Post/Author/DateTime	Post
bohemiancaliboi 12-19-07, 12:41 PM	Hello guys, In a bit of a predicament here. I made a big mistake and over time gave my players a Portable Hole and Boots of Levitation. Now whenever danger arises or there is an area they can't cross, the character with the boots piles the party in the hole and flies. I could just have some catastrophe happen to one of the items, but they worked so hard to get them. I want to somehow to balance this imbalance in a way that doesn't show my mistake. Any suggestions??
lentax 12-19-07, 01:10 PM	Perhaps, the use of a Greater Illusion used as a trap? Or a larger chasm or similar obstacle where they would want to use this technique. The portable hole only has enough air for one medium sized person to breathe for 10 minutes. 4 or five people would thusly deplete the air more quickly. Over a very large chasm, heroes would have to undergo rules for suffocation. Not fancy or anything, but it does let them know that their method of overcoming your traps (ie,the path less traveled) may not work all the time. and used in conjunction with a trap, there may be some very dire consequences to failing to learn the lesson.
CryoSilver 12-19-07, 01:13 PM	Levitate only lets a character move straight up or down; that's not a very effective escape.
DM_Shonuff 12-19-07, 01:32 PM	You could have a conditional effect put onto te boots, (only work underground, only work in the daylight only work carrying x ammt of other magic items(making the port hole one too many). You would have them lose the boots. then give them another non transportation magic item. Boots of varied tracks, Boots of elvenkind etc. - no striding and springing! Easy way.. have them find some BIG magic items. 8 foot tall magical statue, touch 1/day it casts cure light wounds. Of course it fits in the hole. Oops..now no more room for PCs :) have them find a set of ornately carved magical chairs that confer a +4 cha bonus to those who sit in them (chairs of Diplomatic Charisma??) no one would give those up. stack 4 of them in a port hole..NO ROOM FOR PCs. The main fix i'm getting at. fill their portable hole. Other way to do it next time you have an area they are going to try the escape plan they have been doing...make the area "magic dead". do this a couple times, the players get the idea, that you don't want them used that way.
CryoSilver 12-19-07, 01:34 PM	Two suggestions: Enforce the rules of Levitation: straight up or down motion only Enforce the air limit in the Portable Hole: 10 minutes of air for one Medium creature means 2:30 of air for four.
hitorijun 12-19-07, 01:42 PM	Question: would an anti-magic feild negate the effect of the boots?
BalogTheFierce 12-19-07, 01:48 PM	Sure would suck for the one poor guy levitating to get ambushed while he was using this trick. He'd have to fend off the entire encounter by himself while the rest of the party was trapped in the hole. Gargolyes, birds, harpies, etc. Even goblins, orcs and the like have spears, arrows and slings to hit flying targets. This assumes they aren't underground with low ceilings to begin with. He'd have to end that encounter quick too before the party begins running out of air. They might have to think twice about pulling this trick again after nearly having a TPW because one guy can't hold off an encounter meant for a party. Alternatively they could be crossing a trap/chasm/whatever, half-way across they wander into a dead-magic zone. Oops! The boots shut off and the party is expelled from the hole. Better hope someone has feater fall preped up or some other such, otherwise that sudden stop at the end might sting a bit.
Cifer 12-19-07, 03:21 PM	Alternatively, you could just deal with it. What levels are your PCs? At 5, wizards get the Fly spell. Around 10, it's generally assumed a party will be quite capable of flying if they want to. By the way, what does the portable hole change? A reasonably strong fighter can simply carry the PCs. Another possibility would be moving over the chasm one by one with the boots and having the party wizard get them back via a Tenser's Floating Disk. I know there are often scenes when the DM thinks of a cool puzzle encounter that can be navigated by the PCs with some good ideas - only to have the PCs completely circumvent it with a few spells. That's what I generally consider bad luck. Make notes of the spells your PCs have and take them into account when planning puzzles.
CryoSilver 12-19-07, 03:38 PM	Not bad luck, bad planning. DMs soemtimes assume that PCs are normal people and solve problems like normalpeople, but they don't. It's usually more practical for the fighter to hack through a locked iron door using Power Attack than waste time looking for the key.
rem3 12-19-07, 04:19 PM	Portable holes: Simple solution, give a couple party members bags of holdings. :D On another note, levitation boots are not the only way to abuse a portable hole. If a mage has teleport, and you have a large party, such that he would have to bounce back and forth to teleport everyone. Excess people can jump in the hole, the mage teleports (with a couple of characters to accompany him as guards) then everyone jumps out. Let say you have to transport a vip safely from one area to another. With portable hole, necklace of adaptation and ring of sustenance, you can stuff the VIP in the hole, travel and adventure as you want, then pull him out on arrival at the destination. Of coarse for the ring of sustenance to work, the VIP would have to wear it a couple of weeks prior to transport. And the VIP may be a bit stir crazy after being stuck in a 10x10X10 area for a long time.
toucanbuzz 12-19-07, 04:21 PM	Don't penalize your players for coming up with creative ideas, but do enforce the rules. Going straight up at the slow rate of levitation doesn't seem impressive to me, especially with the foes one should face at the levels you normally get a portable hole. As said before, air will be a big factor. Also, is anyone carrying a Bag of Holding? If so, I'd give 'em a big surprise if they enter the Portable Hole.