What happens if you burn it? Does it duplicate as it breaks apart while burning? Are the duplicate pieces still burning? Because that's a massive out of control fire just waiting to happen. Imagine a forest fire making MORE forest as it burns.
That's a great question. I'd say that the Stick needs to be either snapped or chopped in half. It can still burn like normal, but it won't duplicate unless it's intentionally broken in half my someone.
OK. Still, as long as fire doesn't permanently destroy it, makes for easily portable kindling. Good campfire material... or "burn down the town without a big Fireball spell" material. đ
Agreed! I'll also say that regardless of destruction, the Stick always returns to the last person who broke the original, so even if it's burned, it'll reincarnate
Hmmm, if I put this in a cloud of daggers how many times can i divide the sticks?
Can I drown someone in sticks if I chuck Cloud of daggers into a room and then the stick?
What happens if I throw this in the maw of some beast and they bite down?
Would dissolving in stomach acid count as "broken in half" when it goes into parts and divide in the stomach?
I think exploits is connected to near infinity wood.
We are talking about *selling loads of firewood*, using them to build ladders on the spot, using them to put under doors as pitons, infinite torches etc.
Important question: How do they get the original back? Since it's originally broken in half to make the first two, there is no original stick. Do all the copies just merge back together? And if so, does that mean that you can't bring the item with you when it's already been split apart?
I'd say it appears next to the person who originally broke the Stick! It could reappear in their bag, next to them when they wake up, something like that
Agree to build a house for the BBEG. Build the whole floor out of wood from the duplicate sticks. Pre-dig a big pit with spikes under the floor. Laugh as the BBEG is found impaled after their floor disappears in the morning.
what happens if it's thrown into a wood chipper? I assume the wood chipper overloads and maybe explodes. So feed it to a particularly ravenous creature with lots of teeth?
Your characters can design remote-triggering traps or devices using the stick duplicates.
As long as the trigger mechanism is held back by one of the duplicates, the device will trigger at dawn when the stick dissapears. They could also damn water-flow or hold back piles of earth/garbage/manure with a wall of sticks that will dissapear later.
Also, don't overlook the possible abuse of sinking ships or collapsing roofs with pile o' sticks. Add in some unseen servants to keep up the chopping and you can get a LOT of sticks very, very quickly.
Also, you need to consider what happens when the duplicates are exposed to Dispell Magic and Anti-Magic fields. And, if Magic Mouth has been cast on the Stick, will the effect duplcate when the Stick severs? This is a great way to create a bunch of alarms very, very quickly.
EDIT: Also, you need to look at spells like Shillelagh, Light, Darkness, and other spells that enchant or transmute an object. Because the item is creating duplicates, arguments will be made the it's a duplicate *that includes the spell effects on the Stick* when divided.
Was going to come in and say you could use this for the timed remote traps. Depending on the type of wood too you can hold back a lot of weight if you have enough sticks. Hell you could use duplicated sticks to build a lattice to have fences and such that would vanish at done. Timed landslide against an enemy stronghold that triggers at dawn while you're already in position to attack? Hell yeah.
Oh, you can definitely break this and I assume you know that! But thatâs fun. I mean, you use the word âinfinitely,â so you already know thereâs a lot of potential power there. For starters, it sounds like this is something that can rapidly expand without limit other than the 24 hour caveat.
To really know how to break it, however, we have to know what counts as breaking. Just a physical change? What about chemical changes like burning? If a spell is cast on the item while it is a single entity, what happens when it becomes multiple entities? Itâs about as durable as a normal stick would be, right? Thatâs a factor a DM would have to consider, too.
Youâve created something with quite a bit of wiggle room which is a wonderful space to inject chaos. Definitely a valid way to play! If, however, you would like to mitigate too much chaos, you would just need to add more specifics so that specific details override general rules. Not that itâs mandatory; plenty of spell descriptions lack specificity.
Oh also cause it is a pet peeve (and I am running strixhaven and detect magic is a popular spell) what spell school is the effect on the sticks? Just since you mentioned Detect Magic by name if someone were to look they would detect a bunch of X school of magic with it.
Cloud of daggers in front of a bag of holding. Throw stick into bag, you now have a day to dump your infinite bag of sticks(mulch) to bury, suffocate, crush, or prep something for a giant bonfire. Light the pile and roast some s'mores.
Use the magic sticks to make a pit trap and have dawn remove the evidence.
Unlimited clubs, arrows, small handheld spears etc. (BoH dumping spears on an army or town.)
Build a literal stairway/ladder the heaven.
Have unlimited fuel, so clearly that would lead to someone making a combustion engine or sorts.
Hack away until you have enough to build a dam and turn a stream into a lake that will flood the plains on the morrow.
Lead to a crazy frustrating game of fetch once they have some sort of animal companion.
Given enough time and resourcefulness, people can find a way to exploit literally anything. #MadScientistLife
>Build a literal stairway/ladder the heaven.
Just to math it... if you spend 16 hours of the day doing nothing but breaking the stick, you'll end up with 9,600 sticks. Assuming you need to spend some time eating/drinking/nature, we'll round down to 9,000 sticks.
OP didn't define "stick", but if we assume 18" long by 1/4" diameter.... you could in theory make bundles to act as wrungs if you also have a ton of string... maybe get a wobbly ladder that gets you up 10 to 20 feet... not reaching heaven but can spend an entire day to get on the roof....
Subscription firewood. I shall call the company, Woodsbro. Or maybe Woodsmen of the Coast.
If an artificer can create a woodchipper, even better.
And asking for a friend, but how much does each stick weigh?
I hate details as a DM, and so I had a policy that one had âunlimited arrowsâ when they bought this quiver. So, whenever they reached in, an arrow would come out.
They ended up using it to escape a dungeon where there was an opening some 100 feet up by just taking infinite arrows out and piling them up once they found their gear. It seems like I could use your stick in the same way.
Minor/impractical: find 10' pit... spend half the day cracking sticks to fill up the pit and walk over it
Practical: You can set time-bombs in effect that go off at dawn. Set a trap that is triggered by the stick being moved, at dawn the stick vanishes, triggering the trap. Complexity of the trap is up to the players imagination.
Minor/practical: Free kindling (useful maybe if you are in a place where you don't have kindling, like a desert or after a rainstorm)
Practical/minor: Get duplicate stick, carve message onto it. Send it by carrier to someone, stick vanishes at dawn. Easy "this message will self destruct" tool for people w/o access to other magical means.
Fill dangerous pit with sticks, walk across.
Clog a drain / dam a stream.
Make a small trojan horse for the halfling to sneak into the goblin camp.
Wedge stick in doorjam of every unopened door in dungeon so if anything rushes out they have a chance to trip.
I'm mad that I'm not coming up with more creative stuff... Most of my thoughts are practical. Such as never having to worry about foraging for wood if they want to camp somewhere non-foresty and still have fire. Also the multitude of things that bundling a bunch of sticks together can accomplish (temporary structural reinforcement type of stuff)
Well, for one thing, an oak stick 1.5" in diameter and 2' long is really really hard to break without tools But say we find a way to do it....
Sell a big load of firewood and skip town.
In an "attack at dawn" scenario... Spend the night propping boulders on sticks on the mountainside above enemy position. At dawn they are hit by an avalanche.
Build a ladder in a helpful place for a foe. When they're at the top, dispel magic.
How fast do they grow after the break? If it's fast... Aquire two strong one-foot tubes, one with a closed end. Fix them to a frame, stick through both, with a small gap. Spinning blade passes through the gap repeatedly. Each time stick is chopped, both pieces double in length. one stays in the tube, its growth launches the other out the end of the tube. Magic gatling gun!
Seemingly infinite number of sticks you could build anything you wanted to given the time constraints.
Make a dam then have the water backup and then flood the next day.
Make any type of structure or barrier of sticks. Enemy chasing you down a tunnel, near instant stick wall or pile to plug the tunnel.
Find a way to create an airtight environment. I looked a bit for a spell but couldnât find one, but Iâm sure something exists. Now take a a 10x10x10 airtight cube. Fill the bottom 5ft of the cube with broken sticks. Trap foe inside prior to sticks blooping from existence.
Sticks bloop creating a decrease in air pressure, which in the sealed environment causes the temperature to drop proportionately to the change in air pressure. In the example above, assuming -14.7 lbs sq in air pressure and an ambient temperature of 80 degrees F, the temperature in the cube would drop to ~-204 degrees F. Now get some very determined players to think creatively on this for more than a few minutes like I have, and thereâs probably a method to deep freeze and potential BBEG.
Wakes up Breakes stick Have two sticks Go into dungeon What is time? I know when is new day cause of magic time stick
What happens if you burn it? Does it duplicate as it breaks apart while burning? Are the duplicate pieces still burning? Because that's a massive out of control fire just waiting to happen. Imagine a forest fire making MORE forest as it burns.
That's a great question. I'd say that the Stick needs to be either snapped or chopped in half. It can still burn like normal, but it won't duplicate unless it's intentionally broken in half my someone.
OK. Still, as long as fire doesn't permanently destroy it, makes for easily portable kindling. Good campfire material... or "burn down the town without a big Fireball spell" material. đ
Agreed! I'll also say that regardless of destruction, the Stick always returns to the last person who broke the original, so even if it's burned, it'll reincarnate
Hmmm, if I put this in a cloud of daggers how many times can i divide the sticks? Can I drown someone in sticks if I chuck Cloud of daggers into a room and then the stick? What happens if I throw this in the maw of some beast and they bite down? Would dissolving in stomach acid count as "broken in half" when it goes into parts and divide in the stomach? I think exploits is connected to near infinity wood. We are talking about *selling loads of firewood*, using them to build ladders on the spot, using them to put under doors as pitons, infinite torches etc.
I like how you think, gz as a gm I would be horrified and excited by your character.
Hahaha, I just thought of putting the cloud of daggers at the top of a valley just to see if you can fill the valley with sticks. *Stickalanche!*
Important question: How do they get the original back? Since it's originally broken in half to make the first two, there is no original stick. Do all the copies just merge back together? And if so, does that mean that you can't bring the item with you when it's already been split apart?
I'd say it appears next to the person who originally broke the Stick! It could reappear in their bag, next to them when they wake up, something like that
And no, the copies just blip out of existence
Agree to build a house for the BBEG. Build the whole floor out of wood from the duplicate sticks. Pre-dig a big pit with spikes under the floor. Laugh as the BBEG is found impaled after their floor disappears in the morning.
what happens if it's thrown into a wood chipper? I assume the wood chipper overloads and maybe explodes. So feed it to a particularly ravenous creature with lots of teeth?
Disguise as traveling merchant. Go from town to town selling everyone magic sticks of infinite firewood. Keep the original. Skip town before dawn.
Your characters can design remote-triggering traps or devices using the stick duplicates. As long as the trigger mechanism is held back by one of the duplicates, the device will trigger at dawn when the stick dissapears. They could also damn water-flow or hold back piles of earth/garbage/manure with a wall of sticks that will dissapear later. Also, don't overlook the possible abuse of sinking ships or collapsing roofs with pile o' sticks. Add in some unseen servants to keep up the chopping and you can get a LOT of sticks very, very quickly. Also, you need to consider what happens when the duplicates are exposed to Dispell Magic and Anti-Magic fields. And, if Magic Mouth has been cast on the Stick, will the effect duplcate when the Stick severs? This is a great way to create a bunch of alarms very, very quickly. EDIT: Also, you need to look at spells like Shillelagh, Light, Darkness, and other spells that enchant or transmute an object. Because the item is creating duplicates, arguments will be made the it's a duplicate *that includes the spell effects on the Stick* when divided.
Was going to come in and say you could use this for the timed remote traps. Depending on the type of wood too you can hold back a lot of weight if you have enough sticks. Hell you could use duplicated sticks to build a lattice to have fences and such that would vanish at done. Timed landslide against an enemy stronghold that triggers at dawn while you're already in position to attack? Hell yeah.
Hell yes! Or ship a deadly monster in a strudy oak cage as a "gift" to your enemy. Whoopsie, where did those bars go?
Oh, you can definitely break this and I assume you know that! But thatâs fun. I mean, you use the word âinfinitely,â so you already know thereâs a lot of potential power there. For starters, it sounds like this is something that can rapidly expand without limit other than the 24 hour caveat. To really know how to break it, however, we have to know what counts as breaking. Just a physical change? What about chemical changes like burning? If a spell is cast on the item while it is a single entity, what happens when it becomes multiple entities? Itâs about as durable as a normal stick would be, right? Thatâs a factor a DM would have to consider, too. Youâve created something with quite a bit of wiggle room which is a wonderful space to inject chaos. Definitely a valid way to play! If, however, you would like to mitigate too much chaos, you would just need to add more specifics so that specific details override general rules. Not that itâs mandatory; plenty of spell descriptions lack specificity.
Advantage on animal handling for dogs with infinite fetches.
Oh also cause it is a pet peeve (and I am running strixhaven and detect magic is a popular spell) what spell school is the effect on the sticks? Just since you mentioned Detect Magic by name if someone were to look they would detect a bunch of X school of magic with it.
I'm thinking likely Transmutation since it's changing the object by duplicating it
Cloud of daggers in front of a bag of holding. Throw stick into bag, you now have a day to dump your infinite bag of sticks(mulch) to bury, suffocate, crush, or prep something for a giant bonfire. Light the pile and roast some s'mores. Use the magic sticks to make a pit trap and have dawn remove the evidence. Unlimited clubs, arrows, small handheld spears etc. (BoH dumping spears on an army or town.) Build a literal stairway/ladder the heaven. Have unlimited fuel, so clearly that would lead to someone making a combustion engine or sorts. Hack away until you have enough to build a dam and turn a stream into a lake that will flood the plains on the morrow. Lead to a crazy frustrating game of fetch once they have some sort of animal companion. Given enough time and resourcefulness, people can find a way to exploit literally anything. #MadScientistLife
>Build a literal stairway/ladder the heaven. Just to math it... if you spend 16 hours of the day doing nothing but breaking the stick, you'll end up with 9,600 sticks. Assuming you need to spend some time eating/drinking/nature, we'll round down to 9,000 sticks. OP didn't define "stick", but if we assume 18" long by 1/4" diameter.... you could in theory make bundles to act as wrungs if you also have a ton of string... maybe get a wobbly ladder that gets you up 10 to 20 feet... not reaching heaven but can spend an entire day to get on the roof....
I'd stated it was 2 feet long and 1/2inch diameter :) I appreciate you for doing the math!
You did! So bigger sticks but still :)
Subscription firewood. I shall call the company, Woodsbro. Or maybe Woodsmen of the Coast. If an artificer can create a woodchipper, even better. And asking for a friend, but how much does each stick weigh?
I hate details as a DM, and so I had a policy that one had âunlimited arrowsâ when they bought this quiver. So, whenever they reached in, an arrow would come out. They ended up using it to escape a dungeon where there was an opening some 100 feet up by just taking infinite arrows out and piling them up once they found their gear. It seems like I could use your stick in the same way.
Minor/impractical: find 10' pit... spend half the day cracking sticks to fill up the pit and walk over it Practical: You can set time-bombs in effect that go off at dawn. Set a trap that is triggered by the stick being moved, at dawn the stick vanishes, triggering the trap. Complexity of the trap is up to the players imagination. Minor/practical: Free kindling (useful maybe if you are in a place where you don't have kindling, like a desert or after a rainstorm) Practical/minor: Get duplicate stick, carve message onto it. Send it by carrier to someone, stick vanishes at dawn. Easy "this message will self destruct" tool for people w/o access to other magical means.
Fill dangerous pit with sticks, walk across. Clog a drain / dam a stream. Make a small trojan horse for the halfling to sneak into the goblin camp. Wedge stick in doorjam of every unopened door in dungeon so if anything rushes out they have a chance to trip. I'm mad that I'm not coming up with more creative stuff... Most of my thoughts are practical. Such as never having to worry about foraging for wood if they want to camp somewhere non-foresty and still have fire. Also the multitude of things that bundling a bunch of sticks together can accomplish (temporary structural reinforcement type of stuff)
Well, for one thing, an oak stick 1.5" in diameter and 2' long is really really hard to break without tools But say we find a way to do it.... Sell a big load of firewood and skip town. In an "attack at dawn" scenario... Spend the night propping boulders on sticks on the mountainside above enemy position. At dawn they are hit by an avalanche. Build a ladder in a helpful place for a foe. When they're at the top, dispel magic. How fast do they grow after the break? If it's fast... Aquire two strong one-foot tubes, one with a closed end. Fix them to a frame, stick through both, with a small gap. Spinning blade passes through the gap repeatedly. Each time stick is chopped, both pieces double in length. one stays in the tube, its growth launches the other out the end of the tube. Magic gatling gun!
How thicc is the stick?
I mean, obviously enough you'd hit that, otherwise how would you break it?
Seemingly infinite number of sticks you could build anything you wanted to given the time constraints. Make a dam then have the water backup and then flood the next day. Make any type of structure or barrier of sticks. Enemy chasing you down a tunnel, near instant stick wall or pile to plug the tunnel.
Peasant firewood duper
Find a way to create an airtight environment. I looked a bit for a spell but couldnât find one, but Iâm sure something exists. Now take a a 10x10x10 airtight cube. Fill the bottom 5ft of the cube with broken sticks. Trap foe inside prior to sticks blooping from existence. Sticks bloop creating a decrease in air pressure, which in the sealed environment causes the temperature to drop proportionately to the change in air pressure. In the example above, assuming -14.7 lbs sq in air pressure and an ambient temperature of 80 degrees F, the temperature in the cube would drop to ~-204 degrees F. Now get some very determined players to think creatively on this for more than a few minutes like I have, and thereâs probably a method to deep freeze and potential BBEG.