07-25-2014, 04:13 AM
Well... you can't critical a wall so not sure what to do there.
As far as blowing up a wall goes, I mean if it's inside a house possible but doing so in a dungeon with puzzle rooms is likely close to impossible.
A stone wall has 8 Hardness and 15 HP per inch of thickness, so 180 HP for a foot. Bombs deal elemental damage so right off the bat that's halved as all energy damage is against objects in PF, so a bomb dealing say... 40 damage only deals 20, and then Hardness applies making it 12. You'd need 15 bombs to go through a single section of wall, and that's if you can reliably do 40 damage on a bomb which is unlikely for the majority of a game.
As far as PCs just bashing the wall down... could always throw some realism in. Each strike on a solid stone wall deals some damage to their weapon, sure with Hardness and Enhancement bonuses they'd be sturdy but plowing through a 5ft section of wall would destroy any real blade's edge. It's just nonsensical to think a blade or even club can be used on solid stone without any repercussions.
For Haggling my GM just had us roll Diplomacy, the amount needed to gain favor seemed random but I've thought on it and come up with my own idea for a formula. DC 10 + trader's appraise modifier + 5 for every step below Helpful they are(so +5 for Friendly, +10 for Indifferent, +15 for Unfriendly, and +20 for Hostile- but chances are low they'd do business at all for that). Success means you get stuff for 5% cheaper and sell stuff for 5% more. Beating it by 5 increases each increment by 5%, to a max of 15% (so buying at 85%, selling at 65%).
Wanting to split a group of three.... I dunno, it sounds like it's you against the players when you say that and that's really not a healthy way to run things- but it isn't difficult. Just have them get attacked in the middle of the night, I'm sure not everyone has maxed Perception ranks so a group sneaking up on them, knocking them out, and binding them wouldn't be all that difficult. Another option is magical teleportation scatter traps. When they go over an area they're ported off somewhere randomly, determined by a 1d6 die roll or something... then each deal with their own mini-dungeon before they can meet back up or something.
I don't support splitting the party arbitrarily myself, I'd always try to keep them in groups of two but with a party of 3 that isn't really an option. Maybe you should stop focusing on how to terrify the players and more on how to keep them happy with the story...?
As far as blowing up a wall goes, I mean if it's inside a house possible but doing so in a dungeon with puzzle rooms is likely close to impossible.
A stone wall has 8 Hardness and 15 HP per inch of thickness, so 180 HP for a foot. Bombs deal elemental damage so right off the bat that's halved as all energy damage is against objects in PF, so a bomb dealing say... 40 damage only deals 20, and then Hardness applies making it 12. You'd need 15 bombs to go through a single section of wall, and that's if you can reliably do 40 damage on a bomb which is unlikely for the majority of a game.
As far as PCs just bashing the wall down... could always throw some realism in. Each strike on a solid stone wall deals some damage to their weapon, sure with Hardness and Enhancement bonuses they'd be sturdy but plowing through a 5ft section of wall would destroy any real blade's edge. It's just nonsensical to think a blade or even club can be used on solid stone without any repercussions.
For Haggling my GM just had us roll Diplomacy, the amount needed to gain favor seemed random but I've thought on it and come up with my own idea for a formula. DC 10 + trader's appraise modifier + 5 for every step below Helpful they are(so +5 for Friendly, +10 for Indifferent, +15 for Unfriendly, and +20 for Hostile- but chances are low they'd do business at all for that). Success means you get stuff for 5% cheaper and sell stuff for 5% more. Beating it by 5 increases each increment by 5%, to a max of 15% (so buying at 85%, selling at 65%).
Wanting to split a group of three.... I dunno, it sounds like it's you against the players when you say that and that's really not a healthy way to run things- but it isn't difficult. Just have them get attacked in the middle of the night, I'm sure not everyone has maxed Perception ranks so a group sneaking up on them, knocking them out, and binding them wouldn't be all that difficult. Another option is magical teleportation scatter traps. When they go over an area they're ported off somewhere randomly, determined by a 1d6 die roll or something... then each deal with their own mini-dungeon before they can meet back up or something.
I don't support splitting the party arbitrarily myself, I'd always try to keep them in groups of two but with a party of 3 that isn't really an option. Maybe you should stop focusing on how to terrify the players and more on how to keep them happy with the story...?