As with walls, dungeon floors come in many types.
Flagstone: Like masonry walls, flagstone floors are made of
fitted stones. They are usually cracked and only somewhat level.
Slime and mold grows in these cracks. Sometimes water runs in
rivulets between the stones or sits in stagnant puddles. Flagstone
is the most common dungeon floor.
Uneven Flagstone: Over time, some floors can become so uneven
that a DC 10 Balance check is required to run or charge across
the surface. Failure means the character can't move in this
round. Floors as treacherous as this should be the exception,
not the rule.
Hewn Stone Floors: Rough and uneven, hewn floors are usually
covered with loose stones, gravel, dirt, or other debris. A
DC 10 Balance check is required to run or charge across such
a floor. Failure means the character can still act, but can't
run or charge in this round.
Light Rubble: Small chunks of debris litter the ground. Light
rubble adds 2 to the DC of Balance and Tumble checks.
Dense Rubble: The ground is covered with debris of all sizes.
It costs 2 squares of movement to enter a square with dense
rubble. Dense rubble adds 5 to the DC of Balance and Tumble
checks, and it adds 2 to the DC of Move Silently checks.
Smooth Stone Floors: Finished and sometimes even polished,
smooth floors are found only in dungeons with capable and careful
builders.
Natural Stone Floors: The floor of a natural cave is as uneven
as the walls. Caves rarely have flat surfaces of any great size.
Rather, their floors have many levels. Some adjacent floor surfaces
might vary in elevation by only a foot, so that moving from
one to the other is no more difficult than negotiating a stair
step, but in other places the floor might suddenly drop off
or rise up several feet or more, requiring Climb checks to get
from one surface to the other. Unless a path has been worn and
well marked in the floor of a natural cave, it takes 2 squares
of movement to enter a square with a natural stone floor, and
the DC of Balance and Tumble checks increases by 5. Running
and charging are impossible, except along paths.
SPECIAL FLOORS
Slippery: Water, ice, slime, or blood can make any of the dungeon
floors described in this section more treacherous. Slippery
floors increase the DC of Balance and Tumble checks by 5.
Grate: A grate often covers a pit or an area lower than the
main floor. Grates are usually made from iron, but large ones
can also be made from iron-bound timbers. Many grates have hinges
to allow access to what lies below (such grates can be locked
like any door), while others are permanent and designed not
to move. A typical 1-inch-thick iron grate has 25 hit points,
hardness 10, and a DC of 27 for Strength checks to break through
it or tear it loose.
Ledge: Ledges allow creatures to walk above some lower area.
They often circle around pits, run along underground streams,
form balconies around large rooms, or provide a place for archers
to stand while firing upon enemies below. Narrow ledges (12
inches wide or less) require those moving along them to make
Balance checks. Failure results in the moving character
falling off the ledge. Ledges sometimes have railings. In such
a case, characters gain a +5 circumstance bonus on Balance checks
to move along the ledge. A character who is next to a railing
gains a +2 circumstance bonus on his or her opposed Strength
check to avoid being bull rushed off the edge.
Ledges can also have low walls 2 to 3 feet high along their
edges. Such walls provide cover against attackers within 30
feet on the other side of the wall, as long as the target is
closer to the low wall than the attacker is.
Transparent Floor: Transparent floors, made of reinforced glass
or magic materials (even a wall of force), allow a dangerous
setting to be viewed safely from above. Transparent floors are
sometimes placed over lava pools, arenas, monster dens, and
torture chambers. They can be used by defenders to watch key
areas for intruders.
Sliding Floors: A sliding floor is a type of trapdoor, designed
to be moved and thus reveal something that lies beneath it.
A typical sliding floor moves so slowly that anyone standing
on one can avoid falling into the gap it creates, assuming there's
somewhere else to go. If such a floor slides quickly enough
that there's a chance of a character falling into whatever lies
beneath-a spiked pit, a vat of burning oil, or a pool filled
with sharks-then it's a trap.
Trap Floors: Some floors are designed to become suddenly dangerous.
With the application of just the right amount of weight, or
the pull of a lever somewhere nearby, spikes protrude from the
floor, gouts of steam or flame shoot up from hidden holes, or
the entire floor tilts. These strange floors are sometimes found
in an arena, designed to make combats more exciting and deadly.
Construct these floors as you would any other trap.
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