's team) failed to get the doors open, and decided to get creative. There's a door to the chapel right on the beach so they knew there would be some room/hall/hallway underneath the stone mosaic.

I was thinking the same. Weeks of trying to get past the locks, they decided to punch through the ceiling into the second level and then punch through to the lower level from there because the door they can't get through is on the second level. So, if ya can't get through the second level door into the crypt, punch a hole in the floor and get in that way.

Sounds freaking cool!
+1

I also had this idea that maybe there's a control mechanism at the top of the stairs to control the crane-like device to even target Gimblebock and Taman.

So, maybe allow players to stealth up on Warryn, the halfling lookout on the west side. If you take him out during surprise round, no alarm sounded. Drop down and use ladder to get up to the other side where Cefrey the wizard patrols. There is the control mechanism. Trigger it and BAM! BYE BYE Gimblebock and Taman.

Or, even during combat, you Misty Step up to the controls or just Dash to them. You can use an Action to target anyone near the block within maybe 10 feet of it's original position.

This reminds me of how often I've wanted to topple the statue behind Dror Ragzlin onto him.

So of course D&D is a fantasy realm but it's tech is based on Medieval weapons and armor. If you do a quick google search on Medieval arrowheads you'll see that most of them, with the exception of those specifically designed to penetrate plate armor, have relatively broad, sharpened heads. A skilled archer is going to be able to hit a rope at a reasonable distance, at least well enough to slice it a bit and if it's holding up enough weight a good slice is all you're going to need for that rope to fray and unravel enough for it to snap. It may take a little time for enough strands to snap before it goes entirely but it's totally possible.

I feel like the whole "cut a rope with an arrow" thing is something that shows up pretty frequently in media. Enough so that I think it's one of those tropes that can be waved away as "rule of cool." I'm not gonna knock Larian for putting it in.

I'm kinda the same way. I just accept it as part of the fantasy.

I think the first time I saw it was probably in Robin Hood.

I don't know if it's a new thing, or I just never saw/experience it before but couple days ago when attacking goblin encountment they rolled a massive boulder on Laez:
Yeah, I agree that there should be a defencive check for the receiver of the enviromental damange. But Larian gonna Larian, and keep adding guaranteed sources of damange. That sounds like something that could be potentially moddable though.

The problem isn't that you can shoot ropes. The problem is they made everyone Robin Hood.

100% hit rate and 1hp? Why suddenly ignore the rules completely? Is it cool playing Archie the Archer when Bob the Tank with 8 Dex can take the same shot with 100% success rate, with whatever they can throw? Or would it be cooler if those kinds of shots would be something that an actual archer could bring to the party, with their high dex and Archery Fighting Style?

These Robin Hood shots could even be a great use for True Strike if you only have one chance to time it right. But no, 100% hit rate for everyone always, rope has 1hp and always breaks, no questions asked.

Still working on this part of the Tabletop Campaign, and this is what I found online in regards to shooting ropes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Archery/comments/5ttjhy/cutting_a_hangmans_noose_with_an_arrow_any/

Basically, fantasy aside, HIGHLY unlikely that a person can cut a rope with an arrow or crossbow bolt.

So, I'm going with:

- Cutting the rope to drop the block. AC: 15. Resistances: Piercing, Bludgeoning. Vulnerabilities: Slashing, Fire. HP: 10.

You might slowly cut the rope with arrows - multiple of them, but not 1 arrow or bolt.

I'm also going with:

- Damaging the contraption to drop the block. AC: 10. Reistances: Piercing. Vulnerabilities: Slashing, Fire, Bludgeoning. HP: 20.

In other words, it might be easier to blast the wooden contraption with a spell or throw a rock at it to cause it to drop the stone block on Gimblebock and Taman as opposed to cutting the rope. Using a Fire Bolt and getting a 10 for damage would do it in 1 hit, or maybe you could hit it with Fire Bolt and a Guiding Bolt (Gale plus SH working together).

This^^ sooooo much (:

Bonus points if you could make it look like an accident and (FINALLY) complete the mission without turning the entire camp automatically hostile.

EDIT: Even MORE bonus points if the whole thing would be a bit more involved of "Click here to topple statue... DONE!".

Everyone the Absolute sent me with a very important message, I need you all to gather in the throne room.

Yes, yes, good-Oh, what's this? The Absolute is telling me you need to stand a few paces to the left. Praise the Absolute...no my left, yes, oh I can feel it, the Absolute is so happy you're standing together there...

Arrows can cut through rope, a hunting arrow [mid evil arrows] can puncture even stuttered leather. The question is would our Pc be able to wield a bow with enough skill to even hit the rope. If there is any wind those odds are close to 0. Yet despite all the above. We can use magic, shove people 20M, jump like spider man. I can take a leap of faith in super accurate archers

I have no doubt arrows can cut rope IF they hit just right AND IF enough arrows hit. 1 arrow cutting a rope that is thick enough to hold a massive brick seems beyond Robin Hood.

But notice, my suggestion is the rope would be resistant to piercing aka arrows and bolts, not immune to piercing. So, it could still be done with arrows and bolts, but it would be much harder. Far more believable for a thrown axe to hack it than an arrow.

And statues... 100% no. Arrows would not break statues.

As for Ragzlin... come on Larian. Mage Hand Legerdimain. That would be awesome. Invisible Mage Hand sneaks behind Ragzlin and Shoves that statue over. Yee.