Draft:Immobilization

Omega 0.90.4

Immobilization prevents ordinary player movement and jumping while leaving many other actions available. It can result from a grappling monster, a trap or hazardous terrain. It is distinct from sleep, which suppresses ordinary local commands, and from a monster losing its ability to move.

Effects

Action	Effect of immobilization
Ordinary walking, locally or in the countryside	Prevented while the count is positive
Jumping, including with jumping boots	Prevented before choosing a destination
City destination movement	Refused while immobilized
Melee, shooting, drinking, reading, casting and using a wand	Immobilization itself does not prohibit them; other states such as fear or sleep can
Teleportation	Can change position without clearing the remaining immobilization count

Blocked terrain, another creature, excessive burden and immobilization are separate reasons for movement to fail. Levitation does not override a positive immobilization count, even though it can prevent some terrain effects from applying in the first place.

One count expires per minute-status update, including when the total exceeds 1000. The duration is not a fixed number of attempted steps: local minutes and extra city/village movement time use minute checks, ten-minute/hourly processing also invokes a minute check, and countryside hourly advances do not simulate sixty intermediate checks.

Sources

Source	Added counts	Conditions
Bog thing grapple	1 per landed attack	Applied after its physical damage attempt, without a separate level roll or immunity check
Hostile Dragon Lord, adjacent	Initial knockdown adds 2; grabbing or tightening a coil adds 1	Its stages also deal damage, can skip a player action and can cast spells
Thorny hedge	1–5	One of six hedge results; the Druid patron bypasses the hedge's ordinary hazards
Rubble	2	When random 0–99 is at least Agility + player level; also causes debris damage
Pit trap	1	Unmounted player carrying at least half maximum carrying weight; separate physical damage
Snare trap	Current difficulty	Unmounted player failing the Agility check against random 0–99
Lava	2	The ordinary lava branch, after fire damage and drowning handling; not a guarantee that the victim survives
Contact-cement statue result	2–7	One possible result when striking a statue; the current location limits which statue results can occur

Damage prevention does not automatically cancel a subsequent immobilization addition. In particular, the bog thing's grapple can still add its count when physical immunity or displacement prevents direct damage.

These terrain results apply only if the player's terrain handler is reached. Shadow form and levitation can bypass particular terrain effects; mounted movement and explicit activation of the current square change those rules. They do not supply a general grapple immunity. Full monster flight and terrain rules belong to Monster movement.

Escape and recovery

A working teleport effect relocates the player without testing immobilization. It leaves the count intact, so you may still be unable to walk at the destination until it expires. An otherwise usable spell, wand or scroll can therefore create distance, but simultaneous fear blocks all three ordinary activation routes. Blindness additionally prevents reading a scroll.

Ordinary healing, curing, cleansing and banishing fear do not directly clear immobilization. Removing an attacker can prevent further additions, but does not refund existing counts. If you can safely wait, the minute-status updates eventually remove them.

Broader resets have different costs: the Arms' week of rest clears status counts below 1000, while a village void stone clears all counts and also drains mana and strips carried item magic. Reaching a distant service by walking is not a solution while movement remains blocked.

Monsters trapped in a pit or snare instead lose their mobile flag. They do not receive the player's timed immobilization counter or its automatic minute recovery. Losing ordinary mobility also does not stop an awake monster's adjacent attacks or other available attack routes.

Strategy

Use the actions you still have. Kill or disable a grappler, drink a needed remedy, or teleport clear before repeated attacks prolong the trap. Jumping boots and newly acquired levitation do not remove an existing immobilization count.

The bog thing is especially dangerous when fear joins immobilization: its follow-up can inflict 50 unstoppable damage and reduce Strength and Constitution. The Dragon Lord has a separate escalating constriction sequence. In either case, merely reducing the physical damage of the initial hit does not solve the control effect.