Marbles? [3.5]

[The Shadowdove]

I love the thought of using such simple and cheap items to my advantage. However, I'd like to know if you guys can put your superior knowledge together and make marbles and even more effective item to use when the moment arises!

Let's do this!

Can anyone suggest ways to make these more useful?

Tricks with them

Dc's/way to improve dcs?

How big of a bag of marbles can I carry?

How much would a normal/large bag of marbles weigh/cost?

The ones I've used in the past were dc 15 balance 10 ft.

I also knew someone who had 'oiled' marbles that were of a higher dc, but I don't know how much higher. it was years ago.



Thanks for helping me prone my foes with glass balls!

-Dove

[Troacctid]

Use an unseen servant to dump the bag of marbles without spending an action.

[Bullet06320]

for oiled or greased marbles I would add +5 to the dc

I like the unseen servant idea, same could be done with skeleton or other undead minion too, I once had necromancer's skeletal minion carry around a bag full of crawling claws and would toss the bag into combat

[(Un)Inspired]

Uhhhh I feel like I talked to someone a while ago about an urban Druid who had animated marbles as his companion. He stored them in his pants and released them with a release-cord that was attached to a draw string tied to a shuriken he could draw as a free action.

EDIT: hmmmm looks like I was mid remembering. Here's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16174602&postcount=4) where the simpler trick is mentioned

[Mr Adventurer]

IIRC there's official stats for marbles in Dungeonscape.

[Chronos]

The biggest advantage to marbles is that, even if it's an easy DC check, anyone making a Balance check with less than 5 ranks in the skill is flatfooted.

[Darrin]

IIRC there's official stats for marbles in Dungeonscape.

Actually, it's in the Arms & Equipment Guide page 24. 2 SP for a two-pound bag. They can be spread like caltrops. Dungeonscape has the rubber ball and flour pouches.

[Ellowryn]

Ah marbles, the bane of barbarians everywhere.

[Zakerst]

you can put them in a flask and do with that what you will (gnome calculus comes to mind)

or seeing as they seem to be glass marbles put them in a flask of acid and get a double wammy. (also works with anything else really that you'd put in a flask)

or if your DM will let you craft them yourself make them full of acid, or contact poisons, or grease, or holy water ect so when things step on them and break them bad things happen.

one fun thing I do with them regularly is get a jar of shape sand shape it into an arrow or the like and launch it wherever (hopefully also hitting a target) and then shape it into marbles, an additional bonus is that even if they get crushed into dust its still shape sand to you can reshape it.

[The Viscount]

At lower levels if you put darkness on one of the marbles it makes people's lives even worse.

[The Shadowdove]

Uhhhh I feel like I talked to someone a while ago about an urban Druid who had animated marbles as his companion. He stored them in his pants and released them with a release-cord that was attached to a draw string tied to a shuriken he could draw as a free action.

EDIT: hmmmm looks like I was mid remembering. Here's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=16174602&postcount=4) where the simpler trick is mentioned

I'm sorry,

how is drawing a shuriken a free action?

I am not 100% on which actions are and aren't free in relevance to combat and weapon drawing.

[The Shadowdove]

Also, what kind of difficulties might someone charging into a square with marbles in it face?

The linked post says that you cannot be charged.

Do these 100% foil the charge somehow?

[TheBarbecueChip]

A shuriken is treated as ammunition for the purposes of drawing it, similar to drawing an arrow that you would fire from a bow, as opposed to a weapon in its own right like a javelin.

Although personally it would seem to me that attaching a string to the shuriken in order to make something else happen when you draw it might be within RAW it's not in the spirit of the rules. The string should either be a free action to pull or some other type of action and whether there's a shuriken at the end of the string or not shouldn't change it.

[JDL]

Personally I just like the idea of my character walking around with a huge bulge sticking out of the front of his pants.

"Is that a bag of marbles in your pocket or..?"

Also the concept of having the whole lot on a quick-draw release string is hilarious.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

At lower levels if you put darkness on one of the marbles it makes people's lives even worse.

Is there a Continual Light/Darkness for 3.5 somewhere?

[ericgrau]

Use an unseen servant to dump the bag of marbles without spending an action.
Better yet several unseen servants and several bags. Or servant horde from spell compendium.


At lower levels if you put darkness on one of the marbles it makes people's lives even worse.
And silence if you have a party cleric. The best part is that the bag blocks the darkness spell until opened. Since silence is an emanation it is also blocked until the bag is opened. I don't know a way to get permanent darkness but you could at least use a lesser rod of extend spell for a better duration.

You can permanency an animate object on CL marbles and have them follow foes at 80 foot speed. It may one day get dispelled but following foes is so worth it and xp is a river anyway. Plus on average it'll blow 2 enemy actions even if they do dispel.

[Chronos]

Continual Light was replaced by Continual Flame. There's no Continual Darkness any more, but Deeper Darkness lasts for many days, which is nearly as good.

[Sir Chuckles]

The biggest advantage to marbles is that, even if it's an easy DC check, anyone making a Balance check with less than 5 ranks in the skill is flatfooted.

Combined with someone asking about Dex-based THW fighting earlier and the good 'ol hit and run Fighter, this makes for a hailarious image of an Elven Fighter with a fancy Courtblade hurling marbles at his enemies like a 5 year old.

[(Un)Inspired]

Wait, this idea is actually getting pretty fantastic. the sack of marbles in the characters pants is like Pandora's Box; when its opened all this nonsense is unleashed into the world.

Have a different spell put onto each marble (silence, deeper darkness, etc...) and build your character to be capable of fighting in the nasty conditions where others aren't.

[Martimus Prime]

you can put them in a flask and do with that what you will (gnome calculus comes to mind)

or seeing as they seem to be glass marbles put them in a flask of acid and get a double wammy. (also works with anything else really that you'd put in a flask)

or if your DM will let you craft them yourself make them full of acid, or contact poisons, or grease, or holy water ect so when things step on them and break them bad things happen.


I think a natural extension of this notion is to hurl up to your manifester level number of these jars of acid-coated marbles via telekinetic thrust, dealing damage based on their weight in addition to the resulting damage from the acid flask and the slip hazard from the marbles. Since weight is the only real concern with that particular power, you could even just jumble all the components you want together into a large glass sphere (the target of the power) as long as the total mass of all spheres hurled is less than 250lbs.