DM's: How Do You Deal with Rope Trick?

[Sejs]

It's not a far stretch to have Dimensional Anchor block people from crossing into or out of a rope trick spell. It's -basically- bodily extradimentional travel as is. Load up a Hallow or Unhallow on your dungeon, toss Dimensional Anchor as it's warding spell. Bam. No rope trick.




But really, be honest. The reason ya don't like Rope Trick because it takes away the DM's Screwing With PCs At Night options, isn't it? Speaking as a PC.. we hate middle of the night fights. We're not prepared for the most part, there's bugger all for visibility, and tend to be low on spells which all adds up to people getting really hurt. And then you get fatigue penalties the next day. Rope Trick seems a pretty logical extension, really. Were I a wizard I would make a point of developing a spell that gives me a secure, hidden, weather-and-ambush proof place to sleep no matter where I went. As for the above suggestions of etherial filchers stealing the PCs goodies as punishment for useing Rope Trick too much.. or etherial diseases making you fade.. or etherial predators or undead taking notice of you Rope Tricking all the time.. or etherial stock brokers messing with your portfolio because they don't like how you invested in Rope Trick futures.. nuh uh. Rope Trick isn't etherial. Sorry.

 

[Melan]

My players did this all the time... Until the cleric was caught in one while the high level Skeleton King below waited until the duration ran out.

 

[Fenes 2]

I just ban it. Fight-rest-fight-rest-fight-rest did not sit well with me in CRPGs, so I won't have it in P&P at all.

 

[The_lone_gunman]

Well if your dungeons are living creations and not just room after room of random monsters, I would definately have the beasties be much more prepared when the players come out of that rope trick. They might be more inclined to continue on once the enemy has fortified their locations with palisades, laid traps galore, and gotten replacement beasts brought in.

You could also have the main bad guy scry on them while they are fighting his minions, then watch them enter the rope trick. Then he simply brings a bunch of minions in, surround the spot, casts see inv, then a targeted dispel magic on the rope trick, which would have one of two effects: 1) drops the PC's onto the hard rock floor of the dungeon in their skivy's, surrounded by enemy. 2) dropped randomly into the astral plane.

For your third suprise you could just have the monsters keep coming, just keep pushing more stuff at the players so they have not time to stop and cast their rope trick. An elaborate alarm system in the dungeon would accomplish this, something that draws all the denziens to the parties point.

There are tons of options that you can come up with so as not to just screw your players by banning the spell.


TLG

 

[Zappo]

Deeeeeee-spell!! Detect magic can spot the location where the rope trick has been cast, and then the villains just have to cast dispel to cause the PCs to fall out. Or, they can sit nearby, out of the area that tht PCs can view from within the space, and ready actions to attack as soon as something comes out. You mentioned that the sorcerer occasionally comes out to re-cast rope trick; have him being grappled by one of the enemies. The rest of the party can only climb out one person per round, so the sorc will have an interesting time before he can be rescued...

 

[The Grey Dwarf]

Just a question:
Do they have to use it because every fight leaves them borderline dead and without spells?

In this case, you can't really blame them. Your dungeon might need some adjustments, not the spell.

On the other hand if they use it only to enter every fight at maximum power, well ... see the previous posts.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

As a player, I love rope trick too. I've never abused it that way, and I never knew about the extra dimensional space errata.

Thanks for bringing it up before me, spikey!

 

[Carnifex]

Take a trick out of Piratecat's book, a very nasty one from his SH indeed When the party is happily ensconced in their rope-trick refuge, the enemy do the following:

1)Locate where the party rope tricked, through detect magics or other divinations, if they don't already know.

2)Build a bonfire under the spot where the party leave the demiplane.

3)Dispel the rope trick, ejecting the party straight into a bonfire. (As to whether you can dispel it is a bit dubious in the core rules, but if you'er the DM - Rule Zero it!)

Alternatively, the bad guys can just locate the little entrance and start lobbing firebombs up into the interior of the demiplane.

 

[Zappo]

Edit: Wow, this is in incredibly bad taste. Please keep that type of material elsewhere, thanks.-- Dinkeldog

 

[Deadguy]

As others have pointed out, the biggest single weakness of the Rope Trick is that you don't get to see what's going on around you! PKitty's bonfire is an example of one way that might be exploited. But there are oodles of things that, if the PCs knew about it at the time, they could've dealt with it, but because they didn't see it they couldn't act. And if they take to putting a guard outside the dimensional pocket then they defeat the hidden element of the spell and become vulnerable again. And don't less the Wizzer or Sorc abuse his familiar by commanding it to stay outside; if it's too dangerous for the Boss, it's sure too dangerous for a little toad or rat!

It's a spell that's too low a level for what it offers, sure (a legacy thing, I would guess), but it isn't the end of the world, if you make being aware at night, or after fights, an advantage.