Pits of Clockroach Deployment

[unseenmage]

How many Clockroaches (MM4 pg28) will fit inside an Enveloping Pit (MIC 159)?

How many if they squeeze? (PH148, thanks GilesTheCleric)

How many Clockroaches can be deployed from the pit per round?

How many can be deployed per round if they're squeezing?
(moving while squeezing looks like it slows you but does moving into an open space from a squeezed one?)


Bonus: Same questions as above only answered for each creature size category.
What's the largest creature that can be squeezed into an E. Pit?


Thanks regardless Playground.

[GilesTheCleric]

An incredibly large number, at which point you're using swarm rules and the actual number doesn't matter anymore. I believe the threshold for a swarm is 30 creatures, so as long as you can fit that many in, you don't really need to know how many actually fit.

[unseenmage]

I thought the threshold for a Swarm was 1000 creatures and the largest they got was Tiny?

[GilesTheCleric]

Ah, you're right. I was thinking of mobs, although apparently it's not 30 for those, either.

"A swarm of Tiny creatures consists of 300 nonflying creatures or 1,000 flying creatures. A swarm of Diminutive creatures consists of 1,500 nonflying creatures or 5,000 flying creatures. A swarm of Fine creatures consists of 10,000 creatures, whether they are flying or not. Swarms of nonflying creatures include many more crea- tures than could normally fit in a 10-foot square based on their normal space, because creatures in a swarm are packed tightly together and generally crawl over each other and their prey when moving or attacking." MM1

"A mob is treated as a single entity, much like a swarm, but is composed of Small, Medium, or Large creatures...A mob consists of 48 Small or Medium creatures, or 12 Large creatures. Larger groups are represented by multiple mobs." Cs

The enveloping pit is 50x10x10ft, so you have a volume of 5000 ft^3 (8,640,000 in^3). A clockroach is 4x1.5x(2.5, height not given)ft. That's 15 ft^3.

At that size, the most you can fit in an enveloping pit is 333. So you could get several mobs' worth of them into a pit, but not a swarm since they're small.

[unseenmage]

Ah, you're right. I was thinking of mobs, although apparently it's not 30 for those, either.

"A swarm of Tiny creatures consists of 300 nonflying creatures or 1,000 flying creatures. A swarm of Diminutive creatures consists of 1,500 nonflying creatures or 5,000 flying creatures. A swarm of Fine creatures consists of 10,000 creatures, whether they are flying or not. Swarms of nonflying creatures include many more crea- tures than could normally fit in a 10-foot square based on their normal space, because creatures in a swarm are packed tightly together and generally crawl over each other and their prey when moving or attacking." MM1

"A mob is treated as a single entity, much like a swarm, but is composed of Small, Medium, or Large creatures...A mob consists of 48 Small or Medium creatures, or 12 Large creatures. Larger groups are represented by multiple mobs." Cs

The enveloping pit is 50x10x10ft, so you have a volume of 5000 ft^3 (8,640,000 in^3). A clockroach is 4x1.5x(2.5, height not given)ft. That's 15 ft^3.

At that size, the most you can fit in an enveloping pit is 333. So you could get several mobs' worth of them into a pit, but not a swarm since they're small.

I quit playing 3.x for a long while but I remember there being some rules somewhere about larger creatures squeezing into smaller creature's spaces.
Something along the lines of 1 large creature can stand and fight in it's usual 10x10 space just fine, it can barely fit into a 5x5 space and it can technically squeeze into a small creature's space?

Also, these mobs you mention intrigue me. I have not heard of them before. What book are they from, if you don't mind my asking?

[GilesTheCleric]

They're in Cityscape - I included the source to my post on the subject.

Yes, squeezing is a thing. PHB 148.

[unseenmage]

They're in Cityscape - I included the source to my post on the subject.

Yes, squeezing is a thing. PHB 148.

Ah, thank you. Apologies, missed the little Cs hiding there.

[GilesTheCleric]

No problem.

What are you planning on using these for, anyway? Some sort of Indiana Jones-style trap?

[unseenmage]

No problem.

What are you planning on using these for, anyway? Some sort of Indiana Jones-style trap?

Basically yeah. DM handed me more gp than good sense and I'm presented with a Burrowing escaping enemy who's stolen something important to me.

A friend already suggested using the transport function of Wish to reclaim my lost property. (still mulling over whether that would cause the DM to react with fiat or not)

But when in doubt, apply hordes and hordes of purchasable burrowing constructs to the problem, right.

[GilesTheCleric]

Ah, I like your style.

If you want to spend even more money, then you could upgrade your enveloping pit into a stronghold that can pass through stone. Then fill it with clockroaches. SBG has rules for that.

[unseenmage]

Ah, I like your style.

If you want to spend even more money, then you could upgrade your enveloping pit into a stronghold that can pass through stone. Then fill it with clockroaches. SBG has rules for that.

Already have a heavily modified Clockwork Tower queued up and waiting for completion. In 4 in-game years it should be finished. (I got greedy)
Built in a Pipe Organ of Building (Lyre of Building wondrous architecture) and Alphorn of Blasting (Horn of Blasting wondrous architecture) to negate the Crawling Tower's somewhat ridiculous vulnerability to slopes and low walls.

My DM and I were discussing that I was building a very expensive crawling stronghold on an island nation and how I'd ever leave.
I reminded him that I could just Pipe Organ of Building my way down and his eyes went wide. (the Underdark is a big influence on he and I both in our games.)



I've decided that the Clockroaches would be cool and creepy but I just don't have enough time to purchase so many. Later sure, just not with the down-time I have left to account for at the moment.
I'm considering larger constructs as an alternative. That or a couple scrolls of Transmute Rock to Lava to hem in this unknown burrowing enemy.

Plan A was Clockroach rush, plan B is Caryatid Column ambush, plan C is just like plan A but with some sort of actual Golem instead.