Here it is:
Secret Chest Conjuration (Summoning) Sor/Wiz 5
You hide a chest on the Ethereal Plane for as long as sixty days and can retrieve it at will. The chest can contain up to 1 cubic foot of material per caster level (regardless of the chest’s actual size, which is about 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet). If any living creatures are in the chest, there is a 75% chance that the spell simply fails. Once the chest is hidden, you can retrieve it by concentrating (a standard action), and it appears next to you.
The chest must be exceptionally well crafted and expensive, constructed for you by master crafters. The cost of such a chest is never less than 5,000 gp. Once it is constructed, you must make a tiny replica (of the same materials and perfect in every detail), so that the miniature of the chest appears to be a perfect copy. (The replica costs 50 gp.) You can have but one pair of these chests at any given time—even a wish spell does not allow more. The chests are nonmagical and can be fitted with locks, wards, and so on, just as any normal chest can be.
To hide the chest, you cast the spell while touching both the chest and the replica. The chest vanishes into the Ethereal Plane. You need the replica to recall the chest. After sixty days, there is a cumulative chance of 5% per day that the chest is irretrievably lost. If the miniature of the chest is lost or destroyed, there is no way, not even with a wish spell, that the large chest can be summoned back, although an extraplanar expedition might be mounted to find it.
Living things in the chest eat, sleep, and age normally, and they die if they run out of food, air, water, or whatever they need to survive.
Focus: The chest and its replica.
The QUESTION: If a mage is slain and the replica chest recovered, can the replica be used to recall the mage's chest, or is the caster the only one allowed to summon it from the ethereal?
Whaddawethink?
Fleece
I would say that sure someone else could retrieve it. I would probably have them make a DC:25 or so Spellcraft check in order to fingure out what it is and how to call it.
I would say that sure someone else could retrieve it. I would probably have them make a DC:25 or so Spellcraft check in order to fingure out what it is and how to call it.
Yeah -I'm just worried with use of "you" so much, in reference only to the caster...
There's a reason why the spell isn't called "Leomund's Totally Pickpocketable Not-so-Secret Chest With My Passwords Written on the Lid."
Yes, a wizard can lose his miniature chest. It can be stolen. It can be destroyed. It can also be the subject of an Arcane Mark used as the focus for an Instant Summons, or more than one in case some light-fingered rogue decides to pickpocket it off the wizard. Any sensible wizard is going to charm the miniature with multiple Instant Summons, then stash the focus gems for those all sorts of places so they can get the minichest back if they need it so they can get the big chest.
If the miniature chest is destroyed, not even a Wish will be able to bring back the big chest--so you don't wish for that. You wish for the miniature to not be destroyed.
If the contents are lost on the astral plane, you mount an expedition to retrieve them. That or find a Deck of Many things and try to get the Fates card to make it so that you never put whatever your important stuff is into the chest.
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also - the 'having a living thing in the chest is a 75% that it will fail completely' can be interpreted differently what if you put a bag of grain in it, not knowing that a spider web was in the bag. Is this compounded for having more than one living thing in it, because most animals have lots of insects that can only be seen under a microscope on/in them?
Only the mage that cast the spell can recall it. In essence this would be like asking if you killed a mage and took his focus item, could you dispel his ongoing spell effect (as he could without casting another spell)? The answer is no. The miniature chest is a focus item for finishing the spell, the original mage is who the spell is actually cast by. With the miniature though, you could go seek out the larger chest and if you do find it you could use them both together after that (assuming you had the spell known).
Notice it says "you cast" and "you need". Whomever the first you refers to is the same as the second you.
Notice it says "you cast" and "you need". Whomever the first you refers to is the same as the second you.
Hey Pres-
That was my initial thought, too, specifically because of those exact two phrases you quoted, but in a game discussion last night, someone also brought up that the caster is not listed as the target for the spell -only the two chests. What relevance might that play?
Since the miniature chest is so vital to the summoning, it does call into question, but I think I agree with you. I'd love to hear more thoughts on it!
"You" here really means "you." Not the 20th level doppelganger assassin with so many ranks in Disguise he could fool your grandmother's ghost.
The chest knows who cast the spell and isn't going to be fooled by any Disguise checks or Use Magic Device checks, since the spell is designed as the ultimate security lock.
Maybe your evil twin Skippy, brought forth by a Mirror of Opposition or a Clone spell could pull it off, but probably not in the case of the mirror image. That has its own chest that summons its own items. The clone? Well, if it kills you, it gets your soul, so it is you, so probably.
A Simulacrum? Maybe. Give it the same percentage chance as the simulacrum is related to the original.
Notice it says "you cast" and "you need". Whomever the first you refers to is the same as the second you.Hey Pres-
That was my initial thought, too, specifically because of those exact two phrases you quoted, but in a game discussion last night, someone also brought up that the caster is not listed as the target for the spell -only the two chests. What relevance might that play?
I think it's like dismissing a spell. Only the original caster can dismiss a spell (outside of Dispel Magic, et al.) even if you have the spell's focus in your hot little hands.