Looking around and can't find stats for this hazard.
Obviously the end effect would be Drowning (Core 445), but what about before?
DC 20 Swim check or Strength check to pull yourself out of the muck?
1d6 Lethal heat damage per round? Non-leathal?
Please advise oh how one should adjudicate this.
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Looking around and can't find stats for this hazard.
Obviously the end effect would be Drowning (Core 445), but what about before?
DC 20 Swim check or Strength check to pull yourself out of the muck?
1d6 Lethal heat damage per round? Non-leathal?
Please advise oh how one should adjudicate this.
I'd have to look around, but I think the Savage Tide adventure path had a segment with tar pits.
I don't have that adventure path.
That also got me thinking of what Prestidigitation does against someone who is tarred. I figured once you leave the Tar pit that you would be under the affects of the tar - similar to a Tanglefoot Bag???
At the very least, I would think your movement would be slowed as if you were encumbered. Maybe entangled while in the goop and somewhat less so when you get out.
I would think 1d6 lethal damage since it is also sticking to the wound. I have an aunt who got a fairly serious burn from a melted marshmallow through her jeans, so I can imagine tar is a bit worse!
Please advise oh how one should adjudicate this.
First, need a little better definition of "bubbling tar pit." When I think of a tar pit, I think of the La Brea tar pits (I grew up near there so I've seen it many times. They bubble from internal gases not from boiling. So, is it just bubbling or is it boiling? That would affect whether there is any damage from burning as Dan suggested.
For the rest of this, I am assuming a natural tar pit, not some fiendishly created tar pit. I would treat it much as quicksand. My understanding is that they kill in very similar ways. Basically, trapping the victim then slowly pulling them under. Note that Pathfinder quicksand is very quick one failed swim check and you are under.
The easiest solution is you could just rule it as quicksand and flavor it as a "tar pit" and you're done.
Another option is to treat it as a grapple, similar to a bag of devouring.
Knowing a little about how they work, I don't particularly like either one as swimming is nigh impossible so skill ranks in swimming don't seem particularly useful and I don't feel a high BAB would be all that useful either so grapple isn't perfect either.
In the interest of not writing whole new sections of rules I would just use the quicksand option as swim is essentially a strength check. I would increase the DC a little and be done.
Given my choice I would probably use a plain strength check with a circumstance penalty for weight carried. You would gain the grappled condition while trapped. I would also make it swallow the victim slowly (i.e. two or more failed checks). Maybe grappled, pinned, then drowning.
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Tar Pits were featured in Dungeon Magazine #143, p47
"The first five feet of tar pit is only a foot or two deep, but grows deeper quickly. A character moving through the tar pit within five feet from the shore may do so by spending three squares of movement per square. In the deeper tar, a character must make DC 25 Swim checks to move through it. In addition, the tar is boiling hot, and inflicts 1d6 points of fire damage per round to anyone who moves through it. Someone immersed in tar takes 3d6 fire damage per round. Tar continues to burn for 1d6 rounds after a character emerges. Removing the tar from a creature takes 1d6 consecutive full-round actions. Spells like prestidigitation can clean the tar off quickly."
Well, there ya go. Sure it's 3.5 rules, but it was published by Paizo, so it's probably a good starting point. I like the concept of the tar slowing you even after you get out, but it'd probably be less than while you are actively walking through tar, so maybe reduce your speed by half until you get the tar cleaned.
Since you're swimming, you'd be moving 1/2 speed to begin with, so that extra speed reduction from the tar would put a normal human at a max speed of 5ft in the tar.
1/2 Normal speed = 15 [3 squares]
Each square of tar = 3 squares of regular movement
Speed swimming through tar = 5ft [1 square]
Man, that'd suck since a swimmer is immersed [3d6/round], so a 15' wide tar pit would take at least 3 rounds to navigate; first 5' is wading [1d6 dmg], swimming slows you for the next 5' [3d6 dmg], then the last 5' [1d6 dmg] gets you through to the land on the other side. Without prestidigitation, you're gonna take another 1d6 per round for at least 1 more round [and maybe up to 6]! That's 6d6 dmg with no saves, and reduced movement until you get cleaned up.
Time for an ambush, or bull rush, or a drag maneuver into the tar by a fire-immune critter.
Thank you Stockvillain.