Dimensional Anchor and Extreme Situations

[Chris StarShade]

All right gentlemen... time to figure out what this does.

Reading the spell description I have for 3.5 Dimensional Anchor does not cover a few situations...

Let us say we have an otherworldly assassin who has been summoned and controlled by an evil spellcaster to work as a spy. Let's also say that to prevent this guy from escaping too quick the spellcaster placed a permanent dimensional anchor on him.

Now let's say that in the course of his spying he stows away on an oceangoing vessel that the heroes have commandeered and are on their way to taking through a giant portal capable of taking the entire ship to, let's say, the river oceanus. Obviously this is going to another plane of existence.

So what happens to the stowaway when the ship is crossing through the portal?

[Keld Denar]

Either his anchor prevents the ship from entering the portal (you just sail right through it as if it weren't there), or the ship and everyone on it sails through the portal, and the assassin, now shipless, falls into the water in the middle of nowhere, swims around for a bit until he becomes tired (swim DC increases too high to make), and then he drowns. Unless of course, he can breath water indefinitely. Then it'll still probably take him a LONG time to get home. Unless he gets eaten by a shark/dragonturtle/kraken. Or picked up by a passing vessel. Or giant eagles fly in to rescue him.

EDIT: The rules don't really cover what happens here. Ad hoc it is the short answer.

[Sudain]

Dimensional Anchor
Abjuration
Level: Clr 4, Sor/Wiz 4
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect: Ray
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes (object)
A green ray springs from your outstretched hand. You must make a ranged touch attack to hit the target. Any creature or object struck by the ray is covered with a shimmering emerald field that completely blocks extradimensional travel. Forms of movement barred by a dimensional anchor include astral projection, blink, dimension door, ethereal jaunt, etherealness, gate, maze, plane shift, shadow walk, teleport, and similar spell-like or psionic abilities. The spell also prevents the use of a gate or teleportation circle for the duration of the spell.

A dimensional anchor does not interfere with the movement of creatures already in ethereal or astral form when the spell is cast, nor does it block extradimensional perception or attack forms. Also, dimensional anchor does not prevent summoned creatures from disappearing at the end of a summoning spell.

Emphasis mine.

I'd say he is blocked. The ship gets part way through the portal, and gets stuck. The outsider gets crushed between the ship and the portal, until either he dies(in which case his remains still block the ship from moving forward), or he somehow is ejected from the ship. Or the anchor is dispelled.

Think of it kinda like being pulled through brick wall, only because the room you are in is moving through the brick wall.

One thing to note is the duration, how high is the CL on this dimensional anchor?

[Diarmuid]

OP said the DA was made permanent.

I'll agree that this isnt really covered. One thing to note is that this guy is perpetually covered by a shimmering emerald field that should make remaining inconspicuous more difficult.

In that scenario, I guess it would depend how you envision the portal working. Does the entire ship "wink out" once any portion of it touches the barrier, or does the entire ship have to move through?

If the former, he's dumped at the portal edge into the water as the ship underneath him is gone. If the latter, then I would say he would be in danger of being squished by the ship moving through a portal he cannot.

[mregecko]

Honestly, as a DM, I'd just say the Anchor'd person passes through the portal like it doesn't exist... As the ship goes through, he'd hit the portal, and the ship around him would disappear and he'd just pass through like the portal wasn't even there.

[Keld Denar]

It is dark wet. You are likely to be eaten by a Grue Kraken.

[Urpriest]

Emphasis mine.

I'd say he is blocked. The ship gets part way through the portal, and gets stuck. The outsider gets crushed between the ship and the portal, until either he dies(in which case his remains still block the ship from moving forward), or he somehow is ejected from the ship. Or the anchor is dispelled.

Think of it kinda like being pulled through brick wall, only because the room you are in is moving through the brick wall.

One thing to note is the duration, how high is the CL on this dimensional anchor?

The partway through thing wouldn't happen. You can't have any object sticking partway through a portal: either it's on one side, or on the other. So if he's blocked from traveling, the ship will hit the portal and he'll just fall into the ocean.

[Slipperychicken]

It is dark wet. You are likely to be eaten by a Grue Kraken.

So that's why PCs never take showers or bathe! :smalltongue:

[Qwertystop]

The partway through thing wouldn't happen. You can't have any object sticking partway through a portal: either it's on one side, or on the other. So if he's blocked from traveling, the ship will hit the portal and he'll just fall into the ocean.

Really? I always thought of portals (at least the Gate kind) as just like any random doorway e.g. not instantly plane shifting you on contact, just making an area where going from one plane to another is just walking through, so if you step across but stay straddling it until the duration expires you're going to get cut off.

By that reading, it then depends on whether for him the portal is a wall or simply absent. If it's a wall, he'll be pushed against it by the moving ship, and unless he has a really good grip on the deck, he'll just be slid backward across the ship until he gets pushed off or crushed between the portal and part of the ship.

If it's absent, he'll go with the ship until the bit he's standing on has crossed the border, at which point he'll fall.

[Chris StarShade]

All right, here's a new extreme situation...

And yes, I freely confess that some of these sound really crazy, but this came up once. >.>

The party is on an earthlike world contained within a demiplane. However, the world is actually flat and the sky itself is a dimensional rift. Anything which exceeds atmospheric altitude passes through the dimensional rift and winds up in deep space in some random plane of existence that actually has a deep space.

If someone with dimensional anchor is on a rocket ship set to fly through the dimensional rift what will happen to him?

As for the earlier dimensional anchor spell, I completely missed the part in the spell description about shimmering emerald light. Let's say there's a spell that can suppress that.

This craziness comes up due to a setting with altering planar boundaries and people trying not to accidentally wind up in the nine hells just because they took a left turn back at Albuquerque.

[Kelb_Panthera]

It depends on the nature of the "rift." Is it a soft border between two planes? Is it a naturally occuring portal or vortex? Is it a litteral opening in the fabric of the cosmos? Without something more specific, the best you can get to this question is "maybe he goes through, maybe not."