Clawed Gloves and Shoes[]
Clawed gloves will be familiar to Oriental Adventures players as tiger's claws, but the DM may allow their availability in any fantasy campaign. Clawed overshoes, similar in design to clawed gloves, also existed and may be permitted (although they are a lot less common). The overshoes are slipped over the thief's normal footwear. The thief uses these clawed items for extra grip on small nooks and crannies of whatever surface he is climbing, so the bonus to the climb walls roll depends on the type of surface being climbed.
On very smooth surfaces where almost no nooks and crannies exist, clawed gloves and boots will not add anything to the climb walls chance for a thief. For smooth/cracked surfaces, clawed gloves add +5% to the climb walls chance, boots add +5% also, the two together add +10%. For any other type of surface, clawed gloves add +10%, clawed boots add +10%, and the combination adds +20% to the climb walls roll. Rates of movement are not altered.
The use of clawed gloves reduces silent movement rolls by -5%, the use of clawed boots by -10%, and the combination by -15%, if the thief is attempting to move silently during his climb (e.g., trying to evade detection by guards atop a parapet).
Clawed gloves can be used as a melee weapon—no weapon proficiency is required for their use. A successful hit inflicts 1 additional point of damage to that normally delivered by a fist blow. Clawed overshoes may similarly be used as a weapon, adding damage to a kick attack, if the DM allows such attack options in melee.
Climbing Daggers[]
Daggers have been used to aid climbing by thieves for generations, so it is to be expected that a more specialized form has been developed for this task. Climbing daggers have relatively short blades (some 6 to 8 inches long) which are stiff, strong, flat, and very sharp. This allows the dagger to be inserted into wood or between bricks with greater ease than an ordinary dagger. They can be used in all surfaces other than very smooth ones. The handle is also flat and quite broad, and usually bound with leather strips or thick string to give the hands a good grip, or even to allow feet easy purchase when the dagger is used as a step. Also, in place of a normal pommel is a broad, smooth iron ring. This allows a rope to pass through, or it can be attached to one of the straps of a housebreaker's harness (see Miscellaneous Equipment, below).
Climbing daggers may add +10% to wall climbing chances at the DM's option, although their main use is with a housebreaker's harness. They may be used in combat, but because of their very different design from that of a normal dagger a separate weapon proficiency is required for their use and damage caused is but 1d3/1d2.
Grapples
Grappling irons are relatively heavy iron tools, usually with three or four separate hooks branching from the end. The tool is attached to a length of rope for climbing. The hook is designed to be thrown and to catch on protrusions and thus support the rope and climber(s). The thief may throw the grappling iron vertically up to one-third his Strength score, rounded up and multiplied by 10 (in feet). Throwing a grapple takes one round; reeling in the rope and retrieving the iron for another attempt after a failure takes 1d4 rounds. The chance for success when throwing a grappling iron (a d100 roll is used) is shown in Table 29 below:
| Grapple Target | Miss | Catch and Slip |
Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stone Parapet | 01-72 | 73-78 | 79-00 |
| Stone Wall Top | 01-83 | 84-89 | 90-00 |
| Tree Branches | 01-66 | 67-70 | 71-00 |
| Rocky Ledge | 01-88 | 89-93 | 94-00 |
| Wooden Wall | 01-70 | 71-74 | 75-00 |
The DM can adjudicate more uncommon instances from this table. A "catch and slip" result means that the grapple seems to have caught solidly, but will slip free after 1d6 rounds of supporting any load. If the thief pulls on a grapple for that many rounds he can dislodge the grapple, whereas a "catch" result means the grapple is securely fastened. If possible, thieves should test the grapple by pulling on it for six rounds before climbing!
Climbing a wall using a grappling hook and rope adds +40% to the normal climb walls chance.
Noise: Grapples make a moderately loud sound when they land. In conditions of near silence, a successful grapple landing can be heard as much as 400 yards away (depending on the size of the grapple, etc.); an unsuccessful throw (with the clang as the grapple lands on the ground) up to 800 yards away. Obviously, these are ideal instances and in most cases the effective range will be considerably lower. Whatever range is deemed appropriate by the DM, a padded grapple—one with sacking or some similarly heavy but coarse cloth covering almost all of the surface of the iron—will reduce it by half.
Surprise!: While this chapter is not concerned with counter-measures, one instance is irresistible: the cruel DM should be advised that shards of glass set into walls will sever the rope of a grappling line in 2d6 rounds. Broken glass is best set into the tops of walls, of course. A really brutal DM may allow a thief near the top of the wall a Dexterity check to avoid falling as the rope severs, success meaning that his hands are now impaled on savagely sharp wedges of glass which are coated in dust and filth, probably giving him blood poisoning if he lives long enough to worry about it.
Special Function Arrows[]
Throwing grapples is by no means the most efficient way of attaching a rope to a wall, battlement or similar structure. Greater range is ensured by the use of arrows, and many special arrowheads have been developed to help the thief's chances with such operations.
Two distinct methods are used with special function arrows. The first is known as the one-rope method. The rope is simply affixed to the arrow, and when the arrow has found its mark the thief merely climbs directly up the rope. This method is simple, but the rope attached must be strong enough to bear the thief's weight, and this considerably reduces the effective range of the bow (and incurs penalties of -2 to hit and damage rolls if the arrow is used in combat for any reason). It also means that the bow shot, being less accurate and powerful, is less likely to provide a good purchase on the target.
The second method is the two-rope method. Here, a light string is threaded through a loop attached to the arrow, and both ends of the string are kept by the thief. The string is light enough not to affect the flight of the arrow. When the arrow has struck the target, a stout rope is attached to one end of the string and the string pulled through to play out the rope, thread it through the loop, and extend it fully in place of the string. This method is obviously more time consuming than the one-rope method; it takes one round to play out 20 feet of rope in this manner. Twice the length of rope is needed, of course, since the rope goes from the thief to the target and back. this method is more likely to obtain a firm fixing of the arrow into the target.
Either of these two methods can be used with any of the special function arrows below, with the single exception stated. Table 30 gives rules for their usage.
Wood Biter: This has a broad, flat head with backward-facing barbs. It is specifically designed to give a good grip when shot into wooden surfaces.
Stone Biter: The stone biter has a narrow, heavy head of metal, with small ridges rather than barbs. Careful craftsmanship is needed to produce these arrows, with high-quality metal being used and the arrow sharpened to the greatest possible extent. It is designed to give a grip when shot into stone, but will only work on relatively soft stone such as sandstone or brick.
Stone Biter (Adamantine): This is as the above arrow, save that adamantine is used in its manufacture. This makes the arrow capable of biting into all but the hardest stone surfaces, but also makes it extremely expensive.
Minor Grapple: This has a small, three-pointed grappling hook as its head, perhaps some 3 inches in total width. This is usually shot through a window, over a palisade, etc., in much the same way as a conventional grappling iron is thrown.
Major Grapple: The major grapple is a far more complex piece of apparatus than the minor grapple, and because of its method of use it can only be employed with the one-rope method (see above). The head of this arrow at first appears to be a fairly long arrowhead of normal width. Its true function is shown only when fired. The rope must be securely fixed at one end by the thief, and as the major grapple arrow closes in on its target and reaches as far as the rope will allow, the sudden tension pulls at the head of the arrow, which opens out into a large three-pointed grappling hook. This is some 6 to 8 inches in width, fully the equal of most ordinary grappling irons. The major grapple has better aerodynamics than the minor grapple and a better chance of gripping, but a considerably reduced range.
Table 30 shows modifiers to dice rolls on Table 29 made when using a special function arrow.
| Arrow Type | Special Effects |
|---|---|
| Wood Biter | +15 for Tree Branches and Wooden Walls |
| Stone Biter | +10 for Stone Parapet and Stone Wall Top, +5 to Wooden Wall |
| Stone Biter | +20 for Stone Parapet (Adamantine) and Stone Wall Top, +5 to Wooden Wall |
| Minor | +10 to Stone Parapet, |
| Grapple | Tree Branches; +5 to all others |
| Major | +15 to Stone Parapet, |
| Grapple | Tree Branches; +10 to Rocky Ledge, Wooden Wall; +5 to Stone Wall Top |
Other Rules[]
One-rope method: halve all bow ranges, -5 to all modifiers above save for major grapple.
Spikes and Line[]
To be effective, climbing spikes need to be used together with a line. Hammering in a spike takes 1d4 rounds with a small hammer; spikes cannot usually be hammered into very smooth surfaces (or they will not take, etc.), with the exception of an ice wall (where spikes offer the only hope of climbing safely). Hammering spikes into surfaces can usually be heard a long way away—even up to a mile in silent, windless, outdoor conditions.
Usually spikes are used as an insurance policy against falls—if a character hammers in a spike, ropes himself to it, climbs 20 feet above this with the rope tied to his waist, and falls he will only fall 40 feet (20 feet down to the spike and a further 20 feet taking up the slack of the rope). A spike used to arrest a fall in this way has a chance of coming loose, though! This chance is 10% per character supported on the climbing line (15% per character for ice wall ascension).