Here's the reason for the glyph of warding question:
I play a wizard in a game that takes place primarily on a ship. In game, we recently lost a battle PRETTY BAD and lost a party member and our characters were a bit down as it was the second death in the story. So my wizard is actively searching for ways to guarantee victory. I had the idea of setting up glyphs of warding around the ship stocked with a buff spell (thinking haste) and setting their trigger to a password (knowing my wizard, I'd do something like "F*** Yeah!") so that if we ever get boarded, our party just stands on their assigned glyphs and says the password giving free buffs to everyone.
I know this sounds weird at first, but its a pretty heavy set up, each casting of GoW takes 200GP of components, so to set it up for the party like I'm describing would take 1000 GP (5 PC's) for a ONE TIME use. and we're in a pretty low money setting (we'd have to pool just to get that). But I really feel like it would be a cool scene to have our ship boarded and be all like "Not this time!" *BAM EVERYONE HASTED!* lol
I know I'd allow it in MY campaign. A SINGLE super-buffed encounter that took a lot of resources to prepare I'd hardly consider game breaking. What do you guys think??
I know you said not to get physicsy, but an important thing to point out is that the world is moving constantly and the rod is moving with it. Therefore, I would argue that it would move with the train just like it does with the world..
And the world spins constantly, moves constantly within the solar system, which moves within the galaxy, etc. You might as well roll a random direction in space and have the rod shoot off at near light speed.
The clear intent of the immovable rod is that it remains stationary relative to the planet. Ask yourself this - If the baddy was pinned to the front of the train, the rod pressed (outside the train) and then the train started moving, what would the rod do?
I would stop and consider someone stood in a position which most would regard as "stationary", IE on the floor, outside, not on a boat or vehicle or landslide or even a glacier. Then I would say "if this guy looks at the rod, will it be moving?" looking in through a train window, he would see the rod move past, so it stands to reason that he would consider the rod to be moving. As the rod cannot move, it needs to stop moving - inflicting the decapitation and general carnage everyone else is saying about.
If the rod moves with the train, then what of this scenario - what if the train is dismantled? what if the carriage were blown up with a fireball, leaving it just a set of running gear with flaming wreckage on top - does the rod keep following it? what if the carriage splits onto 2 tracks (multi track drifting!) and then breaks in half, which side does it follow?
easier to stick with the sentiment of the thing and have the rod stop whilst the train keeps going, methinks.
I know I'd allow it in MY campaign. A SINGLE super-buffed encounter that took a lot of resources to prepare I'd hardly consider game breaking. What do you guys think??
Honestly, the fact that glyph of warding can be used for buffs is probably why it's restricted from movement; the movement restriction makes it really dysfunctional for its intended purpose of magical traps (just to be safe, let's move this chest ten feet before opening it...)
I know I'd allow it in MY campaign. A SINGLE super-buffed encounter that took a lot of resources to prepare I'd hardly consider game breaking. What do you guys think??
Honestly, the fact that glyph of warding can be used for buffs is probably why it's restricted from movement; the movement restriction makes it really dysfunctional for its intended purpose of magical traps (just to be safe, let's move this chest ten feet before opening it...)
I mean it can and it can't be used for buffs. Personally Idk if I would allow the above mentioned password protected activation because that is the opposite of what is RAW. The glyph can buff, but that depends on if and how your DM would allow the "Characteristic" clause of the GoW spell to be used. From the written part of what and how it can activate, it is very clear this is meant 90% of the time as a trap, and in very edge cases a buff in the pocket so to speak.
I mean it can and it can't be used for buffs. Personally Idk if I would allow the above mentioned password protected activation because that is the opposite of what is RAW. The glyph can buff, but that depends on if and how your DM would allow the "Characteristic" clause of the GoW spell to be used. From the written part of what and how it can activate, it is very clear this is meant 90% of the time as a trap, and in very edge cases a buff in the pocket so to speak.
Its intended purpose is as a trap, but if it was portable people would just carry around scrolls with runes where when you read the runes it casts a spell on you.
I know I'd allow it in MY campaign. A SINGLE super-buffed encounter that took a lot of resources to prepare I'd hardly consider game breaking. What do you guys think??
Honestly, the fact that glyph of warding can be used for buffs is probably why it's restricted from movement; the movement restriction makes it really dysfunctional for its intended purpose of magical traps (just to be safe, let's move this chest ten feet before opening it...)
I mean it can and it can't be used for buffs. Personally Idk if I would allow the above mentioned password protected activation because that is the opposite of what is RAW. The glyph can buff, but that depends on if and how your DM would allow the "Characteristic" clause of the GoW spell to be used. From the written part of what and how it can activate, it is very clear this is meant 90% of the time as a trap, and in very edge cases a buff in the pocket so to speak.
I thought the same, but looking at the wording again
You can further refine the trigger so the spell activates only under certain circumstances or according to physical characteristics (such as height or weight), creature kind (for example, the ward could be set to affect aberrations or drow), or alignment.
"Certain circumstances" are not defined at all, and are presented as an alternative to the stuff after 'or.' It seems wide open considering the other customizations listed.
I know I'd allow it in MY campaign. A SINGLE super-buffed encounter that took a lot of resources to prepare I'd hardly consider game breaking. What do you guys think??
Honestly, the fact that glyph of warding can be used for buffs is probably why it's restricted from movement; the movement restriction makes it really dysfunctional for its intended purpose of magical traps (just to be safe, let's move this chest ten feet before opening it...)
I mean it can and it can't be used for buffs. Personally Idk if I would allow the above mentioned password protected activation because that is the opposite of what is RAW. The glyph can buff, but that depends on if and how your DM would allow the "Characteristic" clause of the GoW spell to be used. From the written part of what and how it can activate, it is very clear this is meant 90% of the time as a trap, and in very edge cases a buff in the pocket so to speak.
I thought the same, but looking at the wording again
You can further refine the trigger so the spell activates only under certain circumstances or according to physical characteristics (such as height or weight), creature kind (for example, the ward could be set to affect aberrations or drow), or alignment.
"Certain circumstances" are not defined at all, and are presented as an alternative to the stuff after 'or.' It seems wide open considering the other customizations listed.
see but the part you cut out from that is what makes me think what I said. It specifically calls out using passwords to prevent the glyph from triggering. And I also said that GoW is very DM dependent due to the exact clause you brought up.
I gave the password example as just something fun, (shouting "flame on" before getting hasted lol) But the"certain circumstances" could easily be "When Joe the barbarian steps on the glyph". I just thought the catchphrase would be more fun lol
I gave the password example as just something fun, (shouting "flame on" before getting hasted lol) But the "certain circumstances" could easily be "When Joe the barbarian steps on the glyph". I just thought the catchphrase would be more fun lol
MY point being is that "Certain Circumstances" is very vague and relies on DM adjudication. Looking at examples in the spell, it is not a "So specific down to the exact numbered fly that moves across it with their left wing upwards." It is more of a "When a humanoid with heavy armor steps on it"
It’s equivalent to a small rod moving at 30 mph hitting you in the neck while you’re pinned against the back wall of the train car. One thing is pretty definitely going to happen. The back wall of the train car will be smashed and you’re going through it. Could you survive that? Depends how sturdy the train’s construction is. If it’s steel, no. If it’s wood, maybe I’d allow a high DC Constitution check for the character to survive. But it’s really no problem if the character instantly dies with no save. If you can get unfettered access to someone’s throat, you can kill them with a dagger. The damage is no longer d4, even 2d4 with auto-crit. It’s automatically double their hp instant death, because hp is an abstraction, and doesn’t cover every scenario.
But there’s no reason why you should automatically be able to position the immovable rod against the target’s throat, unless they are totally immobilized. Normally, they could try to dodge or block. I would potentially allow it to be treated as a big-die bludgeoning damage attack. You still have to roll an attack roll to see if you hit at all or hit the button as they dodge out of the way and the rod just punctures a rod-shaped hole in the back wall of the train car. Or you hit, but it’s not instant death because it just takes out their finger or shatters their collarbone.
I know you said not to get physicsy, but an important thing to point out is that the world is moving constantly and the rod is moving with it. Therefore, I would argue that it would move with the train just like it does with the world..
Nah. By that logic you could say it moves with whatever or whoever is carrying it; it's not immovable at all.
I don't think most D&D worlds are worlds that spin and orbit a star. They're more like the geocentric Ptolemaic model. The earth stands still and the sun and planets orbit it. There is no need for relativity in such a world. There is such a thing as an absolutely stationary reference frame. That is the one in which the rod is stationary and the train is moving.
Even if you have a rotating earth, what you might rule is that the meaning of immovable is that it stays stationary relative to the largest nearby mass. In this case the earth is much more massive than the train.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Here's the reason for the glyph of warding question:
I play a wizard in a game that takes place primarily on a ship. In game, we recently lost a battle PRETTY BAD and lost a party member and our characters were a bit down as it was the second death in the story. So my wizard is actively searching for ways to guarantee victory. I had the idea of setting up glyphs of warding around the ship stocked with a buff spell (thinking haste) and setting their trigger to a password (knowing my wizard, I'd do something like "F*** Yeah!") so that if we ever get boarded, our party just stands on their assigned glyphs and says the password giving free buffs to everyone.
I know this sounds weird at first, but its a pretty heavy set up, each casting of GoW takes 200GP of components, so to set it up for the party like I'm describing would take 1000 GP (5 PC's) for a ONE TIME use. and we're in a pretty low money setting (we'd have to pool just to get that). But I really feel like it would be a cool scene to have our ship boarded and be all like "Not this time!" *BAM EVERYONE HASTED!* lol
I know I'd allow it in MY campaign. A SINGLE super-buffed encounter that took a lot of resources to prepare I'd hardly consider game breaking. What do you guys think??
And the world spins constantly, moves constantly within the solar system, which moves within the galaxy, etc. You might as well roll a random direction in space and have the rod shoot off at near light speed.
The clear intent of the immovable rod is that it remains stationary relative to the planet. Ask yourself this - If the baddy was pinned to the front of the train, the rod pressed (outside the train) and then the train started moving, what would the rod do?
I would stop and consider someone stood in a position which most would regard as "stationary", IE on the floor, outside, not on a boat or vehicle or landslide or even a glacier. Then I would say "if this guy looks at the rod, will it be moving?" looking in through a train window, he would see the rod move past, so it stands to reason that he would consider the rod to be moving. As the rod cannot move, it needs to stop moving - inflicting the decapitation and general carnage everyone else is saying about.
If the rod moves with the train, then what of this scenario - what if the train is dismantled? what if the carriage were blown up with a fireball, leaving it just a set of running gear with flaming wreckage on top - does the rod keep following it? what if the carriage splits onto 2 tracks (multi track drifting!) and then breaks in half, which side does it follow?
easier to stick with the sentiment of the thing and have the rod stop whilst the train keeps going, methinks.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!
Honestly, the fact that glyph of warding can be used for buffs is probably why it's restricted from movement; the movement restriction makes it really dysfunctional for its intended purpose of magical traps (just to be safe, let's move this chest ten feet before opening it...)
I mean it can and it can't be used for buffs. Personally Idk if I would allow the above mentioned password protected activation because that is the opposite of what is RAW. The glyph can buff, but that depends on if and how your DM would allow the "Characteristic" clause of the GoW spell to be used. From the written part of what and how it can activate, it is very clear this is meant 90% of the time as a trap, and in very edge cases a buff in the pocket so to speak.
Its intended purpose is as a trap, but if it was portable people would just carry around scrolls with runes where when you read the runes it casts a spell on you.
I thought the same, but looking at the wording again
"Certain circumstances" are not defined at all, and are presented as an alternative to the stuff after 'or.' It seems wide open considering the other customizations listed.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
see but the part you cut out from that is what makes me think what I said. It specifically calls out using passwords to prevent the glyph from triggering. And I also said that GoW is very DM dependent due to the exact clause you brought up.
I gave the password example as just something fun, (shouting "flame on" before getting hasted lol) But the"certain circumstances" could easily be "When Joe the barbarian steps on the glyph". I just thought the catchphrase would be more fun lol
MY point being is that "Certain Circumstances" is very vague and relies on DM adjudication. Looking at examples in the spell, it is not a "So specific down to the exact numbered fly that moves across it with their left wing upwards." It is more of a "When a humanoid with heavy armor steps on it"
It’s equivalent to a small rod moving at 30 mph hitting you in the neck while you’re pinned against the back wall of the train car. One thing is pretty definitely going to happen. The back wall of the train car will be smashed and you’re going through it. Could you survive that? Depends how sturdy the train’s construction is. If it’s steel, no. If it’s wood, maybe I’d allow a high DC Constitution check for the character to survive. But it’s really no problem if the character instantly dies with no save. If you can get unfettered access to someone’s throat, you can kill them with a dagger. The damage is no longer d4, even 2d4 with auto-crit. It’s automatically double their hp instant death, because hp is an abstraction, and doesn’t cover every scenario.
But there’s no reason why you should automatically be able to position the immovable rod against the target’s throat, unless they are totally immobilized. Normally, they could try to dodge or block. I would potentially allow it to be treated as a big-die bludgeoning damage attack. You still have to roll an attack roll to see if you hit at all or hit the button as they dodge out of the way and the rod just punctures a rod-shaped hole in the back wall of the train car. Or you hit, but it’s not instant death because it just takes out their finger or shatters their collarbone.
Nah. By that logic you could say it moves with whatever or whoever is carrying it; it's not immovable at all.
I don't think most D&D worlds are worlds that spin and orbit a star. They're more like the geocentric Ptolemaic model. The earth stands still and the sun and planets orbit it. There is no need for relativity in such a world. There is such a thing as an absolutely stationary reference frame. That is the one in which the rod is stationary and the train is moving.
Even if you have a rotating earth, what you might rule is that the meaning of immovable is that it stays stationary relative to the largest nearby mass. In this case the earth is much more massive than the train.