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What are some creative ways you have used ball bearings in a D&D campaign?
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Setting off pressure triggers, tripping enemies, focal point for the spells Light and Darkness, ammo for slings, setting traps to trip or see if others have passed this area, making pouches of coin feel heavier and worth more, making noise where you want the enemy you're sneaking up on to pay attention...
Creativity is your friend.
Oh exploitable
Don't forget Animate Object
"To the person with a hammer, every problem is a nail".
Ball bearings, like everything else in D&D are exactly as useful as your group are able to imagine them being (give or take a few points of DM tolerance for bullshit and shenanigans).NoDMPermissionOrAllowanceGuaranteed. YourMileageMayVary
After encountering the first gelatinous cube in a dungeon, I proceeded to thrown a ball bearing every 15 to 20 feet to see if it got stuck in another cube.
That's a neat trick. They traditionally drop from the ceiling though!
Actually, that's the other oozes. At least in the MM, gelatinous cubes are the only ones with no climb speed. They also take up their entire 10x10x10 space.
Yep. I once had a group of level 2 characters fight through a simple grid based temple/maze. The trick was that there were a dozen gelatinous cubes that moved down the halls in a pattern.
I wish my players took hints like that. The only fight they've ever fled from involved a white dragon wyrmling. If they saw cubes, they'd just try to slaughter them all and die in the attempt.
Ah, my mistake!
no the PC's drop through the ceiling into the cube!
We were told going into a boss fight that there was a mundane item that would’ve totally trivialized the fight.
We were fighting a giant robot owl, composed of constantly shifting gears and mechanisms.
Our “plan” involved slipping our cleric inside of it with gaseous form as he got crushed with one of the owl’s claws, and then letting him resolidify around the core/heart, which he hammer smashed as our Dragonborn ranger clung to the outside eating Laffy taffy, making bad puns, and being a general electrical nuisance as a distraction. It ended with the metal owl crashing into the ocean and the cleric getting trapped inside the body (because he resolidified with metal poles impaling him) and being one saving throw away from death.
Afterword, the DM said that if we had just thrown ball bearings into the contraption, it would’ve been fucked up.
I mean, that sounds more like if you would have thrown anything there. I don't see how a ball bearing specifically would kill that thing.
Ball bearings get shattered, grinding through the gears. Due to the size the shattered ones remain inside the construct, grinding many of the gears to a halt.
Right, but there is plenty of small objects that could fill that same purpose.
Rocks.
Rope, a bedroll, damn near anything really.
Anyone just happen to have 1000 of them though? Because ball bearings you just have a 1000 ready to roll. That and they are metal. Sticks or stones could be pulverized into powder which is not likely with metal.
My DM made a mech fight with a Warforged pilot. He wanted us to destroy it, but we ended up ripping the pilot out.
Warlock Shattered (tm) the glass and the Paladin hoped in to the compartment and ripped the little guy out.
During this, our thief was no where to be seen. We later found him hiding/stuck in a mound of metal.
When I was first starting to play DnD with my friends, I was DMing our way through LMoP, and they had just reached the dragon. Through some unlucky then lucky dice rolls, a few of the party was knocked out by the dragon's breath weapon, but then compelled to fly away for a few hours. This gave my players the chance to set their trap.
They pooled their treasure, set it in the town square, set ball bearings in a 20 foot square around the treasure, and covered them with a thin layer of dust. I then sat horrified as the dragon failed to notice them, fail to notice the bearings, land, and fail his Dex save, falling prone. The party of 4 level 3 characters broke cover, and killed the dragon in two turns.
So kill a dragon, I guess
That's absolutely incredible, thanks for sharing this story.
In a seafaring campaign, a buddy created a contraption for our ship's cannons so that he could fire ball bearings like grapeshot. He didn't really plan this out, either: just a hoarder looking to find uses for his 10,000 ball bearings he just carries around.
If you're a magic user of a high enough level (and a bard/sorc/wizard), you could Animate Objects 10 of the bearings. You now have 10 sentient projectiles with 20 HP and an AC of 18 that you can command to attack as a bonus action. They have a 30ft fly speed and hover, and they have +8 to hit and deal 7(1d4+4) bludgeoning damage on average. Additionally, they have a Strength of 4, which isn't much but does allow them to carry up to 15lbs each ([4 * 15 ]/ 4). I'd allow you to have them work in unison to lift/float/levitate objects up to 150lbs at 30ft per round, or even drag objects up to 300lbs.
Fill a small-ish clay pot with a bag and then use Catapult on that pot to deliver it up to 90ft away and, assuming your DM is cool, use that as a way to damage someone and cover their space in bearings at the same time.
Other uses off the top of my head:
Use them to check and see if a surface is level.
Drop down a hole and listen for impact to judge distance.
Toss to make a noise and draw attention of more intelligent creatures.
Use as ammo in a sling, possibly.
Cast Light on one and roll it into a room ahead of you.
Use one to set off traps you have spotted.
Use one to check for traps without spotting them.
Put some in a stone bowl to feed your pet Rust Monster?
Throwing them down suspicious hallways can also check for gelatinous cubes, as the ball bearing will slow and stop "in air" as if it had hit a jello mould.
Currently have a couple thousand ball bearings. My character isn't too fond of the person who we are contracted to and next time he says something I don't like, there is going to be quite a few around his office.
Get a BOH full of BB. Only costs around 250GP and a ton of traveling to different cities.
My thief uses them to keep doors locked. He’ll drop a bearing into the lock preventing another key from being used.
He also uses them to aid in escapes by dumping the bag of them in alleyways and hallways to slow anyone chasing him.
We also have a box of about a fuck load in the back of the Party’s wagon that can be opened up and dumped by pulling a rope in the front
I question the using a ball bearing to keep locks locked. That’s either a way smaller ball bearing than usual or a way bigger lock than expected.
shush My DM might be reading
They come in different sizes, from 1 inch to like 1/8th inch. The little marbles in those crappy pocket pinball games they used to give out at Wendy's and shit? Those are ball bearings.
Maybe the bags of ball bearings aren't all uniform sizes. If there's different sizes, then you pick whichever one is best suited to the lock.
There's like 1000 in a bag, right? One's gotta fit.
In fact, I don't see how they could be - the only way to make them in a pre-industrial society would be to pour molten steel down a shot tower. That would produce functional steel spheres of a variety of sizes.
In a world where dwarves, gnomes, and magic forges exist I could see finely tuned gears, bearings and, oh what the hell, hydraulics come into play.
Points for the shot tower link. Very interesting.
Casting was used before shot towers, which does produce uniform sizes.
They are pretty small, not quite sure if they are lock small, but keep in mind the phb item says a small bag is 1000 of them and they weigh 2 lbs.
2 lbs is about 907g. One bb is about .907g. Assuming they are high-carbon steel like modern ball bearings, they have a density of 7.85g/cm3, meaning they have a radius of about 3 mm, diameter 6 mm, or a bit larger than US FF birdshot. Something like half the width of a pinkie fingernail.
Probably can’t be used in the small keyways of expensive, intricate locks, but they can definitely be popped into a cheap or average medieval lock.
animate objects
Our Rogue dropped an entire bag of 1000 bearings down a spiral stairwell after some baddies that were chasing us. It was a quick ride back down for them. Another situation involved another party member casting the Darkness spell in a small housing abode full of enemies followed by the the same Rogue rolling bearings into the Darkness.
That is awesome!
The light cantrip. Cast light on one and roll it down a hallway or stairs or drop it off a cliff, if you can’t get it back, oh well, you have 999 more
I am totally borrowing this, I love it.
DM is letting us go shopping. My cleric is buying some ball bearings.
Sneak some into enemy foodstuff and later cast heat metal
I feel like I'd notice if I was eating ball bearings
But if you were an orc and eating quickly do you think you would pass that perception check?
Yes.
Good, because the spell doesn't work that way anyway.
If the orc ate quickly, would the caster pass the check to see the ball bearing to cast the spell?
Yes.
This is a cool enough concept that I would probably allow this to work in game in a limited capacity. But sadly, heat metal requires you to be able to see the metal you cast the spell on.
Cast heat metal, put it into a bowl of cold soup
When you forget to learn Prestidigitation
You know, I thought that might be the case. Ah well.
On the other hand, have you ever heard of the animal trap + heat metal combo? Tricky to pull off, but absolutely devilish
This is also a quick way to heat up your soup.
Well, the obvious one is during combat or during a chase, throwing them on the ground to cause creatures to fall prone. A few other uses are sling ammo and a distraction with the sounds they make.
Another player in my first campaign made a grenade with them. Ball bearings, alchemist’s fire, and mud, I think. Didn’t kill anyone, but injured most of the cultists so we could mop up.
Toss em in to the bushes to distract a guard.
Rig a trap behind you that dumps a handful of ball bearings onto a piece of metal when tripped. The noise will alert you to anyone following you.
Toss them into a structure, have the druid cast heat metal onto them. Now you've got burning difficult terrain, and a possible fire.
I like the idea of heating them up. Nice! Good trap/alarm idea too.
With a bag or two of ball bearings, you can easily take not only the treasure from the dungeon, but the chests too.
I've got a pressure plate in a dungeon coming up, where the floor is waffled, and at the bottom of each little square is a teeny tiny button. Stepping on the floor won't do anything. But once the trap down the hall releases a bunch of ball bearings, leaving the hallway gets more interesting...
That is pretty good. I like that.
Know how a claymore mine works? It basically fires ball bearings at high speeds. Thunderwave.
bearing balls can be used for just about anything!
Build a "Crossfire" game and create a catchy rock-jingle
Right in the childhood
Our Paladin slipped them into the beer of our Half Orc Barbarian. He almost choked to death (con save) but my clerics medicine check (low dc) saved him. Paladin blamed it on an npc none of us liked, he was killed by a chair, we were tried and found innocent.
That npc started making pacts in the afterlife and coming back to kill us. Finally ran into a cool god and had his existence erased from time.
But yeah, use them to choke people chugging drinks.
I have to question how large these bearings are if your barbarian almost choked to death. If you can swallow a pill while drinking you can swallow a ball bearing.
I imagine it's the difference of knowing you are taking a pill, and unexpectedly have one shoved down your throat. Like choking on inhaled spit, yeah?
1000 pieces of ammunition for your catapult spell? animating objects for quick fighting. Dropping in doorways to slow pursuers. thief use object as a bonus action to clutter the battlefield?
Testing any gravity or magnetic based trap.
Quickling encounters are over pretty quick if you spread some on the ground
I’ve always wanted to have an unseen servant follow with a bunch of them loosely wrapped in a cloth, then when danger happens behind you, disperse the servant and BLAM ball bearing everywhere.
Really situational though.
The catapult spell is a good way to launch a flaming oily bag of ball bearings and caltrops.
Then I use two lodestones to pick up my ball bearings and caltrops after they are deployed. A lodestone you ask? They come in a component pouch since they are the material components needed for the Mending spell.
Nice, I like your pick up routine.
Pour them into a metal container, seal, and use heat and smith’s tools to produce canister damascus.
…ok I may have binge-watched too much Forged in Fire.
If they're big enough, they make excellent ammo for slings.
Made Strahd trip once in Ravenloft when he was chasing us to give us a spook
That is awesome. Nice job.
Laughs were had and smiles were made. A very proud moment of mine.
If you use them alongside the grease spell it makes one seriously slippery area. Sometimes I'll cast grease and then use my familiar to drop ball bearings. Now a creature has to make 2 saves just to get through the area at a normal pace
Nice, just like the Home Alone movie. lol
haha exactly
You can use them to move heavy things. If you have a bunch slide the safe or whatever over the top and keep dropping more in front of it. If you have two, balance it on one ball bearing, push the object slightly forward but not so far that you can’t keep the front side off the ground, drop the second ball equidistant from the center to the other ball, balance on the second ball, pivot 180 degrees, pick up the first ball and repeat. It’s how ancient people moved heavy stuff around.
I once had a fight in a tavern with my Tempest Cleric and one of my party members ha previously tossed a hundred ball bearings out at the entrance. Well, when the fighting started I simply walked into the center of the bearings and cast Thunderwave, send both enemies and ball bearings flying through the air as a sort of psuedo-shotgun.
That creates a nice visual. lol
Right now I'm casting magic stone on mine. I mean, what's a ball bearing but a little metal rock. the DM was cool with it.
With 1000 bearings I never have to worry about not having stones available for my terrible cantrip i hardly use. Lol