Is it just me or is the spell Rope Trick kind of absurd?

[Yunru]

Also as per the spell "..Holding one end of a 60-foot or shorter rope causes the other end to rise up until the rope is fully perpendicular to the ground."

Kinda sounds like all your work looping the rope gets undone as the rope uncurls and rises to its fully perpendicular length! Darn tricky magic spells! Do I really believe this? Who knows, it's magic - and a bit absurd.

What? Not at all. space is three dimensional. If you hold any rope in any shape up so that it hangs free, it is always perpendicular to the ground along at least one axis.

Because the gnolls are chasing you, and if you don't get up high enough they're going to catch you?

Because the princess is 60' up and instead of levitate you decided on rope trick?

In which case you're not using it to short rest, and so is irrelevant to "you can't use it to short rest because climbing the rope is so strenuous."

 

[Dausuul]

What does it even matter if the rope ladder is a single piece of rope? Pick one of the ropes that make up the sides of the rope ladder. Cast rope trick on that. The rest of the ladder is just along for the ride.

 

[Mistwell]

As I said, you're losing a lot of length.

Also as per the spell "..Holding one end of a 60-foot or shorter rope causes the other end to rise up until the rope is fully perpendicular to the ground."

Uh, what are you reading?

This is the text from the spell. "You touch a length of rope that is up to 60 feet long. One end of the rope then rises into the air until the whole rope hangs perpendicular to the ground."

 

[Mort]

Uh, what are you reading?

This is the text from the spell. "You touch a length of rope that is up to 60 feet long. One end of the rope then rises into the air until the whole rope hangs perpendicular to the ground."

Hmm. don't have the books with me so looked at the 5e wikia. Looks like they added the word fully into the description- never trust stuff transcribed onto the internet!

 

[MaximusArael020]

Is the extra-dimensional space already filled with breathable air? If so, could you use it to escape a room filled with poisonous gas? If it's empty at the beginning and fills with air from the room, then the poisonous air would get sucked in to the extra-dimensional space (as it would be a vacuum upon creation).

 

[The Crimson Binome]

This is the text from the spell. "You touch a length of rope that is up to 60 feet long. One end of the rope then rises into the air until the whole rope hangs perpendicular to the ground."

A literal reading of that would imply that casting it on a rope ladder or knotted rope would cause it to glitch out, forever rising as gravity is insufficient to force the rope into a straight line.

It's probably best to not over-think this.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I was a climbing instructor and saw 8 year olds climb a 20 foot knotted rope pretty handily. In fact, anyone who isn’t totally overweight and in reasonable shape can climb a knotted rope at least 15 feet. A rope with no knots requires more hand and upper body strength...dc 10? 12? Depends how thick the rope is. Most adventurers of strength 8 and higher should be able to climb a knotted rope without much of a problem. I’d give it a dc if 5 which, incidentally, is the dc of the climbing a knotted rope in 3.5. I think, in 3.5, your rope lost half it’s length when it was knotted. Silk rope would probably lose less length because it’s probably more fine.

In that edition we used rope trick for lots of things because it lasted 1hr/level. By 4th, you could sleep half the night without fear of an encounter. It got used constantly for many many levels because we found ourselves in enemy territory quite a bit.

The 60 feet is handy if you want to access someplace high out of the way. Like scaling a 40 foot cliff is now a lot easier because you have a perfect anchor at the top of the cliff. No need to worry about grappling hooks or shoddy knots.

We gained entry to a place by having a pc distract some guards long enough for the rest to climb in to it. We came out later when the place was unguarded.

The short duration really limits its usefulness. You can use it to spy on a secret meeting, I suppose. If you can work out a way to cast it in the room ahead of time. And as long as the meeting is brief. The way they created Leomands Tiny Hut, rope trick is much more situational.

As an aside, instead of a rope ladder, just add loops tied with Prussik knots to the rope and use them as hand holds. You don’t lose any length to your rope and it is as effective as a ladder. For weak characters who might fail a dc 5 check in an emergency, add a foot loop at the end and have strong characters pull you up.

 

[MaximusArael020]

I was a climbing instructor and saw 8 year olds climb a 20 foot knotted rope pretty handily. In fact, anyone who isn’t totally overweight and in reasonable shape can climb a knotted rope at least 15 feet.

I agree with your post and enjoy your thinking, except for the part where you say "8 year old can climb it easy, so adventurers should be able to, as well.". (At least that's what it seems like you are saying)

As if kids aren't ALREADY way better at climbing than your average adult.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I agree with your post and enjoy your thinking, except for the part where you say "8 year old can climb it easy, so adventurers should be able to, as well.". (At least that's what it seems like you are saying)

As if kids aren't ALREADY was better at climbing than your average adult.

Well, not all kids and adults are built alike. The chubby kids with no muscle couldn’t climb it. It’s about strength to weight. The large football players had the most muscle mass struggled because they also had lots of extra weight. But they still succeeded on the first try. It took them about 10- 15 seconds when we raced. So at 1/4 movement that’s 2 rounds for 15-20 feet. In retrospect, I probably had a climb speed by that point because I could do it much faster. Or just high athletics...idk.

My point is this: in my experience, (10s of thousands of people per year) an average adult can climb a knotted rope with some to little difficulty. The average human is strength 9. Unless you have a (trait) flaw on your character sheet that might keep your strength 8 character from succeeding, they should still make it up. Adventurers, even the weak ones, are probably- on average- more in shape than the average person. Or, at least, not totally out of shape(barring a specific flaw or rp reason). The weaker ones might fail the occasional check but should still succeed.

Dc 15 is far too high. I mean this is a huge digress from the main topic. To get back on topic, climbing the rope should be handwaived except for the most dire of circumstances and a roll should only be used for the ones with the lowest athletic scores.

 

[Mistwell]

So let's dive deeper on this.

If I tie a rope to a very heavy object, like a heavy golden statue, and the rope is 60' or less...does this spell lift the golden statue into the air for an hour if I cast rope trick on the rope (assuming for this example the object is not so heavy that it would break the rope)?

If someone is pinned beneath a small boulder (not so heave it would break a rope, but heavy enough to pin someone), and I can get a 60' rope around the boulder and tie it well, can I cast rope trick on that rope and lift the boulder off the person?

I think for both of these, the answer is the loose end of the rope above the statue/boulder would rise, but it wouldn't pull anything up. It just extends whatever the free length of rope might be, and that's it.