Extending a Spell's Duration Without Using Extend Spell

[ATHATH]

Are there any official items or spells (not classes (such as Sorcerer)) that can lengthen the duration of a spell (specifically, Conjure Woodland Beings)? Even a single-use item will do.

I need to extend the duration of CWB for long enough to last through a battle and cast Planar Binding on whichever one of the pixies that I've summoned managed to get a certain enemy to fail their save against a certain spell that pixies can cast (I'm keeping the details here vague on purpose, in case anyone in my group visits GitP and gets the surprise spoiled) so that I can cast a concentration spell on them (if I don't remove the concentration requirement of CWB (for that pixie) by having a Wizard friend use Planar Binding on the pixie, the pixie will disappear and the target will return to their normal form before I can finish casting my concentration spell), so just timing CWB and Planar Binding correctly won't work.

[ATHATH]

Actually, I think I've figured out how to do this:
1. My wizard friend casts a 5th level Spell Glyph of Planar Binding keyed to activate and target a pixie on it with PB when the word "snozzleberry" is heard.
2. I cast CWB.
3. Fight happens; I use various abilities from other members of the party (Bane from the Cleric, for example) and the many spells from my pixies to ensure that the enemy in question fails its save against the spell that I need it to fail a save against.
4. I drag the pixie that's holding its concentration on the spell that's affecting the enemy over to the glyph and order it to fail its save against PB (if I can't do that, we can debuff its saves too) and to not ready an action to dismiss concentration on its spell.
5. My wizard friend readies his action to say "snozzleberry" between the pixie's turn and mine, so that it can't drop its concentration once it's free from my control until after I cast the spell that I need to (that's a thing, right?).
6. The wizard says "snozzleberry".
7. I cast the spell that I need to cast on the enemy.

This would be a perfect plan (aside from the needed set-up)... except that our party will be level 9 when this fight occurs- meaning that my Wizard friend will only be able to have one 5th level spell at a time, which in turn means that he can't set up the needed GoW.

Are there any magic items or other things (other than leveling up) that can give my Wizard friend an additional 5th level spell slot (other than a spell scroll of PB, which is my backup plan (it take weeks to create, though, which is not ideal))?

[JackPhoenix]

Note that the pixie won't be under your or the wizard's control if you use the glyph. And as the glyph is non-sapient, it can't order her around. It could drop the concentration and fly away, if it wanted to.

[MaxWilson]

Actually, I think I've figured out how to do this:
1. My wizard friend casts a 5th level Spell Glyph of Planar Binding keyed to activate and target a pixie on it with PB when the word "snozzleberry" is heard.
2. I cast CWB.
3. Fight happens; I use various abilities from other members of the party (Bane from the Cleric, for example) and the many spells from my pixies to ensure that the enemy in question fails its save against the spell that I need it to fail a save against.
4. I drag the pixie that's holding its concentration on the spell that's affecting the enemy over to the glyph and order it to fail its save against PB (if I can't do that, we can debuff its saves too) and to not ready an action to dismiss concentration on its spell.
5. My wizard friend readies his action to say "snozzleberry" between the pixie's turn and mine, so that it can't drop its concentration once it's free from my control until after I cast the spell that I need to (that's a thing, right?).
6. The wizard says "snozzleberry".
7. I cast the spell that I need to cast on the enemy.

This would be a perfect plan (aside from the needed set-up)... except that our party will be level 9 when this fight occurs- meaning that my Wizard friend will only be able to have one 5th level spell at a time, which in turn means that he can't set up the needed GoW.

Are there any magic items or other things (other than leveling up) that can give my Wizard friend an additional 5th level spell slot (other than a spell scroll of PB, which is my backup plan (it take weeks to create, though, which is not ideal))?

Since Polymorph is the only spell you could possibly be interested in off the Pixie spell list, and Polymorph is an incredibly useful spell, I'd just have the wizard learn and cast Polymorph. The polymorphed enemy should easily fail its save against the wizard's Polymorph, at which point the pixie can drop concentration with no issues, and you can cast your Awaken spell or whatever you're planning on casting next.

Edit: right, Awaken won't work because it takes 8 hours to cast.

[ATHATH]

Wait, I just looked it up, and Concentration effects CAN be dismissed outside of your own turn withiut needing a readied action. Darn. I guess we're gonna have to rely on the Persuasion checks of our party faces to convince the pixie to hold its concentration for 6 seconds longer than it absolutely has to (they're usually NG, IIRC, so it shouldn't be that hard).


Note that the pixie won't be under your or the wizard's control if you use the glyph. And as the glyph is non-sapient, it can't order her around. It could drop the concentration and fly away, if it wanted to.
I know. I wanted to Planar Bind it so that it (and the spell that it's concentrating on) won't poof away once I start casting the spell that I need to cast on the enemy.


Since Polymorph is the only spell you could possibly be interested in off the Pixie spell list, and Polymorph is an incredibly useful spell, I'd just have the wizard learn and cast Polymorph. The polymorphed enemy should easily fail its save against the wizard's Polymorph, at which point the pixie can drop concentration with no issues, and you can cast your Awaken spell or whatever you're planning on casting next.

Edit: right, Awaken won't work because it takes 8 hours to cast.
The Wizard is only going to get off one Polymorph per round, which pales in comparison to my pixie horde's 8 Polymorphs per round (and 8 Confusions per round that I can use to hopefully blow through some of the enemy in question's Legendary Resistances (provided that he doesn't just not pop his LRs on them, which I hope doesn't happen)).

I'm gonna post the exact details of my plan in my next post under a spoiler, since this post is getting long and I don't want to lose it (I'm typing this on my iPad).

[ATHATH]

The spell that I need from the pixies is Polymorph.

The non-CWB concentration spell that I am casting is Dominate Beast.

And the target?

Strahd Von Zarovich.

The idea is to finagle a way to get a Dominate X effect on Strahd so that I can make him use the Darklord powers to fix Barovia, possibly let everyone out of Barovia (and Ravenloft as a whole?), transfer his Darklord powers to someone who is better fit to wield them (WhAt cOUlD PoSSiblY gO wrONg?), and/or get him to go into his coffin, expose his chest, and let me stake him.

The main problem here is that Strahd is (probably, I haven't seen his statblock and don't want to see it) an Undead creature, not a Beast or a Humanoid that can easily be dominated with the Dominate Beast or Dominate Person spells that are available at level 9 (the level that the DM has confirmed that we'll be fighting Strahd at). Fortunately, Dominate Beast is a 4th level spell and Polymorph can give something the Beast creature type, making it an eligible target for Dominate Beast.

So, the plan is to use pixies to burn through the Legendary Saves that he probably has (he IS a BBEG, after all) with 8 Confusion spells (knowing the DM, he'll probably forget that Confusion doesn't actually do all that much against creatures with Legendary Actions and Lair Actions, so he'll probably burn some of the LSes on them), then hit Strahd with 8 Polymorph spells to turn him into a fire beetle, which has a -2 WIS modifier. During the fight itself, the rest of the party should be trying their hardest to keep Strahd and any minions he summons away from me and the pixies- the pixies have 1 HP each, and I won't have enough spell slots to renew CWB without losing my opportunity to cast Dominate Beast (I'm a Paladin 2/Druid X). This will likely be difficult, because Strahd can turn into mist (I mean, normal vampires can do it, so he probably can too) and might have movement available as a Legendary Action. Anyway, after the fight, the party's Bard (or the party's Cleric) can then cast Bane on the fire beetle until it fails its save, giving it a good chance of failing its save against Dominate Beast. I can then interrogate Strahd with Speak with Animals, have the Polymorph be dismissed if he confirms that his vampire form is not immune to charming, and do what I wish with him for an hour.

Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier, casting Dominate Beast will dismiss the pixies (and thus the Polymorph spell) and make Strahd no longer a valid target for Dominate Beast. If I could get a pixie from CWB to somehow stick around for at least a round or two after I stop concentrating on CWB, that'd solve that problem nicely.

Some problems that I already see with my plan:
I'll only have 2 4th level spell slots, so if my concentration on either Polymorph or Dominate Beast ends, Barovia is doomed unless Strahd gets really unlucky with his saves against our party Wizard's Polymorph spells or we retreat and try again later (this is a valid escape/success clause/condition for most of these "Barovia is doomed" statements, so I'm not gonna repeat it much). If we do try again later, Strahd will be on to (onto?) our tricks.
If Strahd fails 3+ saves against Confusion, the DM could decide not to burn any LSes. Alternatively, the DM could just decide to save them for later instead of wasting them on Confusion. If this happens, Barovia is likely doomed unless we get really lucky with Strahd's Polymorph saves.
If Strahd has the Shapechanger subtype (which he might, due to being able to turn into mist and possibly a bat (and maybe other forms too)), he'll save successfully against Polymorph every time. If this happens, Barovia is doomed.
While the pixies can fly out of the reach of wolves, they only have 1 HP each, so if Strahd can summon bats (that can get around the chumpblocking of some ravens that the Keepers of the Feather might be able to send to help us) or hit them with an AoE of some kind, Barovia is likely doomed.
Strahd's Darklord powers might take longer than (or approximately the duration of) an hour to use, which means that the Sun will never return to Barovia.
The Dark Powers might intervene, in which case Barovia is probably doomed.
The DM might reject the summoning of 8 pixies with CWB and/or might rule that he gets to choose what's summoned by CWB. I'm planning to hold back CWB until the final fight and possibly sell my character's soul to Fey powers (or something else equally severe) to try to avoid this, but this could happen and likely doom Barovia.
Strahd can likely bypass the grapple attempts of most of the party using his mist form or some other ability. The DM has declined to answer whether or not magic items, spells, armor, and/or weapons can restrain or grapple Strahd while he's in mist form (Pecos Bill-style?). If he can get within melee range of me, Barovia is likely doomed.
Strahd can succeed on his save against Dominate Beast while in fire beetle-form. If this happens, Barovia is likely doomed.
Strahd might have Magic Resistance, which will pretty much ruin our chances of getting him to burn enough LSes. This will likely doom Barovia.
I might have not thought of something that could screw us over. If that happens, Barovia may be doomed or likely be doomed.
Strahd might be able to use his Darklord (and/or vampire) powers while staked/incapacitated, which could let him undo our changes to Barovia/recapture the people who fled.
I might (accidentally) hog the spotlight too much in this fight, being the one who's casting a lot of the spells here. If this happens, it'll lessen the experience/enjoyment of the fight for the other people at the table, and that's worse than dooming Barovia. Again, I'll talk to the DM about this.

By the way, I don't view "reducing Strahd to 0 HP and possibly killing him" as "saving Barovia"- he can just come back if we can't find a way to trap him in an airtight area for an hour, and even if we DO kill him, Barovia would still trap all who enter it. Furthermore, some of the people in Barovia are apparently projections of Strahd's mind, and might die en masse when he dies. I'd rather not condemn a possibly large group of possibly sapient creatures to death to get rid of one bad guy.

Oh, and before you comment on this- I really, REALLY do not want spoilers for CoS, the abilities of the magic items in CoS (I've heard of an Icon of Ravenloft thingie that might be able to project a Magic Circle effect, which would be useful if it can be turned inwards, but I don't know much else about it and don't WANT to know more about it yet), Strahd's statblock, the statblocks of non-Strahd vampires and vampire spawn, or the mechanics of/for how summoning spells, divination spells, and the like work in Barovia (I think that there are some rules about summons being trapped too or something), since the DM has intentionally kept these from us and has told us not to look at them. I do know some of the abilities of vampires and can infer some stuff, hence why I could plan around some of the abilities that I think/thought Strahd might have above.

So please, don't go and tell me "but ATHATH, Strahd is immune to charm effects/has the shapechanger subtype/has 30s in all of his stats/has magic resistance!" or "hey ATHATH, summons are trapped in Barovia after being summoned!", because it will ruin a lot of things for me and/or my group. Just assume that we're NOT using the special rules for Ravenloftian/Barovian magic, okay?

Any questions?

[JackPhoenix]

Snip

Besides the reasonable ruling that Dominate Beasts doesn't work once he's no longer beast,

Barovia is doomed anyway. Strahd doesn't have the power to fix anything, he's as much of a prisoner as everyone else is, most native Barovians can't leave even if he let them, as they are just soulless constructs created by Dark Powers to have some more actors for their games, and even if you kill Strahd, the Dark Powers will bring him back eventually. And "better fit to wield Darklord powers" means "even worse monster than Strahd, and more amusing to the Dark Powers who decide who gets to be the Darklord".

You can't really win in Ravenloft.

[MaxWilson]

The Wizard is only going to get off one Polymorph per round, which pales in comparison to my pixie horde's 8 Polymorphs per round (and 8 Confusions per round that I can use to hopefully blow through some of the enemy in question's Legendary Resistances (provided that he doesn't just not pop his LRs on them, which I hope doesn't happen)).

I'm gonna post the exact details of my plan in my next post under a spoiler, since this post is getting long and I don't want to lose it (I'm typing this on my iPad).

I repeat, you don't need Planar Binding. Here's the plan:

1. Pixies cast Polymorph on the target. Eventually he fails a save and turns into a Toad with Wisdom 8.

2. Wizard casts Polymorph on the toad. It has -1 to Wisdom saves, and can easily be turned into a quipper or whatever you want.

3. Druid casts whatever. In theory you could cast Awaken to perma-charm the target (for 30 days anyway) but only if you had enough wizards to keep it in beast shape the whole time you were casting, or if you had a way to cast Awaken more quickly.

[Mellack]

Question: How are you going to get Strahd to fight you where you prepared the Glyph? Also, have you checked with your DM that you can actually get 8 pixies? I believe the sage advice is that the DM chooses what you summon.

[ATHATH]

JackPheonix, I SPECIFICALLY TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT. I read the first sentence of your spoiler before realising what it was (I had stupidly forgotten to read the title of the spoiler, so it's mostly my fault) and closing it.

And I think I already asked my DM about the targeting thing; I'll check again, though, just to be sure.


Question: How are you going to get Strahd to fight you where you prepared the Glyph? Also, have you checked with your DM that you can actually get 8 pixies? I believe the sage advice is that the DM chooses what you summon.
I'm talking with the DM about that last bit, but the first bit is no longer relevant, because...


I repeat, you don't need Planar Binding. Here's the plan:

1. Pixies cast Polymorph on the target. Eventually he fails a save and turns into a Toad with Wisdom 8.

2. Wizard casts Polymorph on the toad. It has -1 to Wisdom saves, and can easily be turned into a quipper or whatever you want.

3. Druid casts whatever. In theory you could cast Awaken to perma-charm the target (for 30 days anyway) but only if you had enough wizards to keep it in beast shape the whole time you were casting, or if you had a way to cast Awaken more quickly.
Huh. That... would actually work. Thanks!

Welp, thread over, then, I guess. Thanks for the help.

[MaxWilson]

Question: How are you going to get Strahd to fight you where you prepared the Glyph? Also, have you checked with your DM that you can actually get 8 pixies? I believe the sage advice is that the DM chooses what you summon.

Oh, there are potential problems much worse than that with the plan. To name two: it doesn't account for Strahd's legendary actions or legendary resistance; and it doesn't account for Polymorph's need to see the enemy you're casting the spell on. (If Strahd comes at you under Greater Invisibility, for example, the whole plan falls apart. Likewise if he breaks contact with a legendary action after the first Pixie casts Polymorph.) Fundamentally the plan is brittle: it will work only if certain circumstances come about, but there isn't any event funnel (AFAIK) to create those circumstances in the first place.

But there may be aspects we haven't been told about. E.g. maybe the PCs have arranged with Strahd to meet him at a certain place to hand over a person or object in exchange for payment, and someone will try to bluff Strahd into a private conversation in a room wherein the anticipated Pixies have invisibly pre-concealed themselves, along with the invisible wizard and the wildshaped druid.

The Sage Advice on conjuration says you're free to express a preference to the DM when you cast the spell, and presumably the plan is to tell the DM that they want Pixies, jump through any hoops the DM suggests would maximize the chances of pixies (maybe spread out some dainty foods or something beforehand), and abort the plan if you don't get any. That's what I'd do anyway, as a player.

[Mellack]

What does dominating a beast that is named Strahd (but doesn't have his powers) for 1 minute going to accomplish?

[ATHATH]

What does dominating a beast that is named Strahd (but doesn't have his powers) for 1 minute going to accomplish?
Huh, the duration IS one minute. That, uh, makes things more difficult.

The idea is to dismiss the Polymorph, leaving Strahd still dominated for the rest of the duration of Dominate Beast.

[Mellack]

That you should also check with your DM. Many would rule that since he is no longer a beast after you dismiss the polymorph, he is no longer a valid target and dominate ends.

[MaxWilson]

That you should also check with your DM. Many would rule that since he is no longer a beast after you dismiss the polymorph, he is no longer a valid target and dominate ends.

Maybe. I wouldn't rule that way, because that makes Polymorph terminate Hold Person and a number of monster abilities, and makes the interactions between Polymorph (or wildshape) and Magic Jar exceedingly weird. (E.g. if you wildshape or Polymorph yourself while in someone else's body, you instantly die if not in range of your container and the body you were in becomes soulless, and the soul in the container is...trapped? dead?) It's just easier to follow the same precedent as spell ranges and say that target restrictions, like range restrictions, affect only the initial casting.

But yeah, check with the DM first. Experiment in character, e.g. on each other before a long rest, if necessary.