A clever use of these two spells came up during last night's session that had me scratching my head:
The 2nd level priest Travelers spell called Lighten Load allows all (non-magical) equipment and items placed within a 10 foot cube to be reduced in weight by 50%. This spell is found in the Tome of Magic book. The party has a large raft beyond those dimensions they need to drag for a time cross-country (using draft animals). Thus, the resident wizard planned to cast a Reduce spell upon the item, thereby shrinking it to well below that required space.
However, the Reduce spell will wear out FAR faster than the Lighten Load spell. The quandary is...Will the Lighten Load spell still remain in effect, even when the raft returns to its original size, or not?
The raft is not considered a magic item (these things have permanent magical effects upon them) in the true sense of the word and definition, so I permitted it to be affected by the priest spell in the first place.
I think your decision was a good one for a one-shot effort.
If the PCs try to do this on a regular basis, you might allow the party wizard to figure out how to adjust his spells to work in the manner he wants them to after several failed attempts. In other words, if he tries it again soon, have it fail when the Reduce spell wears off. Then, he has to try it again several times before he figures out what he did differently the first time to make it last longer.
Yeah, this was a tricky one. I don't like penalizing players at all for clever uses for their spells, especially if it is done with efficiency and creativity in mind rather than 'power gaming.' After all, there's an experience point bonus just for this sort of thing.
My main area of bewilderment was...Does the Lighten Load spell wear off once the shrunken item returns to its original size, that beyond the area of effect for the Lighten Load spell...or not?
My gut tells me that "No, it doesn't" b/c the object fit inside the original area of effect when the priest spell was cast, and the Lighten Load spell is still operating even when the raft returns to its (large) size.
Try looking at it in reverse. If the wizard cast Lighten Load on an item within the legal size-limit of the spell, then cast Enlarge upon that item, would that immediately end the effects of the Lighten Load spell? How would you adjudicate that series of events?
OK, given that, I'd say, "It's A-OK." The Lighten Load description only says that it doesn't work on magic items as I mentioned earlier, so I'd rule this is all within acceptable boundaries.
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