Magical Transport

[Hilary]

OK. So take a Gnome Wizard casting Floating Disk. Add a wooden contraption with a barrel of ale as a counter weight. And presto! Magical transportation.


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_DJy67Cwe3q40lbKdTdJlhogSLrGhUy3

[Hilary]

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uYUuZ5TLEo75fQBJ3VlaQrkjD4Ca2caJ


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1uYUuZ5TLEo75fQBJ3VlaQrkjD4Ca2caJ

So, I don't know why the image didn't upload. But I posted a link. Aside from some tweaks to steering, starting and stopping, what speed will the disk move at in it's attempt to reach the wizard?

For those who can't view the image, this is essentially a wooden platform on a Floating Disk (spell) that holds the spell caster 21 feet away from the disk. This causes the disk to move toward the caster, which moves the caster forward, maintaining the distance between them.

[MoiMagnus]

Depending on your DM:
1) This would not work, because of the disk magically understanding that it cannot physically come closer to you.
2) This would work perfectly and, goes to the movement speed of the Gnome Wizard (following the 3.5 FAQ answer "It can follow you only at a maximum rate equal to your normal speed.")
3) It would work perfectly and goes to an arbitrary speed chosen by the DM.
4) This would work far too well, as the disk would continuously accelerate until you reach an unmanageable speed and your contraption break apart.

[Hilary]

Did I post in the wrong place? I thought this was 5E.

I could imagine that the disk goes through a cycle. Each round it looks for the caster, then moves to where it sensed the caster to be, then repeats. So at best, it's move would be the distance between the disk and the caster, per round.

[Grey Watcher]

2) This would work perfectly and, goes to the movement speed of the Gnome Wizard (following the 3.5 FAQ answer "It can follow you only at a maximum rate equal to your normal speed.")


Did I post in the wrong place? I thought this was 5E.

I think what MoiMagnus means is that, because the 5E spell doesn't specify a top speed for the disk, they might use the 3.5 version as a guideline for their ruling.


4) This would work far too well, as the disk would continuously accelerate until you reach an unmanageable speed and your contraption break apart.

Given that this is framed as a gnomish innovation, this seems the only appropriate outcome to me, no matter how little it makes sense. :biggrin:

[Tetrasodium]

OK. So take a Gnome Wizard casting Floating Disk. Add a wooden contraption with a barrel of ale as a counter weight. And presto! Magical transportation.


https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_DJy67Cwe3q40lbKdTdJlhogSLrGhUy3

It depends on how magic works, it's completely reasonable that it would cause your second level floating disk spell to lose cohesion & tear itself apart because you aren't including the extra energy & planar links to draw upon the energies of Syrania (https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Syrania) in the second level floating disk spell that would keep those things from happening. The fact that doing so would let you anchor the support to the caster instead of a load supporting disk to make the third level fly spell should be obvious to any neophyte student of the arcane arts.

Clearly this gnome did not attend one of the recognized institutes of higher learning such as the Arcanix, library or korranberg, Wayfinders society, or even one of the small local schools found in many Providences throughout the five nations of khorvaire. Perhaps they should go back to basics & purchase a copy of "Beyond Cantrips: Introductory concepts of cohesive arcane structure" from a sivis affilited book retailer?

[Keravath]

This would be a DM call depending on what they want to allow.

1) They could say it doesn't work at all.

"If you move more than 100 feet from the disk (typically because it can't move around an obstacle to follow you), the spell ends."

The 21' length holding you apart could be considered an obstacle preventing the disk from getting any closer so it doesn't try. It also might decide to spin in a circle to get around the obstacle preventing it from getting any closer but that wouldn't work either.

2) The disk moves at the speed of the gnome.

"The disk is immobile while you are within 20 feet of it. If you move more than 20 feet away from it, the disk follows you so that it remains within 20 feet of you."

This indicates that no matter how fast the gnome moves, the disk tries to stay within 20'. If the gnome dashed and was hasted the disk would stay within 20'.

However, the spell does not say how much horizontal force the spell can exert to keep up with the gnome. Normally, it would have to overcome air resistance but that is about it. There isn't much friction. The spell does say that the disk is stopped by obstacles so it can't exert that much force, though it can try to move around obstacles.

The amount of force required to move through the air depends on the air density, coefficient of drag, velocity of the object and the cross-sectional area.

If the disk exerts enough force then the gnome would constantly accelerate with no specific upper limit.

3) What is the nature of the disk?

"This spell creates a circular, horizontal plane of force, 3 feet in diameter and 1 inch thick, that floats 3 feet above the ground in an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within range."

This does not say what, if any, friction is available to hold things to the surface of the disk. Presumably it is possible to push things off. It is possible that with this setup the disk would continue to move toward the gnome leaving whatever was on the disk behind. This might be mitigated by fully enclosing the disk inside the structure of whatever might go on top of it and casting the disk inside the cavity. However, under these circumstances, there is a question as to whether the disk would break the surrounding structure rather than push the gnome farther away. Keep in mind that this is magic. If there is no way around an obstacle (which is what full enclosure would represent) then the disk might either break the obstacle or it might just not exert any force to get any closer to the gnome.

4) The DM could rule that it works the way the character wants it to with some specific maximum speed allowed. However, given the wording of various parts of the spell this would seem to me to be the least likely option :)

[Rukelnikov]

This would be a DM call depending on what they want to allow.

1) They could say it doesn't work at all.

"If you move more than 100 feet from the disk (typically because it can't move around an obstacle to follow you), the spell ends."

The 21' length holding you apart could be considered an obstacle preventing the disk from getting any closer so it doesn't try. It also might decide to spin in a circle to get around the obstacle preventing it from getting any closer but that wouldn't work either.

2) The disk moves at the speed of the gnome.

"The disk is immobile while you are within 20 feet of it. If you move more than 20 feet away from it, the disk follows you so that it remains within 20 feet of you."

This indicates that no matter how fast the gnome moves, the disk tries to stay within 20'. If the gnome dashed and was hasted the disk would stay within 20'.

However, the spell does not say how much horizontal force the spell can exert to keep up with the gnome. Normally, it would have to overcome air resistance but that is about it. There isn't much friction. The spell does say that the disk is stopped by obstacles so it can't exert that much force, though it can try to move around obstacles.

The amount of force required to move through the air depends on the air density, coefficient of drag, velocity of the object and the cross-sectional area.

If the disk exerts enough force then the gnome would constantly accelerate with no specific upper limit.

3) What is the nature of the disk?

"This spell creates a circular, horizontal plane of force, 3 feet in diameter and 1 inch thick, that floats 3 feet above the ground in an unoccupied space of your choice that you can see within range."

This does not say what, if any, friction is available to hold things to the surface of the disk. Presumably it is possible to push things off. It is possible that with this setup the disk would continue to move toward the gnome leaving whatever was on the disk behind. This might be mitigated by fully enclosing the disk inside the structure of whatever might go on top of it and casting the disk inside the cavity. However, under these circumstances, there is a question as to whether the disk would break the surrounding structure rather than push the gnome farther away. Keep in mind that this is magic. If there is no way around an obstacle (which is what full enclosure would represent) then the disk might either break the obstacle or it might just not exert any force to get any closer to the gnome.

4) The DM could rule that it works the way the character wants it to with some specific maximum speed allowed. However, given the wording of various parts of the spell this would seem to me to be the least likely option :)

If the disk can't move around an obstacle it doesnt break it, it just stops its movement, thus the conditional for if it is ever more than 100 ft away from you. I you consider the encasing as an obstacle (which is not unreasonable) then the disk would just stay in place.