Using the spell Blink to travel to the Ethereal Plane to confront a Night Hag would it be possible to Grapple the Hag and return it to the Material Plane when the Blink 'return action'spell fires off?
So looking at it i would say no as it states "you vanish" and "you return" and the Hag is not part of you. If i really want to get into the weeds I could say its only you and not your stuff.... but then no one would ever use the spell. So under the idea of keeping things simple you counts as your person and belonging in my eyes. Also if thats allowed why cant the reverse be allowed....
Player grabs on you BBEG and blinks to drop the BBEG in the Ethereal plane. Party starts to loot boss room and leaves when the blinked player comes back. Also what a player can do a monster/NPC can do....... So this get dangerous fast and as a DM i would say no its only you that goes and comes back.
So looking at it i would say no as it states "you vanish" and "you return" and the Hag is not part of you. If i really want to get into the weeds I could say its only you and not your stuff.... but then no one would ever use the spell. So under the idea of keeping things simple you counts as your person and belonging in my eyes. Also if thats allowed why cant the reverse be allowed....
Player grabs on you BBEG and blinks to drop the BBEG in the Ethereal plane. Party starts to loot boss room and leaves when the blinked player comes back. Also what a player can do a monster/NPC can do....... So this get dangerous fast and as a DM i would say no its only you that goes and comes back.
This is my grain of salt take it or leave it.
That is a very, very good point, one I had not considered. Based on this even stealing something from the Hag (ie, Heartstone) I may not allow.
Blink is a purely defensive spell; you are only ever on the Ethereal Plane between your turns with it, so you have almost no way to interact with anything else during that time.
Blink is a purely defensive spell; you are only ever on the Ethereal Plane between your turns with it, so you have almost no way to interact with anything else during that time.
Unless there's something special on the Ethereal Plane. Like a night hag.
Etherealness. The hag magically enters the Ethereal Plane from the Material Plane, or vice versa.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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It doesn’t matter from the player’s end; you make the roll at the end of your turn, and the effect lasts until the beginning of the next. You can’t take any actions unless you Ready, and since there’s a random element to Blink it’s 50-50 you waste the action.
It doesn’t matter from the player’s end; you make the roll at the end of your turn, and the effect lasts until the beginning of the next. You can’t take any actions unless you Ready, and since there’s a random element to Blink it’s 50-50 you waste the action.
I'd say if it's the only method you have to make your foe hittable, those odds are pretty good.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
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I mean, it takes an action for the hag to do that and they can’t make normal attacks like that, so it’s basically a stalemate in terms of a simple fight.
Spells that let you magically travel, such as teleport or plane shift, don't include other creature with you unless noted otherwise.
You are only in the Ethereal Plane between the end of your turn and start of your next while under the effect of a Blink spell. Effects that take place at the start of your turn occur before you do anything else on it so using actions while you're there is impossible.
A Night Hag usually leave the Ethereal Plane and enter the Material Plane when using the Etherealness action.
While it'd be possible to grapple a Night Hag during a Blink on the Ethereal Plane between any of your turn as a reaction via the Ready action, but you'd still return alone to the Material Plane because the spell doesn't let you travel with other creatures.
While it'd be possible to grapple a Night Hag during a Blink on the Ethereal Plane between any of your turn as a reaction via the Ready action, but you'd still return alone to the Material Plane because the spell doesn't let you travel with other creatures.
I agree. But still, blinking into the ethereal plane, grabbing somebody, and then pulling them back into the physical world all in the span of a few seconds is a pretty cool image.
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Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny. Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
No. Unfortunately, blink won't take another creature with the caster.
However, the caster of blink could use held actions while ethereal to attack or cast spells at the hag in the ethereal plane. If they have enough spell slots they could cast lightning bolt or fireball at the hag every time they pop back to the ethereal plane.
Another interesting approach might be to cast banishment on the hag since it would force the hag out of the ethereal plane. Since they aren't native to the ethereal plane then they would end up on their home plane - which for some hags might be the prime material (though the lower planes are also likely) given how new hags are created. Lots of DM rulings involved in that one though and I'm not sure Banishment would keep them out of the Ethereal plane for the duration of concentration (DM call on that one).
Banished creatures are incapacitated, so they can't pop back for the duration. However, a Night Hag has Plane Shift, so it's still only a temporary fix.
Blink is a purely defensive spell; you are only ever on the Ethereal Plane between your turns with it, so you have almost no way to interact with anything else during that time.
You could sort of do it if you were to Ready an improvised action (to trigger if you enter the ethereal plane), and your DM is very generous in allowing you to both Grapple the hag and then stuff her into a bag of holding as the improvised action so she returns within the bag to the material plane…
But yeah, in RAW I think by default it's a "no", it's not what the spell is intended for, and there's no real way mechanically to make it work as intended purely in rules as written.
If it's the only idea the players have for dealing with the hag (and it isn't critical to the story that the hag remains unreachable) then I'd tend to be very lenient with this as a DM, as it's a creative use of a spell that fits the narrative idea quite well.
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Honestly, 5e just needs a "no teleporting/jumping to another plane for X amount of time" spell. It's too hard to pin down anything with Teleport, Plane Shift, or a special action like this; they're just too good as escape buttons. Counterspell can help some, but it only works on actual spells and until late in the game players are gonna have to make a fairly difficult roll to make it stick.
5E has Dimensional Shakles that do the trick but otherwise i agree it's very hard to prevent teleportation or extraplanar tavel and it should be in my opinion as such powerful abilities are relatively rare for creatures to be able to do so, the vast majority do not have access tu such thing.
I mean, I wasn't thinking it just instantly locks them down with no save, but while these abilities aren't super common, it's kinda hard to mentally justify how you can reliably finish off anything with them, since they've got a very easy escape button that pretty completely rules out the possibility of chasing them down in a timely fashion.
Like we say what's good for the goose is good for the gander it's that way for both the characters and monsters at least, which once gotten to such power level is used on a more regular basis by a party than their enemies so it favors them more to not have that many counter-travel methods existing ;)
Point, but it's harder for a whole party to pull off as opposed to a single creature. And enemies get access to high level spells sooner than players, so it's still at least partly something they can do that the party has no reliable counter for in the current arrangement.
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Using the spell Blink to travel to the Ethereal Plane to confront a Night Hag would it be possible to Grapple the Hag and return it to the Material Plane when the Blink 'return action'spell fires off?
So looking at it i would say no as it states "you vanish" and "you return" and the Hag is not part of you. If i really want to get into the weeds I could say its only you and not your stuff.... but then no one would ever use the spell. So under the idea of keeping things simple you counts as your person and belonging in my eyes. Also if thats allowed why cant the reverse be allowed....
Player grabs on you BBEG and blinks to drop the BBEG in the Ethereal plane. Party starts to loot boss room and leaves when the blinked player comes back. Also what a player can do a monster/NPC can do....... So this get dangerous fast and as a DM i would say no its only you that goes and comes back.
This is my grain of salt take it or leave it.
That is a very, very good point, one I had not considered. Based on this even stealing something from the Hag (ie, Heartstone) I may not allow.
Blink is a purely defensive spell; you are only ever on the Ethereal Plane between your turns with it, so you have almost no way to interact with anything else during that time.
Unless there's something special on the Ethereal Plane. Like a night hag.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
It doesn’t matter from the player’s end; you make the roll at the end of your turn, and the effect lasts until the beginning of the next. You can’t take any actions unless you Ready, and since there’s a random element to Blink it’s 50-50 you waste the action.
I'd say if it's the only method you have to make your foe hittable, those odds are pretty good.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
I mean, it takes an action for the hag to do that and they can’t make normal attacks like that, so it’s basically a stalemate in terms of a simple fight.
Spells that let you magically travel, such as teleport or plane shift, don't include other creature with you unless noted otherwise.
You are only in the Ethereal Plane between the end of your turn and start of your next while under the effect of a Blink spell. Effects that take place at the start of your turn occur before you do anything else on it so using actions while you're there is impossible.
A Night Hag usually leave the Ethereal Plane and enter the Material Plane when using the Etherealness action.
While it'd be possible to grapple a Night Hag during a Blink on the Ethereal Plane between any of your turn as a reaction via the Ready action, but you'd still return alone to the Material Plane because the spell doesn't let you travel with other creatures.
I agree. But still, blinking into the ethereal plane, grabbing somebody, and then pulling them back into the physical world all in the span of a few seconds is a pretty cool image.
Look at what you've done. You spoiled it. You have nobody to blame but yourself. Go sit and think about your actions.
Don't be mean. Rudeness is a vicious cycle, and it has to stop somewhere. Exceptions for things that are funny.
Go to the current Competition of the Finest 'Brews! It's a cool place where cool people make cool things.
How I'm posting based on text formatting: Mod Hat Off - Mod Hat Also Off (I'm not a mod)
It's a cool image until characters start to use Blink to bring enemies in the Ethereal Plane and then leave them there ;)
No. Unfortunately, blink won't take another creature with the caster.
However, the caster of blink could use held actions while ethereal to attack or cast spells at the hag in the ethereal plane. If they have enough spell slots they could cast lightning bolt or fireball at the hag every time they pop back to the ethereal plane.
Another interesting approach might be to cast banishment on the hag since it would force the hag out of the ethereal plane. Since they aren't native to the ethereal plane then they would end up on their home plane - which for some hags might be the prime material (though the lower planes are also likely) given how new hags are created. Lots of DM rulings involved in that one though and I'm not sure Banishment would keep them out of the Ethereal plane for the duration of concentration (DM call on that one).
Banished creatures are incapacitated, so they can't pop back for the duration. However, a Night Hag has Plane Shift, so it's still only a temporary fix.
You could sort of do it if you were to Ready an improvised action (to trigger if you enter the ethereal plane), and your DM is very generous in allowing you to both Grapple the hag and then stuff her into a bag of holding as the improvised action so she returns within the bag to the material plane…
But yeah, in RAW I think by default it's a "no", it's not what the spell is intended for, and there's no real way mechanically to make it work as intended purely in rules as written.
If it's the only idea the players have for dealing with the hag (and it isn't critical to the story that the hag remains unreachable) then I'd tend to be very lenient with this as a DM, as it's a creative use of a spell that fits the narrative idea quite well.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Honestly, 5e just needs a "no teleporting/jumping to another plane for X amount of time" spell. It's too hard to pin down anything with Teleport, Plane Shift, or a special action like this; they're just too good as escape buttons. Counterspell can help some, but it only works on actual spells and until late in the game players are gonna have to make a fairly difficult roll to make it stick.
5E has Dimensional Shakles that do the trick but otherwise i agree it's very hard to prevent teleportation or extraplanar tavel and it should be in my opinion as such powerful abilities are relatively rare for creatures to be able to do so, the vast majority do not have access tu such thing.
I mean, I wasn't thinking it just instantly locks them down with no save, but while these abilities aren't super common, it's kinda hard to mentally justify how you can reliably finish off anything with them, since they've got a very easy escape button that pretty completely rules out the possibility of chasing them down in a timely fashion.
Like we say what's good for the goose is good for the gander it's that way for both the characters and monsters at least, which once gotten to such power level is used on a more regular basis by a party than their enemies so it favors them more to not have that many counter-travel methods existing ;)
Point, but it's harder for a whole party to pull off as opposed to a single creature. And enemies get access to high level spells sooner than players, so it's still at least partly something they can do that the party has no reliable counter for in the current arrangement.