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One simple way to know when thief detect traps ticks

Hi, I know that one of the hardest and potentially most frustrating parts of this game is to detect and disarm traps with thief skill.

Even with 100 percent detect traps, one will often stumble into fatal traps by moving too fast.

Disarming traps with thief skill takes the patience of Job, waiting for that skill to tick.

I have recently discovered a trick that is helping me immensely with this problem. I usually play a skald. I usually spend most of my time singing to give my party my permanently awesome buffing, equivalent to both a bless and a chant, permanently cast as long as I sing.

I noticed a side effect - my song shows up as "Bel sings", on every tick of the round. I also noticed something else. Imoen or Yoshimo detect traps only in their line of sight, over about two inches on my 82" tv screen, per round, during that tick. There is zero chance of detecting a trap around a corner, using thief skill. (While cleric Find Traps spells detects them over a huge area per round tick, regardless of lines of sight.)

So, I can use my bard song, as it shows up in the actions window, to know exactly when every round ticks, and therefore every thief detection attempt, and, it makes a really incredibly useful, handy-dandy round timer, since bard song is the first thing that activates at the beginning of every round tick.

This is yet another handy-dandy use of the much maligned and underrated bard class - you can use your bard to time rounds to detect traps with your thief. :)

This is especially true if one understands the nature of the thief detect skill, which is dependent upon lines of sight from the thief toon, and only activates once per round, *simultaneously* with the bard song tick.

And so, "with their mastery of narrative structure, bards should rule the universe, instead of hanging about in taverns..." That's a quote from Emperor Tarquin, from The Order of the Stick. And, in that comic's universe, I would suggest, that the "incompetent" bard Elan has been saving the Order's butts since the beginning of the comic epic story, by singing his silly little "hit, hit, hit, hit, the little goblins" ditties, and "make, make, make, make, your saving throws", and "detect, detect, disarm, disarm, make your skill ro-oools", and all his other nursery rhyme formula ditties.

Bards control quantum mechanics. Bards influence probabilities, and through their musical and poetic power, decide whether Schroedinger's cat lives or dies. (Elan would sing it life - "Live, live, live, live, little Shcroedinger's cat, kitty! Soft, kitty, warm, kitty, little ball of fur! Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr!)

Umm, yeah, so, you can use your bard's song as a round timer, besides its quantum mechanics altering properties. :)


CrevsDaak[Deleted User]elminsterWolkHeindrichJuliusBorisov

Comments

  • CrevsDaakCrevsDaak Member Posts: 7,155
    I do not use auto-pause, except for Trap Found :P I think I stepped into traps even after finding them :P more if I am playing in my iPad, it is annoying there.
  • kaffekoppenkaffekoppen Member Posts: 377
    It's a neat trick, but unfortunately it doesn't help my bardless party.

    Then you seem to go into some... weird territory with bards and quantum mechanics. I don't remember hearing about bards in my university courses (naturally those courses must have been subpar). Anyway, I like it!
  • This also works with Turn Undead, since that ticks over every round. If you have two thieves (or a thief and a ranger), you can set one of them to automatically hide and use the stealth check as a round timer.
    elminster
  • HeindrichHeindrich Member, Moderator Posts: 2,959
    Haha! Love the Big Bang Theory reference.
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