Prisonbreak!

[Magnu123]

Hey all. My live game right now is going through a pretty hard section. I'm just looking for some advice.

The situation: We were knocked out, stripped of our items and put in cells rather than being killed outright, as one would expect for gnolls. So now we're stuck in separate cells with no items and just waking up at 1hp.

The players: Our core group is a dwarf barbarian focusing in combat maneuvers and a half-fiend ninja with high defenses. Our most consistent others are a human cleric healbot and a gnome druid leaning toward spellcasting. Occasionally, we also have an oakling witch with one level of monk and a human rogue, but they aren't usually around. All level 5. Just the cleric, barbarian, and half-fiend ninja were officially captured last night.

My idea: After we have healed naturally long enough to be fighting fit, either the half-fiend or the dwarf fakes an illness, the cleric then begs the guard to let him use his holy symbol to heal his ally. Assuming a non-caster is watching us, they won't notice when the cleric slips in some buff spells on top of the cure spells. Now with the cleric in (let's assume) the barbarian's cage, he casts silence and the barbarian bullrushes and grapples the guard against the ninja's cage for the sneak attack. With the guard disabled, we quickly don his armor and attempt a disguise if possible then begin the search for our items and our objective.

Thoughts?

[blackbloodtroll]

What is the prison made out of?

[EWHM]

Is your GM a simulationist (for your character's sake, hopefully not, because it is way easier to escape a narrativist or gamist prison)? Have you considered negotiating a ransom?

[Korpen]

EWHM wrote:

Have you considered negotiating a ransom?

Second that, as that is most likely the reason for taking prisoners (it is profitable, and in everyone’s interest that it happens).

Let’s hope you remembered to write in a family background so the PC got some kin and clan to cough up the ransom. :)

[Magnu123]

Iron bars. The ransom idea seems valid, but we are dealing with gnolls who just assaulted a large city-centre. We don't know yet what they want with us. I guess first thing to do is find out some more.

[Luminiere Solas]

the locked in prison with no gear scenario is a sign of a powermad DM. here are some of the things that show why a good DM should not use this scenario.

by stripping PCs of thier equipment, you have put a bias in favor of sorcerers, oracles, and synthesists that makes these the only truly workable classes. martials badly need equipment, most Intellegence based casters require a spellbook.

because PCs are unequipped, you might as well have to treat thier level as half of what it really is (rounding downward, so half of 7 is 3) for the purpose of determining APL because relevant magical equipment is a must have and mandantory to survive. losing gear lowers your combat numbers that much

if the PCs never got a chance to prepare for this scenario, they likely won't be able to fight back without getting smacked by an oppurtunity attack from what may be a much better geared opponent.

because your combat numbers have been drastically lowered, and because you most likely didn't prepare unless this were the intro to the beginning of the campaign. you are even more screwed than someone who prepared for it.

[EvilMinion]

I would be wary of sitting around hoping to heal up naturally... it seems unlikely that the gnolls would want to keep you for any kind of extended period. The longer you wait, the more likely something bad might come up.

I'd have to guess the guards would need to be pretty inept to fall for that plan as is... but I suppose a good bluff roll might be able to tip the scale there.... and Silence is a full round casting time, its not going to keep the guard from yelling for help.

A cleric does not need his holy symbol to cast most of his spells. There are only a select few cleric spells that require a divine focus (as well as channel energy)... though whether he needs his holy symbol during his spell prep/praying process might be debatable.

I would think the ninja would have the best chance of getting out of his cage... but would depend entirely on if he bothered to keep up on his Disable Device ranks. If so, probably easier to try to find something he can used as an improvised lock pick, then take a 20 on picking the lock (while perhaps the others keep the guard distracted).

If a sneak attack from the rogue can take a guard out in one hit, that's more likely to keep the alarm from being raised... though you might have to do it with an improvised weapon (smoke him with a bucket or a stool... basically the heaviest thing you can stealthy pick up.

Otherwise, if the barb is maneuver specialized... if he can get a guard close enough, he could attempt to grapple him through the bars for the classic crushing arm around the neck trick... but you'd have to get him pinned fast to prevent the yelling (a surprise round and init helps here... surprise round grapple, round one pin... hold 'til it stops moving)... then hope he carries a key on him... figure this out *before* you try this trick

Other options might be Knowledge: Engineering to find weak spot on the cell that might allow you to get out or procure an improvised weapon (with which to smack the guard or perhaps sunder the lock, etc.

The cleric is your wild card... All sorts of options open up if the cleric can get a nights reset and relearn spells... but most prison situations do not allow for the prisoners to get that uninterrupted rest, so you're stuck with whatever you had memmed when you got caught.
As mentioned, just taking his holy symbol will not prevent him from casting most of his spells.

There are tons of options to escape captivity, just depends on how badly the GM is intent on keeping you in there, and the setup.

[Cyberwolf2xs]

If there's enough space between the bars to at least fit the head through, the Ninja could try Escape Artist, probably while someone distracts the guard.

Bending iron bars is a dc 24 strength check so could be doable, depending on your barbarian.

[EWHM]

Luminiere Solas wrote:

the locked in prison with no gear scenario is a sign of a powermad DM. here are some of the things that show why a good DM should not use this scenario.

by stripping PCs of thier equipment, you have put a bias in favor of sorcerers, oracles, and synthesists that makes these the only truly workable classes. martials badly need equipment, most Intellegence based casters require a spellbook.

because PCs are unequipped, you might as well have to treat thier level as half of what it really is (rounding downward, so half of 7 is 3) for the purpose of determining APL because relevant magical equipment is a must have and mandantory to survive. losing gear lowers your combat numbers that much

if the PCs never got a chance to prepare for this scenario, they likely won't be able to fight back without getting smacked by an oppurtunity attack from what may be a much better geared opponent.

because your combat numbers have been drastically lowered, and because you most likely didn't prepare unless this were the intro to the beginning of the campaign. you are even more screwed than someone who prepared for it.

The scenario is perfectly legit if you're a simulationist---in simulationist games the GM will never try to engineer such a situation, it's just nearly always on the possible consequences list if you lose a fight. But don't try this if you're a gamist or narrativist unless you want a serious backlash from your players.