Everybody loves the immovable rod...

[serpent615]

I’ve seen these before, but it's been a while, so I wanted to bring back an old favorite...

What are some of the best uses for an Immovable Rod you guys have seen?

I just had a character have his returned to him (long story, essentially they were inside of him, but I was reincarnated with a new body), and want to do something cool with them.

[tahu88810]

You could use it to climb up really high, cast featherfall, then jump down on an enemy and pin them (the opponent) beneath your sword...or something...
Just a thought...

[Xefas]

I think my favorite use that I've heard of was a Lich taking his phylactery, blindfolding himself, flying to a random location in a random portion of the sky, and setting it amidst a bunch of Immovable Rods set into a box shape. Then, he'd cast a Permanency-Invisibility combo on all of them (and the Phylactery) and finally Permanency-Magic Aura on all of them and the Phylactery to make them undetectable.

[[Insert Neat Username Here]]

Surgically implanting it in somebody could be interesting . . .

introducing the immovable leg.

[Jannex]

I had an amusing use for an Immovable Rod in the campaign I was playing in this past semester. I was playing a rogue with Martial Study: Shadow Jaunt. In the penultimate battle of the campaign, the BBEG started flying up, hovering about thirty feet above the ground. I downed a potion of Greater Invisibility, pulled out my Immovable Rod, and used Shadow Jaunt to teleport up and behind the BBEG, activating the Rod to keep me in the air. I had a high enough Tumble check that I could easily have soaked the fall after the fight. So I was hanging invisibly in the air right behind the bad guy, ready to sneak attack the living crap out of him on my next turn.

...If the party psion hadn't one-shotted him before I get my next action. Because psionics are "balanced."

[Xefas]

...If the party psion hadn't one-shotted him before I get my next action. Because psionics are "balanced."

If it makes you feel any better, if he'd have been a wizard, you probably wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to take your first action.

[Kurald Galain]

Naming it Employee of the Month.

[Solo]

Swapping it with the Paladin's wooden stick.

Use latex gloves and wash your hands afterwards.

[Freelance Henchman]

Naming it Employee of the Month.

In Rod We Trust.

[The Faceless]

Enabling X-men references. "Nothing moves The Rod!"

Enabling crude innuendo (Though not as much as the rod of lordly might)

Destroying ships (Activate one in the path of a galleon and watch as it punches a hole through the hull from bow to stern)

Slowing falls

Doing those flips and loops on bars that The Prince of Persia does, only now you bring your own bar with you, allowing infinite uses of it

Handy hammock suspension

[SilverClawShift]

We had a party member cross a huge canyon by going "hand over hand" with two immovable rods. He had a chain attached to his waist, secured it at the other end, and the rest of us just crawled across the chain.

[Reel On, Love]

...If the party psion hadn't one-shotted him before I get my next action. Because psionics are "balanced."

What makes you say they aren't? Either the BBEG failed a save (spellcasters can force saves, too--and they're better at it) or got killed by damage (in that case, the DM made a BBEG with irresponsibly few hit points--and both spellcasters and melee characters can do lots of damage).

[Enlong]

Surgically implanting it in somebody could be interesting . . .

introducing the immovable leg.

No, it's stuck in three-dimensional space. If it's activated in someone's leg, they fiind themselves attatched to a stick that cannot move. Now, if they were falling and could hold onto the rod, then yeah, it'd make a nice way to stop in the air.

Now that I just realized that: elaborate setup where you have a bunch of Rods sewn into your clothes, like a weird harness. If you fall from a great height, you pull a rope you had rigged to activate the rods, and BLAMMO! You're stopped in midair with only slight major bruising everywhere.

Another one: If you get swallowed whole by something that moves fast (say, a Roc or something) wait untill it starts moving really fast, and then activate a rod. OUCH!

Then, of course, there is the "use 2 rods to climb to any height" trick, but I'd add something more to that. Sovereign Glue 2 metal gauntlets to the Rods so that the thumb can still move and reach the button. Strap yourself in tight to the gauntlets, and you've got a perfect climbing kit.

[Iudex Fatarum]

my personal favorite is casting invisibility on a rod in the middle of a doorway at neck hight, or at knee hight, get the bad guys to chase my character and have him jump them, now all the bad guys are prone. if you do it right you might not even need the invisibility. after all they are distracted by the character.

[triforcel]

I think my favorite use that I've heard of was a Lich taking his phylactery, blindfolding himself, flying to a random location in a random portion of the sky, and setting it amidst a bunch of Immovable Rods set into a box shape. Then, he'd cast a Permanency-Invisibility combo on all of them (and the Phylactery) and finally Permanency-Magic Aura on all of them and the Phylactery to make them undetectable.

That does sound like fun, until the Lich is destroyed. Then he regenerates next to his phylactery. Then he falls and takes massive falling damage. Then he regenerates next to his phylactery. Granted that isn't necessarily how it happens in your campaign, but that's always how I've seen it play out.

Slightly more on topic, I like to use them to impede the movement of enemies. Just place a few around a key area of the persons body, such as his wrists or even better his neck if he can't reach it with his hands, and he's pretty much stuck and you're free to do whatever it is you need to do.

[Xefas]

That does sound like fun, until the Lich is destroyed. Then he regenerates next to his phylactery. Then he falls and takes massive falling damage. Then he regenerates next to his phylactery. Granted that isn't necessarily how it happens in your campaign, but that's always how I've seen it play out.

Slightly more on topic, I like to use them to impede the movement of enemies. Just place a few around a key area of the persons body, such as his wrists or even better his neck if he can't reach it with his hands, and he's pretty much stuck and you're free to do whatever it is you need to do.

I've never actually done/had it used in one of my campaigns, only saw it discussed during one of the "I'm playing a Lich. How do I make sure there's absolutely no way a DM could conceivably destroy my Phylactery without looking like a totally unreasonable prick in front of everyone?" threads that appear on the Wizards forum boards from time to time.

Though, I think I would rule that, since the body must be regenerated on to something, he'd be brought back sitting on the box of rods (Forgot they also said to hide a spare spellbook up under the Phylactery so one could adequately prepare to go seek vengeance and reclaim their old one). But, that's assuming you use the same Oots-style Lich regeneration I do.

One finger at a time...

[Hasivel]

That does sound like fun, until the Lich is destroyed. Then he regenerates next to his phylactery. Then he falls and takes massive falling damage. Then he regenerates next to his phylactery. Granted that isn't necessarily how it happens in your campaign, but that's always how I've seen it play out.

The Lich needs feather fall, then.

In addition to making a ladder, two immovable rods with a hammock between them can make a safe(r) spot to sleep when your DM has banned rope trick and magnificent mansion. It can make a decent place to rest when you're out of range of most weapons.
It's not foolproof and I wouldn't do it without the aforementioned feather fall or ring of the same, however.

[Citizen Joe]

One issue I've had with the immovable rod is what is the frame of reference for its immovability. I typically rule that it is based on the object with the largest gravitational effect. Usually that means the planet that you're on. However, for those that use Spelljammer, once outside the range of a planet, it would anchor to your ship instead (at least until you get within range of a larger mass).

Anyway, an immovable rod can be moved, slowly, with difficulty so trying to stop a very large object isn't completely valid... although it would definitely hinder it.

[malagigi]

Yes, it would generally suck to put an immovable rod in place, and shortly there after have it grind into the crust of the planet until either broke or ground through to magma. On the other hand, it's one way to dig a well and you'd shortly have hot water for tea.

Alternatively, it would wander off into the sky... possibly to hit the planet in a little less than a year (depending on star drift).

...

What game are we playing again?

[loopy]

I've got an immovable rod... In my PANTS!

...

I went to see the doctor about it, the prognosis isn't good.

[Fuzzy_Juan]

most amusing use of immovable rod...

character is flying and being chased by a dragon that is catching up and is going to eat me...pull out immovable rod, press button and let go as it gets close and opens it's mouth...laugh as DM tries to picture what we all know is going to happen...

over the lips and past the gums look out stomach...

[Galathir]

One of my friends was in a campaign where there was a deep ravine in the middle of a path. The party was being chased by a group of evil bad guys. The PCs jumped across the ravine then left an invisible immovable rod over it, neck height. Sure enough, the first guy took a running jump across and got clotheslined and dropped down about 10d6 worth of damage. The next guy did the same thing before the others caught on.

[serpent615]

Surgically implanting it in somebody could be interesting . . .

introducing the immovable leg.

i was waiting for that comment to come up...they WERE implanted inside me, but altered so that as long as i touched a surface, I was totally immovable...I was then surrounded by a spionic barrior that could absorb and return physical damage up to double my concentration check.

[kjones]

My players use them all the freaking time. I'm constantly split between being impressed at their creativity and being really freaking annoyed by having all my devious plans ruined by their ingenuity. The most recent was when they used it to stop a crushing ceiling trap... oh, immovable rods, is there anything you can't do?

[Reinboom]

I rather enjoyed the homebrewed Immovable Arrow.

I could also imagine, with correct application of immovable rods and sovereign's glue, one could make a floating city.

@v
Ok, a lot of immovable rods.

Anybody know the maximum weight of a standard sized floating city?

[Citizen Joe]

Immovable Rod

This rod is a flat iron bar with a small button on one end. When the button is pushed (a move action), the rod does not move from where it is, even if staying in place defies gravity. Thus, the owner can lift or place the rod wherever he wishes, push the button, and let go. Several immovable rods can even make a ladder when used together (although only two are needed). An immovable rod can support up to 8,000 pounds before falling to the ground. If a creature pushes against an immovable rod, it must make a DC 30 Strength check to move the rod up to 10 feet in a single round.

A lot of people seem to be forgetting these limitations... a crushing ceiling trap weighs more than 4 tons and thus it would likely just kill the rod.

[Adumbration]

Player: "Is Immovable Rod immovable in relation to the planet or the universe?"
DM: "... Wait, what? ... Do I want to know?"

[Ditto]

We were on a train ('lightning rail'), with a secured back compartment that I (gnome sorcerer) and another PC both wanted to get into for separate reasons. Guy marches up to the guard and asks politely to be let in. He vaguely explains there's something of interest back there, possibly dangerous. (Neither of us have any idea of what it actually is.) My gnome casts Dancing Lights and starts is swirling about his hands, which prompts the guard to draw his gun and ask Guy to stop casting. Guy is not a caster, and very confused. My gnome (somehow) slinks past the two of them on the gangplank between the train cars and is about to walk into the rear. Unforunately, Guy spots me and holds me dangling in midair. "A-ha!" he says. "Nefarious bad-doings are afoot!"

Punchline: My gnome pulls out an Immovable Rod and thwip! is pulled off the side of the train, out of Guy's grasp. Meanwhile, all the guard saw was 'Gnome gone, Guy still has glowing flashy hands'. "Sir! You just VAPORIZED that GNOME!" It got messy for him then.

Luckily, I made the Strength check I needed to grab onto the rear of the moving train when I disengaged the rod a few seconds later.

[Icewalker]

Surgically implanting it in somebody could be interesting . . .

introducing the immovable leg.

Actually, the biggest use I've ever considered for them is some kind of super assassin, implanting one in each fore-arm, so he can climb through the air.

[Shraik]

My idea was Put them in a Warforged's Compartments. Leave 'em in there so it is now the immovable warforged.