Fun with carpets of flying

[Queranil]

The game I'm playing in is an arabian urban rogue/scoundrel campaign (set in Calimshan, Forgotten Realms). So, our group had a dramatic and cinematic fight with a wizard, who tried to flee on his carpet of flying. One player (a rogue) tried to grapple with him while he was taking off and my character (a rogue/cleric) climbed the buildings and then jumped on the carpet.
The carpet circled higher and higher and my dread grew as I identified him casting fly on his own (we were unable to flank him, so we were not very dangerous). I responded with a successfull silence so he could not order his carpet to turn upside down. The wizard flew away and escaped (4 hp remaining, damn!)

Then we had this interesting discussion:
The carpet of flying is activated by a command word (which my character heard and remembered) and controlled by spoken directions. We decided that once a command was given, like foreward, up etc, the carpet would do that until ordered otherwise; to avoid speaking ALL the time if you would like to move around. The wizard was silenced and gone and the carpet was circling higher and higher.....

We wondered if it was possible te gain control of the carpet just by issuing commands to fly down. That could also mean any commoner could do that from the streets while flying low over them. The we discused about gaining control by using the command word to activate it, but it was already activated by the wizard....it turned into Grand Theft Carpet!! The DM decided we could gain control of the carpet by speaking the command word while on the carpet and so we were safe.

What are your thoughts about odd but wonderful situation?

 

[HRSegovia]

Personally I think Flying Carpets are more fun when given a personality and carry a fidelity to the owner and his party members. Like an NPC, it would be run entirely by the GM and will only intercede when the GM allows. Otherwise, it's just a flying carpet.

In this case, the carpet would take-over and quit spiraling, then:
- Attempt to buck the PC off at the risk of bucking the owner
- Go limp where the PC sits allowing the PC to fall
- Like a paper airplane, experiment with more aerodynamic shapes to accommodate for the extra weight and wonder why its creator would use such a wind-resistant design with such a high surface area for a flying apparatus.

 

[Vegepygmy]

We wondered if it was possible te gain control of the carpet just by issuing commands to fly down.

Yes, of course. The rogue or rogue/cleric (whoever wound up on the carpet with the wizard) is now in sole possession of the carpet. If he knows the command word, he can activate/control it.

That could also mean any commoner could do that from the streets while flying low over them.

You mean a commoner on the ground with the carpet flying overhead? No. You have to be in possession of a magic item to activate it.

The DM decided we could gain control of the carpet by speaking the command word while on the carpet and so we were safe.

+1 XP to your DM.