Useing a Instant Fortress as a weapon

[Virgil Sagecaster]

I have a pc who activated a Daern's Instant Fortress, while he was flying 50ft above a Howling Dragon. If this is even possible, how would the damage be figured out and if a reflex saving throw is allowed to half the damage? When that didnt worked, he teleported himself inside the creature (it was colossal) and activated another one inside it. How would you handle this? Can you teleport inside another creature if it's larger than you? When that failed to kill it, he placed a Portalbe Hole inside a Bag of Holding and the dragon went to the astral plane alongside with his pc. Then he planeshifted back to the prime material. Wouldnt he be effectively grappled between the fortress and the dragon's innards? And about the astral rift, whould both of them would be "lost forever"?

 

[AuraSeer]

I've always ruled that the Instant Fortress will not expand unless placed on a surface solid enough to support its weight. That prevents the common cheap tricks of using it in the air above a foe's head, or inside its stomach. (This is the same principle that won't let you use summon monster to bury your foes under a summoned orca.)

You can't teleport to a place unless you have seen it, or at least have a good description of it. So unless this PC had previously spent time in the innards of this particular Howling Dragon, with an active light source, teleport wouldn't work. (Or perhaps he'd end up in the guts of some other very surprised dragon.) Dimension door lets you specify by direction and distance, but that has problems too; note that there's very little open space in the interior of a monster. I'd require a DC 30 Knowledge(anatomy) or Knowledge(dragons) check, and failure would indicate that he beamed into a solid part of the body and got shunted out.

The hole-in-a-bag explosion is among the oldest of cheap tricks, and unfortunately the rules as written don't offer much chance of escaping it. As a house rule, I allow anyone in range to make a Reflex save (DC 17) to avoid the vortex and stay on the current plane. That makes the hole-in-a-bag no more deadly than the plane shift spell itself, except that it's an area effect and ignores SR.

Even if the dragon is successfully zapped to the Astral, that's hardly a death sentence, and it does have a good chance of finding its own way home. Finding a particular color pool (a naturally occurring portal) requires only a matter of hours, so the dragon could easily get back to its home plane before encountering anything tough enough to be a threat. The portal may not drop it anywhere near the place from which it left, but that's why dragons have high flight speeds.

 

[hobgoblin]

now that player needs some bonus exp for unusual use of magical items

alltho this sounds a bit to highpower for me...

 

[BSF]

Instant Fortress: This metal cube is small,but when activated by speaking a command word it grows to form a tower 20 feet square and 30 feet high, with arrow slits on all sides and a crenellated battlement atop it. The metal walls extend 10 feet into the ground, rooting it to the spot and preventing it from being tipped over. The fortress has a small door that opens only at the command of the owner of the fortress —even knock spells can ’t open the door.

The adamantine walls of instant fortress have 100 hit points and hardness 20. The fortress cannot be repaired except by a wish or a miracle spell, which restores 50 points of damage taken.

The fortress springs up in just 1 round, with the door facing the device’s owner. The door opens and closes instantly at his command. People and creatures nearby (except the owner) must be careful not to be caught by
the fortress ’s sudden growth. Anyone so caught takes 10d10 points of damage (Reflex DC 19 half ).

The fortress is deactivated by speaking a command word (different from the one used to activate it). It cannot be deactivated unless it is empty.

Strong conjuration;CL 13th;Craft Wondrous Item,mage ’s magnificent mansion;Price 55,000 gp.

Well, a lot of the rules are right there.

Personally, I would adjudicate it as AuraSeer suggests. It must be on the ground, etc.

It is noteworthy that the fortress appears facing the owner, but not necessarily in the same square. In fact, it would make sense that it must be at least 5' away to avoid endangering the activator. You would have to determine if that is a magical type affect, or if the activator actually puts the cube on the ground and activates it. (Putting it on the ground would be logical if you also adjudicate that it must be on the ground to activate the tower.) In any event, it would be sensical that activating the tower would take place outside of the dragon, even if the PC were inside the dragon.

If you did want to allow it to be dropped, figure out the mass for the tower and treat it like an object falling onto a person. For a tower that size, I think it would be safe to say it would max out the damage at 20d6 (ave 70). I think there is a Ref save to avoid a falling object, but I don't see it in the SRD on a quick peruse. Remember that the falling damage will affect the tower itself as well.

The player in question is pulling all the stops out trying to defeat the dragon. I definitely give the player points for creativity. but I wouldn't allow most of the attempts that this player made.

Now, if the player had been using planning ahead and shrinking boulders with a Shrink Item spell, I would be impressed.

 

[Eremite]

(snip) For a tower that size, I think it would be safe to say it would max out the damage at 20d6 (ave 70). (snip)

Complete Warrior provides rules that show that the damage from the weight of an object does not max out at 20d6: only the "falling component" of the damage is so capped.

Scary, eh?

 

[BSF]

Looks like you are correct. Though I don't think you need to check Complete Warrior to get that. Though the chart under Improvised Weapons looks like it mimics the weight ranges in the SRD for Falling Objects. Since it is a chart, it might be a quicker reference to extrapolate from.