Mixed Bag of Holding: D&D Court: Flying Gnomes, Unprompted Crits, and Impromptu Sticks (w/ Zac Oyama)

Listening back to the Reduce spell + Mage Hand case, it’s actually really funny, because Murph and Emily get shrunk down in Dimension 20, Unsleeping City Season 2, and immediately Ally asks if they can mage hand all the little people around, and Brennan shut it down so fast and said the mage hand shrunk too

CommodoreBlue

Important note for the mage hand gnome: cant do this with magic items on you, the hand cant carry them. P significant nerf especially as a campaign progresses

Nathaniel Levy

My argument on the Silence spell and space thing is that its a magic spell and the magic spell doesnt have to abide by physics and it just does what the caster wanted it to do lmao

Sophie nah

Super late on this one, but I'd like to chime in on the "space" thing on the boat. Space is relative to the observer, meaning the person who cast the spell. So when you cast the spell and you're on a boat, your "space" is moving along with the boat.

Alberto Martinez

Snake eyes!

Emily just described inertia without saying inertia

Ethan Landry

If it pleases the court, the language of Mage Hand says "You can use the hand to manipulate an object..." A reduced-size gnome is a tiny creature, not an object, therefore they would not be able to manipulate their own body (that sounded bad).

I don’t think I would agree with every stick being a new improvised weapon because with that logic every short sword would be a new weapon for you and all your previous training with said sword type would be moot

Michael Singer

You guys gotta realize, with the deaf DM. None of them know what sound is even like probably. Assuming they were born deaf, they wouldn't know how to compare vibrations to sound cause they've, theoretically, never heard before

Bulbarat

I used to role CONSTANTLY without asking my DM first. It was a habit of over enthusiasm.

Caoimhe

Thank you! I've had this exact thought regarding Cody and Pendergreens watching the current season of Dimension 20

The way I was thinking of it was with banishment you are changing planes of existence, so it would make sense that you would then reappear in the geo-coordinates when returning to the original plane. So for the car situation you are leaving the car and then reappearing where the car was. With silence you are still in the same area (ship/plane) so the egg argument still works since everyone is still in the same area.

Tyler Board

I would add/modify this to say that in concentrating on the spell, it keeps the inertia/momentum relative to the caster and the SCENE. So if a moving boat/train is the scene, then the spell remains in place.

Rick

I would also posit, re: banishment/silence, that in concentrating on the spell, the caster determines the location. The aarakocra was concentrating on the literal point in space, from which the boat would move away, while the silence user was concentrating on the space above the deck, so the deck anchors the spell.

Katy Tacik

In the case of the flying gnome what about the gear/pack they carry wouldn't that make them over the 80 lb limit so when they are shrunk they will still be to heavy....also artificer gnome riding they homunclus ? Hows that gonna work

Nick Sanzor Roberts

Here to weigh in on the boat problems you guys solve! It's POV vs POR (point of view vs point of reference). Let's take do a car fight example. It is how I argued to my players! Now, if you are on a flatbed (like Emily explained with the car) you are in POV. All movement outside or of the flatbed is neutral to your body. Casting a spell or throwing a punch in your POV would be the same as doing it on the ground. For bird man, the group was fighting on a flat bed, from the casters it would be POV, BUT because he cast it on a moving object it becomes POR. If you throw someone off the flat bed, they land where they were originally thrown from. It would work the same for banishment. If you were on a separate boat and saw him banished then reappear, he wouldn't reappear on the boat but in the spot he was in -as he no longer had the momentum of the boat to keep him moving. Could birdman come back to the boat if he grabbed another boat and sped over there or fly? Yes. But why do that?

In the case of the stick the player might have had the tavern brawler feat. Which gave proficiency with them and let the player use a bonus action grapple.

In the case of the deaf campaign. I think the dm dealt with this wrong. But what they should have done is essentially “this enemy is flavoured to take this action, im just gunna re-flavour this to fit your party” but rule of cool, they rules lawyered you.

Ganonbort

I am a huge fan of both NADDPOD and Dimension 20 and I implore you to make “Big Beardsley Energy” a thing. Also...are Cody (aka Nightangel) and Pendergreens the same person? Do we have a picture of both of them together at the same time...

All Pulp! No Juice!

I think it's about saving prepared spells. Enlarge reduce is great on martial characters getting extra attacks/ grapple/ trip opportunities. Personally I'd allow it! Still costs a level 2 spell. Is very situational and unique to a party with a light PC. I would say the range of motion is better and that makes it more useful but you can only do that if all the other requirements are met. I.e weight. If there was an issue with it just make their armor and item weights count. Or calculate carry weight with their new size.

Mitchell Sigalas

This is the correct answer I came here looking for.

Ryan A Young

Exactly. That's why they created the telekinetic feat

Barbie Pootsky

May it please the court. On the case of the handy gnome, I submit to the justices of the land, sea, and air two spells, Levitate and Fly, into evidence against the charges of undue burden to the DM. Both spells are in the same spell lists you will find Enlarge/Reduce, hereafter referred for its intended use, "Reduce." Mage Hand/Reduce requires a LVL 2 spell, 2 actions, concentration, a 10(with Reduce 80)lb weight limit, and 2 spells known. It allows the user to as an action fly 30ft in any direction. It lasts for 1 minute due to the limitations of Reduce. Levitate requires a LVL 2 spell, 1 action, concentration, a 500lb weight limit, and 1 spell known. It allows the user to move 20ft vertically in a movement action and will generally require an action to exert force to move horizontally. It lasts for 10 minutes. Fly requires a LVL 3 spell, 1 action, concentration, no weight limit, and 1 spell known. It allows the user to move 60ft in any direction as a movement action and can be used whenever the dash action is taken as well. It lasts for 10 minutes. Is Reduce/Mage Hand a shenanigan? Yes. However it is not only akin to reflavoring Levitate, but actively worse in nearly every conceivable way. It may allow you to bypass traps and exploration, but only to the extent that Levitate does. Fly is a further upgrade a level higher that makes this shenanigan almost pointless. I would posit that this shenanigan causes no burden to the DM. While it may look silly, PCs always have the option to do something silly, and this is akin to having the ability to pick your nose. As such this is an unalienable right the player must be allowed.

Does anyone know what the screaming monster is?

JD

My response to the Mage hand flying gnome is: “Are you naked? Cuz your equipment is heavy “

Rachel Bakke

Murph talking about kicking a ten year old's ass at magic the gathering in a mini mall in the early aughts absolutely sent me back in time to my own days of youth

Pamphleteer

The silence on a ship should follow the same rules as casting a lasting area of effect that creates difficult terrain, because the terrain doesn't move to away because the earth is moving through space, so "centered on a point on the map" should account for inertia! So they're not really fixed points in space, they are relatively positions to terrain anchors.

ShezInJapan

BBBBG, big bad blood bound gang

preston packer

I can tell you from childhood romps in the grand forests of Norte Carolinias that each stick is unique and requires different grips and techniques to be wielded properly. My little cousin can tell you that they all hurt equally bad.

John C.

INTERESTING -Emily

Not Another D&D Podcast

oh yes that makes so much sense, rolling a check unprompted as a joke is great -Emily

Not Another D&D Podcast

I would rule against the mage hand gnome because mage hand specifies it can only manipulate objects, which are NOT creatures.

If I was the DM for the second to last case. I would monkey paw the shit out of it. Have the BBEG say something like, “you’re right! I won’t storm the castle today. Let’s head home men!” Skip forward 24 hours, BBEG returns with an even stronger army, “you’re speech was so dumb, I decided to kick your ass twice as hard”

billy nuttall

I do tend yo roll unprompted sometimes! In fairness though, I only do ability rolls unprompted when there are exactly zero stakes in what I’m doing. Like if I’m in charge of making a very normal meal for the party I’d roll unprompted just to see if I make absolute garbage, or I roll insight unprompted to see if I think certain characters might be dating.

Maddy Leaman

Regarding the mage hand gnome BS. Objects and creatures are listed specifically in spells for a reason. Mage hand by the definition Murph read says objects not creatues. I'm as against the gnome as you guys are so trying to help lol

Sean Logue

We occasionally roll unprompted in the main campaign I'm in at the moment, but it's a comedic campaign and the rolls are always for inconsequential shit. Roll to persuade the big bad to give up? Not going to happen. Roll an unprompted nat 20 performance check to have your sad, middle-aged actor man dance to jazz, alone in the square after everyone has gone to sleep, as he whispers the name of his estranged wife? Sure, we'll honour that. Some of the best moments of the campaign have been unprompted rolls, but it's all about tone and timing - and not screwing over the DM.

Quitebadweather

Thank you for edging me and me alone with my Tik Tok question right at the beginning! Can't wait till you post the next court session!

I know it wasnt my question, but I think the deal with the stick might have had to do with monks can get their special fighting bonuses on unarmed attacks, monastery weapons, and improvised weapons. Could be the player is making them stronger by getting an improvised weapon with reach that they can added their monk bonuses. I dont know monks great but I feel in the depths of my mind that monks get some bonus with improvised weapons

There is a reference to a new thing we're doing on D&D Court, so only the short rest. - Murph

Not Another D&D Podcast

Thank you for answering my question! I will continue this argument for an hour with my players. I appreciate the ruling, even if it went against my argument. The monster was a home brew because the main villain was a mad scientist who stitched monsters together to make horrifying creations. Unfortunately, in my creation of the monster, I did not think to make its scream a pep talk. Love to you all from my group xx

Elizabeth

Wait does this mean it has spoilers for tomorrow's episode or just for tomorrow's short rest?

Murph is so kind and unchaoticly structured!

Jeffrey Steck, Lord of the Fjord

If the entire feed dropped today I'd still binge it without feeling overwhelmed 🤷🏻‍♂️

Cute of you to assume we'd be overwhelmed by more Naddpod content. Appreciate the thoughts though.

Murph you're so considerate but i'm definitely going to listen to tomorrow's episode first.

The Plum Satyr

I am 5 min in and cry-laughing.

Jesus wept! Cause as bad as I want to hear this I'm going to be patient and wait for tomorrow's ep to get the jokes.

Canid

May it please the court.

Alfie Wild

Even just reading "Bailiff Jake" has me cracking up 😂

shahshahsbizadv

Papa murph, you spoil us!

Alfie Wild