[3.5/Pathfinder] Question on Dimension Door

[Vilyathas]

Heya peeps.

While thinking up on hypothetical ways for "mere mortals" to defeat a Wizard, this situation came up. A flying Wizard gets hit by a crossbow bolt with a rope attached to it. The other end of the rope is held by an enemy brute.

Does this prevent him from using Dimension Door, or does he have to spend an action to pull out the bolt first?

[Hyde]

To my knowledge, as long as the caster wasn't specifically "grappled" by the rope and such, there's no reason he couldn't d.door away uninhibited. I'm sure that there's a suite of feats somewhere that allows ranged bolt-rope grappling, but out of the box the wizard would be in the clear.

Whether the bolt and rope remain with the wizard or the brute is up to your DM.

[TuggyNE]

Heya peeps.

While thinking up on hypothetical ways for "mere mortals" to defeat a Wizard, this situation came up. A flying Wizard gets hit by a crossbow bolt with a rope attached to it. The other end of the rope is held by an enemy brute.

Does this prevent him from using Dimension Door, or does he have to spend an action to pull out the bolt first?

To add to what Hyde said (which is true to my knowledge) there's no RAW that mentions that most projectiles stick in their targets; if anything, their destruction on a hit would suggest the opposite. There are some (thrown) weapons that will remain in the wound until pulled out, but even those might or might not be enough to actually act as a mundane dimensional anchor.

[rockdeworld]

What they said. I would simply rule that the wizard uses DD and the bolt and rope fall to the ground.

Alternatively, you can say that the bolt disappears and the rope falls to the ground.

Alternatively, you can say that the bolt breaks and falls to the ground.

What does regular ammunition do in your campaign anyway?

If you really want to, you could rule that the bolt and rope hold the caster in place. Then you'd want to make up some rules about how DD actually works, and whether that works the same with Teleport, Gate, Blink, etc.

[Vilyathas]

So, in order to hold the caster in place, the bolt-rope arrangement needs to be grappling a la Ranged Grapple or such. Then it can be ruled that the grappler is an unwilling participant preventing the wizard from DDooring away.

Which, unfortunately, means that it can be overcome via Freedom of Movement, so back to the drawing board :smallannoyed:

Basically, I'm trying to design a team of mage-hunter mercenaries and their standard tactics for capturing a wizard. The current roster consists of:
1. A monk for drawing fire and harrying the wizard with Stunning Fist, Mage Slayer feat, Step Up, etc. Equipped with True Seeing and something that lets him fly. Has an assortment of thunderstones, tanglefoot bags, and sneezing powder for mundane, nonmagical lockdown. Most likely equipped with whips or spiked chains for range and grappling bonuses.

2. A ranged rogue (with the grappling gun) for preventing the wizard from casting with a combination of specialized Sneak Attacks to silence, deafen, etc.

3. The team sorcerer and dispel/counterspell specialist. Ready action to do nothing but to counterspell every spell the wizard tries to cast. Spell repertoire includes Antimagic Field, Feeblemind, and Summon Monsters for lots of minions to harry the wizard.

4. The brute. Optional, for close range physical pummeling and grappling. Probably a druid for added flexibility via spellcasting and Wildshaping.

[rockdeworld]

I don't know if all that is needed. Feeblemind has instantaneous duration, so its effects are permanent, and it will kill any arcane caster. Killing a mosquito with a cannon and whatnot.

OTOH, using a monk to kill a wizard is like trying to kill a cannon with a mosquito.

Basically, if your goal is to kill a player, he's not going to have a good time. I recommend against that. If your goal is to capture the player, then again, being held in jail means he's not going to have a good time. Why are you doing all this?

If it's a theoretical exercise, you'll probably need a good source of dead magic zone. The Dimensional Anchor spell prevents him from teleporting out.