Rules arbitration question here.
My players were in the middle of a bar fight with a difficult opponent and the dwarven rogue grappled the bad guy. The cleric then pulled out her rope of climbing and 'willed' it to tie itself around the bad guy's leg.
This was difficult for me. What's the rope's attack bonus? So I turned to the animate rope spell for guidance:
The rope can enwrap only a creature or an object within 1 foot of it—it does not snake outward—so it must be thrown near the intended target. Doing so requires a successful ranged touch attack roll (range increment 10 feet). A typical 1-inch-diameter hempen rope has 2 hit points, AC 10, and requires a DC 23 Strength check to burst it. The rope does not deal damage, but it can be used as a trip line or to cause a single opponent that fails a Reflex saving throw to become entangled. A creature capable of spellcasting that is bound by this spell must make a DC 15 Concentration check to cast a spell. An entangled creature can slip free with a DC 20 Escape Artist check.
In game we just decided that she should make a ranged touch attack, which of course has a 50% miss chance because the target is grappled. It missed and tied itself around the rogue, but really had no effect on the battle (they had pretty much won by this time). The cleric's player was understandably disgruntled by this resolution. She argued that the rope should only need to make a melee touch attack not a ranged attack. For reference:
A 60-foot-long rope of climbing is no thicker than a wand, but it is strong enough to support 3,000 pounds. Upon command, the rope snakes forward, upward, downward, or in any other direction at 10 feet per round, attaching itself securely wherever its owner desires. It can unfasten itself and return in the same manner.
A creature must hold one end of the rope when its magic is invoked.
So the rope of climbing can do what the animate rope cannot, i.e. snake forward more than a foot. But what attack bonus does this thing have? Can it even tie itself around moving targets? I'd like to come up with a better resolution than "Well, I'm not sure what else to do and since it's not effecting the outcome anyway, lets just stick with the ranged attack". Thoughts?
I think you made the right call. Sure, the rope can "attach securely wherever its owner desires," but 1) it's not itself an intelligent item, and 2) it's not made for use in combat. I'd give kudos to the player for the idea, but it shouldn't be something that they can use to topple every baddie.