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You create a slightly concave, circular plane of force that follows you about and carries loads for you. The disk is 3 feet in diameter and 1 inch deep at its center. It can hold 100 pounds of weight per caster level. If used to transport a liquid, its capacity is 2 gallons. The disk floats approximately 3 feet above the ground at all times and remains level. It floats along horizontally within spell range and will accompany you at a rate of no more than your normal speed each round. If not otherwise directed, it maintains a constant interval of 5 feet between itself and you. The disk winks out of existence when the spell duration expires. The disk also winks out if you move beyond its range or try to take the disk more than 3 feet away from the surface beneath it. When the disk winks out, whatever it was supporting falls to the surface beneath it.
No it follows you, so you have to actually move for the disk to move. If you are standing on the disk you just sit there.
You create a slightly concave, circular plane of force that follows you about and carries loads for you. The disk is 3 feet in diameter and 1 inch deep at its center. It can hold 100 pounds of weight per caster level. If used to transport a liquid, its capacity is 2 gallons. The disk floats approximately 3 feet above the ground at all times and remains level. It floats along horizontally within spell range and will accompany you at a rate of no more than your normal speed each round. If not otherwise directed, it maintains a constant interval of 5 feet between itself and you. The disk winks out of existence when the spell duration expires. The disk also winks out if you move beyond its range or try to take the disk more than 3 feet away from the surface beneath it. When the disk winks out, whatever it was supporting falls to the surface beneath it.
But this line states you can direct it, thus implying some form of control over where it moves. This opens up the possibility that you can direct it from on top of it.
Still, if the Mythic version's big change is that you can ride it, it kinda implies you can't ride the regular version.
You create a slightly concave, circular plane of force that follows you about and carries loads for you. The disk is 3 feet in diameter and 1 inch deep at its center. It can hold 100 pounds of weight per caster level. If used to transport a liquid, its capacity is 2 gallons. The disk floats approximately 3 feet above the ground at all times and remains level. It floats along horizontally within spell range and will accompany you at a rate of no more than your normal speed each round. If not otherwise directed, it maintains a constant interval of 5 feet between itself and you. The disk winks out of existence when the spell duration expires. The disk also winks out if you move beyond its range or try to take the disk more than 3 feet away from the surface beneath it. When the disk winks out, whatever it was supporting falls to the surface beneath it.But this line states you can direct it, thus implying some form of control over where it moves. This opens up the possibility that you can direct it from on top of it.
Still, if the Mythic version's big change is that you can ride it, it kinda implies you can't ride the regular version.
It says normally maintains a distance of 5' from you but you can direct it otherwise. You can direct the distance at which it follows but you can't make it carry or lead instead of follow. So you can make it follow you at a distance of 6" or you can make it follow you at a distance of 10' but you can't make it float in front of you 5' nor can you make it float along with you on it.
I don't think "follow" in this case has to mean strictly "move behind."
"Follow" also means to simply travel together. If your dog stayed beside you as you move, he is still following you, despite not being behind you.
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I remember back in 92, I was running a 2nd ed D&D game in college. One of my friends was playing a mage. After the fighter kicked down a door, my friend with his mage told me that he would like to cast Tenser's Floating Disc under the door and take it with him. I said Ok.
I thought I was being clever. I planed to initially have a carrion crawler come into the room crawling on the ceiling and attack the party from above. and then have a bunch of kobolds attack the party while they were paralyzed.
In comes the carrion crawler. my friend says, "I squash the over grown centipede with my door." " What door?" " The one on my mages tenser's floating disc. I simply raise the door up with the disc and squash the bug." A few dice rolls later, and we had one mashed bug on the ceiling.
In come the Kobolds. My friend says, "my mage dismisses the Tenser's floating disc spell, dropping the horizontal door from the ceiling to the floor". A few dice rolls later....squashed kobolds.
Was this by RAW? I don't think we even had that term back then. The spell descriptions were much shorter then as well. I suppose strictly speaking, most likely no it wasn't by raw.
I remember a gnome illusionist I had in a game my friend ran, who wore a fez, had a big mustache sat on a tassled plump pillow which he placed on his Tenser's floating disc so he floated around. I remember he had cooking as a non weapon proficiency, and had an outrageous french accent, and complained about the quality of spices he had to cook with on the trail. He would often be given a rope to carry, across chasms, rivers etc...We had allot of fun with this character.
But 22 years later, this gameing story still gets a chuckles from me and my friend.
So Grimmerzorch, in a home game, ask your GM. See what he says. He might just say yes.
In a PFS game, Mr. OldSkool Gamer, I think is right with his reading of the rules as written.
The spell is allot of fun.....one good use for Tenser's Floating disc might be to carry lamp oil, 2 gallons of the stuff, you can then light the oil, and then send the burning oil in the Tenser's Floating Disc over a swarm....then dismiss the spell. you should have some burning bugs then.
Good luck.
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I had this discussion with one of my player's last week. His argument was that since the Mythic version stated that the caster could ride the disk, then the regular version should too.
However, I disagree. The Mythic spells have affects that go beyond what the base spell provides and while the Mythic Floating disk refers back to the regular Floating Disk, it does not go the other way. Riding the disk is only part of the Mythic version...just like shaping the disk into a bucket-shape to carry more water is only in the Mythic version.
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What about the old Pimp-Mobile work around?
Step one: Have a tiny improved familiar that can activate a wand. We'll say a Brownie.
Step two: Give the Brownie a stash of Pesh, a pipe to smoke it in and a wand of Floating Disk of at least caster level 2 (level one if you're a small wizard with no gear).
Step three: Affix a bucket to the end of a ten foot pole.
Step Four: Wand wielding Brownie gets in the bucket.
Step Five: Brownie activates the wand by tapping into your UMD skill.
Step six: Holding onto the other end of the ten foot pole, sit on the Brownie's Floating Disk.
Step Seven: Have the Brownie smoke the Pesh.
Step Eight: Hold the brownie out in his bucket. Now that he is more than 5 feet from the Floating Disk and no longer directing the disk because he's peshed out, the Disk will begin to propel you forward to try and maintain it's 5 foot distance from the caster. Aim your Peshbrownie in a bucket on a stick to direct the disk.
Step Nine: Profit.
.....Hm. I think I know what my next PFS character is going to be.
The trick with the door and the Carrion Crawler/Kobolds wouldn't work with the current rules:
The disk floats approximately 3 feet above the ground at all times and remains level
Which makes me wonder ... how is 'ground' defined ... I think RAW you couldn't use it over water, and certainly not to cross chasms.
Anyway, back to the original question: The D&D version could NOT be ridden, via an official WotC FAQ response (see mention at http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/18360/can-tensers-floating-disk-be-r idden) Of course, this is not D&D, and no official response exists for Pathfinder AFAIK. Therefore it's rideability is down to the presiding GM.
Personally, I think I'd allow the caster to sit on it, but not for the disk to move while they did so. Otherwise it could be too easily used to avoid most floor-level traps and non-flying tiny or fine critters.
I'd just use my Faerie Dragon to cast it from a scroll. I don't know about pesh and brownies, but now my little buddy just flies around with me floating behind.
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I see it as you can control where the disc is relative to you - so you can sit on it, but it won't move in any direction while you do so. The only way to move it at that point would be to move it away from you.
You should certainly be able to hide under it, though. I've done that before to get cover from elevated archers.
And you could ride on someone else's, so a variant of that familiar trick should work. By the time you have an Improved familiar I'm not so worried about easy access to low-grade levitation.
I don't think "follow" in this case has to mean strictly "move behind."
"Follow" also means to simply travel together. If your dog stayed beside you as you move, he is still following you, despite not being behind you.
If you are driving a car the car is not "following" you. If you are riding in a wagon you can't say the horse pulling it is "following" you. So if you are riding the disk you can't say the disk is "following" that was the point.
Regardless of if you think the word following is broad enough in meaning to allow the disk to hover in front of or beside you it definitely does not allow you to ride it.
The fact that the mythic version adds this capability further supports that.
I don't know if you can ride on it, but you can certainly sit on it. If you couldn't get near the thing, you would have a great deal of difficulty putting stuff on it, no?
Could two casters of level two each cast a Floating Disk and thereby move each other? If caster one directs his floating disk to 10' away, the other caster's disk would try to close the distance to remain within 5', thereby the caster on the other caster's disk would conveniently follow the direction of his own floating disk, on which sat the other caster.
Maybe I should start another thread and call it interesting things you can do with floating disks...
Another query: It doesn't seem to me that there is anything preventing a caster from creating more than one floating disk. There's nothing that says you can only have one floating disk at a time, or that if you cast a new floating disk spell the previous one winks out. So then, adding on to my previous scenario, what if a caster, let's say a 4th level wizard, who gets an extra spell of 1st level because of their intelligence modifier, casts four floating disks, and has four of his companions climb on the disks. Then another of his companions, who is also a caster, for the sake of the argument let's assume also 4th level, casts another floating disk, and the previous caster climbs on that one. Then, caster number two directs the spell to the very edge of the spell's range, where it won't wink out, but he is still capable of directing it. Won't the previous caster's disks all close the gap to maintain a 5' distance from their creator? In which case, you could conceivably, especially at higher levels, have an entire party floating on floating disks for lengthy periods of time, since the spell lasts for 1 hour/level...
Can a floating disk be attacked?
Does it provide cover for somebody hiding underneath it from attack from above (or vice versa)?
I've listening to this age old debate about players trying to ride their floating disks for over twenty years. It's nice to see that some ideas never die. The notion invariably ends in disappointment once others chime in and rain on the O.P.'s great idea. Perhaps the mythic version allows this trick, but the base spell, alas, never has without a generous GM's say so.
One amusing idea I've heard of to make it possible is to affix a contraption atop the floating disk with a 5-ft. boom sticking off the front with a seat for the caster on its end. While moving forward, the caster hops up into the seat and so ends up coasting along as the floating disk both follows and propels him forward. Of course, you're stuck going in the same direction unless you engineer some sort of mechanism which allows for the caster to swing the boom around; usually involving a counterweight, a vertical axle, some pulleys and guide ropes. Other approaches include rigging a vertical mast and using a sail to steer around.
This is the point at which physicists usually chime in to point out that this kind of push/pull system can't realistically work and that air friction would invariably slow down and stop the disk and caster even if it did. The counter argument is that the contraption is based on magic rather than physics and so would work because it follows the RAW.
I asked something similar here. I had another means of propulsion. But Mike Brock didn't seem to have any problem with riding on it while it was being pulled.
The fact that the mythic version adds this capability further supports that.
Hmm I think I read that somewhere.....
Oh yeah, I said that myself in this thread!
I am just pointing out that some of the other arguments aren't very compelling.
A paladin's horse can certainly be described as following him, even if he uses it as a mount. Further, the spell allows you to direct it. Direct a Spell is even a specific action.
Even the Mythic version doesn't say whether riding it is a new ability (like changing into a bucket) or an improvement on an existing function (like carrying capacity).
I would say on the balance of the evidence, you aren't intended to be able to ride a regular floating disk, but the arguments against aren't water tight.
I remember in one of the AD&D books, Seven Sisters, it talked about using Floating Disk as a hammock (in the sense that one of the sisters used the spell specially to not have to sleep on the ground when out traveling).
Not relevant to current rules of course, but apparently it was okay at one time.
Just use your standard issue 11 foot pole to propell yourself, like a gondola.
Do you need the Leadership Feat to use the spell? After all it is a Follower.
Just stick an archer on the disk, instant mobile turret.
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People who play solely by RAW should not bother playing at all since their imagination is severely broken.
Very nice, the old "you are playing wrong" argument.
First, if you are playing PFS you have to play by RAW. Second, playing closely to RAW helps to preserve the game balance. Third, inexperienced GMs should stick closely to RAW until they understand the effects any changes will have on the game. I could go on as there are ton of reasons people might have for playing purely RAW other than your ridiculous assertion that the only reason is a broken imagination.
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People who play solely by RAW should not bother playing at all since their imagination is severely broken.Very nice, the old "you are playing wrong" argument.
First, if you are playing PFS you have to play by RAW. Second, playing closely to RAW helps to preserve the game balance. Third, inexperienced GMs should stick closely to RAW until they understand the effects any changes will have on the game. I could go on as there are ton of reasons people might have for playing purely RAW other than your ridiculous assertion that the only reason is a broken imagination.
If that were true then why is there such a thing as house rules or third party content?
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If that were true then why is there such a thing as house rules or third party content?People who play solely by RAW should not bother playing at all since their imagination is severely broken.Very nice, the old "you are playing wrong" argument.
First, if you are playing PFS you have to play by RAW. Second, playing closely to RAW helps to preserve the game balance. Third, inexperienced GMs should stick closely to RAW until they understand the effects any changes will have on the game. I could go on as there are ton of reasons people might have for playing purely RAW other than your ridiculous assertion that the only reason is a broken imagination.
Just because some people have reasons for playing purely by RAW doesn't mean others don't prefer to play with house rules or TPC. There is no wrong way to play. If your group has fun playing with houserules great but it doesn't mean others lack imagination if they want to stick to RAW. Those playing PFS don't have a choice. So I guess everyone who chooses to play PFS must lack an imagination.
It is arrogant and ignorant to criticize others for how they play in their games and tell them they shouldn't play at all because they don't do it your way.
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Why does having a functional imagination force you to change the rules? What if your imagination is fine, and you happen to like the rules?
Also, why is using 3PP rules more imaginative than using Paizo rules?
Or in the case of players, why is using your GM's houserules more imaginative than using RAW rules?
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I go by rule of cool. Swami-esque mage/wizard riding around on a pillow laden Floating Disk, all lounging around on it....badass. You are winning the game.
Until someone dispells it whilst floating above a mudpuddle.
In Society play, things are going to be a bit different. Even so, I'd let them do that simply because its still cool.
What's the point of phenomenal cosmic power if you can't be as quirky cool and ridiculous doing it?
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If that were true then why is there such a thing as house rules or third party content?People who play solely by RAW should not bother playing at all since their imagination is severely broken.Very nice, the old "you are playing wrong" argument.
First, if you are playing PFS you have to play by RAW. Second, playing closely to RAW helps to preserve the game balance. Third, inexperienced GMs should stick closely to RAW until they understand the effects any changes will have on the game. I could go on as there are ton of reasons people might have for playing purely RAW other than your ridiculous assertion that the only reason is a broken imagination.
Nigel hinted at it, but one of the benefits of running a game with RAW is because it is important for GMs and Players to be on the same page as far as how the rules go. This helps with game flow and allows the players and GM to become accustomed to working together within the game.
It is a good idea for a GM to spend time running games for a while so that he gains a good grasp of the core and most common rules. From there, he could start deviating from RAW to mold the game to his own taste. Of course, discussing core rule changes with the players is also very important.
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I go by rule of cool. Swami-esque mage/wizard riding around on a pillow laden Floating Disk, all lounging around on it....badass. You are winning the game.
Until someone dispells it whilst floating above a mudpuddle.
In Society play, things are going to be a bit different. Even so, I'd let them do that simply because its still cool.
What's the point of phenomenal cosmic power if you can't be as quirky cool and ridiculous doing it?
Something like that
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Because it is PFS and PFS is RAW rules this is how the spell works: The spell does not say that you can not sit on it, so you are allowed to sit on it. It carry's loads for you (The load you don't want to carry is self). It has a maximum capacity of 100 lbs/level or 2 gallons of liquid. The Disc can move under its own power to maintain a distance as directed.
Here is my Conclusion:
So long as your total weight is 100 lbs./level or less, you are able to sit on your floating disc while it attempts to move away from you as directed.
People who play solely by RAW should not bother playing at all since their imagination is severely broken.
I'm not sure it is appropriate to be critical of getting RAW answers in the rules forum. I know for a fact that many people would give very different answers to the exact same question in a less formal forum.