Renduaz
2020-01-26, 03:24 PM
As we all know, Leomund's Tiny Hut is a pretty useful spell. I won't expand too much on what has already been stated about it's usage by myself or others, except to generally stress that if one does manage to put themselves in a position where they are inside the hut before or during initiating combat, but their enemies are not, then they pretty much completely control the terms of engagement, be it with intelligent or better yet unintelligent enemies. Objects such as ammunition that were present in the hut as it was cast can be fired from within it, summoned creatures can be unleashed, and of course party members can just step out and back in as they please to unleash their respective actions. There's also my pioneered Invoke Duplicity method, but I can touch that on later.
Anyway, the problem with that has of course always been that it takes a minute to cast, and thus isn't very reliable in a lot of hostile territories. But there might be a fix for that. First, let's say for the (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/84997/can-you-cast-a-spell-as-a-ritual-while-traveling) record (https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/6ndwr6/would_you_allow_ritual_casting_while/) that you could cast Leomund's Tiny Hut while moving if you wanted to, waiting until the last few seconds before bursting in somewhere and springing the hut around you, since nothing about the spell requires a stationary space ( and the ritual involves a small crystal bead ). Even more than that, what you certainly can do is cast any spell you want while not moving yourself but traveling on something - e.g a ship, a cart, etc as long as you fulfill any of the spell's optional requirements, and certainly this happens many times in the official modules.
But let's say that we wish to deploy the hut in a compound, or dungeon, or the type of place one typically adventures into where waiting until the last moment is not viable or the enemy would already be alerted to your casting. In that case, this combination comes in - Arcane Eye, Arcane Gate, and some kind of Trolley. It's rather simple and effective - You start off by casting Arcane Eye from 500 feet away into whichever location you're seeking to infiltrate until you find your mark ( Say, the Big Bad's throne chamber ). With the eye's mental visual transmission ( Unlike Find Familiar or Gaze of Two Minds and other effects, it is expressly not stated that you are blinded to your own senses ), you select a point within 10 feet of you and another 500 feet away and cast Arcane Gate, which immediately breaks the eye's concentration, but that's fine. Ideally you want to position the gate near a wall or something of that nature with the non-visible, non-portal side ( the rings are only visible form one side ) facing your enemies to avoid undue alarm.
The second part does require a second cast, which would have to be either a Simulacrum or a party member. Whoever it is, they'll have to sit down on a trolley ( or anything else which can be pushed and moved ) and begin casting Leomund's Tiny Hut. When it comes down to the last few rounds or so of the casting, With the eye's mental visual transmission ( Unlike Find Familiar or Gaze of Two Minds and other effects, it is expressly not stated that you are blinded to your own senses ), you select a point within 10 feet of you and directly in front of the trolley and another 500 feet away and cast Arcane Gate, which immediately breaks the eye's concentration, but that's fine. Someone, be it your or another, or something for that matter then pushes it straight through the portal, with any other party member using their movement to tag along, and as soon as the other side is reached - Leomund's Tiny Hut pops up around the caster.
Which does also comes along with a pretty nice cinematic momentum, with a bunch of clueless enemies turning their heads in slow motion to see a group with a rolling caster at their head emerging from a glowing misty ring, only to sprout an an invulnerability bubble and slaughter everyone in sight. Bonus point if you step outside the ring and block off their exists with something like Wall of Force/Stone and so on ( Unless you want to keep concentrating on the Gate ). Needless to say, you could also utilize other variants at higher levels with Gate or Magnificent Mansion and so forth, but I figure the high-level spells are already taken for granted.
Solo Version
This one is a lot less convoluted and enables you to perform a similar feat at a lower level and without a second caster, without the Arcane Gate or the Arcane Eye, but it does require a bit of summoning. You'll likely need either Summon Greater Demon or Infernal Calling depending on your decision, along with Planar Binding. There are essentially two good candidates for the job, being of minimal CR, most readily available and capable of achieving what we need - the Nightmare ( Fiend ) and the Dybbuk ( Demon ), both of which would need to be Planar bound to remove concentration constraints from their initial summoning spells.
Technically, there is no indication anywhere that being teleported breaks concentration, and a Dybbuk has infinite Dimension Doors, which it has able to bring someone along for. This means that if you were to go alone, if you have advance knowledge of the your destination's layout, you could get there even from thousands of feet away by beginning the casting of Leomund's Tiny Hut and letting the Dybbuk teleport ahead with you 500 feet per turn, or just wait until there's 1 round left from 500 feet away. The Dybukk could then even fetch all your party members in very short order since it can just teleport into the hut. The second candidate is the Nightmare, which can shift with 3 other creatures into the Ethereal Plane and back again. Hop onto it with some party members, start casting the hut, and let it bring you straight to where you need be via the ethereal plane.
And that's pretty much how you set up Leomund's Tiny Hut by surprise almost anywhere of your choosing. It's pretty efficient in almost any predetermined assault as long as you have two casters or the right spells.
Disclaimer: Do not try this if you are going to be fighting creatures that have Dispel Magic or Anti-Magic Field. If for some reason it needs to be said, 90% of combos that require a sustained magical effect are obviously going to fail if attempted against a substantial threat with Dispel Magic or Anti-Magic.
Anyway, the problem with that has of course always been that it takes a minute to cast, and thus isn't very reliable in a lot of hostile territories. But there might be a fix for that. First, let's say for the (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/84997/can-you-cast-a-spell-as-a-ritual-while-traveling) record (https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/6ndwr6/would_you_allow_ritual_casting_while/) that you could cast Leomund's Tiny Hut while moving if you wanted to, waiting until the last few seconds before bursting in somewhere and springing the hut around you, since nothing about the spell requires a stationary space ( and the ritual involves a small crystal bead ). Even more than that, what you certainly can do is cast any spell you want while not moving yourself but traveling on something - e.g a ship, a cart, etc as long as you fulfill any of the spell's optional requirements, and certainly this happens many times in the official modules.
But let's say that we wish to deploy the hut in a compound, or dungeon, or the type of place one typically adventures into where waiting until the last moment is not viable or the enemy would already be alerted to your casting. In that case, this combination comes in - Arcane Eye, Arcane Gate, and some kind of Trolley. It's rather simple and effective - You start off by casting Arcane Eye from 500 feet away into whichever location you're seeking to infiltrate until you find your mark ( Say, the Big Bad's throne chamber ). With the eye's mental visual transmission ( Unlike Find Familiar or Gaze of Two Minds and other effects, it is expressly not stated that you are blinded to your own senses ), you select a point within 10 feet of you and another 500 feet away and cast Arcane Gate, which immediately breaks the eye's concentration, but that's fine. Ideally you want to position the gate near a wall or something of that nature with the non-visible, non-portal side ( the rings are only visible form one side ) facing your enemies to avoid undue alarm.
The second part does require a second cast, which would have to be either a Simulacrum or a party member. Whoever it is, they'll have to sit down on a trolley ( or anything else which can be pushed and moved ) and begin casting Leomund's Tiny Hut. When it comes down to the last few rounds or so of the casting, With the eye's mental visual transmission ( Unlike Find Familiar or Gaze of Two Minds and other effects, it is expressly not stated that you are blinded to your own senses ), you select a point within 10 feet of you and directly in front of the trolley and another 500 feet away and cast Arcane Gate, which immediately breaks the eye's concentration, but that's fine. Someone, be it your or another, or something for that matter then pushes it straight through the portal, with any other party member using their movement to tag along, and as soon as the other side is reached - Leomund's Tiny Hut pops up around the caster.
Which does also comes along with a pretty nice cinematic momentum, with a bunch of clueless enemies turning their heads in slow motion to see a group with a rolling caster at their head emerging from a glowing misty ring, only to sprout an an invulnerability bubble and slaughter everyone in sight. Bonus point if you step outside the ring and block off their exists with something like Wall of Force/Stone and so on ( Unless you want to keep concentrating on the Gate ). Needless to say, you could also utilize other variants at higher levels with Gate or Magnificent Mansion and so forth, but I figure the high-level spells are already taken for granted.
Solo Version
This one is a lot less convoluted and enables you to perform a similar feat at a lower level and without a second caster, without the Arcane Gate or the Arcane Eye, but it does require a bit of summoning. You'll likely need either Summon Greater Demon or Infernal Calling depending on your decision, along with Planar Binding. There are essentially two good candidates for the job, being of minimal CR, most readily available and capable of achieving what we need - the Nightmare ( Fiend ) and the Dybbuk ( Demon ), both of which would need to be Planar bound to remove concentration constraints from their initial summoning spells.
Technically, there is no indication anywhere that being teleported breaks concentration, and a Dybbuk has infinite Dimension Doors, which it has able to bring someone along for. This means that if you were to go alone, if you have advance knowledge of the your destination's layout, you could get there even from thousands of feet away by beginning the casting of Leomund's Tiny Hut and letting the Dybbuk teleport ahead with you 500 feet per turn, or just wait until there's 1 round left from 500 feet away. The Dybukk could then even fetch all your party members in very short order since it can just teleport into the hut. The second candidate is the Nightmare, which can shift with 3 other creatures into the Ethereal Plane and back again. Hop onto it with some party members, start casting the hut, and let it bring you straight to where you need be via the ethereal plane.
And that's pretty much how you set up Leomund's Tiny Hut by surprise almost anywhere of your choosing. It's pretty efficient in almost any predetermined assault as long as you have two casters or the right spells.
Disclaimer: Do not try this if you are going to be fighting creatures that have Dispel Magic or Anti-Magic Field. If for some reason it needs to be said, 90% of combos that require a sustained magical effect are obviously going to fail if attempted against a substantial threat with Dispel Magic or Anti-Magic.