Use cases for Oil of Slipperyness

[Segev]

On the one hand, 8 hours of freedom of movement is amazing for an uncommon item, even a consumable. On the other, ten minute application time means that you basically have to know when you're going to need it, because you can't wait for emergent situations. And even an uncommon consumable item is 100 gp and one week of downtime to make, so unless you travel for less than one day in every seven you're sedentary, you won't be able to risk it on potentially-uneventful travel days.

Even if your party features someone with a lot of battlefield control, you don't want to waste it on a day with no encounters.

So it is probably worth using before entering a one-day dungeon. Especially if you know your party will make it handy, or you know something about the dungeon that makes it inevitably useful.

But is there a way to make it feasible when you're traveling and the whole adventure is happening "on the road?" Even if you know your party will engage tactics that make it useful, you don't know if the encounter will happen that day at all, or during the eight hours you have it active. Is there a way to make that more viable?

[Unoriginal]

On the one hand, 8 hours of freedom of movement is amazing for an uncommon item, even a consumable. On the other, ten minute application time means that you basically have to know when you're going to need it, because you can't wait for emergent situations. And even an uncommon consumable item is 100 gp and one week of downtime to make, so unless you travel for less than one day in every seven you're sedentary, you won't be able to risk it on potentially-uneventful travel days.

Even if your party features someone with a lot of battlefield control, you don't want to waste it on a day with no encounters.

So it is probably worth using before entering a one-day dungeon. Especially if you know your party will make it handy, or you know something about the dungeon that makes it inevitably useful.

But is there a way to make it feasible when you're traveling and the whole adventure is happening "on the road?" Even if you know your party will engage tactics that make it useful, you don't know if the encounter will happen that day at all, or during the eight hours you have it active. Is there a way to make that more viable?

I mean, adventurers are not only reactive, they oftentime have to be proactive as well.

PCs can also do ambushes, or reach a place and do an heist or an infiltration there, or the like.


But it can be useful when being reactive too. Even in the situation where the PCs are traveling from A to B, it is possible to see an encounter coming in advance and prepare for it.

[Easy e]

With this thread title, I am very glad this board is well moderated!

[Sorinth]

You could cast certain divination spells to get a better idea of whether it's going to be useful on any particular day. Depending on terrain (And I guess skill checks) a flying familiar could easily provide you with a 10min heads up before an encounter.

[Kane0]

With this thread title, I am very glad this board is well moderated!
Yeah ten minutes is way too long to apply to the grappling barbarian as a prank.

[Mastikator]

The encounter? An adventuring day consists of 6-8 encounters.

[Rukelnikov]

The encounter? An adventuring day consists of 6-8 encounters.

Not necessarily

[Mastikator]

Not necessarily

If you're getting zero or one encounter per day then Oil of Slipperyness is not worth using to counter the enemies. You would use it against environments that restrain you. If there are no environments that will restrain you then it's better to not use it at all.

[Unoriginal]

It's true the Oil let you avoid a whole bunch of environmental hindrances, including the ones from being underwater.

Infiltrating a merfolk facility or travking a monster through a swamp can be great uses of the Oil.

You can also pour the Oil on the ground or on an object to make the surface slippery and flamable. That can be pretty nasty for enemies.

[Segev]

The encounter? An adventuring day consists of 6-8 encounters.

Travel often involves days where nothing much happens with some days where one or two encounters happening.

Barring "we are definitely entering a dungeon now," it can be hard to predict when "an adventuring day" is going to happen, too.

[JackPhoenix]

Travel often involves days where nothing much happens with some days where one or two encounters happening.

Barring "we are definitely entering a dungeon now," it can be hard to predict when "an adventuring day" is going to happen, too.

I dunno, while you can't usually tell how many encounters will you have in any given day, it's not very hard to predict you're about to do something that could lead to a conflict or series of conflicts, barring random encounters. And it's generally not worth it to waste consumables for random encounters.

[Mastikator]

Travel often involves days where nothing much happens with some days where one or two encounters happening.

Barring "we are definitely entering a dungeon now," it can be hard to predict when "an adventuring day" is going to happen, too.

I wouldn't use consumables against random traveling encounters, just nova them and keep moving. (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0145.html)