Sphinx be crazy!? (Help with reading/understanding sphinx power)

[Mandrake]

Hi!

So, in Monster Manual p. 280 one of the lair actions by the Sphinx is the following:

The flow of time within the lair is altered such that everything within moves up to 10 years forward or backward (sphinx's choice). Only the sphinx is immediately aware of the time change. A wish spell can return the caster and up to seven other creatures designated by the caster to their normal time.

Does this mean that when you exist the sphinx's lair you could be 10 years before or after you entered it?! Really? Can I use a sphinx to move my players to the future?

Thanks!

[Sigreid]

Hi!

So, in Monster Manual p. 280 one of the lair actions by the Sphinx is the following:

The flow of time within the lair is altered such that everything within moves up to 10 years forward or backward (sphinx's choice). Only the sphinx is immediately aware of the time change. A wish spell can return the caster and up to seven other creatures designated by the caster to their normal time.

Does this mean that when you exist the sphinx's lair you could be 10 years before or after you entered it?! Really? Can I use a sphinx to move my players to the future?

Thanks!

Yes, yes, that is exactly what that means.

[Mandrake]

Yes, yes, that is exactly what that means.

Dear me..

Ok, so 10 years into the future and off to another plane of existence it is :bigcool:

[TopCheese]

Dear me..

Ok, so 10 years into the future and off to another plane of existence it is :bigcool:

No.

The lair's time flow changes. Forward or backwards by 10 years. The time outside the lair doesn't change.

So you could be up to 10 years older or younger upon exiting the lair.

[pwykersotz]

No.

The lair's time flow changes. Forward or backwards by 10 years. The time outside the lair doesn't change.

So you could be up to 10 years older or younger upon exiting the lair.

This isn't right. There is a separate lair action to control age. This action sends people forward or backward in time, just as Mandrake suggested.

[Daishain]

In fact, feel free to send them more than ten years in either direction if it is plot convenient.

[Inevitability]

I once had the idea for a BBEG who had become essentially unkillable. One of the few suggested ways to kill him was to find one of the world's few remaining androsphynxes and use him to travel back to a time where said BBEG had not yet become what he is today.


In fact, feel free to send them more than ten years in either direction if it is plot convenient.

I'm pretty sure the Sphynx can just take this lair action over and over again, so this should be possible RAW.

[Mandrake]

I once had the idea for a BBEG who had become essentially unkillable. One of the few suggested ways to kill him was to find one of the world's few remaining androsphynxes and use him to travel back to a time where said BBEG had not yet become what he is today.

I'm pretty sure the Sphynx can just take this lair action over and over again, so this should be possible RAW.

Nice idea, I like it. :) I plan on doing something similar-ish here (it actually gets the BBEG weaker than he was back then).

Nope, only once per rest (short or long), but it is all one encounter, so only once... I am thinking of having two sphinxes, so that I can both move them in time and to another plane (to be judged for their error :smallbiggrin:); all of this, of course, if they get the puzzle wrong...

... and coming up with a good puzzle is a whole 'nother problem.

[thepsyker]

Nope, only once per rest (short or long), but it is all one encounter, so only once... I am thinking of having two sphinxes, so that I can both move them in time and to another plane ...

I'm AFB, but if the problem is that the sphinx can only do one of moving through time/moving through spac... I mean plane per short rest, the obvious answer to me, assuming one wanted to get by with just one sphinx, is that after the sphinx moves you ten years into the future/past the sphinx you encounter in that time is no longer on the same rest as the one who sent you and so that temporal version of the sphinx is free to use the ability again.:belkar:

[caden_varn]

I's assume the Sphinx has to move with the lair, being in it itself, therefore it is still in the same time as the rest of the lair - it is just everything else that has changed...

[acid_ninja]

Sounds like a fun way to play with your plot. A game where your players encounter a sphinx, move forward in time, have to track down the same spinx and get moved back, only to jump into an alternate timeline and have go to go back even farther reminds me of a pretty fantastic movie trilogy and seems like a fun kind of game, but maybe not the one you were planning. Screw the rules, do what makes a fun game/story.

[PoeticDwarf]

No.

The lair's time flow changes. Forward or backwards by 10 years. The time outside the lair doesn't change.

So you could be up to 10 years older or younger upon exiting the lair.

I think this is right, otherwise a friendly sphinx is a too good friend.

[Sigreid]

In mythology it isn't really uncommon for supernatural beings to take a person into their home for a few hours, or days and when the person emerges years or even centuries have passed.