How the Immovable Rod can DESTROY a D&D Campaign

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The Immovable Rod is an infamous magic item, adored for its creative applications. Today, we dive into the myriad of ways it can be abused to break a game!
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Immovable rod uses, how to use the immovable rod, dnd magic items, best dnd magic items, d&d magic items

[@deck_of_DM_Things]

Moral of the story: Every magic item is as broken as the Dungeon Master allows it to be! Yes, this does get pretty unhinged by the end. But isn’t that the true spirit of D&D? 😅 Let me know your thoughts on all of the above! Cheers.

[@anonymouse2675]

Well, at least it`s not as broken as a Decanter of Endless Water...I have committed war crimes with that thing.

[@jonathanfairchild]

⁠@@anonymouse2675please do tell!

[@grimw5009]

well as someone who knows a fair bit about ships I can tell you a hole that small under the waterline is not that big of a deal on a galleon size ship but the guy who used the rod is probably not getting it back because in addition to the reflexes to grab it he also has to keep the water pressure from turning into a missile when he hits the button. Also a pirate without a ring of water breathing?

[@xDeFModEx]

Coat an immovable rod with sovereign glue, let it get close to setting and push it into the back of a baddie in the vertical position and activate rod. Your very own Saw game. Win or die, you decide.

[@TroySavary]

Last one doesn't work. Rod is immovable in relation to the planet, so it is carried by the planet's rotation at same speed as the terrasque.

[@greymoor9335]

Immovable rod is anchored to the planet as a reference so that last example wouldn't have worked otherwise it'd anchor like that any other time it's used and kill everything around it.

[@golbez1583]

See; there is a single, basic premise made in their logic that completely invalidates their entire argument. Yes, this world is about as large as Earth, but there’s one key difference: this world is flat! That’s why it’s the *plane* of existence? How does that work exactly? Magic; that’s how!

[@jaredgilmore3102]

​@golbez1583 well assuming standard dnd settings such as Forgotten Realms, Toril is a planet like earth and regular physics can be assumed to work unless otherwise stated. (Note: changing physics tends to create other player exploits, a few poor final bosses have lost their lives to creative players with better grasp of Newtonian physics then the DM)

[@jacobwallace2158]

Plus it can never be used for anything else at that point. If the immovable rod uses the universe and not the planet as a reference point, then it could only function as a projectile.

[@darkzim3872]

its better for the GM to let the rod be fixed into a position in 3d space then if you make the planet move and sun move and galaxy move then your never getting the rod back it would leave the orbit of the planet in a few seconds and never be seen again

[@johncallaway7501]

Yeah, if that last example worked, then the exampke with the pirate ship wouldn't have worked. If the lurate ship example worked, then it means the rod locks itself in a position relative to the planet's core, meaning it travels with the planets rotation. If the orbital strategy worked, then the rod would basically be unuseable because it would sanic away every time you pressed the button

[@LamirLakantry]

In a joke oneshot, my players entered the workshop of an insane artificer who'd made tons of humorously useless magic items. One of which was the immovable shield. It had no switch off mode and permanently inconvenience hovered in the middle of the hallway half-blocking one of the main doors.

[@goldenbananas1389]

i might have to steal that idea.

[@LamirLakantry]

@@goldenbananas1389 Go for it. There was also the sword of findel bane. (Good luck finding out what a findel is) The fork of spooning (a fork you can eat soup with) The ring of teleportation (the ring teleports without the wearer) The cloak of invisibility (makes you invisible as long as no one is looking) The boots of blinding speed (once a day doubles your movement for a round but blinds you at the same time. Idea stolen from Morrowind) Clogs of haste (once a turn as an action, click your heals to gain an action)

[@coryzilligen790]

@@LamirLakantry "The cloak of invisibility (makes you invisible as long as no one is looking)" Missed opportunity: You could have had it so that the cloak turns invisible when donned, but not the wearer.

[@LamirLakantry]

@@coryzilligen790 Yeah, though of that, but that's just the ring joke again.

[@TheJohtunnBandit]

One of my players sovereign glued an immovable rod to the inside of their +2 shield

[@jrrthompson1996]

I just like the idea of having two immovable rods and using them as mobile monkey bars/ climbing holds in a heist or infiltration scenario.

[@Sgrunterundt]

Someone athletic and dextrous should be able to do it with just one. Kip, release, jerk upwards, immobilize, repeat.

[@seeranos]

@@Sgrunterundt +1 exhaustion

[@DocPicklez]

pesky 6 second actions

[@MyAramil]

Or adding it to the back of a tower shield. basically an impenetrable shield.

[@tacochaos5127]

I GMd a party trying to escape from the underdark, they polymorphed into giant eagle, flew 55 minutes, planted the rod and tied ropes to suspend themselves long enough to short rest before continuing

[@clinicallyinane8098]

My favorite Immovable Rod invention I've created was Dragon Ripper arrows. Basically, an ImRod with fletching, a good arrowhead, and a pressure switch over the button. You fire it at a flying dragon. Assuming you hit, it penetrates the dragon's wing or underbelly, its flesh activates the rod when it's nearly fully in, and the rod suddenly stops in the air. The dragon then has all of its flying momentum tearing against the rod, gutting it instantly.

[@hoi-polloi1863]

I like it! Of course, if it hits the dragon on the tip of the tail, dragon will be annoyed and the arrow will stay in that spot in the air for the rest of time...

[@Dosbomber]

@@hoi-polloi1863 Somebody'll build a ladder or something.

[@notfeedynotlazy]

See, now THIS is a very humorous abuse of a magic item. I would allow it.

[@nicholaskehler9169]

The best use of an immovable rod is the one for which it was obviously designed but no player ever uses it for. Construction material relativistically locked rebar to be specific. Didn’t you ever wonder how they supported all those wizard towers with their floors separated by open air with unconnected steps forming the stairs between them?

[@notfeedynotlazy]

@@nicholaskehler9169 I like how you think.

[@khornethegrim8258]

With that last example, remember that the planet is also moving through space, not just around its star, but also around its galactic center. If the immovable rod worked the way this player wanted, then each rod would be usable only once before instantly disappearing into the depths of space or being destroyed as it smashes into the planet's surface. Doesn't seem like an item any wizard would bother to make.

[@fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220]

yeah if it is like anchored to some mystic "universal center" then it could just shoot off near the speed of light and make an explosion around 80-100 fat man nukes in force. lol

[@jamesraykenney]

This is d&d, and while the motion of the planet around the Sun would effect the results, depending on the plane of reference of the rod, the stars do not move in relation to each other in the d&d universe. The stars are each surrounded by a crystal sphere that blocks movement out of the local area, unless you have the proper magical items.

[@fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220]

yeah i was going to mention this, what happened to the rod would heavily depend on what plane of existence you were on, since D&D functions on almost vedic-like cosmology, the universe runs by different rules.@@jamesraykenney

[@remixtheidiot5771]

in other words, this magic item if it existed irl would be a flat earther's worst nightmare lol.​@@fnytnqsladcgqlefzcqxlzlcgj9220

[@TheNabcore]

A wizard? No, definitely not. Bored Artificer though. Thats possible

[@davidioanhedges]

The last scenario makes the rod utterly useless as an immovable rod, and so this simply does not happen The rest are just players being inventive and I would allow them to, mostly they would work, sometimes an enemy would be expecting this ...

[@benjaminmckay6983]

100% this. I wanna encourage creativity in my games, not give the impression that a clever solution is "destroying a campaign" or an encounter.

[@Crucio78]

Planets are also moving in space and not just rotating and solar systems are also moving around the centers of their galaxy. So if an immovable rod worked like that then it would either fly off into space or destroy everything in it's way until it hit enough force to deactivate it. In my opinion, the immovable rod is set in place to the perceptual vision of immovable to the person who places it. Other wise it would be called the exploding hand rod as it exploded out of your hand at thousands of miles an hour everytime you pushed the button.

[@davidioanhedges]

@@Crucio78 If in your world Einsteinian relativity works, the first question to ask is, realtive to what? We are moving a 0km/h relative to a small dog sleep in Geneva, why is that less important than a groblank in the city of Melokvant on Kepler22b ...

[@brianvanwyk6817]

That player would’ve died instantly the first time they ever activated the rod

[@alaster555]

@@Crucio78 That is an excellent excuse for this to now work. Alternatively another reasoning for why you wouldn't let it work is that you can declare that the material plane doesn't work the same way the Earth does. Perhaps the Sun in actually a portal to the plane of fire that orbits the planet, or that the god Apollo drives the Sun across the sky.

[@Icalasari]

On the Tarrasque: "You damned well know that's not what the game creators meant by being fixed in space. Try to Rules Lawyer me again and your character is facing an unstatted deity"

[@seeranos]

I like the idea that the rod adopts the frame of reference of the user, so "immovable" simply means it continues with the momentum the player has at a round of 0 movement.

[@GustavSvard]

I'll run towards the ravine holding my immovable rod high and a couple of steps from the edge I activate it and pull myself up holding on to the rod, flying over the ravine and land behind the enemy guards who have not seen me since it is night. DM: the other side of the ravine is 5 feet higher. They might be minions, but they do know the value of high ground. You need to roll to see if you manage to not just smack into the rock face and fall into the waters below.

[@LordOfTheFatties]

@@GustavSvard This is funny, but you might have a slight misunderstanding of "Frame of reference" and "Momentum" means here, lol

[@SpaceDogLaika]

Like thor's hammer, imo, it wouldn't destroy a ship when "activated", it would just stay still as if unaffected by gravity. Thor's hammer didn't blast through the Helicarrier when he used it to stop Hulk in the movies.

[@kelleren4840]

Oooh, I like this.

[@MossyMoht]

@@SpaceDogLaika I mean Thor's Hammer is different to the immovable rod though. Mjolnir can't float in place, and it's more so that it actually just enhances gravity to those "not worthy".

[@OriginalUnjustifier]

I would only ever allow the 'Orbital Strike' Immovable rod, to be a 'cursed' immovable rod, and completely indistinguishable from a 'true' immovable rod (which works on a geo-reference frame) until activated. It would probably be known in-game as the Extremely Movable Rod.

[@TheAgamemnon911]

So, first time it is activated it becomes a supersonic rod, orbiting the planet once every 24 hours on the same course at ground level. I guess that could be rather catastrophic depending on what else it intersects.

[@Gr3nadgr3gory]

​@TheAgamemnon911 no, it flies away because the earth and the sun are both moving quite fast. You'll never see it again.

[@TheAgamemnon911]

@@Gr3nadgr3gory It depends on what frame of reference the rod will attach to. Also, you are not fun.

[@Gr3nadgr3gory]

@TheAgamemnon911 hey, if you're gonna claim any reference frame outside of earth the only one I've accepting is a universal reference frame. It's still gonna do damage to anything along the way.

[@Amigo21189]

@@Gr3nadgr3gory You wouldn't see it again in that situation because you wouldn't see anything again after that incident. I cannot even describe for you how titanic an explosion would result from an object moving through an Earthlike atmosphere at (ballpark figure) Mach 758.

[@spaceCowboy924]

My group is full of a bunch of aerospace engineers and the DM specializes in astrodynamics so when we got the immovable rod we had to choose at that point which reference frame to fix it and then we could not change it later. So you essentially had to choose whether you were going to have a super-weapon or something that would be useful in a number of situations

[@Steelrat1994]

Imagine in addition to the on/off switch it had a suspicios switch between states like: Earth, Sun, Galaxy.

[@donovangunther4538]

I mean, how could anyone resist the option of making their own character the reference frame?

[@theavera9ejoe]

Nice! If I used this item I think I would say the reference point is fixed to the nearest local apparent "ground" and call it there - activate it riding an airship, it stays stationary relative to the airship

[@filipsikora4261]

I had similar idea, accept the I thought it could become immovable in relation to an object you can see at the time of its activation within some distance to prevent locking onto stars or other planets. I think this is great thing, that might even let you save friend from falling, or create carrying handle, or greap to hold onto something. Also great group for DND.

[@coloboquito]

You can make it at rest in the inertial comoving frame of the player at the moment of activation. Although it will drift due to centrifugal force. On the equator of the Earth the acceleration is 0.033 m/s², so it will rise 3 m in about 13s (neglecting coriolis)

[@PizzaMineKing]

6:54 fun fact: pathfinder has a variation of the immovable rod called the "immovable arm" which seems to be made exactly for this purpose. It is, as the name says, a prosthetic arm with an immovable rod worked into it. It even has rules to discover the button!

[@LevantineR1]

I've seen the Immovable Rod used only once, in a Lv20 oneshot. We all had various magic items, and the Monk asked for Two(2) rods. The DM had a short discussion with them in DMs, and allowed it. Ended up merely being the setup for the most unnecessary substitute for a grappling hook there ever was.

[@Sirithil]

Two rods is amazing. You can effectively use them as a ladder by placing one, climbing onto it, placing the next one, climbing onto it, deactivating and replacing the first one, etc.

[@danielwarren7110]

@@Sirithil or if your thumb is very fast one only for the salmon ladder you see in gyms

[@iflifeisaleaf3125]

used as a ladder, then as a platform with two rods side by side. Great high point for ranged attack. :)

[@peterjrgensen2792]

The problem here is more the Rulings of the DM, rather than the Immovable Rod itself.

[@Holo121]

Right?! On the first one that hole isn't going to do jack in any meaningful time frame. For the second.. he can just scoot to the side? Unless you've stabbed it into their body it isn't going to stop them getting out. Maybe make it take an extra 5ft of movement to standup form prone and then difficult terrain in that square until the rod is deactivated. The last one doesn't make any sense or work in anyway so it can just be ignored. I know it's just a fun video but definitely makes me less likely to trust his rules interpretations going forward.

[@blackfang0815]

90% of the time, "This magic item BREAKS your campaigns!" stories are, in fact, stories about stupid and hasty homebrews (especially ones where the player runs the scene, not the DM) breaking your campaign, not the magic item itself.

[@OneFingerYT]

While you are doing math in your head, the Terrasque eats you.

[@totalburnout5424]

In every example the Player defines the physics of the world and not the GM. He self and not the rod is his problem. Neither the ship nor the Tarrasque example should work.

[@dragonkingf3]

​@@Holo121 I mean, with the second one he did say he put all of his weight on it before activating the rod this would mean that it would be pressed into his skin at the very least.

[@jswballz]

I mean, if the player is that antagonistic, use their creativity against them. 😈 DM: "Are you absolutely sure that you want to change how the rod works so it is no longer in the planet's reference frame?" Player: "Yes, absolutely." DM: "And you're standing to the east of the tarrasque during the day?" Player: "Yes, that's what I said." DM: "Okay, if you say so.... As you press the button, your body turns into a fine mist as the Immovable Rod stays put while the planet continues its orbit about the sun at 107,000 kph or approximately 585,000 feet per round, dealing 23,400 d6 damage to your body. Your companions can try to pick up the rod in one year's time."

[@zarthemad8386]

Tarasque event: Player activates the rod only to find himself 10,000 feet in the air before he can release the rod. The planet is moving away from the center of the big bang at that rate. If its on the other side of the planet, the player now has lost a hand/arm/foot due to the rod cutting through them as it impacts with the planet.

[@CidVeldoril]

Creativity by a player just means that the DM did not consider that. "Using their creativity against them" is just lazy and makes the DM a tyrannic little bitch.

[@austinlange3154]

Even more: it's bold to assume that our sun is at the center of the universe. It actually deals an unknowable amount of damage as the galaxy you are in careens away from the center of the universe at unimaginable speed. The rod is irrecoverable, lest you get a spelljammer and retrieve it from the cold depths of space.

[@inseptus712]

Once the rod hits the earth that weighs more than 8000lb, the rod would deactivate.

[@JeremyWertheimerScience]

There was no center of the big bang. It happened everywhere at once@@zarthemad8386

[@THELASTMASTA]

I think for my games, I'm going to account for this by saying that the immovable rod technically moves. It's not possible for an object to be absolutely stationary when all movement is relative. What happens when you press the button on the rod is it becomes locked into the velocity of the person who pushed the button. That means if you activate it on a ship, the rod will travel alongside the ship at the exact same speed as when it was activated. This will only become a problem once the ship changes its speed or direction.

[@Lexivor]

This seems like a really good idea and the only way for it to work consistently.

[@54l68l65l20l47l61l6D]

It also means that if you're walking or jumping while activating it you can climb on top and ride it like a broomstick

[@THELASTMASTA]

@@54l68l65l20l47l61l6D Ya know what? If someone manages to figure out that you can do that, I'm happy to let them do it. That's much less worrisome than the other game-breaking things players use the rod for and it's pretty creative.

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

Another generally useful rule of thumb is the reaction the rod has to being overpowered, be that by weight or strength. Instead of assuming it's being muscled into a new position, it's generally better to assume this activates an emergency shutoff and the rod just deactivates.

[@Syphaxis]

You could just say it's pinned to the gravity well.

[@user-zb1wc3rz9f]

If a player wants to start talking forces applied over surface areas, they can also enjoy the 'realistic' physical consequences of the edge of an ogre's greataxe applied to a region of their character's body.

[@casuallydone468]

Usually you can out physics people. In this case, the motion of the planet itself is greater than that of the rotation, causing the rod to be transfixed in place as it appears to soar into space in the opposite direction of the earth's rotation around the sun with no other effects. You now have one year to prevent the destruction of the earth due to the rod being in the path of the planet's orbit

[@beetle__bug]

​@@casuallydone468 pretty sure the entire goddamn planet is a bit heavier than 8000 pounds, it'd just cause a small crater or burn up in the atmosphere during exit or entrance

[@GamePandaXXL]

@@casuallydone468Thats actually a pretty fun campaign idea

[@enriquebarragan212]

the galaxy is still moving through space along with the solar system and plantes, so... rest assure they're not seeing that rod ever again and the planet is safe from ever encountering the rod in it's path hahahahha@@casuallydone468

[@evanlastname9981]

@@casuallydone468 Unfortunately if we're talking a one to one similarity of our own universe, you'll ever see it again as even our entire galaxy is moving as well. The rod will be off in space with no possible way to find let alone recover it

[@mifigor1935]

That second scenario is absolutely fair though. I mean 1) it's really hard to make it work on anything bigger than medium 2) the enemy could have an alternate way to escape that doesn't involve moving the rod 3)players had to invest their entire turn and an action surge 4) player had to win a grapple contest 5) a pirate king would definitely have a crew

[@mifigor1935]

Really creative players could even capture him alive, force him to tell where he hid his treasure then give him a fate worse than death. You know, make sure that everyone knows about this humiliating defeat, make him watch as his empire crumbles and his most loyal followers turn against him and those who used to tremble at the mere sound of his name now throw rotten eggs at his cage

[@maxxpower3d6]

Cats are made of liquid. The rod strategy would never work on a tabaxi.

[@mifigor1935]

@@maxxpower3d6 Tabaxi could roll acrobatics instead of athletics

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

The ground being wet also suggests that the ground is probably a softer surface like sand, that could be shifted. Also, yes, general dexterity save to wriggle out of the pin is fine. Maybe take a point of damage from the scrape

[@Skip6235]

That last one is basically “how to turn your DM into a flat-Feruner”

[@darkpheonix77]

The prime material plane is flat. Or if you game is on a moving planet. Then (said to player) "the wizard that enchanted the rod is smarter than your dumbass and made it work in Geo stationary reference frame.

[@samgordon9756]

Nah. The rod is fixed in space. If we allow planets, we have to have spacetime. Planets pull spacetime with them as they rotate. It's called frame dragging. The rod is, by dm fiat, using this effect along with the acceleration of gravity to calculate its relative position to the planet and continues to just hang in place like it says in the description. It will do the same on any planet or plane based on the gravity and direction of frame dragging, if any. In microgravity it will use the nearest mass at the time of activation and fix itself relative to that. This will always be the largest creature/object touching the rod at the moment of activation. Or, tl;Dr, if it could do that it wouldn't work as described so no. Because magic. Less satisfying but still fine. Especially for dms who don't want to be bothered by physics.

[@samgordon9756]

PS: frame dragging occurs when any massive object, like your mom, moves through space. Don't be offended. It's literally true. You, a house fly. If it has any mass it drags. Also, your mom.

[@genostellar]

Flat-Toriler, you mean. Faerun is a continent. The planet is called Toril.

[@arwo1143]

the rod doesn’t move, that’s it’s hole thing…. You click it and it stays in place relative to the world Also, Tarrasque is immune to non magical damage So even if the planet would rotate away under the rod, our just loose the rod and someone will find it at the side of a mountain somewhere

[@dreamwolf7302]

A friend of mine is running a campaign for my son and his friends. He gave a group of 10-13 year olds, an Immovable Rod that had a command word, instead of a button. I watched, as they rolled high on every persuasion and every deception check, to convince the black dragon that was supposed to kill them (to start the real campaign, an escape from the underworld) to eat their pack horse...with the rod inside...then it flew off...and they...activated the rod... Black Dragon liver was on the menu that night...

[@williamjohnston5315]

I remember a couple stories of the rod. I was running the Temple of Elemental Evil as my team used two rods to basically climb the air. It was slow but exciting. I remember another time they were getting chased down by an undead white worm behemoth. They put the rod sideways in the air and the work ate it... Ripping a massive hole in its back end! That was a cool scene.

[@Wary_Of_Extremes]

Is it better than the inanimate carbon rod? That rod got its picture on 'Time' magazine. They had a parade for it. It saved astronauts.

[@TroySavary]

The rod assumes that the point of reference for its lack of movement is the planet, so the rod and the terrasque are both being carried by the planet at the same speed. So the last scenario obviously cannot work.

[@swankypant3639]

Yeah I would assume this is a “one time use rod” as the players are not gonna be able to catch the rod after it’s used. It depends on how you rule it. Earth is also moving through space very quickly as it rotates around the sun and our sun moves through space as it moves with our galaxy which is also moving. If you wanted to you could just rule, “you didn’t account for the movement of celestial bodies and the rod rips through you at 1.3 million miles an hour”

[@hugs3334]

To be fair, terrasques are also immune to bludgeoning damage so it wouldn’t take any damage from the rod even if the DM allowed this scenario.

[@bearnaff9387]

I am setting the rule that the point of reference for the rod is the person who pushes the button at the moment they press it. This opens up its own can of worms, but would need a lot more interesting thought on the part of the players to do horrible things with.

[@TroySavary]

@@bearnaff9387 That would mean the rod simply follows the player to stay exactly where it was in relation to the player when he used it, making it mostly useless.

[@bearnaff9387]

@@TroySavary Not quite? This formulation of the rod would adopt the straight-line movement of the user at the moment they pushed the button. Absent the space-bending effects of gravity, all movement is basically in straight lines, with net movement effected by gravity and, y'know, other objects. I probably won't adopt this version of the Immovable Rod after all, since no one wants to really measure complex velocity to figure out if the rod is moving relative to its surroundings.

[@fenixmeaney6170]

Milkbeard might have had the rod pinning him down, but the shallow water terrain of an ocean implies that what is beneath him is sand, which is very easy to dig out, slipping out from under the rod, therefore saving him from drowning.

[@blkgardner]

The breath holding time is 1 + CON modifier minutes (minimum of 30 seconds). Assuming Milkbeard is a bandit captain, he has a CON modifier of +2, so that is 3 minutes, or 30 rounds. Additionally, after Milkbeard starts suffocating, he has a number of turns equal to his CON modifier before he drops to 0 hit points, giving him 32 rounds. Unless Milkbeard is alone in the encounter, that shouldn't be overpowering.

[@TheeDuelistNW]

DND also doesn't just let you willy nilly apply the restrained condition. It's a powerful, and difficult condition. If a 500lb 27str barb grapples a 10lb 1 star gnome... The gnome is grappled with 0 movement speed, but is not restrained. The idea this rod would give the restrained condition is laughable. Secondly "I get behind him" how? Rounds are simultaneously taken. The NPC just turns with you. Also no check to try to plant the rod? Also forgetting that irl if there was a rod placed almost anywhere on your body, you'd be able to squeeze out in seconds because we're made of flesh and bone, not rock. This entire video is just terrible dming.

[@fenixmeaney6170]

@@TheeDuelistNW I wouldn't call it terrible DMing, the DM may just be inexperienced. Either way, the player is taking advantage of the DM's lack in a way that is unsporting.

[@TheeDuelistNW]

@@fenixmeaney6170 I would say a ruling that neither makes sense in the real world, a magical world, or RAW. That breaks the game and the story = terrible DMing

[@nobody5333]

⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠​⁠@@TheeDuelistNW”dnd doesn’t let you Willy-Nilly apply the restrained condition” Web (2nd level spell): “Each creature that starts its turn in the webs or that enters them during its turn must make a Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature is restrained as long as it remains in the webs or until it breaks free.” Snare (1st level spell able to be cast by Druid, ranger, artificer, and wizard): “The trap triggers when a Small creature or larger moves into the area protected by the spell. The triggering creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or fall prone and be hoisted into the air until it hangs upside down 3 feet above the protected surface, where it is restrained.” Net (ITEM IN THE PHB): “A Large or smaller creature hit by a net is restrained until it is freed” If a martial weapon can restrain a creature, I’d wager an uncommon magic item could do the same. There are in fact rules for flanking, so there is a precedent for being behind an enemy Furthermore, being pinned down, an immovable object COULD keep you restrained, particularly if it was placed under your chin so that it would slightly press down on your neck. It may be possible to shimmy out from the sides, but the design of the rod in the official art would prevent that as well. Trying to slide upwards would get stopped by your collarbone, going down would be stopped by your chin. HOWEVER, pinning a creature down is an ability exclusive to the grappler feat (which also mentions both characters are restrained until the grapple ends “You can use your action to try to pin a creature grappled by you. To do so, make another grapple check. If you succeed, you and the creature are both restrained until the grapple ends”) so this situation could not happen without some sort of opposed roll. Also, nothing is stopping milkbeard from just pushing the button and becoming free again.

[@SolidSkow]

Great video! So hilarious you covered this item. I'm currently at the end of the third party campaign "Call From The Deep" and the Bard of the group took this item. We all raised out eyebrows because it seemed so random. I believe the DM let the length be 3 feet. I can't remember the exact details, but I believe he attached the rod to the ship's anchor, activated the rod, dropped said anchor and caused our ship to do an almost instant u-turn to which we were able to wreck the other ship. It was such an amazing sequence of events. So many uses for the item when you actually think about it.

[@MrMissionkid]

When the Owlin came out I rolled one up for a one shot and used an immovable rod as a "put it anywhere bird perch". It was fantastic. I can't remember if we fudged the activation and deactivation being a full action or bonus or what but I wasn't doing any of these over the top abuses, just had a cute little owl fly around and then perch on the rod wherever they wanted. Pretty sure I was using that psychic rogue class too so they could snipe enemies with psychic damage from range. It was a lot of fun.

[@LeonardAndHisBiscuit]

Simple: When the rod is subject to more than 8,000lbs of pressure at once, it immediately snaps out of its position. If it's a gradual pressure, it will hold until breaking eventually, but if it's an immediate amount of pressure like impacting a moving ship or getting swiped by a dragon's talons, it doesn't get a chance to apply any meaningful pushback. The last example would require a lot of retconning on the item's usage, because you wouldn't be able to use it for *anything* else unless you want it to go flying off with the planet's rotation. No holding doors closed, no makeshift ladders, no impromptu barricades... as soon as that button is pressed, it shoots off into space. And that's another thing too: There was no consideration for the planet's orbit around the sun, just the rod's orbit around the planet. The rod will either shoot upwards as the planet leaves the spot it was frozen in place, or shoot downwards as the planet collides with its point in space and applies well over the pressure threshold for it.

[@darkpheonix77]

The last example ignores that in DND the prime material plane is a Litteral plane. It am unmoving flat space. If you were on a moving planner then the wizard would have KDE the rod work in a Geo stationary reference. As of doing so would have made it useless.

[@nickm9102]

So, what you are saying is when someone tries to pull the last one you have an explanation that excludes that option but allows most creative uses like "Unfortunately that would not work because the magic used to create the rod simply affects the gravity of the plain it is on to create an immovable point in relation to the primary gravity field present. So while it is stationary in relation to the plane it is on." This allows the stationary torpedo option without allowing use of the planet as a weapon.

[@WolforNuva]

@@darkpheonix77 Not true actually, the Forgotten Realms take place on Toril, an Earth like planet. But yeah the Rod clearly locks it's motion relevant to the planet.

[@FireStormOOO_]

The ship example is probably fine; it'd be surprising if a single plank, especially in the stern, had a yield strength such that 4 tons wouldn't dislodge it. The mistake was thinking removing a single plank is enough to sink a large seaworthy vessel; they're going to have pumps, and they're going to have materials to effect basic repairs.

[@krimhorn]

@@darkpheonix77 The Prime Material might be a plane in the same sense that the universe is flat but the spheres within that contain the planets that things occur on are not necessarily, themselves, flat. Of course now that they've nixed the phlogiston separating spheres (and, honestly, I have no idea if crystal spheres are even a thing in the official lore regardless of how much sense it made) and half joined the Astral and Prime Material planes I don't even know what planar distinctions even mean. Which means, of course, that DM fiat wins out.

[@jameslytton7361]

I once let a PC replace the handle for his tower shield with a 1 ft immovable rod. He built a big spike on the front, focused on tripping attacks, and used his shield to basically pin them and activate the button. He was unstoppable, an eldritch knight, and eventually through magic items he could misty step and had gauntlets of ogre's strength. It was fun.

[@nondescriptcat5620]

yea using it for combat tricks is something i'd want to encourage, that's some creative play, and being able to use your action to lock down one enemy isn't going to destroy balance.

[@mrosskne]

what a waste of an item lol

[@blakethesnake6686]

GROW UP!!!!@@mrosskne

[@Sphendrana]

glad to see my idea of a spiked immovable shield isn't unique. Very nice take using a tower shield too. Mine was two bucklers. Monkey bars to "climb through air" to then dive bomb unaware mobs was amazing.

[@popuptoaster]

@@mrosskne Regularly wasting a powerful magic item is fun, especially if the rest of the party also see it and want to get it from you. I had a character have his ability to do magic removed and turned into a ruby that stored a substantial amount of spells, I couldn't use em and as it happened to glow I put it in a lantern, or occasionally used it to make my beer glow red.

[@bensutton3527]

For the last one, my response would have been, "Ha! You think this is a heliocentric solar system? You think this world ROTATES???"

[@wiredrayne]

Worst trouble an Immovable Rod got my group into was an at sea portion of an Eberron campaign and they were fighting enemies in the lower decks when someone had the bright idea to pop their rod. Since the ship was moving at full sail, the ship's interior walls promptly started bashing into the rod, shredding the thin wood walls like paper, with the rod's owner wedged nicely between them as it was happening. He was a warforged that was beefy enough to survive going through a few wood walls, but eventually the rod and himself blew through the aft of the ship and he was left clinging to the rod as the ship sailed away. He barely managed to keep clearing his slowly increasing strength checks until the party finished off the enemies and got the ship to circle back to retrieve his tin can butt.

[@g00b3rguts3]

in an underdark campaign I was given two rods, I had wrist straps for both and would use them like monkey bars. My favourite usage however, was to find the highest ceiling caverns to long rest in, as I would rig up hammocks for the party 30ft in the air in the pitch black 😀(they were made of rock coloured fabric)

[@bearnaff9387]

This, and the one sidenote where the rod-PC used the rod as a pulley, is the kind of usage I want to see out of my party.

[@mrosskne]

which type of rock?

[@g00b3rguts3]

@@mrosskne never was specified or important

[@mrosskne]

@@g00b3rguts3 Then your camouflage doesn't work.

[@g00b3rguts3]

you aren't my DM @@mrosskne 🙂

[@timoman6]

Reminds me of the time I salmon laddered with my immovable rod over a castle wall... All the guards could see, they were just massively confused why I didn't just use the gate.

[@JamesTDG]

I honestly would have laughed if someone tried to make a ladder of immovable rods

[@Kiamors]

A barbarian trained in stealth due to his background and 2 immovable rods is a great part of any entry team. Then they just lift the noddle armed casters up.

[@dreww2647]

@@JamesTDG You just need 2 to climb anything.

[@FGMagala]

@@dreww2647 Only one if you're willing to make it a series of dex/athletics check. Pull yourself up, deactivate it and lift it up, activate it at a higher place. Over and over until you're as high as you want to be. Lots of relatively easy checks, with the only consequence of failing being that you lose some progress. Of course, only to be acted once you agree with your DM that this is how it can be done.

[@Kiamors]

@@dreww2647 you also need a strength or athletics check depending on your DMs playstyle and edition to pass.

[@arandomperson8336]

I think for the boat and the tarrasque you could just say the rod is stationary in the activating character's frame of reference - after all, it doesn't go flying off into outer space when they push the button.

[@CatacombD]

You do have to be careful if you have the rod function that way, because then the rod will function as a battering ram. Ride towards the castle gate, activate the rod, then stop. Rod will continue forward and impact the gate with 8000 pounds of force.

[@RedwoodTheElf]

@@CatacombD just say that it's motionless relative to the largest nearby object (Like the planet, or a ship, but not the user)

[@Johnnyboi-ch8ds]

i think the rod aligns its self relative to the planet so it can "appear to stay in place" because how was it useful before the attempt at the orbital strike. It should have ripped right through you or go in a "random" direction.

[@harrgoth5792]

I'm in a homebrew Spell Jammer game. One of the most heavily defended section of our ship is where we keep the runed glass casing of the "Non-consensual Emergency Brake" and there been a couple of ships that have seen its wrath. The DM might have come to regret my starting magic item I believe.

[@renookami4651]

your glass casing of what? xD

[@harrgoth5792]

@@renookami4651 The name kind of stuck after I used it for the first time while aboard an enemy ship. I think I said something along the lines of "as I hop on my mount in the docking bay I activate the non-consensual emergency break!"

[@conliffeiain]

Does this function similarly to that scene in the final season of The Expanse when all the ships inside the Ring immediately stop moving?

[@harrgoth5792]

@@conliffeiain sometimes it would stop ships sometimes it would rip massive holes in their hull.

[@minimalbstolerance8113]

This is reminding me heavily of a certain Mel Brooks movie. I'm guessing the only time you use the "non-consensual emergency brake" is when you have to stop after going straight to... LUDICROUS SPEED!

[@andrewsad1]

I gotta speak up as a DM and say that every one of these except for the last one (which wouldn't work, RAW) are rad as hell, and I would give my players points of inspiration for thinking of them. Using it as a pulley? Hell yeah!

[@QuestIonAskin]

Then again, if he used the rod to pierce the hull, that means the ship and the rod move separately. So pinning them down under water wouldn’t work as the ship is moving down and it would just create space in a second for him to slip out. These scenarios assume two different things. First, the rod doesn’t move with the ship and cracks the hull. Second, the rod now moves with the ship and it will remain at a fixed place and as the ship moves, the rod stays in the same place moving with it. The first one would be clever. The second one would not. The third one is impossible as the rod doesn’t work that way and assuming it does in that one case is like the first two scenarios. The way the rod works would have to change to make it work. Lastly, if you’re out in the ocean and you just sank the ship you were on, you’re stranded out at sea. Even if you were doing a boarding action, you’d be stuck below while the rest of the crew of the ship you’re on closes you in the hold and escapes using your ship. There are various ways these just aren’t clever. If your players are outsmarting you with these things, you probably aren’t the best DM for the job.

[@darthhodges]

For the last scenario 1000mph only applies at the equator, you will get slower velocities at higher latitudes (calculated as 1000×COS[latitude]) down to zero at either pole. If you account for the planet's orbit around the sun and possibly the sun's movement you can get other interesting results. The rod could ark skyward if you are on the backside of the planet relative to its orbital trajectory, or it could jab down into the ground on the frontside. If you assume the sun isn't moving and the rod goes skyward it will impact the planet in just under a year. Incorporating all these different velocities could get numbers much lower or much higher than you used at this point. Insisting on incorporating them can quickly negate the value of "orbital strike" as your player probably won't want to spend in game hours calculating where they need to stand to make it work.

[@samuelpoulin3546]

The tarrasque is immune to nonmagical bludgeoning damage.

[@TKDB13]

The correct answer to the last scenario is either "that's not how the immovable rod works, it stays put relative to the planet", or (my personal preference) "that's not how this world works, this is a fantasy world and geocentrism is true here".

[@burgernthemomrailer]

1. The Immovable Rod is staying put relative to the planet in that last scenario. It is not locked to its rotation is all. 2. Whether or not the planet orbits the sun or the sun orbits the planet is irrelevant in this case. Day and night is determined by the rotation of the planet, which is unaffected by whether the world is geocentric or not.

[@TKDB13]

@@burgernthemomrailer Fair enough on 1, I didn't phrase that precisely enough. What I meant was more "relative to the plantary surface". But as for 2, day and night are *not* caused by planetary rotation in a geocentric cosmos, but rather by the orbit of the sun around the earth. Historically, the lack of evidence (at the time) for plantary rotation was one of the major scientific arguments against heliocentrism in the 1600s. Scientists of the day recognized that plantary rotation would produce what we now call Coriolis effects, but (due to limitations of experimental equipment and methodology at the time) no such effects could be detected. Not realizing the results were an artifact of their insufficiently precise tools, scientists of the day concluded earth must not rotate, and thus counted this as evidence for geocentrism. (Theoretically one could posit a geocentric model *with* a rotating earth, but this is not how geocentric models in our own history were conceived, and thus not how my geocentric fantasy worlds work.)

[@boomergames8094]

The rod has to be immovable to some frame of reference. I require it to be touching something. That something is what the rod is immovable against.

[@wernerhager7078]

I've actually seen the last actually come up in play many years ago in 3.5 (in a pick up game I was running at a FLGS). Very similar argument about rotational motion of the planet. If we're playing with real-life physics, he failed to account for revolutions around the solar body and galactic motion of the system. The rod, instead of staying fixed at a certain height with the revolving planet, got yeeted into the air as the planet made it's inexorable journey around the sun. No more worries about that specific item.

[@zarthemad8386]

should have taken the player with it

[@8vantor8]

better idea, have it slam into the ground at the players feet, and make them take damage

[@JohnCena-le1jj]

Clever

[@purplepenguin43]

“Theres always a bigger perspective”

[@HORRIOR1]

My players once tried that last one. I told them that the rod disappears as they activate it. Because if the rod is not anchored to the motion of the planet, why would it be anchored to the motion of the sun? The sun orbits the galaxy at a speed of 75000 feet per second. That thing was out of the planet's atmosphere as soon as they activated it. One of the players just asked, "Do we get the nuclear explosion caused by an object moving that quickly in the atmosphere?"

[@notgerheinz]

Considering the suffocation example: You can rule that the ground beneath is not completely even or even sandy and the person can wiggle out. There is next to no way to fix someone to the ground with only one point of fixture.

[@eyflfla]

The PC did say he was pushing down with all his weight. I feel like that would present a meaningful barrier to wriggling out in time.

[@antaine1916]

The captain didn't have to "move the rod" to get out from under it. He can shimmy sideways with a much lower strength check, maybe even taking some small scraping damage if he was laying on rock (if he wasn't, if it was sand or mud under him, the squirming out from underneath should be even easier).

[@samuelvincent557]

Exactly, the ground under the water will, most likely, be muddy or sandy. An escape check is all that is needed. Or have the Pirate Captain be wearing a ring/amulet of Freedom of Movement. Cannot be restrained.

[@andrewgreeb916]

This isn't Thor's hammer, you can slip from under it

[@wmbtech]

The player made sure to 'press against him with all my weight' to really dig the rod into the guy's back and pin him to the ground. So for this shimmy to make sense, it would also have to make sense to just shimmy out from under a boot on your neck or a man pinning you to the ground with all his weight in your back. One does not simply shimmy from under an immovable rod. The man has deformed the wet ground beneath him with two men's weight and is barred into this rut by a resistance of 8000lbs. He's stuck guys. Just accept the drowned captain's fate and find a way to deal with the sociopath in the party.

[@antediluvianatheist5262]

@@wmbtech Yeah. I've actually been caught like that, though not under water. You can't actually get out. [Truck suspension, and a bracket on my back, in case you were curious.]

[@McGonigle]

Both of your examples still include a force being exerted down, once fixed the rod resists the upward force, but whereas if you find a few mm of space to go down, in either case of pinning the downward force would keep the foot/ body in contact. The immovable rod by contrast is immovable. The human body is rounded (and also breathing impacts volume, so moving the center of mass away from the rod, would create space, so it should be possible to slip from under it, in a way isn't true for objects that are obeying normal laws of physics. It's possible to envisage a scenario where the rod catches in a place that would be inescapable, but considering that activating the rod takes the action from action surge any positioning of the rod in this case has the mechanical power of an object interaction, it wasn't positioned with the force of an attack or a grapple, so assuming it catches in such a place feels flawed.

[@funforall9741]

I love creative uses to items, the immovable rod isn't a problem, it's the funnest solution. Locking an opponent underwater is a creative way to kill a boss for sure and should be encouraged.

[@NicholasW943]

It's definitely fun, but I could see how some players would feel left out in that situation. Some people want to contribute to the fight and if 90% of a climactic encounter was solved by one member, then I imagine some people could feel jipped. I'd be cool with it, because it's an insanely novel and funny. It would get lame if every boss was cheesed with the IR, though.

[@arionbc]

​​@@NicholasW943 Exactly, it's an idea worth rewarding, but making it a one hit boss kill is too much imo. Like the captain realising they're defeated and using sending or other nonverbal communication to bargain their life or destroying the ground beneath them with magic to escape but dealing a significant amount of damage to themselves. Managing fun player ideas is like playing with kids, you don't want to be a buzzkill, but you're the responsible one. Edit: typo 😅

[@sarowie]

@@NicholasW943 the true villiian could be the second mate of the pirate captain, sneaking behind the immovable rod user, knocking him out.

[@curseofgladstone4981]

Or just have him do a dex check to move out from under the rod. Nothing says he must be completely pinned. Just that the rod itself can't be moved@@sarowie

[@celebrim1]

Creative solutions are only creative if they occur once. If the same solution comes up again and again, it's not creative and it's a problem.

[@pixels_per_minute]

Personally, I'd say when the rod is activated or locked in place, it simply anchors itself to and moves relative to the planet. So no matter how the planet rotates or moves, the rod appears immovable to us, just like how a tree appears immovable until 8,000 lbs of extra force is applied to which the tree falls over and the rod deactivates. That would also mean the rod wouldn't work in other dimensions because it's anchor point doesn't exist in them. I think some DMs just don't know how to regulate the rods usage and know when it's time to say "No" to unruly players. You could even give them a faulty Immovable Rod that only works for 1 minute, or make it instantly deactivate after 8,000 lbs of force is applied to it, so it can't burrow it's way through a moving ship. You need to set the rules loud and clear and creatively counter a player when they worm their way into loopholes.

[@clodolcmidnights837]

“You splatter the Tarrasch” I feel like disintegrate would be a much more accurate term

[@Gam3Junkie7]

In a campaign setting where it was just floating islands above a sea of clouds, I came up with the scheme of creating a base beneath an island by using Immovable Rods as mounting points for scaffold to work on the structure. That was how my party had a secret base directly beneath the capital city island, started with Immovable Rods XD

[@Kiamors]

This is a great idea. 2 or 4 immovable rods and some rope also make for excellent restraints and or booby traps. See scoody doo for inspiration. 😂

[@Kylora2112]

Last example: "Improvised weapon attack, roll 1d4."

[@TheBaconWizard]

It isn't an attack.

[@SoupSnakeSal]

@@TheBaconWizardi doubt the tarrasch would agree with you

[@TheBaconWizard]

@@SoupSnakeSal True. But it isn't an attack ROLL.

[@thaylonD]

@@TheBaconWizardDifferent perspective: You are aiming at the target (attack roll) and calculating the actual relative movement of the rod (int roll).

[@missmorbid1439]

It’s immune to bludgeoning damage from non magical attacks, so this arguably wouldn’t do anything. I mean, it’s technically a magic item, but

[@thaylonD]

My hypothetical answers which are obviously correct as I would be the DM: 1. Small hole takes time to sink big ship and will be repaired. Might even not work at all due to water pressure. 2. The rod doesn't push him down, it just stays in place. He doesn't need to push the rod, just move out under it, dex check. Also melee attack to actually restrain target in a meaningful way during combat. 3. One could do that, yes. 4. No. If I were insane and allow it, it would still need exceptional roll to calculate trajectory, and normal roll to hit. Crit fail would obviously kill someone important to the character instead.

[@Conta_Minated]

I was thinking about orbital mechanics, and I'm so glad you brought it up. Oh, and the minor cataclysm it causes is this: Every year when the planet crosses a particular area of space, the immovable rod will impale, lacerate and mutilate the planet here and there for the duration of a few days. During that period people around the world can observe a hypersonic rod scratch the surface of the earth. The impact pokes holes into mountains, levels cities and causes tsunamis. A few days later, as the planet has moved a bit, the rod impales the surface of the planet, leaving a massive crater behind it. On the other side of the planet, a new volcano erupts as the rod penetrates the crust again. After a few decades, the impact zones are well known and avoided by everyone. Also, the cataclysm week becomes a national holiday so that people can take their time to brace for the impacts.

[@adfdasdfadfadsfareae]

For the Tarrasque scenario, I deliberately gave my players a "broken" and "not quite immovable" rod that behaved exactly as described in the video. The NPC that gave it to the players made it clear that it was malfunctioning, and if activated, it would basically become a rail gun. Watching my players walk around with a howitzer in their back pockets and wondering when to use it was a delight.

[@momiji_number1daughterwife]

i love that lol

[@Steelrat1994]

I can see a scenario in which they find the rod with a note: DO NOT TURN ON. I never quite figured out the reference frame problem.

[@PpVolto]

⁠@@Steelrat1994 When there find it with that note then good for the creator to have the Good reference frame :) When he defined it as stationary to the Universe the rod can never be found on that planet, or when the reference frame was the Sun it plumeted into the Earth at 30kps. Both are interesting Results :)

[@JackDesert]

I had a similar thing. but it required my players to recite a speech similar to the 'Holy Handgrenade' one before it launched. Each line was 1d10 of damage. It launched as soon as one of the players using it laughed. They got five out of ten in, but got sweet rolls of 8-10 on them so the BBEG took a good hit.

[@McCheese-xc9ig]

"As you crest the hill, you notice a several thousand peasants marching in a long line next to the Tarrasque. If you squint really hard, you can see that the one at the very end is carrying a 10ft poll. You're move, chief."

[@antediluvianatheist5262]

*your.

[@timkoenings6414]

Couple of things to note. The very last example would not allow it and it go very differently than the player expected. If the premise is that the rod would stop in space and you take the rotation of the earth into consideration then 2 things would happen. 1) Every time the rod is used you would have to take the rotation of the earth in to consideration meaning the rod could not be used to hold thing in place. 2) He didn't take the rotation of the earth around the sun into consideration. This means the rod would crash into the earth faster than it's rotation and by placing the rod at chest height, he would mis his target entirely. Also, every time you use the rod, it would crash into the earth. The correct physics for the concept of the rod is that it would hold in space relative to it's position to the center of the earth when activated. Additionally, if you are going to keep using the rod to crash into things to damage them then you would also have to take into consideration the damage to the rod itself. When things collide both objects would take damage. Of course the amount of damage to each item would depend on the hardness of each item, but there would still be some damage to both items. Eventually the rod would be so damaged it wouldn't work anymore.

[@Skellitor301_VA]

>Using the rod to break a voyage I'd either say mechanically that wouldn't work because game mechanics based on the rules don't dictate specifics of a ship just like any other object, creature, or player. If we don't want to be that stingy then we can say sure but the rod is lost at sea with no dex save to save it due to the force of water coming in making it difficult to save the rod. That way the player gets a freebie and loses the item so they can't troll you anymore. Not to mention, the ship would not sink, it's made of wood and wood floats. Ask any naval historian, they will tell you the same thing. If anything, the ship may take on water and make the voyage take longer and more uncomfortable in the hold, due to the added weight, but it wouldn't sink. >I shove the rod up it's a- Sure, you gotta remove the clothes and armor first which takes time, a grapple check, and a dex check to start working the clothes >Testing room for pit traps Easily solved with either a dex check to not slip off the rod or change the trap from a pit trap to an arrow trap >Conceal the rod up his sleeve and challenge a barbarian to an arm wrestling contest Barbarian would feel the rod if it was in hand, otherwise it would rip out of the sleeve or break the players wrist >Activate the rod in front of the calvary about chest high for the riders Cool, the horse gets hit in the head and the rider is stopped but still alive >I beat him over the head with the immovable rod Improvised weapon rules, roll a D20 and add proficiency if proficient with simple melee weapons, 1d4 bludgeoning damage on hit >I throw the hempen rope over the activated rod and use it as a pulley and pull him out of the hole Sure, strength check at advantage same DC based on the weight of the guy being pulled out of the hole. Because simply using a rope over a rod does not make it a pulley by definition, you'd need a wheel on the rod to make it a pulley or some way to relieve the friction across the rod. Plus a single pulley system does not cancel out the weight as much as one would think, it's the same weight you're pulling, just now in a different direction. If the rope was tied to a surface and the guy had a pulley on him as a second pulley, then the weight would be halved. >Use the planets rotation to splatter a tarrasque Simply point out the inconsistency that the rod stays suspended in place, not in space. Based on how the rod functioned until now, we can safely assume the rod moves with the rotation of the earth.

[@merkron2680]

Ship example: To grap the rod outside of the hull now gushing with water - DEX DC35 check Melee in shallow water: To be able to pin an opponent down exactly so he cant wiggle sideways from the rod in the middle of combat/brawling - DEX DC35 check Tarrasque example: The Rod is most likely "geo-stationary" thus moving with planets rotation otherwise it cant be used for any of the other examples

[@darkpheonix77]

Exactly my thought on the first one. Lets them success but with predictable consequences. Tho I would have put it as dc 30. No bigger than the role to move the rod.

[@Marcus-ki1en]

So the ship has a hole in it, but it is filled with the rod, no leak. Water will only come in if the rod is removed. When the rod is extended, roll save on the ships hull, if it fails, catastrophic collapse and everyone in the compartment is knocked unconscious and drowns. Not so smart now are your Mr. Player?

[@ciaphascain2807]

The Tarrasque one doesn't really work. If it were the case that the rod being immovable and the planetary rotation would be a factor, if you were to EVER activate it, you would immediately lose it as the planet would move out from under it every time. It has to be geostationary.

[@mac_sour]

​@@Marcus-ki1enthats not how water physics work, based on the size of the rod. youre just being a dick to your metaphorical players at that point

[@Marcus-ki1en]

@@ciaphascain2807 That is the point, the player has no understanding of basic physics and is just meta gaming to get advantage.

[@joelcleaneye2107]

The last use i had happen in my game but it was a specific rod known as the “immaculate immovable rod” as soon as the button was pushed, it launched deep into space as it held its exact spot in the universe. There was a loud boom that deafened the party for a couple hours. Likewise there was a crcked variant that held its place above the core of the planet. There was a rod in dangerously low orbit for about 3 days before the party turned it off again doing a large amount of damage to anything it dug through

[@LordOfTheFatties]

Fun fact! The universe expands (or 'moves') at the sped of light! If you did this and the inertial reference from was "The Universe", then the speed the rod would instantly reach would cause a violent string of nuclear explosions due to it's speed causing the air molocules around it to go through nuclear fusion.

[@Doost311]

lol, that last one is fun, but if you also include a galaxy, it would fly off in a random direction based on where the planet is around the sun, and then again it would blast off in another random direction, based on which direction your galaxy is moving in relative to your position. So aiming it would be quite difficult. Also lets not mention it is likely out of scope of what the magic does.. Luckily magic in DnD has a tendency to do what you intent, so in all likelihood it wouldn't be affected by larger forces like the planet. Another fun one is using it as a way to take to the sky, you freeze it, pull up on it, unfreeze and swing your arm up and freeze it again, and keep refreezing it a little higher up each time. Granted your DM could rule you need to make an athletics check since it is an act of impressive strength

[@oklafornia3643]

Okay, so we need to destroy something big. Maybe a castle wall or like the video said, a giant tarrasque - first we need an adamantine box. Not a big one, one square foot should be fine, it just needs to be open on one side. Next we need SEVERAL immovable rods. We're going to suspend the box at torso height facing the open side towards the target using the rods, making sure to place multiple at the back of it. Next we need our wizard to cast mass polymorph on a herd of cows, transmuting them into any insect that is easily catchable and put them all in a jar. Next we gently GENTLY place the jar inside the open side of the box. Lastly....the wizard drops focus. I call it, "The CowMeHaMeHa."

[@intruder313]

A player in my campaign has 2. I deem them the length of a ladder rung and he sometimes uses them like climbing axes. They have not been abused but they do allow all kinds of challenges to be bypassed. He also has a magic rope.

[@WhatWasNot]

I've stopped planning my D&D sessions and just have a collection of areas, NPCs, and potential plot points to handle player chaos, so creative uses for stop like this is always welcome in my games, as the players have a lot of fun with it, and if I can handle it, so do I. Within reason though, as orbital strike doesn't work because that would make the item useless in an other scenario.

[@Kiamors]

Some players make every DM day an improv show. I kinda Like it.

[@iangordon5354]

You don’t need an object of that potency to be able to seriously disrupt the Dungeon Master’s plans. Many years ago (about forty years ago, in fact) I was playing a low-level (maybe level 3 or 4) lawful good cleric in an AD&D campaign. One session, we got into a nasty combat situation, and I didn’t have any spells that the DM thought could be used for combat. I cast a level 3 Create Water with my target location being inside the plate armour of one of our opponents. After thinking about it, the DM decided that the recipient of the water was now unconscious, half drowned, and permanently deaf, and that as a secondary result his helmet had burst off under the pressure of the water arriving and hit someone else in the solar plexus. Things didn’t go entirely my way, though. My character’s god decided that, in future, my create water would act more like a household tap than an instantaneous creation. As for the DM coming up with magic that caused serious problems, what about inflicting a magic user with sorcerous dyslexia? Example, he tries to cast Wall of Fog, and instead materialises a thirty ton Old English Sheepdog (Wall of Dog) which decides that it has found its forever parent.

[@g1ngerbred723]

I think magic items like this and the alchemy jug will always be my favorite for the way they force you to come up with unconventional and fun ways to use them. Really spices up play moreso than like, a flametongue sword or something

[@grugnotice7746]

"You activate the rod, and it is fixed in place, relative to the planet. It floats there , unmoving, because everything on the planet is moving at the same speed. It is now the tarrasque's turn."

[@burgernthemomrailer]

In the last scenario, the Immovable Rod is fixed in place relative to the planet. What it is not fixed in place relative to, is the planet’s rotation. Meaning that by your logic, the Immovable Rod would still fly and pierce through the tarrasque.

[@grugnotice7746]

@@burgernthemomrailer Sorry, it didn't work. You lose your turn. It is now the tarrasque's turn.

[@burgernthemomrailer]

@@grugnotice7746 I fail to detect a counterargument except “nuh uh!”

[@grugnotice7746]

@@burgernthemomrailer Tarrasque got a critical. You are dead. While in the Aetherial plane you talk with the ghost of Steven Hawking. He reminds you that everything in the theater you were firghting in was not only moving through space but also rotating and the rod would not be fun if it didn't also move through space AND rotate with the rest of the world. He then passed you on to Jesus who sent you to the lowest of Hells for defying the DM.

[@burgernthemomrailer]

@@grugnotice7746 Portent. Nat 1. Dimension Door 500 feet up. Feather Fall. Fly. Spam Sacred Flame out of range. Good game.

[@jameshulse1642]

If you have to deal with the last one as all motion is relative and the player has just argued that the ground should not be the reference point you could say that the rod remains stationary with respect to the centre of the solar system or galaxy which probably gives you 2 new directions to send the rod in at even faster speeds (or get the person who sold it to them to demonstrate the rod being immovable with respect to the ground before they buy it)

[@AgentParsec]

"You activate the rod. Unfortunately, as the movement of the galaxy in the universe is in the opposite direction that you're facing, the rod immediately rockets through your chest at untold speeds, removing both itself and your heart completely from the game."

[@chrisroberts1440]

Yes, a rather large hole in the reasoning. Had they ever used it previously in the game and had it done this?

[@TimLewallen]

Same for the first example. The player wants the rod to be immovable relative not to the ship but to the environment around it. If that's the case, then the rod would be immovable to the universe around it and would immediately move in a random direction at over 100 miles per second. Roll to see if you are in the path of the rod.

[@licentiaplaythrough7663]

galaxy speed 372 miles per second, galaxy rotation speed 130 miles per second, solar system speed 143 miles a second, speed of planet around the sun 18.5 miles a second, rotation of earth between 1000 miles and 800 miles per hour if your between the equator and lest say the UK... so if a person holds the item and hits the button they find themselves not even on a planet within a second. take in to account the air and gasses around them on the planet, the friction of going from earths rotation and speed of everything above to a stationary spot in an instant would rip a person apart down to carbon level. more so when the galaxy goes from 372 miles a second to zero.... would the rod even survive that transition?

[@TroySavary]

​@@TimLewallenI would allow the first one. It is immovable in relation to a fixed point on the planet.

[@zackw00]

To the last argument involving the planet’s rotation: the rod moves relative to the planet’s position in space. If the rod were truly immovable on Earth, for example, not only would you have to account for the Earth’s rotation, but also its movement around the Sun, the Solar System’s orbit through the Milky Way, and the Milky Way’s speed relative to the rest of space. If the rod was completely immovable relative only to space, you’d click the button once, and never see it again.

[@megamangos7408]

2:45 "That's fine. You could have also used any piece of metal to eventually pierce the hull as well, but this is quicker. Also, the DC reflex save to get the rod out is much higher as there is a torrent of water coming in from the hole. Good luck rolling that one." (Alternatively, you could also rule that it takes a moment to deactivate the rod as it magically powers down, because hey, It's an immovable rod, it doesn't want to go back to moving, meaning they couldn't grab it in time anyways.) 3:50 "Ok, he is pined under the point of a rod. But since this is a sandy beach as established, he can crawl around the rod and take his move action to get up, not moving the rod. Now if he was wearing full plate, maybe he might be pinned with the armor caught on it, but a pirate like him could easily contort around the rod, because the spine is pretty flexible. But hey, I'll give you some credit that it took his entire move action to do so. Now, does a 35 hit your AC?" Rapid fire: Good idea. Classic DnD. Cool, you stalemate the barbarian who is now enraged, roll for initiative. VERY good idea. It's 5th edition, so instead of clubs dealing 1d6, it's only 1d4. Ok idea. (NO, Bad DM, do not have a Tarrasque in your campaign; they are poorly written creatures of mass destruction that are terrible for good story telling.) That's a fun idea. Too bad this logic is even harder to calculate than that, because if the rod is no longer tied to the relative position of the planet, what relative position in the entire universe is it tied to? Planets don't just rotate and spin around a gravity well, they also move through space which is also expanding. At best, it would likely zip in a random direction in 3D space, hopefully. And given the forces at play, not only is the tarrasque gibbed, (again, bad writing because you can't kill them), but you likely also detonated the entire planet, not just cataclysm. At worse, if it was so untethered to any relative point, it would pass through everything harmlessly, simply vanishing out of our perception of existence. Also like how an unstoppable force meets an ummoveable object: they simply pass through each other. tl;dr Not broken, just needs a more creative DM to deal with it.

[@Cragun.]

I love the immovable rod, and work it into campaigns when I can. It really can be used in fun and clever ways -- I've never run into a case where someone 'abused' it. That use of the rod in a ship was funny, but no way would I have let someone roll to save the rod after it started to destroy the ship. As someone else mentioned, it's as broken as you let it be.

[@purplepenguin43]

Yeh if its got enough force to break the hull its long gone, and a pinhole in a ship is not that big of deal. Ships carry corks or block of wood and tar with a kinfe and hammer to carve the plug to size and pound into the leak for this exact reason.

[@BlueFrenzy]

Actually I would have deactivated the rod as the ship weights more than what the rod can handle.

[@aquelegabriel]

Well, either make the rod's reference point being the ship for that scenario, since they're below water, so the ship IS their whole reference point at that time. Or make it in a way where the rod is forever lost, since there's no way he could've reached the button in time. I would, every now and then, tell stories about tragedies of boats mysteriously sinking in that region "for no apparent reason" and that would make the ships avoid the whole area, creating problems for the transport of goods. Creating an economical problem and inflation, making prices "randomly" skyrocket because "well, the last shipment bringing this just sunk from that damn curse..." And, of course, if they ever traveled by ship in that region, I would ask for very high perception/wisdom/history checks from them. And, if they failed a luck roll, failed to remember the existence of the rod, failed to "remember" the exact location of the rod, and/or a high Dex roll for maneuvering the ship around the rod, then their ship would also sink.

[@davidtauriainen9116]

Check sailing ship movement rates. The rod won't fly though the hull at great speed since the ship isn't moving that fast. If the rod is locked to the planet rotational frame, then it will likely slowly break open a hole. Ships have great carrying capacity and they don't need rest at night like animals, so they can make good range over longer distances, but they're not fast.

[@Quandry1]

@@BlueFrenzy the rod also doesn't say that it exerts 8k lbs of force, just that it can hold up to 8k lbs. It's a subtle difference that many miss. it's only strength is when being acted upon, not acting upon anything else.

[@davidmiles1741]

Our party had and immoveable rod when we were running Tomb of Annihilation and it just saved our butts so many times- Some notable moments- stopping a number of trap mechanisms including a spinning fan blade, using it to repel down a pit, and holding up a collapsing ceiling. But the best use was when a T-rex swallowed our rogue and tried to run. Luckily the DM forgot that he was the one currently in possession of the rod, but the rogue remembered.

[@bunkersnail9531]

My players once used an immovable rod to kill a dragon. They had caused a wound on his back that was pretty deep, but he flew away and was doing fly by fire attacks every time he recharged. One player used his fey step to teleport onto the Dragons back when he flew low enough. After succeeding a few difficult checks, he climbed his way to the wound and pulled out the rod. He shoved it into the wound and pressed the button. Due to the direction of flight and the speed, the rod ripped through the dragon's back, impacting nearly all of the vertebrae of the spine and paralyzing a portion of the Dragons body. It fell out of the sky, immovable rod ripped out of a new wound and hung in the air a 100 ft or so up. Dragon hit the ground, took additional fall damage, and died. They never got the rod back due to them working on a time crunch and not having enough time to get it, but it was a legendary moment in the campaign.

[@lordtachanka85]

Player "I will use the rod for an orbital strike" Dm "ok, you are blown up with the impact"

[@BittyVids]

I know these are tongue in cheek, but I love when my players take the time and brain energy to come up with clever ways to win.

[@Comicsluvr]

Most of the 'quick examples' would work and should be rewarded for clever play. With regards to the length of the Rod: I believe that a 'rod' is defined as being 18" to 2' long (I'd have to research that). With regards to trapping the pirate captain: He specifically said that he was putting his weight on the rod and then activating it. IMHO this means that the captain could make a Dex or Str check modified by the weight of the character (a Halfling Rogue would convey a BONUS!) to wriggle out from under the rod. I would call that (and standing back up) all of his movement though. As for the Terrasque (or any other 'using the rod to stop a moving thing) the weight limit would likely kick in long before that kind of damage would be inflicted. I believe the DMG has tables for calculating falling damage from heavy things so just use those. In our current game, our party has TWO such rods and my character is an Artificer with an Int of 22 so he can be pretty clever on how to use them. The DM has never regretted letting us buy the rods and has rewarded us for clever use of them. Just remember that almost any magic item can be abused if you think about it.

[@enderfire3379]

i recently got my hand on the DMG and this was my favorite magic item. the possibilities

[@repasystrezeneczki1320]

I can see three solutions to the Terraque scenario: 1: The rod is rather small and would only make a relatively small hole through the Terraque, which considering its immense size would only injure it. 2: The rod actually anchors to the planet's over-time-average center of mass, (could be between 1, and 200 years) this would make it rotate with the planet, and makes the most common sense of how it would actually work. /imo best way, because it makes the rods still usable 3: All motion is relative, so what *does* it anchor too? Maybe it just flies of into space at 12 billion miles/hour leaving hurricane winds in its place, anchored to some distant point in space (and maybe leaving with a couple torn off fingers of the person who pushed the button).

[@eyespliced]

I also really like the cube of force. Such a great utility item that is rife with possibilities. I'm not really an active player at the moment, but when I was I was able to reasonably convince DM's to let me use it in all sorts of creative ways. (it basically breaks the whiteplume mountain AL module in several glorious ways)

[@colinmorrison5119]

I used it with Winged Boots to airlift a prisoner to safety. I had a plan to use it as a drop pod to assault with the entire party in melee.

[@CLipka2373]

Player 1: GM: "Oookay... this is different from how Immovable Rods usually work in this plane of existence - but if you insist, I'll allow it. Are you really sure that's what you want?" Player 1: "Hell yeah!" GM: "Okay... so as you click the button, the first thing you notice is a spray of pink mist and a streak of fire emanating from your hand due west - then a sharp pain shoots up your arm. You take... (rolls) 12 points of bludgeoning damage and 4 points of fire damage. As the pink mist settles to the ground, you notice that your fingers are no more - the rod must have taken them right off your hand, and either taken them with it or just straight atomized them. Oh, and as for the Tarasque, make a DC 30 Survival check to see if you are in fact precisely due east of the creature, and exactly at the same altitude." ... (1 in-game day later) ... GM: "While you're sitting at the inn, waiting for your contact - I need everyone to roll a D20 for me. Just a plain roll, this is just a matter of luck." Player 2: "Uh... okay... that wasn't so good. A nat 1 here." GM: "Nice! So... Suddenly, without any warning whatsoever, a streak of fire shoots through the commons room as the eastern and western walls explode with a deafening crack! There is no time to react, and Player 2 - you, having fumbled this roll, happen to sit right in the path of the fiery streak, taking 300d6 points of bludgeoning damage... do you insist that I roll for the damage, or shall we just call it 'more than enough'?"

[@warmonger2500]

First as a DM - if you deactivate the rod it won't do much damage to the ship. If you let it destroy the ship, the rod is effectively lost for the campaign, but you got your sinking ship. For the push into the ocean floor he doesn't need to move the rod, just wiggle out from under it, so that is a much simpler check. If the player argues, the bottom is sand and he can wiggle out by moving the sand not the rod. Sure it will take his entire turn to get out, but that's it, and taking a turn away is a good result. Last - The "Magic" of the rod locks its location relative to where you placed it on the planet, not relative to the universe, so it doesn't move.

[@muhammadal-hiyari5239]

The one where they stick it to a prone creature is very easy to circumvent, just have them roll an athletics or acrobatics check (DC equal to 8+PB+strength mod of the player that fixed the rod or a STR check from the player). My explanation for why that works is if you breathe out and contract your chest, you can reduce its size by 0.5-1 inch, and a lot more if the rod is parallel to your belly, since the rod doesn't move you now have a gap to slip through and then stand up.

[@Geek0ftheWeek]

Two problems with this. First issue is armor. Outside of possibly elven chainmail, most armor is bulky and heavy. Not leaving a lot of room for fine movement like wriggling and shimmying. Second issue is he was knocked prone from from behind, placing him on his belly. Exhaling may move your diaphragm and belly a couple of inches, but it won't give you a lot of space at the sternum. It's why most law enforcement pins people face down during a handcuffing procedure with a knee on their back.

[@Kiamors]

Use 2 rods placed diagonally. Tie a wire between the two rods and now you've got a fantastic tool. 👌

[@0nlythewind]

in the dark days of 3.5 I was once swallowed whole by a t-rex. I activated an immovable rod in it's stomach, and then crawled out of it's throat. The old description of an Immovable rod was that the massive str check was to move it 10 feet. So the party just walked away. And a week later we came back to find a dead dino. It starved to death because it couldn't chase it's prey.

[@zarthemad8386]

5E is just a very easy 2E

[@goatmeal5241]

A huge/gargantuan creature absolutely weighs more than 8000lbs: take a ~300 lb medium-sized dino, large-size means x8 weight, huge size means x8 weight again = 19,200 lbs, meaning it would deactivate. Maybe some piercing damage, but still. People drastically overestimate how big 8000lbs is, or underestimate how much big things weigh.

[@vampirejesus8170]

@@goatmeal5241 So you are saying that the soft tissue of the stomach of the t-rex would be able to withstand a force of 8000lbs. And if it is the orientated with the top or bottom of the rod that is what presses against the side of the stomach. Then the 8000lb force the rod can withstand to move it would be on a smaller surface area. It would tear right through the side of the t-rex. Not to mention that the person swallowed must be going by the loony tunes version of getting swallowed. As the stomach is not an open space as cartoons would make one to believe.

[@wyeteepaleface9199]

3.5 was the peak. The good stuff. Before they dumbed it down.

[@angelbabydragon]

@@wyeteepaleface9199 yeah, remember the epic level handbook?

[@FGMagala]

For that final scenario, my first statement as a DM after confirming the player REALLY wants to do this, would be "you forgot to take into consideration orbital mechanics. The rod will move in the opposing direction of the orbital plane as orbit is far faster than rotation (29.8km/s vs 0.4km/s at the equator). This will mean that the rod will fly off into the sky if it is later than noon and before midnight, or into the planet if the opposite. Not only do you miss the monster, but you now need to roll a series of checks to see if you survive the round as an object flies almost 30km/s, leaving supersonic shockwaves right beside your body as as air is ripped out of the immediate area, and possibly sent a mountain of rocks flying up towards you if it is before noon as the rod impacts the planet itself, probably through your character's body." Aiming an immovable rod taking both planetary rotational and orbital mechanics is insanely difficult without an astrophysics degree, something which the character absolutely doesn't have, putting aside that they are likely not even aware of the concept of orbital mechanics. This does presume that the planets of DnD settings do orbit their suns and not the other way around, but even if it's actually the latter, orbits induce wobble on the magnitude of thousands of km per rotation, not to mention the system's rotation in the galaxy, and the galaxy's movements in the universe. While pretty difficult to prove on the spot, most scenarios like this tend to have the player underestimating the difficulty of things going the way described. Of course, the DM does need to be aware of quite a lot of related facts to even start arguing back or coming up with an exploitable hole in the player's plan.

[@donavandunn9824]

My favorite use of the immovable rod is as a grappling hook with a rope of climbing. Just tie the rope over the activation just lightly enough so it doesn't activate and when you tell your rope to go up it will carry the rod with it. Once the rod is in a good place, Yank the rope which will activate the rod and now it is Tied to a fixed point in the sky for you to climb to.

[@flamei11usion]

"You activate the rod, after doing a bit of math in your head. It flies off into the sky, as the plain is not only spinning, but orbing around a star. Make a slight of hand to quickly try and stop it from flying off? You take all that damage you just calculated."

[@gnomewrecker1342]

As a DM I would rule that an enemy pined down by the rod can make a dexterity check to slide away from the rod, and that possibly the player needs to make his own strength/dex check to pin the enemy making the dex check to slide out easier or harder. It was also be affected by the surface the enemy is pinned against, like if it’s sand maybe it’s easier to get out of the pin.

[@ChanceCravesDeath]

Started a one (two) shot with one, given to me, not asked for. By the end of it, my fighter (don't judge, one of my first games) was using it to effectively fly, as our mages buffed me to the point of nearly never missing an acrobatics, stopping it in place, swinging off of it, deactivating it, then activating it again. God I love this item. The ones with the most options and consequences are the most broken, which is why they're always the most fun.

[@apeman505]

Well, I would argue on several of these points: 1) In the boat scenario, a small hole the diameter of the rod would only allow water into the bilge at a slow rate, and the crew of the ship would totally notice it before it became a problem. You could turn the rod sideways and knock a bunch of planks out of the boat, but that would allow so much water in that the players would drown. On the other hand, what is stopping the players from just boring a hole into the ship with a sword or drill? 2) I would argue that the Tobaxi pirate is lying on sand, and that with a successful DEX check he could easily wriggle out from under the rod. 3) If the rod worked in the manner the player argued in the Tarrasque situation, don't forget that in addition to rotating, the planet is also orbiting the sun. If the rod was truly immovable, it would either get buried into the dirt with 8,000 lbs of pressure or it would fly off into space never to be seen again. Obviously, the authors who invented the immovable rod intended it to be immovable in relationship to its position to the planet it's on. Furthermore, illustrations of the rod in the DM guides over the years have always shown the immovable rods to be roughly 1 foot long, or about the size of a lightsaber hilt, so I would go with that.

[@Sphendrana]

Did a character once who used two buckler shields with IR's for the handles, and a 6 inch spike in front. He was able to put a charging Minotaur down by using his reaction to activate it before impact. He also uses them like jungle gym bars he can move, so can climb in mid air. And has turned them into make shift stepping stones between large gaps. My absolute fav though was when he got difinistrated off the tallest tower of an annoyed wizard. He activated one mid fall to swing back in the other direction and the second to correct trajectory.... Threaded the needle back through the window.... Planting both feet into the wizards chest, Difinistrating him through the opposite window. Wizard hadn't bothered to learn any movement spells.....

[@soulslicer4288]

One way I rpevent a good number of shenanigans is explaining that the Rod Fixes itself with relativity in mind. If you are on a moving train and activate the rod it will remain suspended in air in that section of the train maintaining the trains movement speed at the initial activation.

[@soulslicer4288]

The argument I have for why it works that way follows the same argument as the last problem. If the rod is fixed in universal space when you activate it, it will always just fly off the planet at 1'000s of miles per hour.

[@the11382]

Maybe make it relative to the person who pressed the button when they activated it? Does weird things with jumping though.

[@EpicGamerScout]

Yeah that sounds like it'd just add a different set of shenanigans. Move your rod upwards while pressing the button, now you have a rod that will unstoppably(unless reaching the carrying limit) carry you into the sky!

[@DonnaPinciot]

Okay, some things I've thought of before watching the video or reading any comments, if it's bound to the local gravity well or plane and not 'the universe', is: Repeatedly jumping in to the air, locking it, then swinging off of it, unlocking, and re-locking, higher up. Would need quite good dexterity and decent strength, I'd imagine, but that would be a _really_ cool, niche way to get around sometimes. Could also do that by climbing the pole and swinging it around, but with similar results. The other thing I thought of is obvious: As a blockade, or the ultimate version of that 'stick your arm around a corner to clothesline someone' object. Put it in front of a door, and they ain't gettin' through without busting the door down. Use that on a pallisade or drawbridge to lock it in either position you want! Even stick it in some chains or gears to jam mechanisms, not necessarily door-related. You could also _maybe_ put it under your armor and use it as an anchor, buuut that sounds super dangerous and risky compared to the other things. Also, since it can apparently support great weight, you could possibly use it to help support a bridge or collapsing building. If your tower is giving way underneath you, maybe you can help anchor it in place by locking the rod? Might help keep people from collapsing. For an offensive use, maybe jam it in someone's mouth and lock it, or try to use it in combat. Oh, actually, that could be _awesome_ if you get good at it! Use it as defense, offense, a platform, a solid surface to push off, a fulcrum, all sorts of cool stuff! And heck, why not use it as an any time, any place, coat rack? Or to help pitch a tent, just place it up and drape a cloth over it! Set traps? Maybe a tripwire/tripping rope... thing, with one end bound to the floating immovable object and the other a tree to make detection more difficult? Can make it perfectly taut, just off the ground. And... what if you put it in a bag of holding? I don't remember if they're considered separate planes... Even if they are, what happens if you just open the bag and pull it over the locked rod? If the bag is merely bigger on the inside, could the rod rip it open? Could you set up an evil trap by placing it under a bunch of gold coins inside a bag of holding, and let someone rip it open? I think that causes some big problems if a bag of holding is damaged or destroyed, yes? Or is that just if you try recursive bags? EDIT, after watching the first scenario: Place it over a downed enemy as an interregation device! Lock them to the ground, the wall, prevent them from moving their arms to touch the button, and you can just leave them there, effectively unguarded, until they spill the beans! Or even just press one end (The non-button end) of the rod in to their torso, and boom. With the second scenario, I feel like it would only make sense to RP that a little. The character wakes up a little groggy, meeting the party, I assume? And comes up with the idea to break out with the rod. They ask the rest of the party about it, and formulates a plan with them, instead of doing everything themselves. If I was in that situation with a rod, that's what I'd do. EDIT 2: Now that I've fully watched the video, it was cool to see some general concepts I came up with in here, too! I didn't get _quite_ as vicious with the thing, especially that 'magically hold someone under shallow water as they slowly drown', that's awful. Makes me actually wonder if there has been a pacifist 'run' in a D&D campaign? Spare the lives of as many NPCs and creatures as possible. Don't just slaughter the droves of goblins or whatever, find some way to do things _relatively_ peacefully.

[@Hardymovies]

I love it when my players pull shenanigans like this. I gave them an immovable rod last session and said to them “Please make me regret giving this to you”. I love to enable their creativity

[@mikehorrocks2909]

Upon reading your comment a particular verse popped into my head: “Darkness falls across the land; The midnight hours’ close at hand…” Sorry that I can’t continue, but my mind has been replaying this very song for the past few minutes. And with the way my brain is wired, it’s going to take awhile before it goes away. Cheers!🤪

[@enkiduthewildman]

The Tarrasque weighs more than 8000 lbs and can easily beat a DC 30 STR check. The rod bounces off it's chest and drops to the ground. The Tarrasque doesn't notice. [edited for spelling]

[@mrosskne]

Tarrasque.

[@darkpheonix77]

First one. You deactivate if before it goes out of your reach. It is now lodged in the hull of the ship Ishtar a small leak around it. DC 30 str to pull it out.

[@burgernthemomrailer]

DC 30 strength check to pull a stick out of an old ship’s hull. Good one, idiot.

[@Brighton40k]

With the last example and the tarask, the wand will fly away forever because of the rotation of the earth and because of the movement around the sun, and then because of the movement of the sun inside the galaxy and something else. It is reasonable for the master to ask why this did not happen in the example with the ship. In general, in none of the examples would the players have been able to use the wand in a broken way The hole in the ship is simply plugged by experienced sailors The captain simply gets out from under the rod, because he does not need to lift the rod himself, he can simply move sideways. he is pressed down hard, but at risk of drowning, he may tear his clothes or even his skin to get out. And if the bottom is sandy, then it will not be difficult for anyone at all. In general, the rod can't do anything terrible.

[@jaelwyn]

Ruling: the reference frame is based on "what is down" (i.e. what is the dominant gravitational influence in the region). Which does lead to some interesting consequences if you use it on a Spelljamming ship, potentially, but probably not horribly game-breaking - and as one might expect some could be pretty darn useful, in a purely utilitarian way. But this provides fairly intuitive behaviors (and a relatively difficult time abusing it too badly). Also: the ship example is easy: when deactivated, either the rod A) has not yet penetrated the hull, in which case no big deal, B) has penetrated the hull but is partially or fully plugging the hole, or C) has fully penetrated the hull. If A then who cares, if C then no you aren't going to be able to reach through and grab it unless the ship is going so slowly that the rod would have just stopped it rather than breaking the hull, and if B then you'll need another dexterity check to avoid injury as the rod is forced back into the ship by water pressure (how much injury depends on how deep, don't try this very far down). And… the GM ruling that the ship is going to sink needs to read up a bit on naval reality. If it is a combat ship then it might actually withstand that amount of pressure, although *probably* not, but to get the force focused enough to punch a hole through is going to meal the hole is only a couple of inches across. That… isn't very big, especially not in relation to a ship large enough to be doing piracy. Which will also have plenty of capacity to move water out of the hold of the ship… and materials onboard to repair exactly this sort of damage. Or a caster who can just use 'mend'. If it sinks the ship, the captain would qualify instantly for running for "worst pirate ever". Probably "worst captain ever", period. But in all likelihood if the characters were that deep in the hold and punched a hole that couldn't be patched, the most immediate result would simply be the characters drowning, stuck in the brig while the ship as a whole stayed mostly afloat due to the timbers being at least somewhat buoyant (even if it might not be able to move very well).

[@Icosiol]

This is where the new rule of “Yes” becomes the tried and true rule of “No.”

[@GalisSlipscale]

A lot of these type of magic item problems go away if you don't consider the materials the items are made with to be infinitely strong, and the magic effect to have infinite force. That does make the DM have to make a call about HOW strong they are if they don't specify, but then, the DM guide doesn't tell you exactly how much force it takes to bend or break a regular metal rod either.

[@fatewalker]

The DMG has clear rules for objects to include AC HP and Resistances.

[@DogBehaviorGuy]

The rod doesn't do damage. If something that weighs 8,000 lbs or more pushes on it at all, it deactivates. Material strength doesn't matter.

[@HeliosRed95]

Situations like these are always difficult to deal with, it's understandable that some don't want to deal with them. But I've seen other DMs use things like Legendary Actions/Resistances to avoid "cheesing" a boss. At the same time I can see the virtues of players being resourceful and utilizing an item for an opportune moment. It's our job as DMs to think on the fly for wacky situations like these, it comes with the territory of narrating a tale of adventure. Expect the unexpected, and make the solution fun for everyone.

[@danielwarren7110]

Love the concept of the video but sorry some issues here. the standard measurements for a 35ft wooden boat built in this day and age (with thinner wood than in medieval times) you should use the naval architect's measurement called 'sinkage'. This allows for that 35ft boat to hold upto 10,000lb per 0.75 inch of hull. work out what the resistance that is greater than 8.000lb/length*width(in inches) for example a 2 foot bar say 2 inches high to allow for the button would only have 166lbs per square inch of pressure. in this case unless the boat was sailing very fast it would cause a brake action on the boat but probably would not go through it depending on speed. if the bar was 4ft long as requested the it would only have 83lbs of pressure per square inch... the longer the pole the less actual force it can bring to bear. And we have a limit of 8,000lbs so once the counter force was greater than that it would just move the bar. This is a great object to hold a human down with, or to suspend in the air and try a rope off of. Or even if you can click the button repeatedly quick enough to salmon ladder with. If the bar was orientated inside the boat on the horizontal plane perfectly level then it would push a hole through the wood the same as the area of a cross section of the rod. so about 2inch by 2 inch which is not that big in the grand scheme of things. Most wooden medieval sailing boats were always leaking which is why bilge pumps were and are a thing A 2inch diameter hole on the back of a sailing vessel which would be on the aft, would be in the wake of the vessel while moving, so low pressure water, so it is not going to force its way in side it more going to be a slow leak inside, whilst the boat is moving, most other areas of the ship/storms will bring water in faster. So the pirate would have time if it does leak to note the ship is slowly and i mean slowly becoming heavy in the aft, definately enough time to send a member of the crew to investigate and find a leak as from the aft being heavier they would know leak. If the bar was perpendicular to direction of travel it would cause a braking action which actually might do more damage to the ship as putting all joints and joins under sudden stress, but then it would just either anchor the ship (not substantial damage) or add greater drag to the ship (slows it) both of which would be able to be felt at the helm as being from the aft of the ship. Great distraction but not catastrophic failure, unless the ship was already falling apart, in which case it is more likely to meet rotted wood and just go straight though and we are back to a 2inch by 4 foot hole, if horizontal or somewhere down to a 2in by 2 inch hole depending on orientation... even a 4 foot by 2inch hole would not sink the ship.. cannon balls below the water line make bigger holes than that and a ship can take multiple hits in battle before needing to worry (obviously worry once battle has stopped = but not worry as in we are going to sink in the next 10 minutes.) Concerning the "nuclear option" This would imply the bar is not locked to the planet, in which case depending on which side of the planet you are on it is going to either fly up into space as the planet is also moving through space not just rotating, or try and bury itself into the planet's surface until it finds a higher resistance than whatever lb/in^2 it is ... but if this was the case then it would work like this every time you used it for any reason. holding a person to the ground do-able but the longer the bar the more unstable that bar would be... so the 2ft one would be better at this. Arm wrestling, funny and do-able Using it as a brake for yourself on a run away horse do-able but likely to rip your shoulders out of the joints 30mp to 0mp in an instant. same with falling, think Garfield Spiderman saving Gwen. So reality wise in the air to try a rope to Holding a door or window closed a mobile place to tie your horse to. a fun way to climb a mountain. there plenty of ways to use it in the game but not as catastrophic as making things explode. Though.... put in the way of someone falling see gwen stacy put in front of a moving horse or wagon messy destruction of horse flesh. put in front of fast moving human also messy destruction of human flesh. depending on the armour of a dragon and pressure it can take per sq/in probably brusing to a fast flying dragon... seeing as most swords can not go through their scales and they are pointy so that the lbs/in^2 is maximized. Sorry to be a poo-poo-platerhead.

[@landonvincent9586]

In one of our campaigns we had the immovable rod not move relative to everything so it would fly off in a direction and never be seen again until we got it back with a wish spell.

[@lordoblivion812]

First one might work. It could be decided that taking the forward momentum of the ship is the same as taking the weight of the ship, which would cause the rod to immediately deactivate. It would also take ages for a ship to sink like that, plus it takes a full action to deactivate the rod so it seems impossible to deactivate it after it breaks through the hull but before it leaves the hull. Second one would just mean the guy has to go slightly sideways or just dig very slightly through the damp sand that he is lying on until he has more room to move sideways. Last one is just not how the rod works.

[@Mr_Yod]

First one is just what a monk or a barbarian would to with fists, so: even monks and barbarians destroy your campaigns? So: let me intruce you to a wizard o sorcerer... =) Second one can work, if the rod gives the player 735 actions per round and garanteed success in every one of them and has a semi-paralyzing effect on the enemy, but then again: even monks and barbarians can to that (yes: without the rod they wouldn't have guaranteed success for all their 735 actions per round). Besides: if the enemy is not a contorsionist the rod can even be only 30cm long but, if put in the right spot on the back, it would be extremely hard for said enemy to press the button (assuming the semi-paralyzing effect of the rod as apparently stated in the video). The last one is just an insult to intelligence.

[@eg_manifest510]

take two immovable rods, lift one in the air and activate, pull yourself up above it, raise your other rod above the first and activate, deactivate original rod and repeat. Now you can infinitely climb upwards assuming you're strong enough to hoist yourself and dexterous enough to hold on. Realistically you could climb as fast as you can press a button and swing your arms. Alternatively you could flap your arms and activate the immovable rod during the downwards swing, then reactivate to lift your arms and repeat

[@RedYDG]

"So there I was, so damned sure of myself with the rod in hand. I focus on the relative point in space I wanted the rod to stay, press the button, and suddenly I'm just floating in some empty void and a circle that I assume was the world we're on just flew off. I got cold real fast, and it felt like my entire body just started deflating fast. I'm pretty sure I was going to die, but fortunately I had a potion that was meant for planar survival that lasted until the magic felt I was somewhere safe. It was really expensive. The potion and my ring of sustenance kept me alive. My old friends told me I had been gone for months before they managed a wish spell to get me back after attempts at resurrection had failed. You'd think an experience like that would break me. The silence, the darkness, the isolation... But no, I just dropped another twenty thousand gold on more immovable rods. I think I can weaponize the void."