Thermite Explosions and Other Mythbusters Implications

[Maginomicon]

Thermite is a thing in D&D.

Fire Beetle Paste

50gp, 1 lb.; Alchemy DC 25

This noxious substance is a mixture of chemicals and a concentrated distillation of fire beetle glands, yielding a thick, reddish paste. It can be spread on surfaces and burns fiercely for 1d4 rounds when touched by open flame, doing 3d6 points of damage per round and halving the hardness of the object before damage is applied. It can burn through wood, stone, and even metal. One container of the paste is enough to draw a half-inch thick line 1 yard long. A container can be ignited and thrown, but the paste does not stick or splatter when used in such a manner and has the same effect as a thrown torch.While not chemically exactly the same as thermite, it looks and acts like thermite.

The Mythbusters proved that you can create an antipode bomb by putting thermite on blocks of ice. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6cMmk8LZgQ) As such, personally, I'm fully willing to allow the creation of antipode bombs in D&D by way of Rule of Cool even if the RAW for Fire Beetle Paste doesn't say it interacts with ice.

What other Mythbusters-inspired house-rules are you willing to let fly?

[Mr Adventurer]

Firing a chicken into a dragon's face in mid-flight doesn't cause it to crash.

[Chester]

Maybe the longer the PC's leave blood and entrails splattered on their clothing and armor, the harder it is to get the smell out? (Remember the Mythbusters episode with the rotting pig carcass in the car?)

Start giving Charisma penalties.

[TheIronGolem]

Firing a chicken into a dragon's face in mid-flight doesn't cause it to crash.

Did you remember to freeze the chickens first?

[Twilightwyrm]

Feel free to rule of cool it, but if you listen to the possible explanations they gave in the video, I'm not sure it would work. If we assume the "rapid conversion" theory, then burning paste could potentially produce the same result. If we, however, assume the "aerosol" theory, the explosion only works because the thermite is in dust form. Paste might well have too strong of a molecular bond from one molecule to the next, and thus would not be thrown up in small pieces by the areosoling effect.

[Grayson01]

Sharks Dire or other wise Tare the Crap out of the metal Cage, and shink Boats!

[Uncle Pine]

A blind commoner is perfectly able to drive a wagon if a PC tells him when he has to steer and if there are obstacles on the road. :smallbiggrin:

[Maginomicon]

Awesome. Keep it up. I want to give the Chicken-Infested Commoner something to fear. XD

[TypoNinja]

Awesome. Keep it up. I want to give the Chicken-Infested Commoner something to fear. XD

Why he fears the Peasant Rail Gun of course.

Have a few hundred Peasants stand in a line. Hand the first a cannon ball. Each peasant readies an action to pass the cannonball down the line when he is handed a cannonball.

Less than six seconds later your cannon ball has traversed the line, use distance divided by time to get velocity. If your line was long enough your cannon ball has hilarious velocity.

[BeerMug Paladin]

Why he fears the Peasant Rail Gun of course.

Have a few hundred Peasants stand in a line. Hand the first a cannon ball. Each peasant readies an action to pass the cannonball down the line when he is handed a cannonball.

Less than six seconds later your cannon ball has traversed the line, use distance divided by time to get velocity. If your line was long enough your cannon ball has hilarious velocity.
Wow, that is ridiculous and hilarious. Maybe I ought to try that in a game sometime.

[Uncle Pine]

The Commoner Rail Gun can also be used as a form of high speed travel if you replace the cannonball with a living creature. Funny things is that if the last Commoner in the line uses the drop an item (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#dropanItem) action, the object/living creatures instantly stops regardless of its/his previous speed.

[TypoNinja]

Wow, that is ridiculous and hilarious. Maybe I ought to try that in a game sometime.

You can pull a similar trick with a pebble and a large collection of ring gates, but that's harder to set up, and not nearly as hilarious to watch in action.

[Gemini476]

Have two ring gates. Place one above the other, so that they face each other. Pass a metal rod through one of the gates, and weld the two ends together.

Drop the rod.

Due to how the ring gates work, the rod now has infinite mass. It will continue to fall at increasingly ridiculous speeds, and if you somehow attach a way to extract the excess kinetic energy (a wheel, for instance) you have UNLIMITED POWER.

You have also broken physics neatly in half over your magically-enhanced knee.

[TypoNinja]

Have two ring gates. Place one above the other, so that they face each other. Pass a metal rod through one of the gates, and weld the two ends together.

Drop the rod.

Due to how the ring gates work, the rod now has infinite mass. It will continue to fall at increasingly ridiculous speeds, and if you somehow attach a way to extract the excess kinetic energy (a wheel, for instance) you have UNLIMITED POWER.

You have also broken physics neatly in half over your magically-enhanced knee.

Wouldn't the 100 lbs a day limit on ring gates stop this pretty rapidly? Also each one has an entry and exit side, its not just passing through the gate that matters, you have to pass from the right direction.

Finally, why exactly does the rod have infinite mass? Maybe its cause its 4 am, but I'm not seeing how this works at all.

[Gemini476]

Wouldn't the 100 lbs a day limit on ring gates stop this pretty rapidly? Also each one has an entry and exit side, its not just passing through the gate that matters, you have to pass from the right direction.

Finally, why exactly does the rod have infinite mass? Maybe its cause its 4 am, but I'm not seeing how this works at all.

As soon as you weld the ends together, the rod becomes one infinitely long item. Because it never fully passes through the Ring Gate, the weight limit never comes into play.

Its infinitely long, so it has infinite mass. You just set it up like you're playing Portal and want to do one of those infinite momentum loops so that the two opposite ends of a straight rod can be welded together, and hey presto! Infinitely long rod.

[Uncle Pine]

To go back to "Mythbusters meet D&D", a masterwork chainmail does NOT offer DR Infinity+1/- against sharks' attacks.

[AMFV]

Why he fears the Peasant Rail Gun of course.

Have a few hundred Peasants stand in a line. Hand the first a cannon ball. Each peasant readies an action to pass the cannonball down the line when he is handed a cannonball.

Less than six seconds later your cannon ball has traversed the line, use distance divided by time to get velocity. If your line was long enough your cannon ball has hilarious velocity.

It doesn't actually work because there is no conservation of momentum in D&D as per RAW. Handing the item to the next peasant doesn't actually mean that it will do any more damage than a standard improvised weapon if thrown by the final peasant, and any more than any other dropped item if dropped. This is because there are specific rules for dropping items, and for throwing them, so since there are rules the regular rules no longer apply. You could certainly use it for post or transit though.

[Eldan]

A related thing that doesn't get brought up as often is the horsejumper highway. With a DC20 ride check, one can mount or dismount a horse as a free action. Meaning that if one has a line of horses and can reliably make the check, one could mount a horse, dismount on the other side, mount the next horse, dismount on the other side of that... and move an arbitrary distance, as a free action. Of course, you can ride any creature larger than yourself. As an example, a halfling general in a human army could instantly get to any point on the battlefield simply by hopping on the shoulders of his men.

[Osiris]

A related thing that doesn't get brought up as often is the horsejumper highway. With a DC20 ride check, one can mount or dismount a horse as a free action. Meaning that if one has a line of horses and can reliably make the check, one could mount a horse, dismount on the other side, mount the next horse, dismount on the other side of that... and move an arbitrary distance, as a free action. Of course, you can ride any creature larger than yourself. As an example, a halfling general in a human army could instantly get to any point on the battlefield simply by hopping on the shoulders of his men.

This is genius! Are free actions like immediate actions, can you use them out of turn? If so, you could dodge ANYTHING!*

*PROBABLY

[Fouredged Sword]

I still like the goblin lightning thieves. You get a silly high slight of hand check and a pair of goblins can cross an arbitrary distance, stalling anything along the way, as a free action.

[TypoNinja]

This is genius! Are free actions like immediate actions, can you use them out of turn? If so, you could dodge ANYTHING!*

*PROBABLY


Free Action

Free actions consume a very small amount of time and effort. You can perform one or more free actions while taking another action normally. However, there are reasonable limits on what you can really do for free.

One of the few rules that actually amount to "Ask your DM"

So the horse jumper highway probably doesn't work by RAW because of the "reasonable limits" clause, since its clearly ridiculous (for any long distance anyway), though how many times you are allowed to mount and dismount in a turn precisely is going to be up to your DM.

[Werephilosopher]

Due to how the ring gates work, you've probably created a black hole.

Fixed it for ya :smallwink:

[Uncle Pine]

One of the few rules that actually amount to "Ask your DM"

So the horse jumper highway probably doesn't work by RAW because of the "reasonable limits" clause, since its clearly ridiculous (for any long distance anyway), though how many times you are allowed to mount and dismount in a turn precisely is going to be up to your DM.

However, since RAW there is no defined cap to the number of free action one can perform and since, as you know, RAW : not defined reasonable limit = Felidae : catgirls, horse jumper highway works by RAW.

[TypoNinja]

It doesn't actually work because there is no conservation of momentum in D&D as per RAW. Handing the item to the next peasant doesn't actually mean that it will do any more damage than a standard improvised weapon if thrown by the final peasant, and any more than any other dropped item if dropped. This is because there are specific rules for dropping items, and for throwing them, so since there are rules the regular rules no longer apply. You could certainly use it for post or transit though.

There is conservation of momentum RAW. Aside from the reality warping that would happen without it like your planet ceasing to spin, so most campaign settings books imply it because they have a day night cycle and seasons. Things of this nature. Some things are just that important to our actual existence that simply existing implies that they are in effect.

But even without the common sense answer, Ice Slick is a first level spell from Frostburn that talks about somebody moving downhill skidding clear through its area of effect. So we have RAW for it too.