Astral Projection and Dimensional Lock (I need halp.)

[Town_Drunk]

My players have constructed a permanent Magnificent Mansion, and as such also can cast Astral Projection (17th level party) and Dimensional Lock. What they've done is create a nigh impenetrable fortress where they can hide the mansion as it's on a portable, animated, intelligent adamantine sling bullet with Sizing, making it so when they enter and exit it becomes the size of a small boulder where the door can sit comfortably, then shrinks down to the size of a marble when they want to be hidden. They cast astral projection within the mansion, and permanencied a bunch of Dimensional Locks within, all except for one small room within. Once they cast Astral Projection, they Plane Shift back to the Material and have their wizardly cohorts or intelligent constructs with wands and such cast Dimensional Anchor in the room they're in.

My question is what happens when they try to return to their bodies when their Astral Projection is dispelled/killed? As their entire demi-plane is covered in Dimensional Locks, which prevents travel to and fro, do they return to their bodies or do they get *stuck?*

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Magnificent Mansion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magesMagnificentMansion.htm), second sentence: "The entry point looks like a faint shimmering in the air that is 4 feet wide and 8 feet high." The entrance to their mansion is in a fixed location, it cannot be moved and its size cannot be changed. The only thing hiding the entrance is a basic invisbility effect.

If they have some sort of custom effect that allows them to get around that, then there are ways to deal with that as well. It's on a sling bullet, which is metallic and thus reflective, a bird or raccoon could easily find it and carry it away. It's animate, but if that's via the Animate Objects spell then as soon as it grows too large for that spell to affect it the spell should end. It's possible that a nosy halfling could spot it, pick it up, and drop it into a pocket of his Handy Haversack. Thus the entrance to an extradimensional space is being placed within another extradimensional space, which breaks both extradimensional spaces and all the contents of both spaces are scattered adrift in the Astral Plane. Of course the PCs probably wouldn't be made aware of this if they're in an astral projection, so who knows how long their bodies would be left vulnerable. An Astral Dreadnought (an appropriate CR for a random encounter) could happen upon them and gobble them up!

Edit: You said it's an intelligent sling bullet, but that doesn't work. "When a magic arrow, crossbow bolt, shuriken, or sling bullet misses its target, there is a 50% chance it breaks or otherwise is rendered useless. A magic arrow, bolt, bullet, or shuriken that hits is destroyed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm)." You cannot make a single-use item intelligent (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/intelligentItems.htm), it's in the very first paragraph.


Astral Projection (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/astralProjection.htm), second paragraph: "You can bring the astral forms of other willing creatures with you, provided that these subjects are linked in a circle with you at the time of the casting. These fellow travelers are dependent upon you and must accompany you at all times. If something happens to you during the journey, your companions are stranded wherever you left them." If the caster of the Astral Projection is slain or dispelled or otherwise forced to return to his body, or if the party so much as splits up, everyone else is stranded.

Astral Projection has a few things that are subject to interpretation. Take the third and fourth paragraphs. The third paragraph says you project your astral self, this is not a physical body, and you're free to rule that this astral self can only exist on the astral plane. Using Plane Shift to take that astral body to another plane simply fails. It also says you may travel astrally to any other plane, leaving the astral plane and forming a new physical body on the plane you're visiting. However, your silver cord is still going into the astral plane, and from there it's going into the plane you've traveled to. The silver cord exists from the spot you entered the Astral Plane to the spot where you left it, and it exists from the spot you entered the plane you're currently on to your current location on that plane. This is a glaring vulnerability, and any of the party's enemies who's aware of this habit could easily hire some Githyanki mercenaries to track down those silver cords and cut every one of them, automatically slaying the characters.

Since that silver cord stretches between the planes, you could rule that placing a Dimensional Lock on the area where their bodies are located causes the cords to be severed, instantly killing them, or just ending the spell if you're being nice. Simply warding an area by placing a Wall of Dispel Magic at the entrance is enough to keep astral travelers out, since dispelling the astral form ends the spell for that character. You can say that since nothing that happens to their astral form affects their normal form, they also don't earn experience while astrally projected, that xp is earned by the copy after all. If they protest, you can agree to allow them to earn experience, but that will also open the door for you to add consequences if their astral form is slain. If their astral projection gets killed, they could permanently lose one or more character levels, or it could cause them to age by several years or decades (add 10% to their current age, so it affects elves and humans equally), or it could cause ability damage/drain or negative levels that need to be removed, etc. or even a combination of several of those things.

[Fizban]

Encounters where you cannot die and have nothing else at stake are approximately zero percent as difficult as standard encounters, thus they are worth an xp adjustment of -100% (and even encounters where something is at stake are worth at most 50% if you aren't at risk, courtesy of Complete Warrior, or the simple fact that only caring about killing the enemy is half as many things to worry about as killing the enemy while keeping everyone including yourself alive). You also lose any loot you were carrying when the spell ends, unless you go out there and pick it up.

You're also the one who okay'd that custom item so lesson learned, no more just letting the players dictate whatever they want? BF got plenty of other points but they're all dependent on the idea that you're willing to stop them, when you let them have all the stuff in the first place. Even if you find a nick in the armor, they'll just discover/"invent" some new way to cover it up unless you stop letting them do that.

[Zanos]

While you can't move or shrink the entrance, the dimensional locks shouldn't really matter, as only designated creatures can enter a magnificent mansion.

High level PCs should really be challenged by goals they want to achieve or things they want to protect rather than direct threats to their personal safety. And using powers that make it harder to kill you is definitely not SO adjustment worthy.