Escape Artist
Description
Ability Score Used: Dexterity Usable Untrained? Yes Armor Check Penalty Applies? Yes
You have trained yourself to move in ways most people simply cannot, or would never imagine to even be possible. Dislocating your joints and twisting your body parts is normal for you, but stomach-churning to anyone watching you do this to yourself. Your training allows you to slip bonds and escape from grapples, wriggle through places that seem far, far too small to survive, and writhe away from or slip free from negative effects that others must simply endure.
Common Uses
The table below gives common DCs to escape various forms of restraints.
Table: Escape Artist DCs, Time Required and Modifiers
| Action | DC | Action/Time | Try Again? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Escape rope/bindings | Binder's Maneuver Offense roll | 1 minute | Yes, unless DC is > 20 + your Escape Artist bonus |
| Escape a net, animate rope spell, command plants, control plants, entangle, Snare spell, or other restraining effect | Attackers Maneuver Defense | 1 full-round action | Yes |
| Escape manacles | Varies, see below | 1 minute | Yes |
| Mitigate Status Condition | Varies, see below | Varies | Yes |
| Move through a tight space | 30 | at least 1 minute | Yes |
| Escape grapple or reduce pinned condition to grappled condition | Grappler's Maneuver Defense | move action | Yes |
Escape Ropes
The DC of your Escape Artist check is equal to the binder's Maneuver Offense roll +10.
Action: Making an Escape Artist check to escape from rope bindings, manacles, or other restraints (except a grappler) requires 1 minute of work.
Retry? Varies. If the DC to escape from rope or bindings is higher than 20 + your Escape Artist skill bonus, you cannot escape from the bonds using Escape Artist.
Escape Manacles
The DC to escape average manacles is 30. The DC to escape better quality manacles is described below.
Quality of Manacles DC to Escape Simple 20 Average 30 Good 40 Superior 50 Peerless 60
Action: Making an Escape Artist check to escape from rope bindings, manacles, or other restraints (except a grappler) requires 1 minute of work.
Modifiers: Escaping manacles requires a full minute. If you wish to get out more quickly, you can take a -10 penalty on your roll to escape in a full round action, or a -20 penalty on your roll to escape in a move action.
Retry? Varies. If the DC to escape from rope or bindings is higher than 20 + your Escape Artist skill bonus, you cannot escape from the bonds using Escape Artist.
Escape Net or Certain Spells
The DC to escape a net, an animated rope, commanded or controlled plants, or an entangle spell is the Maneuver Defense of the creature or effect which laid the status. If there is no creature involved, the DC is the Maneuver Defense of a generic creature of the CR of the effect.
The DC to escape a snare spell is the Maneuver Defense as above +3.
Action: Escaping from a net, animated rope, commanded or controlled plants, or an entangle spell is a full-round action. If you beat the DC to escape by 5 or more, you can escape as a move action.
Retry? Varies. If the DC to escape from rope or bindings is higher than 20 + your Escape Artist skill bonus, you cannot escape from the bonds using Escape Artist.
Mitigate Status Condition
Many Status Conditons can be mitigated or removed entirely with an Escape Artist roll. For details, see the Status Conditions page.
- Dazed
- Disoriented
- Unsteady
- Petrified
- Benumbed
- Torpid
- Paralyzed
- Immobilized
- Slowed
- Splayed
- Prone
- Quelled
- Stunned
- Rattled
- Jostled
- Hexed
- Jinxed
- Impaired
- Asphyxiating
- Choking
- Gagging
- Helpless
- Wobbly
- Flat-Footed
- Asleep
- Sluggish
- Drowsy
- Fogged
- Blind
- Dazzled
- Exiled
- Displaced
- Cloistered
Action Varies. See each status condition for details.
Retry? Varies. See each status condition for details.
Grapple
You can make an Escape Artist check in place of a Maneuver Offense roll to escape a grapple or to change from a pinned condition to merely grappled.
Action: Using escape artist in this fashion is a move action, where using a Maneuver Offense roll to escape a grapple is a standard action. A character may attempt both an escape artist check and a Maneuver Offense roll to escape a grapple in the same round (either because the first check failed, or to use the first check to change a pin to a grapple and the second check to escape the grapple entirely).
Retry? Yes, using a new move action.
Move Through Tight Space
The DC noted is for Squeezing through a space where your head fits but your shoulders don't. If the space is long you may need to make multiple checks. You can't get through a space that your head does not fit through. Succeeding on this skill check allows you to move through the space, but while doing so, you are subject to Squeezing penalties.
Action Squeezing through a tight space takes at least 1 minute. During that minute you can traverse a distance equal to one fourth your normal Walk speed (as if you were Climbing). You can attempt to move more quickly. Your Escape Artist check is made at -10 if you wish to move at half speed per minute, or at -20 if you wish to move at full speed per minute. If you fail a check, you get stuck and don't move that round. If you want to do something fun like squeeze down a four inch sewer pipe for a thousand feet to freedom, that will take a while. Hope you aren't claustrophobic.
If you are trying to squeeze through an opening less than five feet deep (like through a very small door), this still takes a minute. Taking -10 makes it a full round action, and taking -20 makes it a move action.
Retry? Yes. You can make another check after a failed check if you're squeezing your way through a tight space, making multiple checks. If the situation permits, you can make additional checks, or even take 20, as long as you're not being actively opposed.
Modifiers
- Feats: If you have the Stealthy feat, you get a +2 feat bonus on Escape Artist skill checks. This bonus increases as you put more ranks into the skill.
- Bound Hand and Foot: If you are tied up with both hands and feet immobilized, you must succeed twice against the Binder to escape, and suffer -5 on your Escape Artist rolls until you get a hand free.
- Immobilized: If you are tied hand and foot plus bound to a solid object (the classic example is being tied to a chair), you must succeed three times against the Binder and suffer a -10 on your Escape Artist rolls until you get at least one hand free.
- Mummified: If you are tied hand and foot, bound to a solid object, and completely encased in bindings (straitjacket plus manacles and legirons while tied to a steel rack) you must succeed four times against your binder and have a -20 on your Escape Artist rolls until you get at least one hand free.
- Facemask: If your binder gags you or otherwise prevents you from using your mouth to escape, you must roll an additional time to escape.
- Hidden Tools: If you have a set of Thieves Tools or a weapon with the Concealable quality and manage to beat your Binder's Perception check with a Sleight of Hand roll, you gain a +10 bonus on your Escape Artist rolls. An improvised tool (the classic is a hairpin) grants a +8 instead.
- Deep Breath: If you make a Might check and beat your binder's Perception roll, you manage to flex your muscles and breath in while being bound in such a way as to give yourself a +10 bonus on Escape Artist checks against ropes and other soft bindings, or a +5 against manacles.
Most or all of these bonuses will stack and/or cancel each other out.
Epic Skill Uses
Note: All uses below require a minimum of 21 Ranks in the skill to use.
Dislocated squeeze
(DC 40) - Squeeze through a space as though you were 1 size category smaller than you really are. Otherwise, this is treated in all ways as a normal squeeze, see above, with all modifiers as above.
Elastic squeeze
(DC 60) - Squeeze through a space as though you were 2 size categories smaller than you really are. Otherwise, this is treated in all ways as a normal squeeze, see above, with all modifiers as above.
Boneless squeeze
(DC 70) - Squeeze through a space as though you were 3 size categories smaller than you really are. Otherwise, this is treated in all ways as a normal squeeze, see above, with all modifiers as above.
Aphasic squeeze
(DC 80) - Squeeze through solid objects or even a wall of force. You are basically so skilled you're squeezing bits of yourself out of phase with reality. Otherwise, this is treated in all ways as a normal squeeze, see above, with all modifiers as above.