A couple of Magic Item Questions

[Larcen]

Two magic items have brought up several questions.

1) Animated Tower Shield: How much cover can an Animated Tower shield give you against someone you are in melee with? I would imagine full cover will not allow you to attack THEM right? What's the most cover you can get and still attack in melee? Also, does an animated tower shield need to be rotated around once per round to protect different sides of the battle field..a la Shield Spell?

2) Gloves of Storing: Can a weapon with a Magic Weapon spell (or Greater MW) on it have the spell's duration suspended? That is, can you shrink into the glove a weapon under the affects of MW, and then pull it back days later and still have the remaining duration of MW still there? And can you do that over and over again, until the duration expires? Sounds EXTREMELY powerul, especially with GMW. Who needs to pay for a +3 sword when you can keep a GMW sword "on hold" until you need it over and over again? Sure it can be dispelled, but it still sounds powerful to me.

 

[Mahali]

1, As much as you want. Your opponent gets the same amount of cover you do.

2. No. There have been other threads here and on wizards board if you'd like to read arguements for and against.

 

[Larcen]

1, As much as you want. Your opponent gets the same amount of cover you do.

2. No. There have been other threads here and on wizards board if you'd like to read arguements for and against.

Thanks for the quick and easy answers.

However, for the Gloves, if there have been arguments both ways, who finally made the "NO" ruling? WOTC? Sage?

 

[Petrosian]

on the GMW and glove thing...

it has been debated and as far as i know there has been no official ruling that stasis or suspended does not mean the same thing for items with spells on them as it does for everything else.

Some argue that if a lit torch stays lit but does not burn, then a spell that emulates that should act accordingly.

other argue 'thats too powerful" and dont worrry much about the logic.

if melf's acid arro hit your wand and the wand was being burned up and you hit it with shrink item, would the wand stop taking damage, suspending the spell effects? Would the same thing happen if the wand was on fire?

Gm has to make his own call and just be consistent.

IMX, after you start hitting +3 GMWs and the like the LEAST of your worries if the party spending time and money on gloves to make their GMWs last.

The problem of "why bother to make +3 swords has NOTHING to do with the glove of storing and EVERYTHING to do with GMW itself.

My 12th level gang with ONE sorcerer as their arcane might has him in a nightly ritual casting several extended GMWs so that the party has their main FOUR fighters with +4 on their main weapons and a set of 50 +5 arrows divied up. These last 24 hours each. Cast right before bedtime, the slots are back by morning so the net downside is between bedtime and waketime.

Come 15th level, he will instead throw one single 7th level spell, chained & extended GMW, and zap 16 items/ammos to +5 for 30 hours, equipping 2 weapons and 25 ammo for every single member in the 6 man party.

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I say again, if you are worried about the glove and its impact on the validity of magic weapons, you are missing the forest for the twigs.

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[Larcen]

Oh, another question came up for the tower shield: If a tower shield provides cover only, not AC bonus, what good is a +2 tower shield over a +1 one? For that matter, what does a +1 tower shield have over a regular one? (Other than the fact that it's tougher ad you can now enchant Animate on it.)

 

[Larcen]

Thanks for your response. However...

...IMX, after you start hitting +3 GMWs and the like the LEAST of your worries if the party spending time and money on gloves to make their GMWs last...

Problem is, even medium to low level PCs can easily afford one of these gloves and a GMW scroll. No actual casting needed. Heck, forget the scroll, pay someone the measly fee (for the benefit gained) to cast GMW for you. With the gloves, those hour durations can last almost forever.

In fact, the above scenerio is exactly the situation my 7th level PC is trying put together for himself...if my DM allows it.

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to argue either way, really. I am kinda looking for an "official" ruling of some type with which to present to my DM when it comes up. He may still make his own ruling on it of course.

 

[Petrosian]

Problem is, even medium to low level PCs can easily afford one of these gloves and a GMW scroll. No actual casting needed. Heck, forget the scroll, pay someone the measly fee (for the benefit gained) to cast GMW for you. With the gloves, those hour durations can last almost forever.

By the book, this should not be a problem.

Why?

GMW to get the high values requires a decent caster level. lets work these numbers on a 9th level spell producing a +3.

Lets assume the "imbalance" you are worried about would be the case for 4th level PCs or lower, where they are getting an "always on" effect of twice their caster level. At sixth level they can do their own for +2.

Look in the DMG and you will find the frequency of 9th level NPC casters varies by town size and is quite low. Book not in front of me but if i recall you can expect 1 such beastie in every six large towns with a d6+3 or some such. So the odds that the NPCs can find one is fairly low.

As such, given the occasional use of dispel magics that drop the enchantment and start the hunt again, it seems rather odd for this to be frequent enough to be a problem on its own.

at least to me.

i could see that if a GM ignores these and the PCs can find 9th level caster sand from such scrolls right left and sideways, then it might well be a balance issue.

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Again tho, this is not a glove problem, but a GMW problem IMO. Soon enough the PCs will see the glove was just a propr, now unnecessary.

 

[Larcen]

Ok, scarce high-level casters and/or scrolls, I'll buy that.

But that still brings me back to where did Mahali get that "No" answer? As much as you, or I, may think it should be possible for this to work, I am still curious in an "official" ruling of some kind.

 

[Mahali]

The "No" came from The Sage and most everyone in the discussions agrees.

GMW is the most commen example but there are other spells with shorter durations that make it even more powerful especially for partial casters (Paladin, Ranger).

If you allow a Glove to suspend the count on spells you go get a +5 GMW cast (15 hours minimum) and never have it cast again the rest of your life. That's too powerful for a 2k item.

 

[mzsylver]

Oh, another question came up for the tower shield: If a tower shield provides cover only, not AC bonus, what good is a +2 tower shield over a +1 one? For that matter, what does a +1 tower shield have over a regular one? (Other than the fact that it's tougher ad you can now enchant Animate on it.)

it cant be sundered as easily - and it has more hit points.