What can you do in an Otiluke's Resilient Sphere?

[Amazing Mumford]

The wording on Otiluke's Resilient Sphere is a little vague, and I was wondering exactly how this works. In many games, such as Icewind Dale 2 and Neverwinter Nights, the subject trapped inside the sphere seemed unable to move or do anything. The 3.5 spell description states:

"A globe of shimmering force encloses a creature, provided the creature is small enough to fit within the diameter of the sphere. The sphere contains its subject for the spell’s duration. The sphere is not subject to damage of any sort except from a rod of cancellation, a rod of negation, a disintegrate spell, or a targeted dispel magic spell. These effects destroy the sphere without harm to the subject. Nothing can pass through the sphere, inside or out, though the subject can breathe normally.
The subject may struggle, but the sphere cannot be physically moved either by people outside it or by the struggles of those within."

This suggests that the subject is not in effect trapped motionless. This now implies, if you can move inside the sphere than you could cast spells. Certainly you would be able to cast spells on yourself within the sphere, or even the sphere itself (if you had disintegrate, for example).

The sphere would block line-of-effect though, being a solid barrier. Now my question is, how does this effect Conjuration spells, specifically calling, summoning, and teleportation? Does line of effect block these? Could you teleport or dimension door out of an Otiluke's Resilient Sphere? If inside one, could you summon monsters on the outside of it?

 

[Runestar]

Teleportation is defined in 3e as instantaneous travel through the astral plane. Assuming your DM subscribes to this interpretation, a resilient sphere (or forcecage, for that matter) would not block teleportation (since force effects only extend into the ethereal plane, not the astral plane), allowing a wizard to teleport/dim-door/abrupt jaunt out.

As a general thumb of rule, you need both line of sight and effect for spells with a "target: XXX" entry, like finger of death, and line of effect for spells with a "effect:XXX" or "area:XXX" entry, like flamestrike or summon monster.

For more information, see the section of 'aiming a spell' and 'line of effect' in the PHB.

So your wizard in the sphere would not be able to summon anything outside the globe.

 

[Jack Simth]

Teleportation is defined in 3e as instantaneous travel through the astral plane. Assuming your DM subscribes to this interpretation, a resilient sphere (or forcecage, for that matter) would not block teleportation (since force effects only extend into the ethereal plane, not the astral plane), allowing a wizard to teleport/dim-door/abrupt jaunt out.

As a general thumb of rule, you need both line of sight and effect for spells with a "target: XXX" entry, like finger of death, and line of effect for spells with a "effect:XXX" or "area:XXX" entry, like flamestrike or summon monster.

For more information, see the section of 'aiming a spell' and 'line of effect' in the PHB.

So your wizard in the sphere would not be able to summon anything outside the globe.

The spell does not specify if the sphere is opaque or not. It's just called "Shimmering". If it's transparent, you could use a Gaze attack through it (such as from the Eyes of Doom, Eyes of Charming, or Eyes of Petrification items; alternately, Shapeshift into something with a Gaze attack).

But yes - it blocks line of effect, so the majority of spells won't get past the sphere (but they can hit the sphere, so Disintegrate or Dispel Magic works just fine for getting rid of the Sphere). Bursts spells continue if they destroy the intervening barrier - so you could, in theory, hit the sphere from the inside with a Disjunction and have the Disjunction spell affect those outside the (now-nonexistent) sphere.

There's a feat in the Expanded Psionic Handbook that permits powers to pass through barriers (with some caveats). Makes a crazy combo with Telekinetic Sphere. A Psion-Keneticist 15 with Telekinetic Sphere, Burrowing Power, and Psionic Meditation (to regain focus quickly) can manifest Telekinetic Sphere on himself at the start of combat, then just blast away through it (requires a DC 31 Psicraft check - which shouldn't be that hard to do at that level - with 18 ranks, a +8 Intelligence modifier (that's an Int score of 26 - a 17 base, +6 Headband, +3 from leveling up, perhaps), and Skill Focus (Psicraft) give a modifier of 29 - you need a 2. If you've got a +2 Tome into Int by that point, you don't fail on a 1).

 

[frankthedm]

If you are a caster: You can Buff yourself, heal yourself, teleport out, teleport in or take down the spere with the right spell.

If you are not a caster: You sit there and suck. Consider reaching for a character sheet to make a spellcaster since this will happen again.

 

[Jack Simth]

If you are a caster: You can Buff yourself, heal yourself, teleport out, teleport in or take down the spere with the right spell.

If you are not a caster: You sit there and suck. Consider reaching for a character sheet to make a spellcaster since this will happen again.

Boots/Helm of Teleportation. Cape of the Monteback. UMD on wands/scrolls. With the right items, a noncaster can teleport out.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Iron Heart Surge might also work... Not to mention all SH teleportations if teleporting works.

Really, though. I don't think ANY effect should be able to go past the sphere until the sphere has been taken down. If you can teleport past it, if you can summon monsters outside of it, why can't you also use ranged targeted spells on enemies or lay down nasty battlefield control spells from inside its safety? I don't like the potential consequences of ruling it to work that way, and think it goes against the intent of the designers.

 

[Amazing Mumford]

Thanks for the help-- I do think it is definitely a less-powerful effect than the computer games would lead you to believe..... and with all the dim door/teleportation possibilities out there, in powers/spells and magic items, it does have it's weaknesses. And with a Ref save, it would also not be the best idea against rog-types, even if they don't have the ability to teleport they still have a very good chance of dodging the effect in the first place.

I do think that the "shimmering" description would prevent gaze attacks-- even though it doesn't specifically say "opaque", I think the spirit of the spell is that it is not invisibly transparent and probably should block gaze attacks. This is one spell that the designers could have added a bit more to...

I do agree with Runestar in that summoning monsters outside of it wouldn't work. If it did, it would make an awesome defense for a conjurer!

And Jack Simth, nice work with the psionic way around the problem!

Here's another question-- could you cast it on a creature in flight? And if so, what happens? Does the sphere/creature stay in the air or fall to the ground?

 

[Jack Simth]

Thanks for the help-- I do think it is definitely a less-powerful effect than the computer games would lead you to believe..... and with all the dim door/teleportation possibilities out there, in powers/spells and magic items, it does have it's weaknesses. And with a Ref save, it would also not be the best idea against rog-types, even if they don't have the ability to teleport they still have a very good chance of dodging the effect in the first place.

Computer games are simplified on that type of thing, generally - simply because they can't cope with things like "I take a pickaxe to the wall" or "I coat my sword in the venom from that last beastie I killed" and such.

I do think that the "shimmering" description would prevent gaze attacks-- even though it doesn't specifically say "opaque", I think the spirit of the spell is that it is not invisibly transparent and probably should block gaze attacks. This is one spell that the designers could have added a bit more to...

It is badly written in that it doesn't specify something that's liable to come up, yes.

As for the spirit?

Of the [Force] spells in the SRD that clearly specify on the Opaque/Transparent issue (Forcecage, Tiny Hut, Wall of Force, Mage Armor, Shield), only Tiny Hut (1 of 5 spells where it's clearly laid out - the other [Force] spells in the SRD are either listed as "shimmering" or don't list it one way or the other) is listed as opaque - and even that is only opaque from the outside (those inside can see out clearly - this is spelled out in the spell).

It's not specified, so it's a DM call, but when I'm DMing, you can see through a Resilient Sphere without penalty.

I do agree with Runestar in that summoning monsters outside of it wouldn't work. If it did, it would make an awesome defense for a conjurer!

That one is fairly clearly laid out - you need line of effect to place a Summon, and you can't get anything (except air, sort of) through a Resilient Sphere. No line of effect, no summon (unless you want it inside the sphere with you, which could happen in the case of the higher-level summons that have access to healing)

And Jack Simth, nice work with the psionic way around the problem!

Yeah. For when you REALLY want to make the melee guys cry at high levels... and you can pull it at lower levels with certain items.

Here's another question-- could you cast it on a creature in flight? And if so, what happens? Does the sphere/creature stay in the air or fall to the ground?

It's defined as "Immobile" - so it stays put, up in the air.

 

[Runestar]

Do gaze attacks require line of effect to work? As in, can a medusa still petrify a PC through a wall of force?

 

[Jack Simth]

Do gaze attacks require line of effect to work? As in, can a medusa still petrify a PC through a wall of force?

The entries for Gaze attacks isn't explicit, but the Wall of Force spell does: "Gaze attacks can operate through a wall of force."