Hey guys,
Question about the iron ball trap. It states that when anybody 'crosses the 15-foot span at the center of the beam' that iron balls make a +6 ranged attack on all targets upon the balance beam.
Does that mean that it shoots out one set of iron balls against everybody and then stops, or does it keep shooting iron balls each round until nobody is standing past the 15 foot mark?
And with the grick, since it's able to swim up from under the iron balls, do you guys think it fair to allow it to swim down and away from combat, only to reappear elsewhere? Would burrowing down and out of sight cause it to suffer an attack of opportunity, or do you think it fair to rule it a five foot step straight down, and thus not provoking?
[Side note: the map indicates that the iron balls are about ten feet deep. Iron weighs about 450 lbs/cubic foot (say 375 lbs due to being tightly packed spheres with gaps), so how does a Str 14 grick move about under all that? Wouldn't it be crushed? That's about 3,500 lbs of weight on it if it starts the encounter at ground level!]
Hey guys,
Does that mean that it shoots out one set of iron balls against everybody and then stops, or does it keep shooting iron balls each round until nobody is standing past the 15 foot mark?
The text of the trap says "automatic reset". From my point of view that means that as long as anyone is standing on one of the three "squares" at the center of the beam the balls attack each round.
[Side note: the map indicates that the iron balls are about ten feet deep. Iron weighs about 450 lbs/cubic foot (say 375 lbs due to being tightly packed spheres with gaps), so how does a Str 14 grick move about under all that? Wouldn't it be crushed? That's about 3,500 lbs of weight on it if it starts the encounter at ground level!]
Dig into archives. Most people switched the iron balls for ceramic ones, to avoid the "gold mine" syndrome (Gee! Free refined iron! We are rich!). Also accounts for the pathetic damage of the trap, quite low for a iron ball.
Also, I guess that balls in a pile do support themselves: digging through a lot of balls isn't the same than having all said balls carefully balanced on your shoulders.