Forcecage Deathtrap?

[LokiDR]

Can you breath in a windowless cell? Wall of force stops breath weapons, so I might think it would stop air in general. Since there is no save and no SR, why couldn't I just cast this on a fighter or rogue, and know they will suffocate eventually? Rule citations appreciated.

Forcecage

Evocation [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 7
Components: V, S, M (see text)
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: Barred cage (20-ft. cube) or
windowless cell (10-ft. cube)
Duration: 2 hours/level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

This powerful spell brings into being an immobile cubical prison with bars or solid walls of force (the character's choice).

Creatures within the area are caught and contained unless they are too big to fit inside or can pass through the slits in the barred cage. All spells and breath weapons can pass through the gaps in the bars. Teleportation and other forms of astral travel provide a means of escape, but the force walls or bars extend into the Ethereal Plane, blocking ethereal travel.

Like a wall of force spell, the forcecage resists dispel magic, but it is vulnerable to a disintegrate spell, and it can be destroyed by a sphere of annihilation or a rod of cancellation.

Barred Cage: The barred cage is a 20-foot cube with bands of force (similar to a wall of force spell) for bars. The bands are a half-inch wide, with half-inch gaps between the bars.

Windowless Cell: The cell is a 10-foot cube with no way in and no way out. Solid walls of force form its six sides.

Material Component: Worth 1,500 gp, consumed when the spell is prepared.

 

[Sejs]

If I can wiggle out of it with a high DC Escape Artist check, yeah, I'm inclined to say air passes thru just fine.


Of course, there's nothing stopping you from Forcecaging someone then plopping down a Wall of Iron on TOP of the cage and waiting for the duration to expire.

 

[RigaMortus]

Can you breath in a windowless cell? Wall of force stops breath weapons, so I might think it would stop air in general. Since there is no save and no SR, why couldn't I just cast this on a fighter or rogue, and know they will suffocate eventually? Rule citations appreciated.

Huh? Are we talking about Wall of Force or Forcecage here? Because in the description you provide it specifically mentions spells and breath weapons CAN pass through the gaps. So I'd think air could to.

Did you mean to paste the description for Wall of Force instead?

 

[Demon Knight]

Forcecage can create a windowless cell, basicaly 6 Wall of Forces on all sides. This means no bars, no gaps, just all force. I don't know if this will suffocate those inside, though. I once thought about casting a Cloudkill spell and then then Forcecage them, slowly killing them. But there's a lot of ways around it, so I never thought much about it.

 

[LokiDR]

If I can wiggle out of it with a high DC Escape Artist check, yeah, I'm inclined to say air passes thru just fine.

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from Forcecaging someone then plopping down a Wall of Iron on TOP of the cage and waiting for the duration to expire.

I don't think the escape artist check you are talking about is a good reference. After all, with a high enough balance check, I can run on clouds. Also, I don't think you can cast wall of iron horizontally, only vertically. I don't think the wizard that cast it is going to make the DC 40 check to knock it over.

Since breath weapons can not pass through a wall of force, and the windowless cell is 6 walls of force, it makes some sense that this could suffocate you.

 

[AuraSeer]

AFAIC a no-save, no-SR trap spell is already powerful enough. I blithely assume that there's enough air inside to support a character until the duration expires.

Maybe if somebody had a fire burning in the cage, I'd use the suffocation rules. Then again, a fictional fire doesn't necessarily need oxygen, so maybe not.

 

[LokiDR]

AFAIC a no-save, no-SR trap spell is already powerful enough. I blithely assume that there's enough air inside to support a character until the duration expires.

Maybe if somebody had a fire burning in the cage, I'd use the suffocation rules. Then again, a fictional fire doesn't necessarily need oxygen, so maybe not.

Problem: we calculated the oxygen used. He was dead long before we could remem spells, let alone let the duration expire. In a 10/10/10 cube, you won't survive long before CO2 poisoning sets in.

I do agree it is damn strong.

 

[kreynolds]

Definately looks like you would suffocate. The windowless cell has a little more air inside than a portable hole, and a medium-size creature has 10 minutes worth of air inside the hole. So, maybe 12? 15? Definately not an hour though, and most certainly not enough air for 26 hours (minimum caster level).

 

[AuraSeer]

Problem: we calculated the oxygen used. He was dead long before we could remem spells, let alone let the duration expire. In a 10/10/10 cube, you won't survive long before CO2 poisoning sets in.

Real-world science does not apply to a fictional world.

Maybe the walls are permeable to nonmagical gas molecules. Or maybe creatures in D&D just use less air than real humans do. (That'd certainly explain how so many hordes of orcs stay alive in barren, unventilated dungeons...)

Point is, the spell is strong enough already. Making it suffocate the victim would turn it into a no-save no-SR automatic kill spell, against anyone without access to a Disintegrate. Every high-level adventurer would carry a bottle of air at all times, just in case.

 

[DizzyKungFu]

Problem: we calculated the oxygen used. He was dead long before we could remem spells, let alone let the duration expire. In a 10/10/10 cube, you won't survive long before CO2 poisoning sets in.

When stuff like this comes up in my games, my answer is invariably, "It's MAGIC... 'nuff said."