OK, this is a multipart question:
1) The spell animate rope does not make a rope behave at all like the wonderous item Rope of Climbing, does it?
2) Is there a spell that can temporarily make a rope behave like a Rope of Climbing?
3) The reason why I ask these questions is that I wish to make a ring which:
- Has a "woven thread" design.
- Upon command the ring will uncoil and slip off, expand into a rope that behaves like a Rope of Climbing.
Ideally it'll be a rope that is animated and can do "ropey" things: snake it's way up a wall and tie on to a balcony, move along the floor and tie it's way around a bolder. If it could entangle someone like the spell animate rope can that would be a bonus, but not necessary.
However the spell "Shrink Item" doesn't work on magical items, so I can't actually shrink a Rope of Climbing? So my next thought was too permanently shrink normal rope, and coil it around a thin ring that can once a day turn a rope into a Rope of Climbing, except there isn't a spell for that as far as I can tell, and Animate rope doesn't cut it (the rope needs to be able to snake up a wall and tie its self).
So is there anycway to create this ring? Or should I just make it as a self contained one off magic item?
Best Answer
So here's the thing - the spells used to create a magic item do not have to be identical to the effects of the item. A Cackling Hag's Blouse requires hideous laughter, but the effects of the blouse have nothing to do with the effects of that spell, it's more of an implementation of sympathetic magic. You have a lot of wiggle room and as the GM, with your game-designer hat on you can basically can make magic items that do whatever you want, and just pick a metaphorically and power-level appropriate set of prereqs.
As a result, if you want a ring that's going to do some rope of climbing/animate rope combo, just make it. (Note that the spell requires to make a rope of climbing in the first place is animate rope.) Add some other spell requirement and cost it up from a normal rope of climbing. I might call it "Ring of Spiderman, Requirements minor creation, animate rope, list price 8000 gp."