D&D 5E (2024) Getting ready to use the Portable Hole + Bag of holding trick

[James Gasik]

I'm not sure why anyone thinks dumping a lich into the Astral Plane is anything but a temporary solution. With his intelligence, movement won't be an issue, and it's not like he can't find a color pool to bring him back.

And even if something truly onerous did happen, a lich can regenerate even if their phylactery is on another plane of existence (Acererak keeps his in a secret demiplane, for example).

 

[bedir than]

I'm not sure why anyone thinks dumping a lich into the Astral Plane is anything but a temporary solution. With his intelligence, movement won't be an issue, and it's not like he can't find a color pool to bring him back.

And even if something truly onerous did happen, a lich can regenerate even if their phylactery is on another plane of existence (Acererak keeps his in a secret demiplane, for example).

As long as the party survives long enough to take a Long Rest the hole-bag trick is successful even if the lich isn't eliminated permanently.

 

[James Gasik]

As long as the party survives long enough to take a Long Rest the hole-bag trick is successful even if the lich isn't eliminated permanently.

Let's just hope the Lich doesn't know Plane Shift, lol.

Oh wait, they do!

 

[bedir than]

Let's just hope the Lich doesn't know Plane Shift, lol.

Oh wait, they do!

"Target the location in general terms" and the examples are quite large spaces

 

[Clint_L]

Let's just hope the Lich doesn't know Plane Shift, lol.

Oh wait, they do!

Plane shift doesn't let you target a really specific location, though, just "a target destination in general terms, such as the City of Brass on the Elemental Plane of Fire or the palace of Dispater on the second level of the Nine Hells, and you appear in or near that destination, as determined by the DM." So this move should still buy the party time to escape. Unless the DM wants to be kind of a jerk about it.

Edit: I want to emphasize that I am not criticizing the OP's suggestion out of hand - there is a lot of context that I don't know about. Maybe this party has learned that trick through painstaking trial and error. Maybe such tricks are held to be common knowledge. Maybe this group of players considers meta-gaming to come up with ingenious plans part of the fun. I don't know, and if it's working for them, then bless! I'm just pointing out that this is the kind of thing that a more story-first approach, like we enjoy, might object to (again, depending on context). Which is also fine - every table is its own universe.

 

[Koloth]

Plane shift gets the Lich to the starting plane. Exact location probably doesn't matter. Followed by Teleport to get the Lich to the very well known destination of its throne room that just a few moments ago was violated by a ceiling walking monk. And it is now a fully activated and rather irritated Lich. Or maybe the Lich pauses on the Astral plane to collect the pile of items left scattered about after the hole and bag are destroyed. Then comes back to deal with the interlopers. And maybe that irritated Ancient Dragon. What wild story isn't made better by the addition of an irritated Ancient Dragon?

 

[ECMO3]

How does your character know about the portable hole trick?

She identified both items.

 

[ECMO3]

Is regular retreat back the way you came in an option? You have super movement that should be enough to get you and potentially a body/unconscious companion a long way off if you dash? If the barbarian can also get away with decent movement and carry another downed player away then it’s just the wizard who can hopefully use their usual shenanigans to get out.

It is an option for me. I have 50 Move + the jump spell (currently not cast but if I wanted to move that is 20 more a turn) + Misty Step. I can probably get away although the way I came is through the Lich. The Monk can as well if he survives until his turn and the Wizard. The other 3 would be screwed if I fled.,

 

[ECMO3]

I think this is a very good question. Even if there are tales passed down about Bartleby the Black, adventurer extraordinaire, seems very unlikely that the details would be exact.

Identify spell: "If the object is a magic item or some other magical object, you learn its properties and how to use them, whether it requires Attunement, and how many charges it has, if any."

I think this falls under "its properties and how to use them". It is also written on the both cards the DM gave me when I identified the items.

 

[ECMO3]

I'm not sure why anyone thinks dumping a lich into the Astral Plane is anything but a temporary solution. With his intelligence, movement won't be an issue, and it's not like he can't find a color pool to bring him back.

And even if something truly onerous did happen, a lich can regenerate even if their phylactery is on another plane of existence (Acererak keeps his in a secret demiplane, for example).

Well all we need is a temporary solution .... i.e. him not killing us right now.

I am sure he will make it back to his lair eventually, although it will probably take him longer than we will be there (those of us that live anyway). If he has a chip on his shoulder he may even hunt us down (or he might not), but even that is better than dying here and now.

I don't think Pane shift is going to be a problem for us. He might know Plane Shift, but he has already cast at least 2 spells of level 7+, and it requires a specific costly component. So if he has it prepared, and if he still has his 7th level slot when I do this and if he has a Forgotten Realms tuning fork on him then he could shift back to the general area of Myth Drannor and if he also has Teleport and a 4th slot of level 7+ he might actually be able to teleport back into the fight ..... but that is a lot of ifs and it is 2 turns later. So worst case scenario it gives us a couple rounds to heal before we are fighting him again with him having 2 fewer high level slots.