Caltrops - Bringing back the awesome.

[Vlaid]

Ok. Caltrops are useful for making combat painful in quests, but not much else. So I'm proposing a change to make them more useful.

When you take damage, you get a reflex save to avoid the secondary effect. The secondary effect being your movement slowed by x% for x turns. That's really what caltrops were originally designed to be used for (from an in character standpoint). Wouldn't really make them terribly overpowered, but would be pretty neat to chuck caltrops over strategic points as you flee to slow down your attackers.

I think they might have been like this at one point, or that might have been CoA, either way, I love the slowing effect of caltrops, wherever I got the idea from.

[Listen in Silence]

I approve.

[Lupine Grace]

Caltrops also dispel invis from the user like an attack making them rubbish right now! If for example you throw caltrops and they aren't all swept up, you could be using invisibility on the other side of the server, somebody steps on them and you lose invisibility!

[Garem]

They ought to be made more expensive... but yes, that's not a bad idea. And it IS how they work in PnP. But I also think oil bottle bombs ought to become a mini-fireball if you throw alchemist's fire on top of it. :)

[Yalta]

Certainly if it easy to implement i'd like to see this. As long as the effect passed soon after you leave the caltropped area, they wouldn't be over powered either

[RIPnogarD]

See to me this falls under the too many variables issue. There are numerous types of footwear that, like caltrops may be underrated, hard sole, soft sole and bare-foot. A hard sole boot is in line with today’s combat boot sole and caltrops are going to be no more than a nuisance while the bare-footed person isn’t going to be able to move. A soldier in full plate and hard soled boots is pretty much going to ignore caltrops, it was one of their drawbacks in real life you know, hence why they’re not a combat factor today. Not to mention the surface of the ground they are on. You throw caltrops on the sandy beaches of this island and all you are going to accomplish is having a bunch of caltrops buried in the sand. Throw them on a solid stone floor and they will have more of an effect. Then there is always the simple logic of just dragging your feet and sweeping the silly little things out of your path with your foot.

My vote would be to leave them they way they are.

[Violent_Man]

I have, in two years of playing here, never seen anyone use caltrops in a useful way.

I really think this would be an excellent idea. 20% movement penalty while walking through them.

[lovethesuit]

No, it sounds like your vote is: change caltrops so they can be ignored if you're wearing boots, but not thin-soled footwear, and make them useless on sandy beaches, and script an option to sweep them away by dragging your feet.

I, for one, am in support of the movement penalty change.

[TooCuteForComfort]

I kind of thought we abandoned realism by the time orcs were stabbing dinosaurs on the island YMPH.

[RIPnogarD]

There is abandoning reality and then just being silly. Variables are variables, caltrops are no longer used for a reason and it’s simply because they are easily beaten as long as you know they are there and are smarter than the caltrop.

Personally the most I would agree to would be to add a negative factor to the move silently skill check, due to shuffling feet and sliding noise of the caltrops. But whatever; DM’s do what they do and for what it’s worth my voice has been heard.

[Vlaid]

See to me this falls under the too many variables issue. There are numerous types of footwear that, like caltrops may be underrated, hard sole, soft sole and bare-foot. A hard sole boot is in line with today’s combat boot sole and caltrops are going to be no more than a nuisance while the bare-footed person isn’t going to be able to move. A soldier in full plate and hard soled boots is pretty much going to ignore caltrops, it was one of their drawbacks in real life you know, hence why they’re not a combat factor today. Not to mention the surface of the ground they are on. You throw caltrops on the sandy beaches of this island and all you are going to accomplish is having a bunch of caltrops buried in the sand. Throw them on a solid stone floor and they will have more of an effect. Then there is always the simple logic of just dragging your feet and sweeping the silly little things out of your path with your foot.

My vote would be to leave them they way they are.

Even if you are sweeping your foot across them to move them out of your way, it still serves to slow you down. If you are wearing hard soles and run through them, they will still cause to make the caltrops slip under your feet, making you fall and land on your back.

Both examples of how they might be ignored still force you to slow down your movement to ignore them, and both would still be a reflex save to avoid them. Also it's worth noting that in PnP caltrops are a bag full of marbles and/or spiked triangular metal things, so they make you slip AND hurt your feet.

Next point? :D