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Something I was wondering about while dinner cooked and I'm curious if there's any rules about this in a faq I've not found.
1) Does the mansion need to be all indoors or could you make a garden area that looks as though its outside complete with weather as long as you obey the size limits?
2) Can you cast mage's mansion inside another mansion to create a russian doll situation where you enter then from there you enter the second one who's entrance is off the first and from there enter the third one?
1. The intent is to have a building. Whether or not it has to be a fully enclosed building with no outside area isn't covered in the rules.
As a GM if someone wanted to have a garden I wouldn't care as long as they didn't try to get any mechanical benefits.
Spell descriptions tell you the benefits. Anything else is up to the GM.
2. It depends on your GM. The mansion isn't really inside the other mansion. You only create the entrance to the other mansion since each mansion basically exists in a pocket dimension.
However, if your GM comes from 3.5 there was a thing about creating extradimensional spaces inside of other extradimensional spaces. It causes problems in 3.5/Pathfinder, the kind of problems that get parties wiped.
This is because of how bags of holding interact with each other and portable holes. This comes from 2nd edition when there was a table that made bad things happen.
PS: By the rules this should only happen with the bag of holding and the portable hold.
I feel pretty certain the intention was for the mansion to be all "in doors". The issue is that the mansion doesn't exist on your plane, only the door does. There's really "nothing" on the outside of the mansion.
As Wraith mentioned, it's an extra-dimensional space, so it shouldn't be possible to place one mansion in another.
Extradimensional Spaces
A number of spells and magic items utilize extradimensional spaces, such as rope trick, a bag of holding, a handy haversack, and a portable hole. These spells and magic items create a tiny pocket space that does not exist in any dimension. Such items do not function, however, inside another extradimensional space. If placed inside such a space, they cease to function until removed from the extradimensional space. For example, if a bag of holding is brought into a rope trick, the contents of the bag of holding become inaccessible until the bag of holding is taken outside the rope trick. The only exception to this is when a bag of holding and a portable hole interact, forming a rift to the Astral Plane, as noted in their descriptions.
If you want to get technical, you can cast the spell inside of the mansion, but the door won't work until the previous mansion is dispelled.
You could possibly create one with a central courtyard covered by a glass dome. Then it’s technically “in-doors”.
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Creating a Mansion within another Mansion has the problem that the first mansion will end before the second, leaving you without an exit point, so I wouldn't allow it.
I see no reason why you can't create a mansion with a courtyard. At most, it would require some spell research to personalize the spell. One of my players had his personalized version, Ipc's Romantic Ruins, that produced an English landscape garden with romantic fake ruins and grottos.
Mage’s Magnificent Mansion
School conjuration (creation); Level sorcerer/wizard 7; Mystery streets 8
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, F (a miniature ivory door, a piece of polished marble, and a silver spoon, each worth 5 gp)EFFECT
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect extra-dimensional mansion, up to three 10-ft. cubes/level (S)
Duration 2 hours/level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance noDESCRIPTION
You conjure up an extra-dimensional dwelling that has a single entrance on the plane from which the spell was cast. The entry point looks like a faint shimmering in the air that is 4 feet wide and 8 feet high. Only those you designate may enter the mansion, and the portal is shut and made invisible behind you when you enter. You may open it again from your own side at will. Once observers have passed beyond the entrance, they are in a magnificent foyer with numerous chambers beyond. The atmosphere is clean, fresh, and warm.
You can create any floor plan you desire to the limit of the spell’s effect. The place is furnished and contains sufficient foodstuffs to serve a nine-course banquet to a dozen people per caster level. A staff of near-transparent servants (as many as two per caster level), liveried and obedient, wait upon all who enter. The servants function as unseen servant spells except that they are visible and can go anywhere in the mansion.
Since the place can be entered only through its special portal, outside conditions do not affect the mansion, nor do conditions inside it pass to the plane beyond.
1) Does the mansion need to be all indoors or could you make a garden area that looks as though its outside complete with weather as long as you obey the size limits?
The first bolded text is merely fluff text, but it does seem like it could be read as a hard rule. But I think the 2nd bolded text "You can create any floor plan you desire to the limit of the spell’s effect" obliterates any "hard rule" that the previously bolded fluff text may have held. Short Answer: I'd say yes, you may create a garden area with weather provided you don't exceed the size limits of the spell.
There is nothing game-breaking about this at all, and it's kinda cool for the PC to customize this and "make it his own".
2) Can you cast mage's mansion inside another mansion to create a russian doll situation where you enter then from there you enter the second one who's entrance is off the first and from there enter the third one?
As the others have pointed out, this is going to be a hard no. It would need to provide a specific rule in the spell description to allow something like this, and since it doesn't, we follow the general rules for how Extradimensional Spaces operate inside other Extradimensional Spaces.
There is a little bit of wiggle room here though, because there's nothing stopping you rules-wise from creating bunch of Permanent Create Demiplane and then filling your Permanent Mage's Magnificent Mansion and with Permanent Gate spells that lead to these various demiplanes you've created. It's a lot of work, and very expensive. The only thing holding you back here is whether your GM will disallow Gate to be permanent.
GateSchool conjuration (creation or calling); Level cleric/oracle 9, sorcerer/wizard 9; Domain glory 9; Subdomain trade 9; Bloodline celestial 9; Elemental School air 9, earth 9, fire 9, water 9
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (see text)EFFECT
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect see text
Duration instantaneous or concentration (up to 1 round/level); see text
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance noDESCRIPTION
Casting a gate spell has two effects.
First, it creates an interdimensional connection between your plane of existence and a plane you specify, allowing travel between those two planes in either direction.
Second, you may then call a particular individual or kind of being through the gate.
The gate itself is a circular hoop or disk from 5 to 20 feet in diameter (caster’s choice) oriented in the direction you desire when it comes into existence (typically vertical and facing you). It is a two-dimensional window looking into the plane you specified when casting the spell, and anyone or anything that moves through is shunted instantly to the other side.
A gate has a front and a back. Creatures moving through the gate from the front are transported to the other plane; creatures moving through it from the back are not.
Planar Travel: As a mode of planar travel, a gate spell functions much like a plane shift spell, except that the gate opens precisely at the point you desire (a creation effect). Deities and other beings who rule a planar realm can prevent a gate from opening in their presence or personal demesnes if they so desire. Travelers need not join hands with you–anyone who chooses to step through the portal is transported. A gate cannot be opened to another point on the same plane; the spell works only for interplanar travel.
You may hold the gate open only for a brief time (no more than 1 round per caster level), and you must concentrate on doing so, or else the interplanar connection is severed.
Calling Creatures: The second effect of the gate spell is to call an extraplanar creature to your aid (a calling effect). By naming a particular being or kind of being as you cast the spell, you cause the gate to open in the immediate vicinity of the desired creature and pull the subject through, willing or unwilling. Deities and unique beings are under no compulsion to come through the gate, although they may choose to do so of their own accord. This use of the spell creates a gate that remains open just long enough to transport the called creatures. This use of the spell has a material cost of 10,000 gp in rare incense and offerings. This cost is in addition to any cost that must be paid to the called creatures.
If you choose to call a kind of creature instead of a known individual, you may call either a single creature or several creatures. In either case, their total HD cannot exceed twice your caster level. In the case of a single creature, you can control it if its HD does not exceed your caster level. A creature with more HD than your caster level can’t be controlled. Deities and unique beings cannot be controlled in any event. An uncontrolled being acts as it pleases, making the calling of such creatures rather dangerous. An uncontrolled being may return to its home plane at any time.
If you choose to exact a longer or more involved form of service from a called creature, you must offer some fair trade in return for that service. The service exacted must be reasonable with respect to the promised favor or reward; see the lesser planar ally spell for appropriate rewards. Some creatures may want their payment in “livestock” rather than in coin, which could involve complications. Immediately upon completion of the service, the being is transported to your vicinity, and you must then and there turn over the promised reward. After this is done, the creature is instantly freed to return to its own plane.
Failure to fulfill the promise to the letter results in your being subjected to service by the creature or by its liege and master, at the very least. At worst, the creature or its kin may attack you.
Note: When you use a calling spell such as gate to call an air, chaotic, earth, evil, fire, good, lawful, or water creature, it becomes a spell of that type.
Creating a "fake" outside should be fine. That's basically what Fairy Ring Retreat does.