How do I get out of this prison cell without killing anyone?


Advice

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At the moment, I'm locked in a 10 ft by 10 ft prison cell. Inside the cell is a bucket and nothing else. I have no items or clothing (I am being kept nude to make sure I can't hide anything on my body). The cell is three solid brick walls with a steel door. The door has a small window with a steel shutter and no other openings. I don't know what is outside (I didn't get a good look being brought in), but it sounds like there are two guards.

I need to get out now. I am to be executed in a couple of hours, and the BBEG is planning a very nasty magic ritual tonight that needs to be stopped. The problem is, I have to do it without killing any of my guards. They haven't done anything to warrant death.

Here are my relevant stats:

Female Human Ninja 4/Paladin 4

Str 14
Dex 18
Con 10
Int 16
Wis 10
Cha 15

Skills with ranks (I have 8 ranks per skill):

Bluff +10
Diplomacy +10
Intimidate +10
Disguise +10
Stealth +12
Acrobatics +12
Disable Device +12
Perception +8
Sense Motive +8
Sleight of Hand +12

Ninja Tricks

Vanishing Trick
Forgotten Trick

Ki Pool 4

Feats

Weapon Finesse
Vital Strike
Power Attack
Quick Draw
Improved Unarmed Strike

Hit Points: 40 (I have taken 22 points of nonlethal damage from the cold weather)

Can you guys help me come up with a plan? I'm stumped as to what to do.


Make some noise. Use vanish(I am hoping this last at least a few rounds). When the guards investigate(opening the cell) you walk out.

I don't know what forgotten trick does.

Silver Crusade

Use bluff to make it sound like someone came to teleport you out. Then use vanishing trick just before the guard open the door.

Then run out.


Forgotten trick lets me use any ninja trick I don't know (Not master tricks or rogue talents, though), albeit at an extra 2 points of ki. It's a costly ability to use, but it's great for "Oh s*!# what do I do?" situations like this one.

Won't they feel me trying to brush past them? The door is only a few feet wide and it's a small cell.

Silver Crusade

Also use Forgotten trick for sudden disguise when you encounter guards later.


Ninja Paladin... takes me back to my Final Fantasy days. Dual wielding Greatswords, yo.

All halcyon aside, I'd assume the guards aren't the brightest in the world. A Vanishing Trick might do the job. Of course, if the guards are a lot smarter, you can try feigning sickness/death to lure the guards close to the gate (or in your cell for feigning death) to slam them, take the keys, and get the hell out of dodge! You've got friends on the outside I hope?

karkon seem to have a good idea there.

Silver Crusade

Improved unarmed strike lets you deal non-lethal damage. So once you knock them out they are not dead. If they feel you you are still invisible. Run like hell.


If they stand in the doorway maybe, but you can also use acrobatic to tumble through their square. You only have to beat their CMD, but they should not get the dex bonus to CMD since they you are invisible, and anything that causes you to lose dex to AC causes you to lose dex to CMD. If a fight breaks out then knock them out. You don't have to kill them.


edit:CMD+5

The Exchange

How committed to the cause are the guards? Can you turn them to your side? Can you bluff them that the magic ritual will consume their souls and send them screaming to the abyss?

or

Use the bucket and then alert the guards attention. When they come to investigate, hurl the contents through the shutter. That should at least get them inside where you can fight them. You can always knock them down with lethal and then stabilise them.


I haven't really gotten into Final Fantasy, so I have no idea what that's about. I just wanted a Paladin that isn't the classic stick-up-the-ass heavily armored bruiser with little guile, and this campaign has lots of Asian elements, so I multiclassed into Ninja for a "Holy Shadow Warrior" type character. Normally I'd fight with a light curved sword that uses rapier stats but is slashing instead of piercing, but I don't have any weapons.

My issue is trying to brush past them without me feeling it. I'm pretty sure they'll figure out what I'm trying quickly. I also can't afford much fighting because of all the damage I took from the cold weather.


karkon wrote:
Improved unarmed strike lets you deal non-lethal damage. So once you knock them out they are not dead. If they feel you you are still invisible. Run like hell.

Does an unarmed strike count as a finessable weapon? If it does, that's an easy +2 to hit them if I go that route.

Sovereign Court

Where is the rest of the party?


brock wrote:
How committed to the cause are the guards? Can you turn them to your side? Can you bluff them that the magic ritual will consume their souls and send them screaming to the abyss?

No. I've been sentenced to death for murdering several guards. Granted, what happened was a lot more complicated than the verdict of the trial said, but they don't know that. All they know is they have a cop killer to watch over until midnight, when they get to execute her.

Quote:
Use the bucket and then alert the guards attention. When they come to investigate, hurl the contents through the shutter. That should at least get them inside where you can fight them. You can always knock them down with lethal and then stabilise them.

I don't need to do lethal damage. I can use unarmed strikes.


wraithstrike wrote:
If they stand in the doorway maybe, but you can also use acrobatic to tumble through their square. You only have to beat their CMD, but they should not get the dex bonus to CMD since they you are invisible, and anything that causes you to lose dex to AC causes you to lose dex to CMD. If a fight breaks out then knock them out. You don't have to kill them.

What about either tumbling or overrunning past them, then fighting, hoping that there aren't more guards and that I have more room to maneuver than in the cell?


Pan wrote:
Where is the rest of the party?

There isn't a party.

Sovereign Court

Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
Pan wrote:
Where is the rest of the party?
There isn't a party.

Sounds like the end is near. I understand not wanting to kill guards but, if you are innocent and bound to die I would go with "sorry its you or me."


Unarmed strike can be finessed since they are light weapons


Pan wrote:
Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
Pan wrote:
Where is the rest of the party?
There isn't a party.
Sounds like the end is near. I understand not wanting to kill guards but, if you are innocent and bound to die I would go with "sorry its you or me."

I'm not innocent of the killings, I was justified. The guards attacked me with lethal force without ever asking me to surrender, attempting to subdue me non-lethally, or giving me a chance to talk things out with them. They just walked out of the woods and opened fire with crossbows. These guards outside my cell, however, are just city employees following orders to guard a prisoner who was lawfully sentenced to die for what happened to the guards who were killed. They have no knowledge of why the guards I killed died.


how about the old "hind behind the door where they can't see you"? It's basicly the same as vanishing trick. Also, you just have to win initiative, get past him, close the door, he's locked.

or just bribe the guy, he works for an evil guy, he sure has his price.


The guards don't work for the BBEG. The ones that did are the ones that I killed.

Hmm. What about the vanishing trick and a steal combat maneuver to grab a sap? Does it provoke an AOO if they can't see me?


I've never played a ninja, so this is based on a quick scan of ninja abilities.

I believe you should have six ki points (1/2 your ninja levels + cha mod).

You're going to need 1 for "vanishing trick" which will work for 8 rounds.

You need to figure out some way to get the guards to open the door to check on you. If you can't, you'll have to rely on the guards coming to get you for execution.

As soon as you hear the guards opening the door, use "vanishing trick" to vanish. If the GM plays the guards halfway intelligently, they will not leave an open path through the door.

Use "forgotten trick" to use "ventriloquist trick" to throw your voice outside the cell behind the guards, laughing as if you are escaping. This will depend on how your GM plays the guards, perhaps they know you are a ninja and have been warned about such things. Assuming you can distract them enough to get them to turn around. Using ventriloquism try to goad them to at least take a step away from the door.

If they give you the slightest opening, expend a ki point to boost your stealth by 4 and try to sneak past. If you get in the open at all, use your last ki point to gain a +20 to speed and bug out.

If they don't give you an opening, you may have to attempt a tumble or some other means to get past them.


I have 4 points. I have 4 levels of Ninja (so half is 2) and a +2 Cha modifier.

I love the idea of using vanish and ventriloquist together in this manner, though I think that'll cost all of my ki, so once I do it I can't use ki to boost my stealth or speed.

Still, the plan itself sounds workable. I just may have to overrun a guard and then run like hell instead of sneaking.


Hmm. If I overrun a guard, do I lose my invisibility? Would it be easier to tumble?


Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:

I have 4 points. I have 4 levels of Ninja (so half is 2) and a +2 Cha modifier.

I love the idea of using vanish and ventriloquist together in this manner, though I think that'll cost all of my ki, so once I do it I can't use ki to boost my stealth or speed.

Still, the plan itself sounds workable. I just may have to overrun a guard and then run like hell instead of sneaking.

LOL, geez, I flunked simple math... You're right, four ki points...

The issue with the ventriloquist approach is that it relies on the GM playing the guards a certain way, and I don't know your GM's style. If the GM is a heavy metagamer playing his NPCs as if they know what the GM knows, then this might not work as well as simply bull rushing the guards at the door or tumbling through them.

What paladin spell do you have prepared? Do you have time to prepare one if you can? "Endure elements" seems it would have been useful. If you can, prepare "grace" and then cast it as they open the door. Then your movement won't provoke attacks of opportunity.

The Exchange

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What are you worried about? You're a ninja and there's nobody else in the party, therefore you are a solitary ninja! Nothing is a match for you.

More seriously, I guess my best advice is to wait until the guards come to transport you to the execution site and then keep your eyes open for the perfect opportunity. I don't own the Ultimate Combat book (that's where the ninja info is, right?) but I'd be surprised if there isn't some kind of illusion, acrobatics, disguise or invisibility trick you can't use. Remember that since death is certain if you don't escape, near-certain death is no reason to throw out an escape plan. ;)


Adamantine Dragon wrote:
What paladin spell do you have prepared? Do you have time to prepare one if you can? "Endure elements" seems it would have been useful. If you can, prepare "grace" and then cast it as they open the door. Then your movement won't provoke attacks of opportunity.

I prepared Liberating Command just in case things went from bad to worse. It gives me a +8 bonus to escape artist checks.


Lincoln Hills wrote:
What are you worried about? You're a ninja and there's nobody else in the party, therefore you are a solitary ninja! Nothing is a match for you.

:D

Quote:
More seriously, I guess my best advice is to wait until the guards come to transport you to the execution site and then keep your eyes open for the perfect opportunity. I don't own the Ultimate Combat book (that's where the ninja info is, right?) but I'd be surprised if there isn't some kind of illusion, acrobatics, disguise or invisibility trick you can't use. Remember that since death is certain if you don't escape, near-certain death is no reason to throw out an escape plan. ;)

I'm afraid that they might have a bunch of guards around during the execution itself. The BBEG also might complete his ritual if I wait.

There are such tricks. I have one that lets me become invisible, and another that lets me emulate other tricks, but at an increased cost. It's expensive to use, but useful in an emergency. It'll probably prove vital in this situation.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Disable the door and the door hatch. I don't think Disable Device requires tools of any sort, but if you need them maybe break the bucket and make tools out of it? Most buckets have a wire handle so you might be able to use that. Now release the inner Kool-Aide Man. Unarmed Strike+Vital Strike+Power Attack+Str will get an average of 9 damage, stone only has a hardness of 8. See where I'm going with this? Start pounding on the walls. If you're not under ground you'll get through about 4 inches worth of HP a minute(if I did my math right). Maybe you'll get lucky and break through if not you'll probably have the guards breaking down the door to stop you. Either way an escape route opens.

If they break open the door, tumble through them and try to jam the lock and close it. Or fight them. Your choice.

If you break through you might find another hallway or a room you can escape through. Or if you're attacking the wall next to the door at least you'll know there's a place through there.


Empty your bodily wastes into the bucket, then when they open the door to take you out for the execution, blind them with excrement and run like heck.


Punching the wall sounds like a bad idea. I already have about half my hit point total in non-lethal damage. I don't need more. I can't mess with the door or it's hatch, either. The hatch only opens from the outside, which is also where the door's hinges and lock are.

As for the idea of waiting for the execution and blinding them, the BBEG could use that time to complete his ritual and they might send more than two guards to transport me to the chopping block. I'd rather take two guards now and be in time to stop the BBEG than several later and show up late.


Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
Hmm. If I overrun a guard, do I lose my invisibility? Would it be easier to tumble?

Yes and probably.


The various "turn invisible, get the guards to open the door, then run" plans seem the best way to go. The hard part is choosing the specific one.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

I wasn't aware using Improved Unarmed Strike caused you to accrue nonlethal damage. As it is it will force the guards to try to stop you, then you do your vanish and run trick. Maybe using the disguise ninja trick until you can get to a supply closet.


If you have to get out before they come to execute you, then you have to come up with some way to convince the guards they need to check on you.

Since you are scheduled for execution it seems feigning sickness won't get their attention.

In one of the early James Bond movies (I think it was "Goldfinger") Bond was in a cell almost exactly as you describe, but with a single guard. Bond kept making eye contact with the guard and smiling at him, then winked, and slowly lowered his head out of view from the door "window". The guard got curious and eventually looked in the room through the window and there was no Bond. So he opened the door and stepped inside where Bond, who had climbed above the door and was holding himself above the door, dropped onto him and subdued him.

That might be a bit too subtle, but the basic idea is sound. Tease the guard into looking at you, then clap your hands and vanish with a laugh and a "see you later!".

Then climb above the door and wait. Maybe he'll do the Bond guard thing and you can stealth out above his head... Or maybe the two guards will do a quick search, not find you and leave the door open as they move away to search. Ventriloquism could help here.


Break the steel door with bare hands. It is not as soft as the brick wall that Alwaysaft suggested bashing, but it has fewer hit points.

Steel is only as hard as iron, unless it is an extra-hard alloy such as chromium steel. Actually, I am curious about the technology of your setting, because most fantasy settings don't have cheap steel and would use an iron door instead. The Core Rulebook lists an iron door as hardness 10, hits points 60, and breaking it down as a DC 28 strength check. A steel door would have hardness 10, more hit points, and a higher DC for breaking down. Your character cannot break it down, but she can bash it to uselessness one hit point at a time. Destroying an iron door would require about 15 minutes. My guess is that destroying a steel door would take half an hour.

In order to overcome the hardness 10, your character will have to combine Vital Strike and Power Attack. That gives a +11 to attack and 2d3+6 damage. 2/9 of the time your paladin will do 11 damage and 1/9 of the time your paladin will do 12 damage, reduced to 1 and 2 by the hardness of the door. I believe the AC of a door is 5, so your paladin will miss only on a 1. This will be more than balanced by occasionally scoring a critical hit for 2d3+12 damage.

Use a Disable Device check so that your strikes will evenly damage the hinges of the door. You want it to fall off its hinges cleanly after the final blow. After that blow, your paladin will have a move action, so walk out of the cell. The guards will have become bored of listening to your character pound on the door, so they won't be in position to block her. You can make a strong argument that they will be flatfooted.

She can spend a ki point on that movement to move more than 30 feet from the guards. They would have to charge to attack.

Since destroying the door will take at least 15 minutes, your paladin will have plenty of time for a Diplomacy check. Have her explain to the guards that she is bashing down the door with her bare hands--they won't believe her unless they regularly work with high-level characters--because she is an unstoppable force of righteousness. She does not want to kill them and they would die before they could stop her, so their duty will be to run and alert the prison to her escape. She can also explain to them that she is sorry that she killed the other guardsmen. She had mistaken them for assassins because they had attacked her silently without just cause.

Thus, when she steps out of the cell, the guards might run, because that is their duty. She can make an Intimidation check on her next round to remind them that discretion is valor in this situation. If the GM does not give a circumstance bonus to that Intimidation check, he is hard-hearted. Your character just destroyed an iron door with her bare hands.

Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
Punching the wall sounds like a bad idea. I already have about half my hit point total in non-lethal damage. I don't need more. I can't mess with the door or it's hatch, either. The hatch only opens from the outside, which is also where the door's hinges and lock are.
Alwaysafk wrote:
I wasn't aware using Improved Unarmed Strike caused you to accrue nonlethal damage. As it is it will force the guards to try to stop you, then you do your vanish and run trick. Maybe using the disguise ninja trick until you can get to a supply closet.

Alwaysafk is right. Nothing in the rules say that hitting hard objects with improved unarmed strike deals damage to your character. Remember that karate experts split bricks without hurting their hands. The GM might rule that your paladin damages herself if she confirms a fumble; however, that would require rolling a 1 to miss followed by a 1 to confirm the fumble. That is unlikely to happen even once during the door bashing.


Alwaysafk wrote:
I wasn't aware using Improved Unarmed Strike caused you to accrue nonlethal damage. As it is it will force the guards to try to stop you, then you do your vanish and run trick. Maybe using the disguise ninja trick until you can get to a supply closet.

The GM has house rules that punching hard things does non-lethal damage to you unless you are a Monk. It makes sense when you think about it. You can do a lot of damage to your hand punching a brick wall or steel door. Sure, many martial artists know techniques to get around this, but that's why Monks get an exception to this rule. They know those techniques. I, however, do not. I have a bit of training in how to throw a punch or aim a kick, and that's it for martial arts.


The technology level is late medieval with a high level of magic and magitech being commonly available. Thanks to all this magic, creating steel is much cheaper than it was in the real medieval period.


Have you considering prayer? You never know when your patron deity may be able to throw you a bone, and it's the type of thing that works for holy types in fantasy fiction all the time.

Less of an mechanical solution and more of an rp one, but it's worth a try :)


One thing I'm noticing in the character stats that hasn't been mentioned yet is +10 Intimidate and +10 Bluff. Try to make a shiv analog from a barrel stave. If the various stealthy ninja moves don't let you get away without alerting them and initiating combat, grapple the closest guard and use him for temporary human shield. Then make lots of noise about how you've only got two hours left anyways, so you're one desperate ninja who shouldn't be messed with cause you could lose it any second. Of course they don't know your paladin code will keep them alive, that can stay your little secret.


Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
The GM has house rules that punching hard things does non-lethal damage to you unless you are a Monk. It makes sense when you think about it. You can do a lot of damage to your hand punching a brick wall or steel door.

Did your GM make a rule about having to regularly repair weapons that hit hard objects such as steel shields or plate armor? If not, use the bucket as an improvised weapon and beat down the door with that.

First, ask the GM if the bucket is made of steel. If he declares it is made of soft wood or plastic, he is nerfing the door-bashing solution because he intends to railroad your paladin into escaping some other way.


The bucket is steel.

Weapons don't have to be repaired after going up against armor or strong materials unless they are fragile, such as attacking a wall with a wooden chair. Using the bucket against the door or wall, however, could be a good way to get the door opened. I'd just have to be ready to vanish really quickly when that happens.

Honestly, the whole idea of bashing down the door seems a bit far fetched. It doesn't really make sense to be able to do that with either fists or a bucket.


Does the bucket have a handle? Makeshift lockpick maybe.


A steel bucket eh... That's worth looking at...

While pounding down a steel door with a steel bucket might be a stretch, pounding a rock wall with a steel bucket is a real possibility. At the very least, it might get the attention of the guards to make them check on your progress. Knock a chunk of stone off the wall and chunk it at the guards so they can see you're making progress. That might goad one into trying to take the bucket away from you, which should be all the opportunity you need to try one of the other escape techniques.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

What is a wall or door to a lvl 8 adventurer? You are rising above the boundaries that hold normal men. I've had encounters where our group sundered around trapped castles or simply broken through walls just to piss off the guy we were invading.

As to a bucket working on the stone, it may be a bit of a stretch as well.

Ineffective Weapons:

Certain weapons just can't effectively deal damage to certain objects. For example, a bludgeoning weapon cannot be used to damage a rope. Likewise, most melee weapons have little effect on stone walls and doors, unless they are designed for breaking up stone, such as a pick or hammer.

"BEHOLD MA +3 WALL BANE BUCKET!"


Kelsey MacAilbert wrote:
Honestly, the whole idea of bashing down the door seems a bit far fetched. It doesn't really make sense to be able to do that with either fists or a bucket.

In real life many, many more people bash down doors using a piece of furniture as an improvised weapon than are able to turn invisible by tapping into their inner ki.

The prison cell is designed to resist combat techniques such as Power Attack and roguish techniques such as Disable Device in the hands of reasonably skilled characters. You, on the other hand, have an eighth-level (i.e. better than an Olympic athlete) character that can combine Power Attack, Vital Strike, and Disable Device with an extraordinary level of skill. I have played in a party of fifth-level characters in a setting where 99% of the people are first level, and they came across as Conan the Barbarian, d'Artagnan, Charlemagne, or Thomas Edison compared to the common man.


"little effect" =/= "no effect." ;-)


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1. You're naked.
2. You have high CHA.
3. ???
4. Escape.


Hudax wrote:

1. You're naked.

2. You have high CHA.
3. ???
4. Escape.

This is true, and a powerful option... It may also be unbecoming for a paladin. For instance, most paladins can't lie.

Then again, there's a world to save.


KrispyXIV wrote:
Hudax wrote:

1. You're naked.

2. You have high CHA.
3. ???
4. Escape.

This is true, and a powerful option... It may also be unbecoming for a paladin. For instance, most paladins can't lie.

Then again, there's a world to save.

At the beginning of the campaign the GM ruled that I cannot lie for selfish or trivial reasons. Other lies, however, are permissible. I even maxed out my bluff ranks.

Using sex is a possible method of getting the door open.

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