I think I would prefer the Haste spell. Moving really fast would be better. Then, if you shot them with the arrow, not only would it kill them, no one else would even notice until after it happened.
(Doing Therapy)
One has to remember that D&D is a strongly magical world, and there are a lot of little differences in the physics because of the magic. My favorite example is that cold and dark are not the absence of light and heat, but their energized opposites. A spellcaster bringing darkness or cold does not take away the light or the heat, but draws negative energy from the negative material plane which is itself darkness or cold.
Looking at the eyesight problem, in Multiverser terms eyesight is a body skill, and thus it continues to function normally despite the magic time stop. The physics of light does not apply.
The difference between stopping time for an object and moving extremely fast relative to that object lies in the fact that for any object for which time is stopped no change can occur. That's why you can't cut or stab such a person: he exists in a changeless state as long as the time stop is effected. You probably also couldn't dig a hole anywhere, because the floor can't be changed. A physicist would argue that the air is being moved by your motion, but the air is not "real" in that sense--it's not solid and we pass through it without being disturbed by it, so the fact that it is now "still" (in the sense that the breezes stop) does not prevent us from passing through it.
As to the missile problem, I never had to address it, but I believe that one approach is that when the missile leaves the control of the caster (e.g., the arrow leaves the bow, the bullet leaves the sling, or the dart leaves the hand) it becomes subject to the timestop and remains stationary in the air, and when time resumes it continues on its trajectory. Yes, this makes it possible to launch several missiles at point blank range at one target and have them seem to appear from nothing when the spell ends, but that's in essence intelligent use of the spell.
John, you also have to understand that with very rare exceptions you can't cast a time stop and use a bow--magic users are extremely limited in weapons available to them, multi-classed characters cannot advance to the highest levels to obtain such powerful spells, and a character with two classes (which is different from a multi-classed character) would take a long time to get there and have better ways to kill someone that that.
--M. J. Young
Apparently, however, the caster can cast delayed blast fireballs and set all of them to go off when the spell ends.
I realize this probably wouldn't exist in true D&D, but could you throw a stick of dynamite into the fire during TimeStop? No one would notice it was in there, and it wouldn't explode until the spell wore off. Could you do that?
(Doing Therapy)
I find the quoted statements below interesting coincidences even if there are in different threads. The below could probably help someone to decide what would happen to projectile weapons in such circumstances.
He can move and affect objects in his possession
one approach is that when the missile leaves the control of the caster (e.g., the arrow leaves the bow, the bullet leaves the sling, or the dart leaves the hand) it becomes subject to the time stop and remains stationary in the air, and when time resumes it continues on its trajectory.
he's going to have equipment sense tracers to all those bullets and casings wherever they are
Does that amount to disowning the bullets as she fires them?
*****
Another interesting feature of actually stopping time with magic is what would happen if there is someone who have activated anti-magic field or something.
Would that person see the things outside the anti-magic field stopping or would the person see the things outside the anti-magic field normally move but the person who have cast time stop could not enter the field?
I dunno. If the caster entered the field, the spell would be suppressed but return after exiting the field for what is left of the duration, but how that interacts with time stop is an open question.
This depends heavily on which version of Time Stop you're talking about.
If it's 3rd Edition D&D Time Stop, the magic only affects the caster (it's a very peculiar and very powerful Haste effect), so the antimagic field changes nothing unless the caster enters it. While the caster remained in the field, the spell would have no effect; it would ordinarily resume when he exited it, but since the effect is practically instantaneous, the duration would effectively expire immediately upon the caster's entrance.
If it is an effect which actually stops time while allowing the caster to act freely (with a subjective duration), then time is likely not affected within the antimagic field - which of course means the effect is over before the field's denizens can notice it; in real time, the spell's duration is zero.
If it is an effect which stops time with no special treatment for the caster, then the spell either ends time in that universe, has no effect at all, or (most likely) has a duration measured in time from an unaffected timestream. In this latter case, the areas covered by anti-magic fields would be treated in precisely the same way in relation to the affected area as would the areas in which time still passes and the duration is counted.
In this latter case, the areas covered by anti-magic fields would be treated in precisely the same way in relation to the affected area as would the areas in which time still passes and the duration is counted.
What would happen to someone who stands on the boundary of anti-magic field?
Does half of his body be able to move but the other half stop?
What would happen if someone inside of the anti-magic field try to shoot projectile outside of the anti-magic field?
Does the projectile stop when it exits the anti-magic field?
What would happen if the time stop caster throw a stone into the anti-magic field?
Does the stone stop at the boundary of anti-magic field or would it resume to enter the field during the time stop apparent duration?
Can the other person inside the anti-magic field damage a partial body of a monster that get inside of the anti-magic field?
Can the person inside the anti-magic field pull someone in (using a wood, rope or something) or would this be impossible because anything that comes out of the anti-magic field will be stopped?
What would happen to someone who stands on the boundary of anti-magic field?
My thought as referee is that at the moment the spells are cast no one is standing there; and since it appears that "outside" the sphere time is stopped, nothing from outside could move inside but the caster of the time stop, and nothing inside could move outside, and thus the anti-magic sphere creates an impenetrable shell once it's been cast.
Of course, if it's cast at a creature too large to fit within it, I'd have to revise that viewpoint, but a lot would depend on the circumstances.
--M. J. Young
if it's cast at a creature too large to fit within it, I'd have to revise that viewpoint, but a lot would depend on the circumstances.
Can the other person inside the anti-magic field damage a partial body of a monster that get inside of the anti-magic field?
The above is what I find interesting. Can the large monster part be attacked within the anti-magic field?
If the monster head is outside the anti-magic field, would this mean that the creature is unable to control its body within the anti-magic field (but probably can react by reflex provided that the part is not disabled or stuck by the impenetrable shell effect)?
I have never (in a couple decades of D&D mastering) had to adjudicate that problem. My inclination is that it would affect either the entire creature or none of it, but I would have to pull out the books and read spell descriptions, DMG notes, and whatever else I could find on the matter.
Thoughts:
- Once the time stop is in place, only the caster can cast the anti-magic shell, so
- either the caster has a reason to want to shield an area from the effect of the time stop,
- or the anti-magic shell was in place first.
- If the caster of the time stop is casting the anti-magic shell, the question becomes whether or not he intends for the oversized creature to be contained within it.
- If he does, the question goes to whether the spell can be coerced to do that, or not.
- If he does not, then containing the creature in the anti-magic shell would be incidental or accidental, and since D&D magic either works or doesn't work, I would argue that it would not accidentally capture a creature within it that is both too large for the area of effect and not intended as a target of the spell. It would take extraordinary circumstances for me to decide otherwise.
- It might be argued that you are attempting to get a defenseless part of the creature out of the time stop so that you can kill it. I would probably disallow that, and if I were persuaded to allow it, I would argue in response that the amount of damage you can do is limited to percent of total hit points of the creature represented by the portion that is not time-stopped. For example, it cannot bleed to death from wounds inflicted in a part of its body in which there is only a limited amount of blood if blood cannot flow to that part of the body from elsewhere.
- If it is cast by someone else before the time stop, it becomes a question of whether it was cast in anticipation of the time stop or simply as a prophylactic measure.
- >
- If done in anticipation of the time stop, the same principles apply concerning whether the intent was to cover the entirety of the larger creature or not.
- If it was cast prophylacticly, the question is still who the caster intended to protect, and whether the spell was capable of doing so.
- The question then only arises if the creature in question was moving into or out of the protected area at the moment the time stop occurred, and the simple solution to that is to rule whether he was in or out, and the notion of a partial effect is eliminated.
--M. J. Young
I would argue in response that the amount of damage you can do is limited to percent of total hit points of the creature represented by the portion that is not time-stopped.
What if the part that is in the anti-magic field is vital to the monster such as the brain or the heart?
the simple solution to that is to rule whether he was in or out
Even if the monster tries to moves in the field during the time stop, the impenetrable shell still exists which would make the other parts of the monster which is not in the anti-magic field be encased in the impenetrable shell to make the monster immobile unless the anti-magic field becomes a dynamic entity which would take the form of the monster.
If the anti-magic field becomes a dynamic entity then what would happen if the monster extend the reach to damage things outside of the anti-magic field during the time stop?
You know, Max, I think you might have to create those spells and test them. Of course, then the answer would depend on exactly how you designed the spells, and it probably wouldn't answer the D&D question.
On that, given (as appears already in this thread) that the "time stop" spell is presented differently in different editions of the rules, it follows logically that the outcomes would also be different depending on which edition you were using. It would be too much trouble for me to research all the cases, and answering even one of them is more than necessity requires at present, so I think all we can say at this point is you'll have to play all those games and hit your dungeon masters with the situation to see how they handle it.
I still think I would duck it, such that the anti-magic shell and the time stop cannot create a situation in which part of a creature is outside the stopped time area and part is within it.
--M. J. Young