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Message: <blockquote data-quote="" data-source="post: 7194960" data-attributes="member: 6901691">Daern’s Instant Fortress: some questionsI have several questions regarding Daern’s Instant Fortress magic item (DMG, p. 160–161):<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">What does “to place” in the first sentence mean? Do I need to hold the cube until it touches the ground, or can I drop it? If DIF can be dropped, then can it be thrown at a distance (e.g. using rules for improvised weapons, PH 148)?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">What is meant by “the ground”? Must it be literally the ground, or are other surfaces (e.g. stone or sand) also suitable? Must it be only natural surfaces, or artifical ones work too? For instance, can I activate DIF on stage in the theater as a part of a performance (assuming there is enough space on the stage and it is strong enough)? If not, why not? If yes, then can I activate the fortress on a house’s roof? On a balcony? On a moving cart? On a huge mount’s back? On a ship’s deck in the open sea?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">What happens when I try to activate DIF if there is not enough space for it? E.g., inside a small room, or a cavern, or a narrow dungeon’s passage? Imagine a canyon 10 feet wide, with rocky cliffs on both sides; you put the cube onto the ground in the middle of the canyon and speak the command word—what happens next?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">What happens with the fortress if a person activates it and then dies? Can anyone else speak the command to open fortress’s door or to dismiss it? Or will the fortress remain in place forever?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The front door opens with a command as a bonus action; I suppose that it can be closed like any nonmagical door, but the question is how is it locked? Is it magically locked automatically when closed? Can everyone open it from inside, or only the person who activated the fortress can?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">What about the trapdoor leading to the battlement? The DIF’s description tells nothing about its magical properties, locking mechanism, or special actions to open/close/lock it. The description says that “The roof, the door, and the walls each have 100 hit points”, but only one door is mentioned here, and I guess it is the front door. So, if a trapdoor is an ordinary door (though made of adamantine), then what can prevent enemies to climb up (or to levitate) to the battlement, knock this door and get inside?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">If the enemies are outside of DIF, which attacks can they make against creatures that are inside? Can the inhabitans of the fortress be considered as having three-quarters cover for being behind arrow slits (PH 196, DMG 251)? Can they or DIF’s inner space be targeted with spells? If not, why not?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">It seems that the fortress can be used, for instance, to cut a firebreak or a road in the woods, with the efficiency of 20 feet/round. But when I imagine such a procedure, I feel uneasy because it looks more like Monty Python’s sketches than like heroic fantasy. On the other hand, I don’t see anything in the rules that could prevent this application. This is not a question, but rather a final lament that D&D rules’ imperfection leads to abuses and quarrels between players and the DM.</li> </ol></blockquote>

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