temporal stasis spell: interpretations
verkuilen john v
had disappeared and was put into temporal stasis. Unfortunately in the
process of finding the person, they struck the body (it was disguised), and
as the striking object was a sword of sharpness with a high roll, I ruled
that the person was cut in two. This was (somewhat) disputed by the
players, who were convinced that temporal stasis should have given total
protection from such things. I read the spell and, since it indicated no
such level of protection (and indicated that metabolic processes were still
ongoing at a very low level), ruled that the person was cut in two.
Questions:
-How have you handled this spell?
-Does temporal stasis take the target "outside of time," as one of my players
said, or what?
-Is the person still alive and in stasis even though his head is separate
from his body?
I don't plan to change my ruling on this, especially since actions were
taken regarding the decapitation and it fits the plot nicely, but since
it was controversial, I would like to hear from others on this.
Please, no "you're the DM, so it stands" responses. I already know this,
but don't agree that the DM is the dictator of the game (meaning I allow
players to challenge rulings provided they can give a solid argument in
favor of their case).
--
Jay Verkuilen ja...@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu
In the warped world of Mattel talking doll conversations:
Talking Barbie(TM)--"Math is tough!"
Talking Ken(TM)--"Group theory is intuitively obvious."
Heath I Hunnicutt
>Questions:
>-How have you handled this spell?
I have ruled that the person is not "taken out of time." But is just
experiencing time much more slowly than we are. By 'experience', I mean
that all thei microscopic processes are taking place as if time had
slowed down.
>-Does temporal stasis take the target "outside of time," as one of my players
>said, or what?
>-Is the person still alive and in stasis even though his head is separate
>from his body?
I would suggest that it would take years and years for the blood pressure
in his head to drop enough to kill him, so he is still alive. Within
a few days, pain sensations will have traveled up his nerves, and he will
be in agony.
>I don't plan to change my ruling on this, especially since actions were
>taken regarding the decapitation and it fits the plot nicely, but since
>it was controversial, I would like to hear from others on this.
If they want to bring him back, they have (IMO) plenty of time to carefully
put his head back and /Heal/ him before he even notices the decapitation.
:)
>Please, no "you're the DM, so it stands" responses. I already know this,
>but don't agree that the DM is the dictator of the game (meaning I allow
>players to challenge rulings provided they can give a solid argument in
>favor of their case).
Heath
Robert Savoie
> I recently had some pc's find an important person in the campaign who
> had disappeared and was put into temporal stasis. Unfortunately in the
> process of finding the person, they struck the body (it was disguised), and
> as the striking object was a sword of sharpness with a high roll, I ruled
> that the person was cut in two. This was (somewhat) disputed by the
> players, who were convinced that temporal stasis should have given total
> protection from such things. I read the spell and, since it indicated no
> such level of protection (and indicated that metabolic processes were still
> ongoing at a very low level), ruled that the person was cut in two.
I tend to agree with your ruling. I mean, any person put into temporal
stasis will not be affected by his own body, such as sickness, or
aging, or any other natural life process. Yet, anything that comes
into contact with a person or creature in stasis will affect its
outcome when it is brought out of stasis.
> Questions:
> -How have you handled this spell?
I have only seen a person put into temporal stasis by the use of a
Wish. The interpretation may be different, but the Wish did specify
that the person to be put into stasis was to be surrounded by a
magical shield, as well as to be given resistance to fire and acid.
> -Is the person still alive and in stasis even though his head is separate
> from his body?
Well. I think he would still be alive if he were brought out of
stasis. Yet, without his body having a head, he would die the moment
he were brought out of stasis.
I would allow the character to live, if the head were reattached to
his body, by any means that would make him viable again (time to call
a healer, or a surgeon). I might even throw in the necessity of using
a Bless spell (i know, but isn't cutting someone's head off damning
them to forever be tormented in hell?).
> I don't plan to change my ruling on this, especially since actions were
> taken regarding the decapitation and it fits the plot nicely, but since
> it was controversial, I would like to hear from others on this.
I agree also that rulings should not always be absolute. This allow a
greater latitude of development in the adventure.
--
Robert Savoie
Just your run of the mill person!
===========================================
Email addresses: rsa...@chat.carleton.ca
===========================================
AE
> I recently had some pc's find an important person in the campaign who
> had disappeared and was put into temporal stasis. Unfortunately in the
> process of finding the person, they struck the body (it was disguised), and
> as the striking object was a sword of sharpness with a high roll, I ruled
> that the person was cut in two. This was (somewhat) disputed by the
> players, who were convinced that temporal stasis should have given total
> protection from such things. I read the spell and, since it indicated no
> such level of protection (and indicated that metabolic processes were still
> ongoing at a very low level), ruled that the person was cut in two.
>
> Questions:
> -How have you handled this spell?
blade that is actually in the field would slow down immensely.
What the players would feel is the sword would hit something
*really* hard. Therefore they couldn't chop through unless they waited
a loooooong time for the slowed sword to do its work.
Pushing hard or whacking repeatedly would just break the blade.
> -Does temporal stasis take the target "outside of time," as one of my players
> said, or what?
I agree with them. While in a TS field you are totally immune to outside
effects. You are not actually "outside time", but real world things have
to enter the field to affect you, so they should be subject to its affects
too.
Alanzar the Well-dilated
verkuilen john v
>Jay Verkuilen writes:
>> I recently had some pc's find an important person in the campaign who
>> had disappeared and was put into temporal stasis. Unfortunately in the
>> process of finding the person, they struck the body (it was disguised), and
>> as the striking object was a sword of sharpness with a high roll, I ruled
>> that the person was cut in two. This was (somewhat) disputed by the
>> players, who were convinced that temporal stasis should have given total
>> protection from such things. I read the spell and, since it indicated no
>> such level of protection (and indicated that metabolic processes were still
>> ongoing at a very low level), ruled that the person was cut in two.
>>
>> Questions:
>> -How have you handled this spell?
>Since the sword has entered the field, the time frame of the bit of the
>blade that is actually in the field would slow down immensely.
>What the players would feel is the sword would hit something
>*really* hard. Therefore they couldn't chop through unless they waited
>a loooooong time for the slowed sword to do its work.
>Pushing hard or whacking repeatedly would just break the blade.
Actually, this sword wouldn't have been damaged by the temporal stasis spell,
since it is SWORD, the archetype of all swords obtained in the world of forms.
The essential nature of a sword is to cut true without breaking and I assumed
that in the manifest world, it was a sword of sharpness. HAMMER has also
appeared in my campaign. I guess it was a really wierd night when I
gave that one out, but you could say that I had been reading too much Plato
some time before! <grin> A "lucky" PC got to visit there after getting lost in
the astral plane and then getting involved in a conflict between a deva and
a devil. He and the deva eventually drove the devil off, but the deva
didn't know what to do with him and so the deva put him in the world of forms,
figuring he couldn't do much there. then he got sent on a mission by a VIP
and, since his magic items reverted to their true natures in the world of
forms, he was loaned SWORD for a while. Suffice to say that such an item
cannot be destroyed although they did whack at an artifact with it without
success (direct power of a diety could resist it).
>> -Does temporal stasis take the target "outside of time," as one of my players
>> said, or what?
>I agree with them. While in a TS field you are totally immune to outside
>effects. You are not actually "outside time", but real world things have
>to enter the field to affect you, so they should be subject to its affects
>too.
Have you seen an "offical" cite on this one? The spell is badly worded.
I operated on my usual assumption that if TSR doesn't directly say what the
spell does, the spell doesn't have that property unless it is an immediately
logical conclusion of the spell effect. TS doesn't say it keeps you alive
from outside harm, it just says it puts you to sleep permanently, staving
off aging and other biological processes, until dispelled, and I called that
extra protection was not a logical conclusion. Could go both ways, though.
In any event, since lack of metabolic processes is what kills a person, and
the decapitated character is currently in stasis, they don't need to worry
that he's dead--at least for another decade or so. <evil DM grin>
Lawrence R. Mead
: process of finding the person, they struck the body (it was disguised), and
: as the striking object was a sword of sharpness with a high roll, I ruled
: that the person was cut in two. This was (somewhat) disputed by the
: players, who were convinced that temporal stasis should have given total
: protection from such things. I read the spell and, since it indicated no
: such level of protection (and indicated that metabolic processes were still
: ongoing at a very low level), ruled that the person was cut in two.
: Questions:
: -How have you handled this spell?
: -Does temporal stasis take the target "outside of time," as one of my players
: said, or what?
: -Is the person still alive and in stasis even though his head is separate
: from his body?
: I don't plan to change my ruling on this, especially since actions were
: taken regarding the decapitation and it fits the plot nicely, but since
: it was controversial, I would like to hear from others on this.
: Please, no "you're the DM, so it stands" responses. I already know this,
: but don't agree that the DM is the dictator of the game (meaning I allow
: players to challenge rulings provided they can give a solid argument in
: favor of their case).
I see no reason why the individual could not be affected in any normal
way. One might reasonably rule that whatever is *physically* done to
alter the persons state ( other than simply carry him ) will happen slowly,
but even that is not really necessary. I think you handled it OK.
:
: --
: Jay Verkuilen ja...@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu
: In the warped world of Mattel talking doll conversations:
: Talking Barbie(TM)--"Math is tough!"
: Talking Ken(TM)--"Group theory is intuitively obvious."
DMGorgon
--
Lawrence R. Mead (lrm...@whale.st.usm.edu) | ESCHEW OBFUSCATION !
Associate Professor of Physics | ESPOUSE ELUCIDATION !
Scuminus Dregg
: verkuilen john v (ja...@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu) wrote:
(details of situation deleted. Summary: can you cut in half someone in
Temporal Stasis?)
: I see no reason why the individual could not be affected in any normal
: way. One might reasonably rule that whatever is *physically* done to
: alter the persons state ( other than simply carry him ) will happen slowly,
: but even that is not really necessary. I think you handled it OK.
It says nothing about protections in the spell description. It all
depends on how you run the spell. If it's only stasis like suspended
animation, as in cesation of bodily functions, then there is no
protection, except from poisons, diseases, etc.
My DM and I, however, are of the Star Trek: Next Generation school of
fun-with-wonky-physics, and we like to put appropriate interpretations on
such things, particularly high-level spell effects. We decided that it
actually cuts one off from the time continuum, and so nothing can affect
your physical integrity. That is, your flesh can't move to part under a
blade, your skin can't flex or your bones shatter beneath a mace, you're
effectively at absolute zero so heat won't affect you, etc. (and no, you
won't freeze things; that 's a result of a cold body absorbing heat from
other objects which, again, your molecules do). Though you can be
movesd around, as long as no part of you is affected in relation to the
rest. Works for us.
Note that a strict version of the interpretation above would mean that
*nothing* can affect the individual, in any way, not inertia, gravity, or
anything else, though things like walls, etc., would themselves be affected.
And most planets are moving *very* fast. Heh-heh.
- Scuminus Dregg
--
--
"Don't answer the riddle; kill the sphinx."
"That which does not kill me had better be able to run away damn fast."
Reginald V. Blue A144A x7353
[description of campaign deleted]
>
>Questions:
>-How have you handled this spell?
>-Does temporal stasis take the target "outside of time," as one of my players
>said, or what?
No, This spell is not Imprisonment (which is more in tune with this
description).
>-Is the person still alive and in stasis even though his head is separate
>from his body?
The spell description does not indicate that the spell duration ends
if "the character is killed" so I would say that he is still in
"temporal stasis", but is still cut in half. This does not make it
any easier to "put humpty dumpty back together again". In fact
certain methods (like psionics) which cause the normal healing system
to accelerate will not work at all. Personally, I would rule that it
would require a full "regenerate" spell (7th level) to put him
together again. That seems reasonable to me at least.