Storme said:
If it was a movie or story, the section of the floor would become amphorous and move.
You can do this or have it break out.
Either that or you can say...it IS animated but it can't actually move. I'd be against that idea because I'm not a fan of arbitrarily weakening a character's ability. The description mentions "section of the wall or floor," so let it work to his advantage. Its meant to.
Storme
It's far from arbitrary. I've ruled that he gets to animate it just fine but he can't do anything until he breaks out. This somewhat lessens its obscenely good combat use (otherwise, instant possession and attacking with disposable colossal objects would threaten to overrun virtually all combat scenarios.) Think about it - an infinite series of colossal objects can be thrown at you at no cost to the FoP. He can just keep peeling away layers of dirt and rock to animate.
If he has to break free, he can still do it, but at least it takes some time for him to ready the next layer of bedrock.
Also, let me point something out - this is a strict RAW campaign, not a cinematic campaign. The only reason I have crazy-powerful PCs running around in the first place is because I am allowing things that are technically legal by RAW. (Kaorti are not classically fiends and would not qualify for fiend of possession by "flavor"; rather, they fit the strict technical requirements by being evil outsiders.) In such a setting, where you already benefit from technical legalities, you don't then get to turn around and ask for something that is not legal just because it's thematic. I realize that not everyone runs DnD this way, but for cinematic combat campaigns I use other systems that are better suited to that.
Nifft said:
MCvE blocks possession. That's a called out specific use. Anything that stems from possession (such as animation) ends when he enters the MCvE area. He can't even start possessing stuff that's in an MCvE.
-- N
Again, the Fiend of Possession partly gets around that. Possession still works in an MCvE, just not "control." He is riding along inside the host when in an MCvE area, instead of expelled as would normally happen.
Ultimately I ruled that he possessed the ground outside the area of the magic circle, broke out, then moved to attack, and became inert when he got within the circle's radius. I think this is pretty accurate.
