Iron Bands of Binding and Reduce Person

[bcpeery]

in a recent game it came up that someone was bound up in the Iron Bands of Binding and the question was if using Reduce person would free them and if not what about when the spell ended? Would the bands remain at the smaller size since growing would be the equivelent of trying to force against them and thus crush the person...

[cwslyclgh]

I like the ingenuity, so I would probably allow reducing the person to work in my game (or at least give him another chance to escape with a bonus on the roll).

Just like you can't crush somebody with the enlarge spell, I would not allow the reduce spell wearing off to crush a person either (though I can certainly see a person getting stuck when the spell wears off).

[Mauril]

Well, with reduce and enlarge person, their gear sizes with them. So, despite the cleverness, I would rule differently than cwslyclgh and say that it doesn't work. For the purposes of the spell, your Iron Bands get treated as gear both when you shrink and enlarge.

The only issue I can see is if the captured creature were enlarged beyond Large size, as the Iron Bands can only contain a Large or smaller creature.

[cwslyclgh]

hmmm... I am not convinced that the bands would/should be considered gear for the trapped character.

[Rezdave]

Mauril wrote:

The only issue I can see is if the captured creature were enlarged beyond Large size, as the Iron Bands can only contain a Large or smaller creature.

I agree with this. The bands automatically re-size to capture the target, and if the target changes size or shape (such as via polymorph) then the bands would adjust accordingly, up to the limit of Large size.

Escape in the method given is a nice try, but would not work.

The same does not hold true for mundane methods of binding. The PCs in my last group bound a captured orc, not realizing he was a werewolf. He shape-shifted into wolf form when they weren't looking and slipped free of his bonds to attempt to escape.

FWIW,

Rez