Uses for an immovable rod

[malyss]

1) If you get swallowed whole, activate the rod before trying to get yourself out.

[Boyos]

It wont move but its still inside of the monster. So the monster moves its going to move with the monster, I dont see the point in that one. Atleast thats how I would see it.

[clockworkjoe]

they are great ways to shut up annoying physics majors at the table.

"Okay you have 3 immovable rods, some rope, a few pulleys and you need to move this treasure chest down a 500 foot sheer cliff without dropping it. The wind is blowing 14 miles south by southwest. Okay when you're done with that you can join the rest of the group while we talk to the king."

[ArtfulShrapnel]

It wont move but its still inside of the monster. So the monster moves its going to move with the monster, I dont see the point in that one. Atleast thats how I would see it.

Immovable rods are stationary relative to the planet not to their holder. You leave the rod in the monster's stomach, it stays stationary, pinning the monster in space by its guts. Pretty nasty move.

Some other uses:

Affix a siege crossbow (or similarly retarded weapon) to it on a pintle mount. Use it as a portable steady firing position
Activate it inside of a Bag of Holding. Attempt to move the bag. Ask the GM what happens
Tie activation to a command word and use it to support thousands of tons of rocks, or the party, as part of an elaborate trap
Build a skyhook using the rod as a foundation
Support a skyscraper from the top and bottom
Emergency Brakes
Weld it into a warforged: use it as a restraining bolt
Weld it onto a slave collar: See above
Combine with Acrobatics: freerun to infinity
Block a sturdy door
Use two as an infinite ladder you can climb with your hands
Attach it to a shield and activate it when you think you're gonna get hit.
Drop one inside a boat you don't like before they leave port
If being chased in a carriage, lean down behind your carriage and activate the rod in midair (for bonus points, make it invisible)
Use it as a weapon hilt: Create the Sword in the Stone

[Flawless P]

Activate it inside of a Bag of Holding. Attempt to move the bag. Ask the GM what happens

Nothing Happens, The Bag of Holding opens into an extra dimensional space therefore the rod technically never moves.

GM 1
Player 0

[Setherick]

they are great ways to shut up annoying physics majors at the table.

"Okay you have 3 immovable rods, some rope, a few pulleys and you need to move this treasure chest down a 500 foot sheer cliff without dropping it. The wind is blowing 14 miles south by southwest. Okay when you're done with that you can join the rest of the group while we talk to the king."

Make that a rope of climbing and I'm in.

I once came up with a multiderivative equation to while we were studying for a Calc II final to determine the force it would take to pull a monkey that weighed x-grams up a rope, while the monkey climbed the rope and simultaneously urinated thus losing x-grams per second. In a two dimensional plane, this only works if the monkey pisses perpendicular to the rope. For a three dimensional plane, you have to add in a separate derivative to account for degree of urination pushing the monkey away from or toward the building and the wind speed blowing the monkey and the urine.

[Tadanori Oyama]

Quick release trigger is what comes to mind for me. As I remember an Immovable Rod will only support five thousand pounds of weight before it starts to respond to the acting force. So, your carrying around five thousand pounds of stopping force that you can apply (or remove) at a moment's notice.

You could use it as an improved version of alot of construction equipment. A sheet of metal and a rod could be used to quickly redirect the flow of water if your wizard doesn't have the right spells ready.

You could play a great pratical joke on a water skier.

[ArtfulShrapnel]

Activate it inside of a Bag of Holding. Attempt to move the bag. Ask the GM what happens

Nothing Happens, The Bag of Holding opens into an extra dimensional space therefore the rod technically never moves.

GM 1
Player 0

Well that's boring. I was hoping for someone to take advantage of that and come up with something cool.

Maybe it works for several hundred miles before the rod finally passes through the edge of the extradimensional space (which moves along with you, but might also be moving relative to something else). By becoming stable, your extradimensional space becomes a plane, and begins to develop alignments and laws of physics: hilarity ensues. Your rod tears a hole through the side of the bag, opening a portal to the Plane of Discarded Stuff. The immovability of your mini-plane upsets the cosmology of a tiny plane of Order, who seek revenge on you as a giant Outsider who seeks to destroy the heavens...

The possibilities there are endless.

Also I think you scored that wrong. The GM doesn't win by having nothing happen. That's Grognards.txt thinking.

GM 0
Player 0

[Kroack]

1) If you get swallowed whole, activate the rod before trying to get yourself out.

So wait, if the monster moves will it get a gigantic rod shaped hole in the side of its gut?

[ArtfulShrapnel]

1) If you get swallowed whole, activate the rod before trying to get yourself out.

So wait, if the monster moves will it get a gigantic rod shaped hole in the side of its gut?

It would have to make a strength check I think. To rip through its own gut.

But yes, if it passed, that's what would happen.

The effect is particularly noticeable on large, fast, flying creatures. If you can get the angles right, you can escape and kill (or at least seriously distress) the monster with a single activation.

[Tadanori Oyama]

The effect is particularly noticeable on large, fast, flying creatures. If you can get the angles right, you can escape and kill (or at least seriously distress) the monster with a single activation.

That sounds like a Plan B move if I ever heard one.

[Dogfish]

Have two pits dug on opposite sides of the planet and insert several 'bundles' of immovable rods. If anything it could be a measure of the force of the planets rotation.

I'd probably, as a DM, just use it for very boring but practical reasons. Like accurate milestones to develope scaled maps.

[Flawless P]

Activate it inside of a Bag of Holding. Attempt to move the bag. Ask the GM what happens

Nothing Happens, The Bag of Holding opens into an extra dimensional space therefore the rod technically never moves.

GM 1
Player 0

Well that's boring. I was hoping for someone to take advantage of that and come up with something cool.

Maybe it works for several hundred miles before the rod finally passes through the edge of the extradimensional space (which moves along with you, but might also be moving relative to something else). By becoming stable, your extradimensional space becomes a plane, and begins to develop alignments and laws of physics: hilarity ensues. Your rod tears a hole through the side of the bag, opening a portal to the Plane of Discarded Stuff. The immovability of your mini-plane upsets the cosmology of a tiny plane of Order, who seek revenge on you as a giant Outsider who seeks to destroy the heavens...

The possibilities there are endless.

Also I think you scored that wrong. The GM doesn't win by having nothing happen. That's Grognards.txt thinking.

GM 0
Player 0

Good call ; )

[Mckma]

use it as a torture device puting it up high and activate it than lift a person up and stick the rod in there mouth
hopefully it would rip the top of thier head from thier jaw

You don't need an immovable rod to do that, not a very creative use for it...

[Vega Baby]

A bit over the top but:

Stealthily replace the enemy stronghold's shipment of arrows and bolts with cleverly disguised immovable rods, and set the command word to activate them to be someone shouting the word "FIRE!"  Congratulations, you've just disabled all of the enemy force's archers.

Affix blades to the ends of the immovable rods.  Now you can pin an opponent's arm in any situation

Place the immovable rod in front of a door you want to remain shut for a quick and easy barring.   Add another invisible one at ankle level for added hilarity.

Build your citadel entirely out of immovable rods.  It is now indestructible, or at least nearly so.

Attach immovable rods to your boots, and have them activated by thought. Now you can walk on water AND air.  Have similar rods placed throughout your armor, and you could even possibly walk on walls and ceilings somewhat comfortably.

You're a lich.  Make your phylactery an immovable rod, and throw it into space, or a volcano if you can make it and yourself impervious to heat, or somewhere else equally difficult to get to.  Surround it with several identical immovable rods.  Make every rod deactivated by a different code word that only you know, and, of course, make them all only destroyable in the fires of Mount Doom, or somewhere else unreasonable.  Anyone trying to kill you permanently will have a hell of a job doing it.

I'm betting they make damned good paperweights too.