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

[Arnwyn]

I take it in your campaign 3rd level wizards are the most feared thieves in the land, since if you find "detect magic" a far stretch, "see invisibility", being two levels higher a spell, is probably completely unheard of?

I am sorry, but if you notice a patrol earlier didn't report back, and you scout, and you find tracks that stop somewhere, Detect magic is the first hing I would cast.

With all those caveats of yours added in, then I agree - Detect Magic would likely be cast. I suppose that I have seen bad DMs who just have dudes wandering around who "supposedly" always have Detect Magic going...

And yes, actually - wizards with Invisibility *are* feared IMC, for many reasons. (They certainly would be feared as thieves - if they could adequately open locked things and search for hidden things, and, uh, their Invisibility didn't run out so fast at 3rd level...) Nice sarcasm, though.

 

[MD THE SIMP]

ight, in my 1st campaign (the one Im running now), we had a problem concerning rope trick, it's the rime of the frostmaiden campaign, and in a certain encounter (that I've been hyping for 4 days but that ended up going against me) the party of 4th level of course will veer of course in a blizzard and end up in a camp where bandits are gonna start a fight with frost druids.
The thing is there's like 25 dudes over there, and I never planned for them to fight anyway, as it was gonna be a skill challenge, THAT WASN'T EVEN FOR THE BANDITS, it was gonna be for the ancient white dragon Arveiaturace. of course the skill challenge wasn't in order to fight her, but to not get caught up with the dragon that is blasting everyone after the bandits stole some of her horde from her lair. they could've ran away, talked to her, hid somewhere, THEY COULD'VE EVEN USED ROPE TRICK IN THE SKILL CHALLENGE, anything.
But no, before even knowing what was gonna happen the wizard already was talking about using rope trick (I was sweating) right after they just were put on the map, just saw the druids and bandits arguing between each other, they roped tricked before being spotted, seen or anything. The dragon wasn't even there yet so it's not like it could've used detect magic or anything (which it has).
And here I am trying to find a way to reasonably limit the naughty word your encounter that took 2 days to prepare rope trick.
(Also the wizard tricked me he used rope trick inside rope trick and said it was okay, until I just realized it was not okay, he prolly didn't know tho). bruh Im so dumb.

 

[MD THE SIMP]

bruh naughty word really?

 

[Greg K]

I never liked the spell as it goes against the styles of campaigns that I run. As a result, its among the spells that I have banned since AD&D 1e.

 

[ECMO3]

Since you cats have offered a ton of advice on my other spell-o'-the-day question (Improved Invisibility), I'd like to extend my begging to include another spell that gives me DM headaches.

Yep, it's that innocuous lookin' 2nd level Sor/Wiz spell: Rope Trick.

Leomund, eat your heart out. This 2nd level little bit of arcane tom-foolery allows the PC's to climb into an impregnable, damn-near undetectable, extra-dimensional space.

DM's - ever build a sprawling dungeon/cavern complex with multiple levels? Sure you have. Cackled evilly and scared your wife and children away as you realized the PC's would feel hunted the entire time they remained within your Edifice of Evil (TM)? I bet. And you didn't put a time limit on completion of the quest because, well, the Ancient Golden Globe of Garl has been sitting in mud for 3,000 years; what's another couple days gonna do.

And what do your PC's do? They become Rope Trickin' fiends.

Let me elaborate:

1) Fight.
2) Rope Trick.
3) Fight.
4) Rope Trick.
5) Really tough fight.
6) Rope Trick. Sorc pops head outside his own planar buble. Casts a New Rope Trick.

Yep, with an Extend Spell or two, a medium-level Sorc can basically Rope Trick the party for the rest of an elf's life. If you've got a priest to Create Food/Water, you're set. Bored - sure. But safe.

So...again, I appeal to the masses of DM's out there. Do you see the spell used frequently in your own campaigns? I hate having my PC's always at full strength going into every gosh darned encounter. Sure, I can have them harried and chased in some adventures, and I can have an element of 'beat the clock' in others, but the majority of the time they'll be able to safely reach full health/spells with a little 2nd level spell. It just doesn't sit well with me.

Damn Rope Trick! Damn it I say!

Sorry. Anyway, even those intelligent bad dudes who may know all about the powers of Trickin' da Rope still have to see the PC's climb into a spot in thin air. Or at least have to chase them into an empty room, check for Invisible folks (if they can; see my other post on these boards), and then decide that maybe the miscreants are playing cards in their own portable hole.

Do you see this used all the time? Should I worry about it? Or should I just bump EL's with this in mind? What did you do?

Again, I'd rather not debate the power of the spell, or compare it to higher level Leomund's spells. I'm mainly just probing you cats with much more experience than I to determine if this is just common in 3E games and, if so, does it warrant DM attention?

Vielen Danken,
RJ

If they use it in the middle of combat, have enemies build some walls and cover and then light a ranging bonfire below so when the PCs come out they drop in the center of a huge bonfire being burned alive while surrounded by fortifications. Additionally the enemies of course get a short rest themselves too and likely get all their friends to ambush the PCs when they come out/.

If the PCs use it to rest between battles, well that is what the spell is for and you are using a slot and a known/prepared spell to get it so I don't see it as a big deal.

 

[Larnievc]

Since you cats have offered a ton of advice on my other spell-o'-the-day question (Improved Invisibility), I'd like to extend my begging to include another spell that gives me DM headaches.

Yep, it's that innocuous lookin' 2nd level Sor/Wiz spell: Rope Trick.

Leomund, eat your heart out. This 2nd level little bit of arcane tom-foolery allows the PC's to climb into an impregnable, damn-near undetectable, extra-dimensional space.

DM's - ever build a sprawling dungeon/cavern complex with multiple levels? Sure you have. Cackled evilly and scared your wife and children away as you realized the PC's would feel hunted the entire time they remained within your Edifice of Evil (TM)? I bet. And you didn't put a time limit on completion of the quest because, well, the Ancient Golden Globe of Garl has been sitting in mud for 3,000 years; what's another couple days gonna do.

And what do your PC's do? They become Rope Trickin' fiends.

Let me elaborate:

1) Fight.
2) Rope Trick.
3) Fight.
4) Rope Trick.
5) Really tough fight.
6) Rope Trick. Sorc pops head outside his own planar buble. Casts a New Rope Trick.

Yep, with an Extend Spell or two, a medium-level Sorc can basically Rope Trick the party for the rest of an elf's life. If you've got a priest to Create Food/Water, you're set. Bored - sure. But safe.

So...again, I appeal to the masses of DM's out there. Do you see the spell used frequently in your own campaigns? I hate having my PC's always at full strength going into every gosh darned encounter. Sure, I can have them harried and chased in some adventures, and I can have an element of 'beat the clock' in others, but the majority of the time they'll be able to safely reach full health/spells with a little 2nd level spell. It just doesn't sit well with me.

Damn Rope Trick! Damn it I say!

Sorry. Anyway, even those intelligent bad dudes who may know all about the powers of Trickin' da Rope still have to see the PC's climb into a spot in thin air. Or at least have to chase them into an empty room, check for Invisible folks (if they can; see my other post on these boards), and then decide that maybe the miscreants are playing cards in their own portable hole.

Do you see this used all the time? Should I worry about it? Or should I just bump EL's with this in mind? What did you do?

Again, I'd rather not debate the power of the spell, or compare it to higher level Leomund's spells. I'm mainly just probing you cats with much more experience than I to determine if this is just common in 3E games and, if so, does it warrant DM attention?

Vielen Danken,
RJ

This is the thing I don’t get about the 15 minute work day. My players say they go to sleep after an hour of adventuring I say “it’s only 9am, your nowhere near tired”. So they can stay up there for eight hours if they like, but the get nothing more than a short rest.

 

[Greg K]

Personally, I have never liked rope trick and it has been on my banned spell list in every edition including 1e

 

[Baron Opal II]

First, only two short rests per long rest.
Second, the duration is only an hour. Sure, a sorcerer could extend that to 8 hours, but it seems a significant expenditure of resources to do that. Sure you get it back with a long rest, but you need it up front to do that. Also, that ties up one of the two initial metamagic choices, so there's an opportunity cost.
Third, with higher level foes it is more likely that Detect / Dispel Magic will be a resource for them.

So, at 3-4th level it's a great way to get a short rest. At 8th-9th level, you can nab a long rest against minions if you have a sorcerer committed to the resource. At 12th+ level, your foes are too canny to let that work, and you need a higher level spell.

 

[Jd Smith1]

Dirt. Scent.

The PCs' trail suddenly disappears, the baddies simply spike the doors shut, build cover, and wait. Sooner or later the PCs will have to break out and attack through a natural choke point right into the enemy tucked behind barricades. If materials are handy, start a fire in the area where the PCs vanished, so when they drop back in, smoke inhalation is yet another issue to face while breaking down doors and fighting their way out.