D&D 5E I'm the DM and a player is trying to abuse the Immovable Rod. Advice?

[Yunru]

"I grapple the enemy. I pin him. I pull out the immovable rod, press it into his chest or stomach, and activate it." Think Loki when Thor puts the hammer on his chest. Creative the first time, gets boring fast.

"He reaches up and presses the bottom, deactivating the rod. He then pockets it and attempts to run away." It's not creative because it's not being played to it's logical conclusion. Plus it's not even a guarantee. Besides all that, are you against characters having a signature style?

 

[Satyrn]

"I grapple the enemy. I pin him. I pull out the immovable rod, press it into his chest or stomach, and activate it." Think Loki when Thor puts the hammer on his chest. Creative the first time, gets boring fast.

A cowboy can achieve the same thing with a lasso.

 

[Lanliss]

"He reaches up and presses the bottom, deactivating the rod. He then pockets it and attempts to run away." It's not creative because it's not being played to it's logical conclusion. Plus it's not even a guarantee. Besides all that, are you against characters having a signature style?

Not at all, I just like to think of ways it can be used and, depending on the DM, some of those uses will be considered abuse. Also, I think I picture the rod differently than you. I see it as a three foot long rod, so reaching the button on the opposite end would be a bit tricky, depending on the enemy.

 

[Lanliss]

A cowboy can achieve the same thing with a lasso.

Yes, and much more easily, but it is also easier to break out of a simple rope.

 

[Satyrn]

Yes, and much more easily, but it is also easier to break out of a simple rope.

If this becomes a problem for the adventuring cowboy, he could buy some stronger rope, maybe some dwarven iron-fused hemp rope, probably for a fraction of the cost of an immovable rod.

How easy is it to break out from being hogtied, anyway?

 

[Sunseeker]

Technically you could use a pair of rods to fly, you don't need a wall even. Just lock one three feet in the air, and climb on it to put the next at 6 feet. On and on, as high as you want.

Not a lot of room for balancing, and you'd have to balance on one rod while you reached back and picked up the previous one. It'd certainly be easier to achieve if you had opposable thumbs on your feet, or a prehensile tail capable of pressing the button. Or Mage Hand I guess.

You don't need to penetrate rock, that's only used to secure the rods normally and well...

True. You'd still need some climbing checks and fatigue checks though.

Incorrect. restrained is not incapacitated. Restrained gives you a speed of 0, advantage to hit you and disadvantage on dex saves. So this does not in any way stop you from hitting the button on an immovable rod (although, wow! what a button that it takes 6 seconds to press!).

See: misunderstanding the rules. Happens to everyone.

I suppose it also begs the question: does the Rod secure itsself in a fixed 3-dimensional point in space? Or is it relative to the user? The nearest large gravity well? Does the Rod know when it's inside a larger object? Could you use an Immovable Rod on the Moon to stop its orbit, or would it lock itsself to a fixed point relative to the Moon? Would an Immovable Rod placed 250,000 miles from Earth still rotate with it or would it stay fixed in that point of space? Wouldn't a truly Immovable Rod be immune to the forces of gravity and the moment you lock it in place you would suddenly realize you're hurtling through space at 18mps and spinning on a top at over a thousand mph? Wouldn't it be more accurate now to call it a "Rod of Relativistic Positioning"?

Even if the Rod is in a dragon's stomach, I would think the physical force of the dragon's mass (given it was large enough to swallow an average humanoid whole) moving would overcome a DC30 Str check.

The real way that this one is not a problem is simply that monsters which swallow you are quite rare, and even if you do meet them, they typically swallow only one member of the party, and the likelihood of that being the guy with the immovable rod(s) is slim. And even then, if they can swallow you + rod, it's not inconceivable that they can simply regurgitate the rod.

Right, not to mention you also have to ya know, probably die in order to accomplish this. So I guess as a heroic sacrifice against an enemy this might be interesting, but I think Agent K probably had a better idea of being swallowed with a really big gun.

In short, if immovable rods 'break' your game, your game was very brittle in the first place.

That's basically my conclusion as well.

EDIT: based on my thoughts above, I'm going to give out an Immovable Rod in my next game, and before the players activate it I'm going to ask them if they think the Rod locks itsself to a fixed point in 3-dimensional space-time or if it locks itself relative to the nearest most powerful gravity well. I REALLY​ hope they choose the former. *evil laugh*

 

[Maxperson]

Every time the party gets into an encounter he will try to make an attack on the creature. If he hits with both his attacks he states he hits the enemy in a way where he can lock the immovable rod just perfectly to prevent the creature from being able to move. (Normally he says he perfectly locks the hammers around their neck and presses the button so that they become permanently restrained. In one instance he said he locked it around this creatures neck in a way that the creature could not even turn around, and then he would just attack it from behind with it completely helpless). Every single encounter he states he uses his hammer to restrain the enemy. He's even tried saying that when he hits a cloaker he was fighting that he used the hammer to pierce its tail and pin it to the ground (and press the button to lock the hammer in place).

That isn't up to him. Just tell him no it doesn't work like that.

 

[Lanliss]

I suppose it also begs the question: does the Rod secure itsself in a fixed 3-dimensional point in space? Or is it relative to the user? The nearest large gravity well? Does the Rod know when it's inside a larger object? Could you use an Immovable Rod on the Moon to stop its orbit, or would it lock itsself to a fixed point relative to the Moon? Would an Immovable Rod placed 250,000 miles from Earth still rotate with it or would it stay fixed in that point of space? Wouldn't a truly Immovable Rod be immune to the forces of gravity and the moment you lock it in place you would suddenly realize you're hurtling through space at 18mps and spinning on a top at over a thousand mph? Wouldn't it be more accurate now to call it a "Rod of Relativistic Positioning"?

There was a thread on this before the rollback. Some decided the user can choose what it is immovable in relation to. Use it as an attack by setting it relative to the sun, and tying an enemy to it, use it as an anchor by setting it relative to your current planet, use it as a mobile shield by setting it relative to the user.

My personal view is that it is set relative to your current planet. My reasoning is that it is not a wish spell that someone used to make it immovable, it is the result of research and planning by some ancient mages, so it makes no sense that it would work like a monkey's paw by being immovable in relation to the sun.

 

[Sunseeker]

There was a thread on this before the rollback. Some decided the user can choose what it is immovable in relation to. Use it as an attack by setting it relative to the sun, and tying an enemy to it, use it as an anchor by setting it relative to your current planet, use it as a mobile shield by setting it relative to the user.

My personal view is that it is set relative to your current planet. My reasoning is that it is not a wish spell that someone used to make it immovable, it is the result of research and planning by some ancient mages, so it makes no sense that it would work like a monkey's paw by being immovable in relation to the sun.

I would agree that it is locked to a point relative to the current planet (or other large celestial body) on which you reside. That still begs the question of placing an Immovable Rod in high orbit over the Earth to stop the Moon, though I suspect the Moon would break the DC30 Str check.

 

[mpwylie]

You all act like this is some game breaking horrible thing that the player has come up with. In a fantasy game full of classes with truly powerful spells, this wouldn't even be a blip on my radar. He could have just taken the Wand of Paralyze which is a rare item instead of the 2 uncommon rods and it would have be far more game breaking then restraining some monsters. At this point this seems to be the player's Schtick, so adjust your encounters and roll with it. I see no reason to crush him with the DM fiat hammer because he came up with something clever.