[RPG] If an artifact does not expressly limit spells like enlarge/reduce or levitate, are there any limits

artifactsdnd-5ednd-adventurers-leagueout-of-the-abyss

Caution: Minor spoiler ahead, Out of the Abyss, hard cover.

The question is whether any level magic spell will act per usual on an artifact possessing very high-level magic, which is featured in a campaign, especially when the exposition of the artifact within the DM guide does not expressly limit the use of magic spells, etc., to influence or alter the artifact.

Background/specific example (spoiler)

In a above mentioned campaign, members of the party decided to pay another visit to the Maze Engine after time traveling. This time around, they used an Enlarge/Reduce spell (reduce 2 ton weight of ME to 1/8th = 500lbs), then Levitate (up to 500 lbs limit) to move the ME to a position on land where they could then activate it literally dozens of times to gain two ASIs. (I did the best that I could to opt out of what I saw as shenanigans, but was still affected).

I know, the DM can allow whatever he wants.

But are there generally applicable rules, express or implied, that delineate the power of spells beyond what the text of the spell or the campaign specifies? It seems obvious that there must be some 'common sense' limitation here, but this DM says that anything is possible, if not expressly prohibited.

Best Answer

There are many serious problems with this plan...

A lot of this is going into spoiler tags, because it reveals details of how things work behind the DM Screen.

First off....

It's almost certainly too heavy to Levitate, even while Reduced.

Levitate specifies that...

The spell can levitate a target that weighs up to 500 pounds.

The Reduce factor of Enlarge/Reduce...

The target's size is halved in all dimensions, and its weight is reduced to one-eighth of normal.

So, the maximum weight you can move with this combo is something that weighs 4,000 lbs.

The Maze Engine is described as

a 20-foot diameter sphere built of 1-foot wide bands of magically hardened and shaped bronze. Gaps in the bands show various gears and articulation arms within the sphere.

We will be charitable here. We will assume that the engine is about 75% hollow, accounting for the space between all the gears and arms and such.

Bronze has a density of 532 lbs per cubic foot. The Engine has a volume of 4,189 cubic feet.

So, going at 25% of the density of bronze (133 lbs/cubic foot)...

This thing weighs about 557,137 pounds. Or about 278 and a half tons.

Even if we assume that this thing is 90% hollow...we're still looking at it weighing 222,855 lbs.

Reducing the Engine would still leave it weighing 27,857 lbs. Far in excess of what Levitate can lift.

And, beyond even that...

This would take EXTREMELY precise timing.

The Maze Engine is sitting 40 feet above the lava. And is wedged there just enough that, once it starts running, it rattles its way loose and falls into the lava

if you cast Enlarge/Reduce on the Maze Engine...

its diameter just halved. It is no longer large enough to be wedged into that crevice and immediately falls.

The time it takes for something to fall a given distance can be computed with

$$ \sqrt{2\times\frac{height}{9.8}} $$

So, running the math with the numbers we have...

Once you cast Reduce on the Maze Engine, you have about one and a half seconds before it goes splash in the lava and is destroyed.

You probably should have all died from this, anyway.

The Maze Engine is NOT controllable.

Every time it goes off, it does something at random. About a third of these things are BAD. A few are TPK material.

If you guys got through this without all dying horribly, you are incredibly lucky.

You have a 4% chance of getting that ASI. Statistically speaking, to get a pair of ASIs, you'd have to set the engine off about 50 times. Once activated, it goes off every single turn until it is deactivated or destroyed (the game is not specific as to whether or not it can be re-activated)

During that time, each time it goes off it...

Summons 2 additional Mephits that you must fight. You have a 1% chance of all of your magic items being irrevocably destroyed. You have a 2% chance of being blasted back to the past again. You have a 4% chance of someone of the DM's choice being resurrected and appearing nearby (not necessarily friendly). You have a 5% chance to get blasted for 10d6 lightning damage. A 5% chance of getting attacked by a Green Slaad. A 4% chance of getting polymorphed into a flying snake. A 5% chance of getting hit with an AoE Disintegrate spell. And a 4% chance of being Petrified.

So, statistically speaking, in the amount of time it took you to get the two positive results you wanted...almost all of those things should have happened at least once, if not more.

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