Exodus Knife

[Incendax]

I'm having a lot of trouble with this magic item. It's like Rope Trick on Steroids. The party is using the knife to easily retreat from any dangerous situation, and then potentially do any of the following:

Get an extended rest, if time allows.
Use a portal ritual to go someplace safe.
Get the entire party inside then opening the door to fire ranged attacks, then closing the door, repeatedly.
Use another Exodus Knife to extend the time if necessary.

I've ruled that an enemy wizard can use Dispel Magic to attempt the dispel the effect as if it were a 'zone', but I cannot always tote out enemy wizards that happened to save Dispel Magic for exactly this circumstance. I would appreciate ideas about how to curtail this behavior to a more reasonable limit.

 

[twilsemail]

When presented with an unwinnable situation I often have my monsters leave the field. It might be worthwhile to have yours do the same. Perhaps alert the rest of the crawl that the PCs have this thing that makes a hole in the wall and how they're using it. Remember that it's just 1/day, you should be able to get around them using it in an encounter.

Maybe have an NPC have heard of the thing and just paint over the door/coat it in mud/put a table in front of it. It removes the advantage of the PCs seeing out.

Have the baddies start bricking them in? Start a fire just outside the door.

Have a Lurker follow them in and open the door when they aren't expecting.

Phasing monsters.

Note: some of the things you list are pretty much exactly what the knife is for. If the PCs are taking their extended rest in a secure area, well, that's just good planning on their part. If the PCs are using the knife in the middle of a fight, that's a bit worse.

 

[DracoSuave]

Reasonably speaking, by doing this, if the enemies have access to some sort of Arcana knowledge, a party doing this in the inside of the enemy's lair is setting themselves up for the mother of all ambushes.

Also, you're the DM. Don't let them have one.

 

[Mesh Hong]

This is the type of item I am very wary of in my game. I am surprised you have allowed your group to get more than one, but I suppose if they have one there is nothing stopping them making another.

From reading it:

Extended rest - yes it is possible, they have 8 hours worth of extradimensional space.

Portal out of it - personally I would try and stop that, they are in an extradimensional space that is only linked to the cosmos through a single special door. I might say that that is the only way in or out and you cannot teleport through it.

Door antics - this also seems possible but creatures can ready actions to attack when the door opens (once they know roughly where it is), they could also ready bullrush attacks so that they can barge their way in

Using another knife to extend the time - I would say no. They would need to leave the space and open up a different portal.

If these suggestions don't help then consider how you might have the bad guys use exodus knives against the PCs. The general rule of fair & fun states that anything the PCs can do the enemies can do also.

A taste of their own medicine might show them that just because they can do something doesn't mean that they should do it.

 

[Aulirophile]

Well... the door can be seen with Blindsight. Invisible enemies can sneak through the door when the PCs are trying to run in, wait till they're asleep, then pounce on them. Better yet, have one go in, ready an action to close the door when 1/2 the party is in. Watch at least one half of the party die.

 

[Ryujin]

I would rule that they can't "extend" the duration of the room by using the knife. They would have to exit, cut a new doorway, and then step into the new extra-dimensional space.

Just because the door is invisible, that in no way implies that they couldn't be tracked to that blank wall. The baddies send runners who gather up 3 or 4 encounters worth of opponents to ambush the party when they pop out.

Who says that you can gate from nowhere to somewhere? It's a house rule, but make it a dimensionally locked space.

I picked up an Exodus Knife in for our party and everyone thought that it was a great idea. Problem was that any time we were in an area that involved something other that the "real world", the DM wouldn't let it work. I think that we got to use it a grand total of twice, in 6 levels.

 

[Kingreaper]

If it proves too abusable you can always add a ritual "open dimensional gate" or similar, that allows the opening of such locked portals.

Then all of a sudden the party have to be careful about who knows where there portal is. (well, more careful)

 

[jester_gl]

If you let them portal out of the space, what is preventing anything from portaling inside at any time?

 

[Mesh Hong]

If you let them portal out of the space, what is preventing anything from portaling inside at any time?

A known teleportation address? unless they are using true portal, and if the group are facing level 28 threats then an Exodus Knife is not going to stop them.

 

[Incendax]

Thank you for the recommendations so far! To be honest, the antics surrounding opening and closing the door have gotten pretty ludicrous.

For example, on more than one occasion the party saw me have monsters ready their actions to come bull rushing through the door the moment the party opened it. They succeeded at an insight check and did not open the door. Instead, they readied their actions to attack the monster the moment it bull rushed them, and the last person readied his action to close the door as soon as the monster finished bull rushing. The result was a successful divide and conquer.

Another example involved a group of monsters chasing half the party into the dimensional space and one of the monsters closing the door behind it. The party creatively used forced movement to get the monsters away from the door, open it, and let the remaining party members inside.

A third example involved one player going into the room then I had a very large monster sit on the opening so nobody else could enter. The rogue of the group used the opportunity to climb on top of the monster and begin sneak attacking it with the first player flanking from beneath the ground with the door still open.

If nothing else, I should be grateful for having such creative and competent players.