Chris Schweiger's page

Congrats, Steven. This is a very interesting item. I do have some issues with it that you might want to consider if you do post an updated version.

First, how would getting grappled by a creature with improved grab and reach work? I'm thinking some type of tentacled creature that technically is a medium creature, but could be attempting to grapple with only a portion of their body at range, though I couldn't provide you with a specific creature as an example.

Second, how would this cloak interact with a creature that is immovable, automatically fails reflex saves, and automatically makes a free grapple attempt against anything that attacks it or moves near it? Again, I can't think of such a creature off the top of my head, but one could exist.

Third, given that the cloak can be a trap on 50 square feet of space, what stops a creature from cowering under the cloak and becoming immune to attacks? Obviously, there isn't wording that says anything about attacks, but if the cloak hides an extradimensional space on its exterior, why would a grapple suck a creature in, but an arrow or sword hitting the exterior of the cloak not get sucked in? Even not trying to hide under the cloak, but just wearing it could be seen as giving some sort of miss chance to attackers because the attack just hits the cloak and gets sucked in rather than hitting the target.

Fourth, how does the cloak interact with other extradimensional spaces?

Fifth, do creatures get the option to of whether to climb out of the cloak or not if they succeed on the swim check? If a creature has an air supply, they aren't in any danger while inside, and thus it might be more dangerous to climb out. This is only a question because the DC of the swim check to get out gets higher the more checks a creature fails. Obviously a creature could just fail swim checks to stay in, but after two or three minutes, it would become near impossible to get out.

Sixth, is there any way to know whether there is a living creature inside the cloak, as either the wearer or as an observer?

Finally, what happens if you trap a creature inside the cloak and then take it off and fold it in half? Is the creature inside trapped?

Those points describe all the major pieces of information that I feel the description lacks. There are a few other interesting, though rare, situations, like how Enlarge Person or Reduce Person interact with the cloak or how destruction of the cloak with a creature inside works.

I also want to reiterate that I think this item is very neat, but I also would not want be a GM who has to adjudicate all the problems I see with it.

My mistake on the first ability's usefulness. I was actually thinking about it last night while falling asleep and realized I hadn't paid enough attention to wording on the rules. Sorry about that.

Congrats Michael. This is an item that I can see a multitude of uses for, as both a player and GM. It also helps the Craft Wand feat out.

How would the second ability work with spells that have non-instantaneous visible and audible effects, like Spectral Hand? For 3 charges, you would be able to attack with melee touch attacks from a range of 130 ft, at a +2 bonus from the spell, an additional +2 bonus from being invisible, and the target is flatfooted. Kind of a problem, but could easily be fixed by saying it costs that many charges per round the effects are suppressed. Still, for 4,500 gp (fully charged wand of Spectral Hand), you could get more than 2 minutes of that effect. Plenty of time to trivialize a difficult encounter after level 7, maybe two of them.

On the other hand, instantaneous spell effects like fireball wouldn't really be an issue. From a wand, you're spending 675 extra gp per invisible fireball that does 5d6 damage with a DC 14 reflex save. Might be dangerous around level 5, when fireball is dangerous, but something is wrong if the players have a wand of fireball that they can afford to spend 4 charges at a time from at that level, plus this item to make it possible.

I really like the concentration ability as well. Make a wand of detect magic for 375 gp and have 40+ rounds of detect magic that you don't have to concentrate on.

The first ability is questionable though. According to the descriptions for wands in Pathfinder, they use the spell-trigger completion method, which means there shouldn't be a command word for any of them. Kind of makes this ability pointless.