Hello!, In my homebrew story i'm giving the characters the ability to unlock equipable skills based of a creature, I was thinking of giving burrow speed of 30ft if they unlock the special ability of a weasel, but thiniking about the combat would it be too OP? How does a PC use this in their favor? Out of combat is there anything game breaking? Is there any reason that no official race has burrow speed?
If burrowing speed is as fast as walking speed then you may need to do a lot of work considering ways for them to be aware of and engage with encounters, because suddenly bypassing things is a lot easier, even if you are strict about reduced visibility. It also adds a lot of flexibility to stealth and infiltration objectives.
In combat the main thing that springs to mind is suddenly your parties shooting and casting characters can hide underground, pop up, attack, then drop down again in the same turn making them almost untouchable in a lot of environments, unless your enemies are smart enough to use reaction attacks in place of a regular action.
On the other hand all these bonuses can also be applied to humanoid NPCs, so you have a range of options to mess with them too.
If burrowing speed is as fast as walking speed then you may need to do a lot of work considering ways for them to be aware of and engage with encounters, because suddenly bypassing things is a lot easier, even if you are strict about reduced visibility. It also adds a lot of flexibility to stealth and infiltration objectives.
In combat the main thing that springs to mind is suddenly your parties shooting and casting characters can hide underground, pop up, attack, then drop down again in the same turn making them almost untouchable in a lot of environments, unless your enemies are smart enough to use reaction attacks in place of a regular action.
On the other hand all these bonuses can also be applied to humanoid NPCs, so you have a range of options to mess with them too.
Thank you for the suggestion I'm going to make it slower than regular walking speed, 20ft would be enough I think.
Only one member of the party can equip the skill so I think outside of combat would not be too powerful, , but in combat it may be a problem, It is possible to damage or target a burrowed creature? can a creature burrow and unburrow on the same turn? burrowing triggers attack of opportunities?
Burrowing triggers AoO. You can always rule that they hav half cover, not Full, when underground, as they leave a hole. Sneaking will be inefficient as who wouldn’t notice a giant Wizard shaped bump in the ground as it tunnels. And the ground could always collapse on him. If you’re worried, use other creatures with Burrowing speed to catch him.
Also, I’d say that digging through hard rocks and loose materials (sand) would be difficult terrain for this.
One implication you may wish to consider is that a caster could cast a concentration spell, and then burrow to keep from being targeted. You'd have to decide if the borrowing is just borrowing along and leaving a bump as the character moves or if the character could borrow down 10 ft before moving which would provide full cover. Also consider what options would be required to get the caster to show themselves, ie. A spell like Create or Destroy water (though it's only 10 gallons), shape water to divert a stream into the burrow, earth tremor and its cousins, or perhaps summon creatures to go in and attack it.
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Hello!, In my homebrew story i'm giving the characters the ability to unlock equipable skills based of a creature, I was thinking of giving burrow speed of 30ft if they unlock the special ability of a weasel, but thiniking about the combat would it be too OP? How does a PC use this in their favor? Out of combat is there anything game breaking? Is there any reason that no official race has burrow speed?
If burrowing speed is as fast as walking speed then you may need to do a lot of work considering ways for them to be aware of and engage with encounters, because suddenly bypassing things is a lot easier, even if you are strict about reduced visibility. It also adds a lot of flexibility to stealth and infiltration objectives.
In combat the main thing that springs to mind is suddenly your parties shooting and casting characters can hide underground, pop up, attack, then drop down again in the same turn making them almost untouchable in a lot of environments, unless your enemies are smart enough to use reaction attacks in place of a regular action.
On the other hand all these bonuses can also be applied to humanoid NPCs, so you have a range of options to mess with them too.
Thank you for the suggestion I'm going to make it slower than regular walking speed, 20ft would be enough I think.
Only one member of the party can equip the skill so I think outside of combat would not be too powerful, , but in combat it may be a problem, It is possible to damage or target a burrowed creature? can a creature burrow and unburrow on the same turn? burrowing triggers attack of opportunities?
Burrowing triggers AoO. You can always rule that they hav half cover, not Full, when underground, as they leave a hole. Sneaking will be inefficient as who wouldn’t notice a giant Wizard shaped bump in the ground as it tunnels. And the ground could always collapse on him. If you’re worried, use other creatures with Burrowing speed to catch him.
Also, I’d say that digging through hard rocks and loose materials (sand) would be difficult terrain for this.
One implication you may wish to consider is that a caster could cast a concentration spell, and then burrow to keep from being targeted. You'd have to decide if the borrowing is just borrowing along and leaving a bump as the character moves or if the character could borrow down 10 ft before moving which would provide full cover. Also consider what options would be required to get the caster to show themselves, ie. A spell like Create or Destroy water (though it's only 10 gallons), shape water to divert a stream into the burrow, earth tremor and its cousins, or perhaps summon creatures to go in and attack it.