Three Questions I Can't Answer

[Kusanagi Hayate]

Okay, someone here can probably answer this, but I don't know what to say about any of it.

A.) Crack open the PHB 2 for this one. The Knight class, at third level, gains the ability "Bulwark of Defense." This means anyone within his threatened range has to move as if moving over difficult terrain. Does this mean that anyone who moves at all within his threatened range is immediately subject to an Attack of Opportunity?

B.) Our party managed to capture a live, female cockatrice with the express purpose of selling it. If a buyer were found, what would you all estimate the price of a live cockatrice would be?

C.) In a slightly related subject, what is the damage on a severed, stone orc head when thrown at an enemy?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[Karsh]

A) No. It doubles movement costs and makes running and charging impossible. I can't remember if it prohibits 5 foot steps as such too.

B) No clue.

C) 1d6+STR?

[Blasterfire]

I cant help you with B, but for A: any time someone moves out of a threatened square (excluding 5-foot steps), even if its into a square threatened by the same person, it provokes an AOO, even without that ability .

For C, I would say an improvised thrown weapon dealing 1d8 damage, although 1d6 would work too.

And I suppose for B, the answer is dependent on your campaign setting.

EDIT: If your question was, does the ability stop 5-foot steps, the answer is yes, because you can't 5-foot step if your movement is hapered by difficult terrain.

[nargbop]

The orc stone head should do 1d6 or 1d8 plus Strength bonus.

If, however, it is loaded into a siege engine, it will do 1d8 + the Strength bonus of everyone who pulled the ropes or lifted the weights. :smallbiggrin: For instance, four STR 20 draft horses would give the CHUNKED head 1d8 + 20 damage.

[AKA_Bait]

Since other people have dealt with A and C I'll take a shot at B.

Looking at a Hippogryph, CR 2, a young untrained one has a market value of 3k. So, being one CR higher, I'd peg it at 4k or so.

[Admiral Squish]

A hippogryph can be ridden, though. I think a big number, definitely, though. It'd sell like a hawk, but with it's bite it'd be more expensive by at least a factor of three. Factor in it's a much rarer female, and you have another double, in all likelihood.

[Mewtarthio]

B.) Our party managed to capture a live, female cockatrice with the express purpose of selling it. If a buyer were found, what would you all estimate the price of a live cockatrice would be?

Several possibilities here:


Enough to get them to WBL
Standard treasure for the encounter (all coins)
Who would buy such a thing?

[Lochar]

Several possibilities here:


Enough to get them to WBL
Standard treasure for the encounter (all coins)
Who would buy such a thing?


c. Wizards have to get their monsters for their dungeons somewhere, don't they?

[Prometheus]

Magical Beast/CR/HD/Young Untrained Value
Hippogriff/2/3/3k
Pegasus/3/4/3k
Giant Owl or Eagle/3/4/4k
Griffon/4/7/7k
Cockatrice/3/5/?

I'm not sure why a Pegasus is cheaper, but it seems to be correlated to the number of HD, so 5k would be the base price. If the cockatrice is an adult, it is worth considerably less (3k?).

In addition, all of the above except the cockatrice though are trained for their value as a mount, which the cockatrice would not be able to help with but would be a formidable guard, even wild. Mounts are always needed, but those who need security have a high demand for it. My guess is the market effects would cancel, but then again, it all depends on the coffers and the demands of the specific NPC.

If I was a DM though, I would not have the cockatrice disappear as soon as it was sold. For the better or worse, someone has that monster. Maybe there is a rich merchant who has assassins against him. Possibly someone uses it as an effective way to hide or destroy bodies. A falconer who trains it as an assassin? An obsessive artist who uses it to turn others into the perfect statue? A druid who subsequently frees it? The oddity of the buyer is begging to be made into a plot hook.

[Icewalker]

Yeah, from the looks of other posts, I'd say try a range of 2-3k

[CockroachTeaParty]

It's impossible to 5-foot step in difficult terrain, and any movement other than a 5-foot step can provoke an AoO in threatened space, so yes, the Bulwark of Defense ability will cause anyone moving through the threatened area to provoke attacks. Useful if you've got Combat Reflexes...

[FlyMolo]

A) Already been answered. Yup. Even without bulwark of defense, I think.

B) It is a cockatrice. I'd say 3k just because it's a big animal, and tack on 3k extra because it turns stuff to stone. so 6k.

C) Actually, this depends on how much it weighs.

[Kaelik]

It's impossible to 5-foot step in difficult terrain, and any movement other than a 5-foot step can provoke an AoO in threatened space, so yes, the Bulwark of Defense ability will cause anyone moving through the threatened area to provoke attacks. Useful if you've got Combat Reflexes...

Unless they tumble, in which case they can avoid AoOs.

[Epic_Wizard]

Going by the SRD entry for Cockatrice (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/cockatrice.htm) I would say that since Females are much rarer they could get a much larger sum for it if they went to the right person. On the other hand the act of trying to sell such an animal could easily cause trouble for the PC's.

Generally the way I would handle this is to pick a large amount that the PC's are going to find difficult to ignore and then have them be attacked by thieves or some other shady organization who wants to steal the Cockatrice and may in fact have been the ones who wanted to buy it depending on if you want the characters to keep it or not. You could also have a powerful Wizard buy it and then approach the PC's about acquiring a male Cockatrice to breed with his new specimen. This could also involve a thieves guild attempting to intervene.

The gyst of this is that no matter what amount you choose, and if they realize that they can train the animal this could be significant, you should try to balance it with an encounter that provides otherwise sub standard treasure. I am not saying that you need to stick to the wealth tables in the PHB but you should decide what is overkill for you PC's bank accounts. If you don't make it somewhat obvious that there is no free lunch here you will discover that your PC's are prying up the flagstones in the dungeons to sell.


Actually a small character might actually be able to ride it if you gave it a STR increasing item. They might also want to breed it. No matter what you do try to make an adventure out of it or at least balance the sudden influx of wealth with a bit of unfriendly sharp objects.

Phew!!!

I like your PC's style though and you should definitely encourage them to think outside the box like this and even role play reasons for things like this.

Oh yeah as for the Knight question I would say that the only way to avoid an AoO since you can't take a 5 foot step is to use the Tumble skill and the dice would increase by 2 (I am going by the Tumble (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/tumble.htm), Wilderness (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/wilderness.htm), and Movement (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/movement.htm) SRD pages to decide that the dificult terrain in question is probably equivalent to Light Rubble as far as obstruction penalties apply) unless there is something else in the Knight class since I don't have my PHB II in front of me.

Actually after looking over the Tumble skill it specifically says past an enemy which seems to preclude using it to avoid an AoO while leaving a threatened area. However you could Withdraw (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#withdraw) from the threatened square in order to avoid the AoO.

[Chronicled]

Unless they tumble, in which case they can avoid AoOs.

I think there was a thread some months ago about whether tumbling could beat Bulwark of Defense and/or a Crusader's Thicket of Blades stance. I don't think the issue ever got truly resolved.

Either way, in this case, they can still only go half the speed while tumbling (so 1/4 their normal speed).

[Kompera]

Okay, someone here can probably answer this, but I don't know what to say about any of it.

A.) Crack open the PHB 2 for this one. The Knight class, at third level, gains the ability "Bulwark of Defense." This means anyone within his threatened range has to move as if moving over difficult terrain. Does this mean that anyone who moves at all within his threatened range is immediately subject to an Attack of Opportunity?

It depends.


Difficult Terrain

Difficult terrain hampers movement. Each square of difficult terrain counts as 2 squares of movement. (Each diagonal move into a difficult terrain square counts as 3 squares.) You can’t run or charge across difficult terrain.

Double Movement Cost

When your movement is hampered in some way, your movement usually costs double. For example, each square of movement through difficult terrain counts as 2 squares, and each diagonal move through such terrain counts as 3 squares (just as two diagonal moves normally do).

If movement cost is doubled twice, then each square counts as 4 squares (or as 6 squares if moving diagonally). If movement cost is doubled three times, then each square counts as 8 squares (12 if diagonal) and so on. This is an exception to the general rule that two doublings are equivalent to a tripling.
Minimum Movement

Despite penalties to movement, you can take a full-round action to move 5 feet (1 square) in any direction, even diagonally. (This rule doesn’t allow you to move through impassable terrain or to move when all movement is prohibited.) Such movement provokes attacks of opportunity as normal (despite the distance covered, this move isn’t a 5-foot step).

I believe the above establishes that a 5' step which is not taken under conditions of Minimum Movement still enjoys the avoidance of AoO.

It's possible that two persons moving through the Knight's Bulwark of Defense area may be operating under different conditions. One may be suffering from the movement penalty but be able to take a 5' step without being subject to an AoO, while the other, for reasons of a lower total movement speed perhaps due to encumbrance or other restrictions, may be only able to move 5' as a Minimum Move, and would be subject to an AoO.

[Kusanagi Hayate]

Alright, I think I get it. Someone can intentionally use a full-round five foot step and avoid the attack of opportunity, but in any other situation, they get cracked over the head.

I'll probably end up taking Combat Reflexes at ninth level then, as my character's dexterity is only 12, so wasting a feat before I can easily raise my dexterity with a few items is not a wise idea.

------------------------------------

As far as that cockatrice goes, it was more out of curiosity, to see what others would say. I tried to convince the party this'll be a pain in the ass and wanted to stab the damned thing, but hey, they decided to non-lethal it down before my round came up.

-------------------------------------

And yeah, someone already cracked an orc's head open with the stone head. That was pretty awesome.

So, thanks guys.

[Talic]

Cockatrice, live, for most settings, is a rare and exotic animal. I'd put it about at the cost of similar rare animals. I believe there's an entry for a tiger somewhere at 5,000 gp. A similar price would be in order for a live and *PROPERLY CAARED FOR* cockatrice.

Severed stone orc head? There's a story behind that, methinks. However, as a weapon? Estimate between 12-20 pounds, thrown? 1D8 + Str, throwable with 2 hands for 1.5 Str. Improvised weapon, take appropriate penalties.

[Kompera]

Alright, I think I get it. Someone can intentionally use a full-round five foot step and avoid the attack of opportunity, but in any other situation, they get cracked over the head.
I believe you have that exactly backwards.

[Kusanagi Hayate]

Yeah, seems like I've got it backwards.

Talic, well, quite honestly when we found the cockatrice, it seems it'd had some fun on the orcs around it trying to feed it. So while we subdued the poor thing and made sure it didn't bite us, our fighter decided that an orc head, made of stone and wielded against the orcs we were about to fight, would make a very intimidating weapon.

Yeah, he killed another orc with it, and then made an intimidate check against the room. The GM gave him an extra +5 circumstance.

Then the two rogues in the party started impaling people while they were flat-footed and terrified.

Fun times.