Rope Trick Hazards?

[Yrnes]

After an eventful night of having our camp ruined by 4 random encounters, I asked our party sorcerer to pick up some scrolls of rope trick when we made it back to town so we could skip these little fiascos next time.

About that time, our party cleric informed up that our heward's handy haversacks and bags of holding couldn't enter the extra dimensional space created by the spell without something happening to the space itself, or worse, our schtuff.

"Surely you jest!" I cried, as my mind totted back to the second edition rules with portable holes, rods of cancellation, spheres of annihilation and double imbibed potion results tables. If anything else I never came across such a rule in all my days playing through 3.0, although its possible I never took the time to read those annoying disclaimers at the end of spell descriptions.

But sure enough, as I flipped to it in the 3.5 PHB, theres a little nebulous note that says it can be "dangerous" to combine extra dimensional spaces at the end of rope trick. So my question is this. How dangerous is dangerous? And how likely is "can be"? Are we talking a gate effect here, or a retributive strike?

[reorith]

it is danger of the rock falls, everyone dies. it is at the dm's discretion.

[Dausuul]

it is danger of the rock falls, everyone dies. it is at the dm's discretion.

Mostly, yeah.

The only real guideline I can see is the interaction of portable holes and bags of holding. A rope trick spell creates an extradimensional space, like a portable hole; on the other hand, a bag of holding creates a nondimensional space. (The difference, I think, is that extradimensional spaces have volume while nondimensional spaces don't; hence why the hole has a volume limit while the bag only has a weight limit.)

Therefore, it seems reasonable to rule that the rope trick will interact with bags of holding in the same way that a portable hole would. If you take a bag of holding into the rope trick, the bag and rope trick (and, presumably, anybody in the rope trick) are sucked into the void and forever lost. If somebody crams you into a bag of holding and you cast rope trick while inside it, then you, the bag, and anyone within 10 feet of the bag get transported to the Astral Plane.

However, your DM may rule things entirely differently.

[Mewtarthio]

Quite simply, you just have to make a Knowledge (arcana) check. The DC varies based on how high-powered your world is, but odds are if you didn't either invent the spell yourself or acquire it from some obscure source (read: if you're able to count on buying the scrolls next time you stop in town), you can make it. On your inevitable success, the DM elucidates that weird sentence for you, which can be anything he wishes, and can even involve random tables if he so desires.

In short: Ask the DM.

[Blasterfire]

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20051101a

They "recommend you ignore [that] reference"

[Belkarseviltwin]

One alternative if your DM says it is dangerous: put all your extradimensional spaces in a (mundane) sack. Tie the sack to the rope just below the top. Pull up the rope from below the sack, so you end up with the sack hanging outside your extradimensional space by a loop of rope. You're visible, but still safe.


Alternatively, you could just get scrolls of Secure Shelter. Again, no longer invisible, but you're still safe from wandering monsters that aren't big enough to tear down the cottage.

[kamikasei]

(The difference, I think, is that extradimensional spaces have volume while nondimensional spaces don't; hence why the hole has a volume limit while the bag only has a weight limit.)

Bags of Holding do have a volume limit.

[sikyon]

I think it's reasonable that if you just turn it inside out, it should be fine.

[Dausuul]

Bags of Holding do have a volume limit.

You're right, my mistake--it has a volume limit, just not fixed dimensions.

[Kizara]

Just ban Rope Trick, its a silly spell anyways. Have your PC invest in spot/listen and take turns watching.

Don't cheapen the danger of adventuring and the threats that you might face by offering a cheap 'get out of trouble free' card in the form of Rope Trick.

IMO it makes the top ten 'why arcanists are lame' list.

[NerfTW]

I think a better question would be why your group set up camp in an area with so many wandering monsters.

If your DM is hitting you with multiple random encounters every night, and not allowing you to rest up, the problem is either your DM is an ass, or they're trying to tell you something about your choice of camp location.

I'd say just hide the bags of holding in a tree, bush, under some rocks, but then you wonder why your characters aren't simply hiding in the same areas.


But I'm biased against using magic for mundane tasks, so that's just my opinion.

[Yrnes]

On the contrary, camp situations like that are few and far between. There's enough rings of sustenance between us we only rest for the full 8 hours for the casters anyway, and usually we get out unscathed. This particular encounter was forced upon us we simply had no convenient options at the time and we needed to rest long enough for a "once daily" item to refresh its use.

It was just the situation that made me think of the spell rope trick, which lead to my further investigation.