Rope Trick... Broken?

[Lucius Foxhound]

Okay, in our last adventure a bunch of us were climbing up into a Rope Trick, which holds a maximum of 8 people. One of our players is a reincarnated black bear. Our DM announced that since he's so huge, he counts as two people.

We argued and checked the rules. Well, the PHB says that eight creatures of ANY size can fit.

But checking it out, the SRD has different text and the PHB Clarifications on the WotC Website have different text. But neither seem to go against the ANY size rule.

Why is this a problem? Well, it means that eight dragons can fit inside a Rope Trick. WHA??????

Any help here?

PS Oh, and just a funny anecdote to this story, soon after we all climbed in, another player got into combat with a Wizard, killed him, and then decided to throw his body up into the Rope Trick so we could search it. Sadly, he the dead Wizard had a Bag of Holding on him .... it exploded our Rope Trick and we all were shot into the Astral Plane. Ugh.

 

[Crothian]

I'd go with the DM judgement call, makes sense to me.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

It can't be broken. It was playtested by WotC, and you must follow the spell description to the letter. Even if the Sage says modifying it might be a good idea, good DMs won't have a problem with this spell. If they can handle Harm, this spell is no sweat.

 

[shilsen]

PS Oh, and just a funny anecdote to this story, soon after we all climbed in, another player got into combat with a Wizard, killed him, and then decided to throw his body up into the Rope Trick so we could search it. Sadly, he the dead Wizard had a Bag of Holding on him .... it exploded our Rope Trick and we all were shot into the Astral Plane. Ugh.

Nice story I presume your DM is in the "I don't believe in the FAQ" camp, since it was clarified that taking a bag of holding (or portable hole, etc.) into a Rope Trick has no adverse effects.

 

[Tom Cashel]

D'oh!

I'm not in that camp anymore!

By the way, Lucius...it's looks like (Psi)Severed Head has got your number....

 

[dcollins]

We argued and checked the rules. Well, the PHB says that eight creatures of ANY size can fit.

No, the PHB does not say that creatures of "ANY" size can fit. You just added that crucial word yourself. What it does say is that "You and up to seven others" (p. 246) can fit. The fact that the spell did not specify sizes one way or the other is no grounds for a player to assert a one-size-fits-all rule.

It's entirely compatible for the DM to rule that the spell assumes Medium-size "persons". Any similar published clarifications are also fully compatible with the written rule.

Parenthetically, the Sage's FAQ entry about bags-in-rope-tricks is a different story, since that explicitly contradicts the last "Note" of the rope trick spell.

 

[Lucius Foxhound]

Re: Re: Rope Trick... Broken?

No, the PHB does not say that creatures of "ANY" size can fit. You just added that crucial word yourself. What it does say is that "You and up to seven others" (p. 246) can fit. The fact that the spell did not specify sizes one way or the other is no grounds for a player to assert a one-size-fits-all rule.

I'm sorry to say dcollins, that you probably have an old edition of the PHB. I'd say you should get a new one before you make anymore posts like this one... but you might as well for the revised edition.

And I quote, Page 246 PHB:

"The space holds up to eight creatures (of any size)."

And even more evidence... from the PHB Clarifications of the WotC Web site:

"The space holds up to eight creatures (of any size)."

Clear enough?

Oh, and as for Psi-head... rules are rules. My ruling on this one would be that yes, 8 dragons can fit into a Rope Trick. But there's no reason for them to hide in a Rope Trick with your completely castrated version of Harm around.

 

[Ran]

How did the Bear climbed up the rope, anyway?

 

[Van Dyksun]

The rope trick was only five feet from the ground. I pulled myself in.

Now, this bit that bags of holding don't cause explosions into the astral plane is fascinating. I'm really thinking yesterday's game was just all a bad dream. I'll be waking up soon and drinking bloody marys on the back porch with Bobby and J.R. at any minute.

 

[Ran]

Well, that makes it a jump away.

Anyway, how large is the opening of the space?