So I have just a few questions about how pits interact with huge creatures and how they interact with charging enemy units.
First, can a huge creature charge through a 10x10 pit without being affected, and can it still be trapped by the hole, but just not take damage since almost half of its body is in the hole (4 out of 9 squares).
Secondly, what happens if a pit has Silent Image cast on it, and a character charges through the area. Do they still get a reflex save to not fall into the pit, or since they were charging do they just hit the pit and fall in.
Preemptive thanks!
First, you cannot Charge through rough terrain. While there isn't explicit RAW on this, it's almost always up to the GM to decide what is/is not "rough terrain". I would say having a pit nearly half your size would count as rough terrain. Your GM's mileage may vary - if a GM decides that having a pit (spell or otherwise) in the path of a charge is not rough terrain (perhaps due to the creature's huge size), then the creature should be able to charge over the pit.
Secondly, this is also not explicitly in the rules, but my take is that the victim interacts with the silent image before he interacts with the pit. So he should first get a chance to save against the illusion the moment he "interacts" with it - if he makes that Will save he should then be allowed to attempt a REF save vs. the pit as normal. But if he fails the WILL save, the illusion of a floor should likely cause him to auto-fail the REF save against the pit, or at least impose a significant penalty. I suggest this as a way to reward the use of Silent Image. The alternative is to allow the normal REF save against the pit no matter what (again, the RAW is unclear on this so a GM could rule this way), but if adding that layer of illusion over the pit doesn't produce SOME kind of benefit, then why do it at all? I think it should benefit the caster (hinder the victim) since two spells were used instead of just one.
Because of the rules of charging, no, it cannot charge through an area with a pit.
If the character didn't know there was a pit there and attempted to charge through the area (by a very RAW interpretation) they still can't do it despite not knowing why they can't. A more logical interpretation is that they charge in and must make a reflex save to avoid falling into the pit. However, this action interupts their charge and the cannot move further. I would allow them to make a single attack at anyone within reach if they save successfully (but hardline RAW would probably say they can't make any attack since they can't reach the target of their charge). If they're bigger than the pit I would probably add a bonus to the reflex save not to fall in (maybe a +2 per size category larger than the pit) and if they did fall "in" I would say a DC10 climb check would get them out since only a portion of their body is in the pit. Please note that this second parapgraph is just what I think is a good interpretation on the rules, I'm not sure this is adequately covered in the rules.
Edit: Ninja'd by Blake. I do like the idea of adding in the layer for the silent image and his way seems fair. I was initially thinking of the benefit of the pit being that you could lure someone/something towards the pit where normally they would see it and avoid it. I would actually say that when the charging person reaches the edge of the pit they have definitely interacted (because the ground is slopped and the image is flat [probably]) and should probably get a bonus for detecting a difference in how the ground looks versus what they feel they're moving across.
Thanks for your input guys. I don't have the Silent Image spell (wizards fo' life) yet, but I like modifying the play field to help out the team as well (zBs, if the enemy doesn't fall into a pit, they have to jump away from my friend).
Speaking of that, does a reflex save to not fall into a pit count as an attack of opportunity for whoever is beside them if they are moving more than 5 ft?
Also can a pit hit into a wall for example
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Can that be turned into
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ppp(doesn't even need to be on the same area)
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I want to know to see if being up against a wall will make it an awful idea to place a pit, since it would hit my ally as well.
I know these are all speculations, since I don't know if there is RAW for a lot of it, but I'm trying to get ideas of what other GM might do for situations like this so I can show these ideas to my GM when I try and do stuff like this.
Tecnically, making a saving throw doesn't move anyone anywhere. Sure, in our minds, we visualize a guy making a REF save against Fireball to "dive out of the blast" but if that's true, then we actually have to move people around the battlefield.
That could get interesting. Imagine a rogue with evasion who wants to move from Los Angeles to New York City in 6 seconds - all he needs is a bunch of 1st level mages to line up along the 3,000 miles and ready actions to hit him with Burning Hands - each time he makes his REF save he dives toward the next mage who hits him with Burning Hands as a readied action in the same round - get enough mages, and our rogue could end up literally REF saving himself all the way across the continent, all in just one round.
Silly, I know, but nothing in the RAW says you move any figure of anybody who makes any REF save against any effect.
So you don't move them, not even if a pit opens under their feet.
Hard to visualize?
The way I do it is to visualize that the pit is not necessarily a perfect 10'x10' square with geometrical sizes measured by a surveying team. It's more like it's (somewhat) round, irregular, and roughly formed. Making the save means you stay in your square right at the edge of the pit, perhaps in the corner of one square where the irregular pit doesn't quite extend into that corner.
As for your wall question, the spell states: "You must create the pit on a horizontal surface of sufficient size." If there is a wall there, it is not "horizontal" and if your pit cannot fit into a narrow hallway, you cannot cast it if the hallway is not "of sufficient size". So for the spell to work, you need a 10'x10' horizontal surface free of walls.
Gotcha, thanks again for your replies.