[RPG] Does a Huge Object that has already been Animated continue to be Animated if it is Enlarged to Gargantuan

animated-objectscampaign-developmentdnd-5espells

I'm hashing out a collective of NPC Rock Gnomes who live in a small stone castle shaped like a Huge person, about 15 x 15 x 22 feet, which is the maximum size for a creature of Huge size. This collective of gnomes will have two basic talents that they excel at one of which will be:

  • They can animate their castle and enlarge it both to travel short distances and as a defensive measure against creatures of ill intent.

Animate Object states (PHB 213):

You can’t animate any object larger than Huge.

Enlarge/Reduce states (PHB 237):

The target’s size doubles in all dimensions, and its weight is multiplied by eight. This growth increases its size by one category—from Medium to Large, for example.

My question is this: If the castle is currently a Huge object and it is animated as a huge object and then it is enlarged and becomes a Gargantuan object, does the Animate Object spell continue to function?

I know I can bend the rules for NPCs and I'm o.k. doing that if I need to, but I'd like to know RAW on this.

Best Answer

The gargantuan animated object continues to be animated.

In this tweet Crawford claims that:

No longer being a valid target trumps condition carryover.

So whether a gargantuan animated object continues to be animated, hinges on what a valid target is for the animate objects spell. The relevant limitation is this:

You can't animate any object larger than Huge.

However, the animate objects spell also says that:

Each target animates and becomes a creature under your control until the spell ends or until reduced to 0 hit points.

Moreover, as Slagmoth explains in this answer:

Nothing is considered an object and a creature simultaneously.

Therefore, enlarging a huge animated object doesn't make it an invalid target of the animate objects spell, because you enlarged a creature, not an object.

In other words, to make the target of the animate objects spell invalid, you must enlarge the object. However, that's impossible to do for the duration of the animate objects spell because there is no object for you to enlarge.