Post by foster1941 on Apr 15, 2005 12:29:08 GMT -5
WSmith said:
I take it (as taken from the OD&D rules) dwarves will find and can successfully disarm the traps without error? Seems a little powerful doesn't it? Then again, as crafters of mines and dungeons, this makes a lot of sense.It's all handled on an ad-hoc basis. A dwarf can generally find traps without error if he's looking in the right place. Likewise, once he knows how the trap functions he will generally be able to disarm or circumvent it -- wedge something into the mechanism to prevent it from operating, block the hole through which the projectile fires, etc. This is all handled through in-game negotiation rather than abstracted into a die-roll (and technically non-dwarfs can do the same thing and achieve the same results, but a dwarf is allowed the wiggle-room of being able to occasionally say "I use my dwarfly knowledge to disarm this trap" without needing to specify how, whereas a magic-user trying to disarm the same trap would generally need to provide details of exactly what he was trying to do). Note also that many traps can't actually be disarmed and must simply be avoided.
What are the thief-like abilities for halflings and Elves in Chainmail? Is it that halflings having a 1-9 on a 1d10 chance to go unnoticed outdoors and 1-2 on a 1d6 in a dungeon? Who are the elves handled?
Nothing so quantified. Hobbits are simply stated as being effectively invisible in woodland settings, and elves are stated as being invisible and silent (but that they must become visible to attack). Being invisible in Chainmail means that the figure can't be attacked except by certain figures that are specifically stated as being able to detect invisible creatures -- wizards, superheroes, dragons, balrogs, a few others. In D&D this is another thing that would be handled on an ad-hoc basis -- if a hobbit character is in the woods and states he his hiding and there's no reason to think he wouldn't be able to (like, say, he's already involved in melee) I'd assume he was successful. Elves' abilities from Chainmail are subsumed by elfin cloaks and boots in D&D, though I might take a cue from AD&D and allow elves and hobbits to achieve surprise 3 in 6 if they're in non-metal armor of elfin mail.