Is it just me or is the spell Rope Trick kind of absurd?

So the thread on whether Rope Trick is a heal spell is 180 replies and counting, this isn't that thread.

I actually looked at the spell for the first time in a while (none of my players took it) and, well, isn't it kind of absurd?

1. Strictly by RAW it doesn't actually provide a short rest. A short rest requires an hour or more of rest. Rope trick lasts exactly an hour, presumably including the time it takes to get inside the rope trick space (the spell doesn't say). Is it just a case of short rests used to be shorter (10 minutes in the playtest) and the designers never bothered to fix it, who knows?

- this isn't a big deal, just say the spell 1 hour duration starts when everyone gets in, handwave the extra couple of rounds etc. But the fact that it's ambiguous is annoying! Also, what happens if the wizard casts it and before the party can climb up they get into a fight (this is actually somewhat likely, you wouldn't cast the spell if the area was "safe). should we handwave it then too, or is the short rest blown? was the spell actually just intended to be a brief hidey hole and the short rest is incidental? Again very irritating.

But worse:

2. The party has to climb up to 60' of rope (regular presumably not knotted rope, and don't you even think of using a rope ladder though interestingly, rope isn't part of the material component) to get into the darned thing! If it's not near a wall, that's not easy!

That's just funny to me. Sure, the DM can be generous and just rule it's 1/2 or 1/4 automatic movement (which again eats into the 1 hour duration, probably a lot, but lets not go there?) but what if he rules it's a stressful situation and requires a DC 10 athletics check? There's a pretty good chance the party will be fumbling around for quite a while trying to get everyone up there!

And, I'm sorry, maybe it's mean - but if the party keeps using this spell - at some point, I'm having a villain be smart enough to shoot at them while their going up. Or more likely, wait for them and have archers shoot at them coming down!

Has anyone else been struck by the silliness or absurdity of this spell?

1. The spell provides you with a safe space for 1 hour, which is sufficient for a short rest. A short rest only requires that the character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.

2. The spell requires a length of rope up to 60 feet long which means it can be significantly shorter.

In my games, this spell is a good choice to avoid 6 wandering monster checks in the dungeon while resting. And that's fine by me.

It is absurd. It’s based on “The Indian Rope Trick”. Like many of the earliest D&D stuff it was just grabbed and put in like a madman’s stew.

Mort said:

Has anyone else been struck by the silliness or absurdity of this spell?

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Why climb a rope? I am guessing it is in theme with the snake-charmer trick, but otherwise I see no justification for the methods. Why not just make the extra-dimensional space in a wall or the floor?

So, yes, to both the spell and the other thread.

2. "up to" is the key phrase here. If your wizard pulls out the tangle of 50' rope to use for this spell, instead of a short section, you can just slap them. By reading the spell, 60' is the maximum length, there's no listed minimum, so you could theoretically hold a 1' section somewhere around waist- to chest-high, and just duck a bit to climb in, not even using the rope at all.

Oh don't worry, Leomund's Tiny Hut is just around the corner and that is the proper abuse material.

It beats crawling into a Bag of Holding, as any fan of the Critical Failures book series can attest. I like the quirkiness FWIW

iserith said:

1. The spell provides you with a safe space for 1 hour, which is sufficient for a short rest. A short rest only requires that the character does nothing more strenuous than eating, drinking, reading, and tending to wounds.

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Not exactly. A short rest is at least an hour. This spell last exactly an hour, including getting into the space. Even if the rope is near non-existent, it still takes time.

But that's not even the point. the point is the spell is needlessly ambiguous, and that's always annoying.

If a player took this spell (which is not likely in my group my group. There are a sorcerer, bard and warlock and none have it on their list) I'd let them use it for the short rest, as likely intended - but It's still just silly.

iserith said:

2. The spell requires a length of rope up to 60 feet long which means it can be significantly shorter.

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Yes it can, and in a dungeon , or inside, would kind of have to be. Not disagreeing in the slightest. But the spell explicitly mentions up to 60' of rope. And that image (of adventurers frantically climbing and often failing) just struck me as hilarious and absurd.

iserith said:

In my games, this spell is a good choice to avoid 6 wandering monster checks in the dungeon while resting. And that's fine by me.

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Oh, it's fine for that (though again, needlessly ambiguous) , I jut find it somewhat silly and absurd.

Wiseblood said:

It is absurd. It’s based on “The Indian Rope Trick”. Like many of the earliest D&D stuff it was just grabbed and put in like a madman’s stew.

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And because it's now been in every edition since (though I don't think it made it into 4th?) It's now achieved legacy status and here we are.

Next time I actually get to play, I'm making a buff mage with athletics - just so when asked I can say "do you have any idea how much they made us practice for that stupid rope trick spell!"

or maybe not.

"Needlessly" ambiguous?

It's true, they could have put in language to clarify that it's usable for a short rest, or make the duration 1 hour plus 1 round, or whatever. But if they put in such language to resolve every possible ambiguity, the PHB would be the length of an encyclopedia. I think it is reasonable to expect players to figure out that if a spell gives you a safe hidey-hole, and the duration of the spell equals the length of a short rest, you can in fact take a short-rest in the hidey-hole.