Force Cage questions

[Undead Dragon]

Question 1: If a creature's face is 20' or less and spell caster casts Force cage around it, is the creature automatically trapped inside? The players in my game seem to believe that this is the case. The SRD says
"Space/Reach
This line describes how much space the creature takes up on the battle grid and thereby needs to fight effectively, as well as how close it has to be to threaten an opponent. The number before the slash is the creature’s space, or how many feet one side of the creature occupies. The number after the slash is the creature’s natural reach. If the creature has exceptional reach due to a weapon, tentacle, or the like, the extended reach and its source are noted in parentheses at the end of the line."

Just because a creature has less than a 20' face should not mean that it does not have a long tail that extends beyond this range and thus foils the forcecage from forming around it. Also, what if the creature is worm-like (A frost worm is about 40 feet long, 5 feet in diameter, but has a 15' face)? What do some of you think?

Question 2: What if a person is standing on the ground? How could the cage's bottom wall fit between his feet and the ground? With contact on the ground, the wall would be broken when formed. What do you think?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

 

[werk]

20ft cube barred or 10ft cube solid.

I'd rule that it needs to fit inside since the bars are only 1/2in with 1/2in spaces.

The spells says that the target(s) must fit inside or the spell fails. Space only describes 'one side' of a creature and only measures how much grid it takes up, not it's total area. For instance, a salamander has a 10' face and 20' reach with the tail, so the tail is at least 20' long, right? Or a storm giant has a 15' face but stands over 20' tall. I'd say the area that a creature takes up is up to the DM if there is no text in the monster description...like the roper.

As for the cube not being able to go on all six sides because the character is in contact with the floor...consider the 'walls' two-dimensional. Wall of force is measured in two dimensions, the area of effect is area, rather than volume.

 

[IcyCool]

Question 1: If a creature's face is 20' or less and spell caster casts Force cage around it, is the creature automatically trapped inside? The players in my game seem to believe that this is the case.

I'm fairly certain that a creature that has a facing of 20' or less can be caught in a barred forcecage. If you want to start making things up like, "that little dragon has a really long tail, so it won't fit into the barred forcecage", you might as well just save time by saying, "I don't want forcecage to work on that, so it doesn't."

Question 2: What if a person is standing on the ground? How could the cage's bottom wall fit between his feet and the ground? With contact on the ground, the wall would be broken when formed. What do you think?

There isn't anything in the spell that says that it can't affect a ground-based target, where did you get that from?

To be honest, it sounds like you just don't like the Forcecage spell, because by your reading it is a complete waste of a 7th level spell. There's nothing wrong with that, if you are the DM, then ban the spell.

 

[IcyCool]

The spells says that the target(s) must fit inside or the spell fails. Space only describes 'one side' of a creature and only measures how much grid it takes up, not it's total area. For instance, a salamander has a 10' face and 20' reach with the tail, so the tail is at least 20' long, right? Or a storm giant has a 15' face but stands over 20' tall. I'd say the area that a creature takes up is up to the DM if there is no text in the monster description...like the roper.

You could look into the squeezing rules, as it doesn't say that the trapped creature has to be comfortable.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think that, to be fair, any of the spells that create a barrier need to be assessed based ONLY on the actual squares that the creature is occupying on the battlefield.

Otherwise there's an awful lot of spells that are foiled by carrying a long stick, or tying the party together with rope.

 

[andargor]

Our DM decides if the creature would fit in the particular flavor of forcecage that the caster wants. He indicates to the caster if it would fit or not before the spell is casted, so if the answer is "no", the caster can choose another spell. Our house rule.

Andargor

 

[Undead Dragon]

Thanks for the replies. I do like the spell, but only wanted to play it fairly as a DM and for the PCs. I will utilize the monster descriptions a bit more when dealing with this spell.