Alright, I know that burrowing isn't very well defined in pathfinder, but I do have a couple of basic questions regarding it...
1. Can a character (like a Trox) breath while burrowing?
2. Can a character take a 5-foot step while burrowed?
3. How can a character 'see' while burrowing? For example, does the character 'know' where other characters are located on the surface? Can the burrowing character differentiate between enemies and friendlies while burrowed? (I ask this because a character like a Trox does not have tremorsense)
4. Does a character who is burrowing automatically assume a stealth check of 25 (because, according to perception, to notice a creature beneath you requires a DC 25 perception check)?
5. Can a character 'sleep' while burrowed?
thanks again for the help.
1. Not likely; burrowing through dirt doesn't tend to result in usable oxygen being available. Note that the burrow speed does not convey any special breathing powers. Similarly, a cetacean whale cannot breathe while swimming even though it has a swim speed.
2. Yes, so long as its burrow speed is more than 5 feet.
3. A creature cannot see while burrowing unless it pokes its head out. Many burrowing creatures have special senses to counteract this.
4. A burrowing creature not using Stealth would require a DC 25 Perception check to be noticed by a creature standing above it. Stealth is a separate thing; a creature succeeding at Perception versus the other creature's Stealth notices the creature. This leads to some rather crazy circumstances where a clumsy burrower may be impossible to notice unless it uses Stealth, in which case it's suddenly relatively easy to notice. A sane GM might require either two separate Perception rolls (one for regular perception, one for opposing Stealth) or one Perception roll against the higher of the two DCs, possibly including a circumstance modifier to the roll.
Stealth and (to a lesser extent) Perception are a bit of a pain to adjudicate. The designers have been reluctant to make the kind of changes needed to make Stealth easier to manage as they'd require a significant rewrite of a CRB rule set. They've updated it to work for most of the typical cases; the rest must be left to the GM to figure out.
5. If breathing is not an issue, sure.
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8 years necro.
Tox are " Large monstrous humanoids", not space beetles. "Humanoids breathe, eat, and sleep.", so Trox breathe.
AFAIK, there aren't rules about how burrowing and breathing work (excluding creatures that Eearht glide and polymorph spells), but there were rules in earlier editions of the game.
Before Pathfinder:
1) burrowing creatures without the earth glide ability were making a tunnel. Its stability was dependent on the medium they were burrowing. From what I recall, sand tunnels would collapse almost immediately, tunnels burrowed in packed earth would last from a few minutes to hours, and tunnels in solid stone would last almost forever.
2) Again depending on the medium, the tunnel would contain some air.
A creature burrowing in the sand would have to resurface every round or start holding its breath.
A creature burrowing through the earth would have access to air if the tunnel did connect with the outside or a source of air. If part of the tunnel did collapse it would have a few rounds of air.
A creature burrowing into solid stone had access to air as long as it was connected to an air source.
While they aren't Pathfinder rules, you can start from there to decide how it works at your table.
Just to reply to a old post: moles tunnels are connected to the surface, and the moles get their air from there.
If we were going by comparison to other burrowing creatures, the borrowing Trox also had to start its tunnel on the surface, as well... its tunnel would contain enough air to sleep in, just as most borrowing animals sleep exclusively in their burrows. So, unless the Trox started its tunnel whilst underwater, the answer to questions 1 & 5 are yes. HOWEVER, we have this...
Burrow wrote:
"Most burrowing creatures do not leave behind tunnels other creatures can use (either because the material they tunnel through fills in behind them or because they do not actually dislocate any material when burrowing)"
1 & 5. Nope, because the Trox's burrow speed does not state it leaves tunnels behind.
2. Probably not, as your vision is hampered by darkness... even with Darkvision, all you can "see" is black and white dirt right in front of your face. Assuming you tunnel in a straight line, I suppose you could take a 5-foot step backwards [if you have Darkvision]. But also no, because it doesn't leave a tunnel behind it.
AoN wrote:
"You can only take a 5-foot-step if your movement isn't hampered by difficult terrain or darkness. Any creature with a speed of 5 feet or less can't take a 5-foot step, since moving even 5 feet requires a move action for such a slow creature.
You may not take a 5-foot step using a form of movement for which you do not have a listed speed."
3. No, they cannot see. And without special senses, they should count as blind... but burrowing speeds say nothing about having to succeed at Acrobatics checks to move more than half speed.
Blinded wrote:
"The creature cannot see. It takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class, loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), and takes a –4 penalty on most Strength– and Dexterity-based skill checks and on opposed Perception skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Perception checks based on sight) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) against the blinded character. Blind creatures must make a DC 10 Acrobatics skill check to move faster than half speed."
4. No, Stealth is different than the Perception check required to notice something below you... something underground would require that DC 25 Perception check even without using the Stealth skill. It's not a matter of how well they are "hiding", because they aren't hiding... they're literally buried. It's a matter if you are capable of perceiving their presence below you. Do you feel the ground vibrating? Hear them breathing/digging? Do you see the ground raised like Bugs Bunny tunnels in cartoons? A burrowing creature could further use the Stealth skill to avoid leaving these signs, but they have the potential of making it easier to spot them... if the Stealth check was less than 25, you just made yourself easier to be found.