BLAMM!'s page

This issue has come up because of a Pathfinder Society scenario, but it's a general rules question. In the scenario (I'll leave out which one for spoiler reasons) a bad guy's tactics say "he grabs a slave as a human shield". During the combat, he remains "within reach of his slaves to act as unwilling shields."

The concern of maintaining a grapple aside (I'm assuming the slaves would not resist), what are the effects of a "human shield"? I have found no reference to this tactic anywhere after searching the online SRD and the forums here. I would guess some sort of cover, but you normally don't have to deal with the possibility of cover taking damage.

Anyone have any idea how this is handled? If it were a home game I'd just make something up and move on, but this is for PFS, and I want to make sure I'm following the rules as much as possible.

I have a, let's say "creative", player in my regular game. He has commissioned a blacksmith to make him a bear trap with a handle attached so he can use it as a melee weapon. The idea being that he holds onto the handle, and thrusts it at an opponent so that it snaps closed. Then presumably he has the opponent grappled as long as he holds on to it. He even planned a safety catch so he can carry the thing without it going off accidentally.

While I'm not against the idea (I think it's hilarious) I want to be prepared to rule on how this thing will work in game.

Bear Traps (12) (CR 1)

Effect
Atk +10 melee (2d6+3); sharp jaws spring shut around the creature’s ankle and halve the creature’s base speed (or hold the creature immobile if the trap is attached to a solid object); the creature can escape with a DC 20 Disable Device check, DC 22 Escape Artist check, or a DC 26 Strength check

I'm contemplating the following rules:

- It requires a full round action to set the trap.
- Unless he takes the feat Exotic Weapon Proficiency[Beartrap] he'll take the -4 non-proficiency penalty to his attack.
- The attack will be against Touch AC
- After he successfully makes his attack, the beartrap has to make its own attack. i.e. his thrusting it against a creature springs the trap as if the creature had stepped into it on the ground initiating an attack roll.
- If the trap's attack is successful, the damage is done, and the trap is attached to the creature. Both the creature and the wielder gain the grappled condition with the wielder being the grappler.
- The creature can attempt to make one of the checks to escape the trap, or can make a CMB check to escape the grapple with the wielder.
- If the wielder escapes the grapple, he still has he grappled condition until he escapes the trap.
- The bear trap grants a +2 bonus to anyone attempting to grapple the creature as long as it remain attached.

Have I missed anything? Any suggestions?

I've killed PCs before, had TPK's even, but never in a living game. I feel bad but it was really inevitable. I was running Tide of Twilight for four 1st and 2nd level characters. I warned them that there was a real chance of someone, possibly everyone dying. The final two encounters are very challenging, and the characters were not heavy on combat skills. To top it off, the usual meat shield, a barbarian was not present.

So despite the warning, and despite these being experienced players (though new to PFS) they made some rookie mistakes and failed the scenario's primary mission. Two of them died, two were stricken with the scenario's transformation curse, though they were able to pay for it's removal and thus remain playable characters.

So my I ran my first PFS home game, and while everyone had a great time, the final encounter went against them. All but one PC went down, and the final guy ran for it. Everyone in the group is an experienced player so there are no hard feelings, but I have two questions.