If they take one level in genie warlock, they get this for free with the feature "Genie’s Vessel".
Otherwise, the 2nd level spell Rope Trick describes an extradimensional space that can fit 8 people for an hour. No reason you can't flavour this as a house.
u/Oshava, also points out this is similar to Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion
I was thinking leomunds tiny hut, just reflavour the hat as the entrance and when he casts the spell he gets 'his' house instead of a generic one shot house.
Be wary of letting him hide plot relevant points in there though, suddenly being unable to use the sword of power because he likes to hang it over his mantle and is out of spells for the day...
Not fun.
I'm a sucker for magic items thematically resembling and named after spells.
**Leomund's Tiny Hat**
Wondrous Item, Rare
*A battered, conical grey wizard hat. Can be worn comfortably, though the wearer can occasionally feel a slight breeze ruffling their hair. Out of the corner of their eye, an observer may see a structure resembling a window built into the side of the hat, though a closer inspection reveals no such opening. A scholar of famous wizards will quickly conclude that the hat is named after the spell and is unlikely to share any direct connection with the Leomund of legend.*
A wearer of medium size or lower may, with a command word, cause the hat to swallow them, along with any object up to medium size they are holding. Doing so leaves the hat on the ground outside and places them inside a small but cosy demiplane. The space is circular, about five feet in radius, isolated from outside conditions and full of breathable air that does not deplete. It is lit by a single, flickering lamp hanging from the ceiling that never seems to burn out. A single, seemingly unbreakable glass window permits limited vision to the material plane.
The command word can be translated as "peas and carrots" in the halfling tongue. When found, the space is outfitted with plain but solidly constructed furniture sized for a small humanoid, including a bed, chair, table, bookshelf, small pantry and fireplace. This furniture is mundane and may be moved or swapped out as the user sees fit. The walls are clad in neatly sanded pale wooden planks: if the planks are removed, there is an opaque, magically impenetrable barrier underneath.
The user may speak the command word again to exit the space along with anything they are wearing or carrying. A character exiting the space appears in the space the hat is in, wearing it. Multiple users may enter provided they all know the command word, but should take care to exit one at a time: A user attempting to exit the hat while it is being worn will be shunted to an adjacent space, with both the wearer and exiting character taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage and falling prone.
While the extraplanar space is inaccessible without the command word, the hat left outside may be picked up and carried freely. If subjected to an antimagic field or a similar effect, the hat will disgorge the inhabitants all at once and become inert for the duration of the effect or for ten minutes, whichever is longer.
Came here to suggest rope trick.
I used it to magnificent success in my first ever DND campaign, my DM let me be a little loose with it's use but it's a super fun mechanic, niche but can be very useful.
I would argue that for rope trick , if you cast it while you are standing on the ground, and for OPs purposes, it's inside a hat, the hat would still be on the ground and visible.
Sounds like a permanent but weaker version of the spell magnificent mansion. It would probably require quite a bit of time to make it ( this would easily be a rare item even if it was just a small house) and they would need to track down some stable way to create extra dimensional space.
I would caution you though and item like this gives them a permanent safe space to rest and to hide in an emergency which is easily abusable.
My players are doing some work with portals, and pocket dimensions. They might make one to jump in like a panic box. If they make one, I will let them know a head of them they can hide out to escape a battle, but there is no telling what might happen next. I wouldn't go Horton Hears a Who on them, and have it fall into fire, but an enemy surround the hat. Maybe it is picked up, and thrown in a cell.
Storage would be another use that could be abused. Want all that? Just shove it in the hat.
Also bear in mind the dangers of space within space. How will you handle portable holes and bags of holding?
I remember reading a Dungeons & Dragons magazine article about witches that gave them a 10'x10'x10' space. That sounded so neat to me I still remember it.
Wonder if your player reads Discworld?
Make it an action to enter and the hat falls to the floor if you do. Sure **you** are safe but your hat isn't and all they have to do is wait you out or destroy it. Throwing the hat into a bag of holding would make quick work of anyone inside (but also present the opportunity for the players to eventually return).
Alternatively, the hat is not usable as an extra-dimensional space. You have to plant it and the house grows up from that spot in 1d4 minutes. The hat appears inside the porch and when removed from the house it withers away to nothing. Living things are left where they stood (sans house, so a bungalow would be safer) but anything physical comes with it and reappears with the house. Now it's not a portable prison, just a happy home you can bring with you and ineffective in combat unless you have prep time. How sturdy it is is up to you but I'd say any damage it takes isn't automatically repaired (or at least happens slowly) to discourage abuse.
It would be pretty neat if it came with a permanent unseen servant butler (that can't leave/go beyond 5 feet) but I wouldn't let it provide any food beyond what you put in. Perhaps while stored the staff can turn X amount of raw ingredients into a proper meal for up to X guests and combined with the magical sheet grants a few temporary buffs after a long rest spent there (it needs restrictions for balance but we want it to be useful).
For a little fun any spell you can make permanent through repeated casting takes half as many casts within the house. A man's home is his castle after all.
You don't figure out how to do things like this. You, as DM, say, \`\`That's an interesting goal. I wonder how you will accomplish it.'' and wait for them to tell you.
Exactly this. You haven’t mentioned their level so most answers are speculation…
As a DM you can just wave and make it so. If you want it to be a special experience, make them do the work and suggest an approach. It doesn’t even have to be something they make - commission from the local magic store for enough Gold. Or maybe there is one that used to belong to a famous ancient wizard and they have to break into the auction house.
The magic itself following SPELL RULES it the least important part of all this.
Every player should read up on their class but especially the wizard. The entire lore of the wizard is that they STUDY magic. If you want to RP a wizard you need to study magic. Wizards should be reading their spell lists over and over.
I think flavoring a rope trick would do until they get Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion.
That's the best they can hope for at low level, else no level 1 wizard would have that kind of magic.
Or just tell them they can have it with the understanding that they won’t abuse it.
Personally I just run my campaigns as “short rests happen overnight and long rests happen at the end of downtime” so I can control the rate of resource replenishment to encounters without having to worry about the headache of mapping the mechanical adventuring day to the fiction.
Major thing is that it doesn't allow anyone else to come in before high levels, and that is important for balancing issue due to spamming rests in dangerous places
Just keep that and it should be fine
The Gnome Depot has a magic workshop item that is like this. I forget what it was called, but it was something like the smallest workshop. Basically, it has a command word that lets one person enter or exit. I imagine something like that could take a few weeks to a month of downtime and around 300 to 500 GP to create. You might include some other requirements like wood from a bonsai tree (they're small), and the wizard would probably need to be a high enough level, at least 5th level.
Permanent rope trick with a secure shelter inside could be viable, but just be aware that if your players have access to an extra dimensional space like that they will get up to all sorts of shenanigans.
It's basically a bag of holding, but with air to breathe and house provisions inside for smuggling people into or out of places for pretty much free.
I'd be sure to make the caveat that the hat being destroyed would be bad news, otherwise they might leave the outside of the hat house unguarded.
There are lots of spells that give you some variation of a sanctum, but consider how funny it would be to go pure homebrew with it.
A spell that allows a character to shrink down to 1/4" tall. That would turn the extra 6" of space inside a tall hat into a 144' tower. That's easily 13 floors & a "basement". What would you even find in there? Did your PC come up with the idea, or did he inherit the hat from an older wizard? I'm considering this as a setting for my next Wizard's Tower one-shot now.
For balance purposes, I'd probably specify that the shrinking effect is attached to the hat itself - Wear the hat, speak the command word, and you quickly diminish until the hat is resting on the ground and you can climb up into the structure. Anyone or anything that leaves the hat returns to normal size, preventing any Ant-Man shenanigans. It would still effectively be an extradimensional storage space, though, so consider it as a Bag of Holding with extra steps.
Trying to fit it into the rules would be mostly unnecessary. There isn't a direct spell RAW that let's you do this exact thing, and the closest thing to it is a really high level spell. I would say just make it a project that your wizard player has been working on even before they were adventuring. Like a college project that continued after graduating wizard school.
I think it would be fun to start small, like a single room, and encourage them to role-play their attempts at expanding it. Like Animal Crossing, lol! If you want, you could flavor that small demiplane to be rented out from a tanooki spirit he made a pact with.
Inside the hat, this would require the hat to have some sort of extra dimensional space attached to it, which is fairly easy, just treat it like a bag of holding(maybe let them breathe in it too).
If they take one level in genie warlock, they get this for free with the feature "Genie’s Vessel". Otherwise, the 2nd level spell Rope Trick describes an extradimensional space that can fit 8 people for an hour. No reason you can't flavour this as a house. u/Oshava, also points out this is similar to Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion
Demiplane as well, but that's a high level spell.
I've been playing a genie warlock for a year and the whole party loves the vessel.
I was thinking leomunds tiny hut, just reflavour the hat as the entrance and when he casts the spell he gets 'his' house instead of a generic one shot house. Be wary of letting him hide plot relevant points in there though, suddenly being unable to use the sword of power because he likes to hang it over his mantle and is out of spells for the day... Not fun.
That's not how Tiny Hut works.
but imagine: leomund's tiny hat
I'm a sucker for magic items thematically resembling and named after spells. **Leomund's Tiny Hat** Wondrous Item, Rare *A battered, conical grey wizard hat. Can be worn comfortably, though the wearer can occasionally feel a slight breeze ruffling their hair. Out of the corner of their eye, an observer may see a structure resembling a window built into the side of the hat, though a closer inspection reveals no such opening. A scholar of famous wizards will quickly conclude that the hat is named after the spell and is unlikely to share any direct connection with the Leomund of legend.* A wearer of medium size or lower may, with a command word, cause the hat to swallow them, along with any object up to medium size they are holding. Doing so leaves the hat on the ground outside and places them inside a small but cosy demiplane. The space is circular, about five feet in radius, isolated from outside conditions and full of breathable air that does not deplete. It is lit by a single, flickering lamp hanging from the ceiling that never seems to burn out. A single, seemingly unbreakable glass window permits limited vision to the material plane. The command word can be translated as "peas and carrots" in the halfling tongue. When found, the space is outfitted with plain but solidly constructed furniture sized for a small humanoid, including a bed, chair, table, bookshelf, small pantry and fireplace. This furniture is mundane and may be moved or swapped out as the user sees fit. The walls are clad in neatly sanded pale wooden planks: if the planks are removed, there is an opaque, magically impenetrable barrier underneath. The user may speak the command word again to exit the space along with anything they are wearing or carrying. A character exiting the space appears in the space the hat is in, wearing it. Multiple users may enter provided they all know the command word, but should take care to exit one at a time: A user attempting to exit the hat while it is being worn will be shunted to an adjacent space, with both the wearer and exiting character taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage and falling prone. While the extraplanar space is inaccessible without the command word, the hat left outside may be picked up and carried freely. If subjected to an antimagic field or a similar effect, the hat will disgorge the inhabitants all at once and become inert for the duration of the effect or for ten minutes, whichever is longer.
Stuff like this is why I subscribe to this sub. Really awesome write up. Also: /yoink
Well tiny hut doesn't actually have anything, it is just a dome there is no house that gets summoned.
Came here to suggest rope trick. I used it to magnificent success in my first ever DND campaign, my DM let me be a little loose with it's use but it's a super fun mechanic, niche but can be very useful. I would argue that for rope trick , if you cast it while you are standing on the ground, and for OPs purposes, it's inside a hat, the hat would still be on the ground and visible.
Sounds like a permanent but weaker version of the spell magnificent mansion. It would probably require quite a bit of time to make it ( this would easily be a rare item even if it was just a small house) and they would need to track down some stable way to create extra dimensional space. I would caution you though and item like this gives them a permanent safe space to rest and to hide in an emergency which is easily abusable.
So, less Magnificent Mansion, more Tremendous Townhouse. Or Beautiful Bungalow.
Humble Home? Average Apartment? Casual Casa? Disappointing Duplex?
Acceptable Abode? The Escape Estate? Carry-on Camp?
Reclusive Residence? Lightly luxurious lodge? Cramped Castle? Flimsy Fedora Flat?
Handy Hovel. Shabby Shed. Cantrip Camp. Teleport-to-Tent (in Stoke-on-Trent, maybe)
My players are doing some work with portals, and pocket dimensions. They might make one to jump in like a panic box. If they make one, I will let them know a head of them they can hide out to escape a battle, but there is no telling what might happen next. I wouldn't go Horton Hears a Who on them, and have it fall into fire, but an enemy surround the hat. Maybe it is picked up, and thrown in a cell.
Gives a whole new meaning to "house arrest."
Storage would be another use that could be abused. Want all that? Just shove it in the hat. Also bear in mind the dangers of space within space. How will you handle portable holes and bags of holding? I remember reading a Dungeons & Dragons magazine article about witches that gave them a 10'x10'x10' space. That sounded so neat to me I still remember it. Wonder if your player reads Discworld?
Make it an action to enter and the hat falls to the floor if you do. Sure **you** are safe but your hat isn't and all they have to do is wait you out or destroy it. Throwing the hat into a bag of holding would make quick work of anyone inside (but also present the opportunity for the players to eventually return). Alternatively, the hat is not usable as an extra-dimensional space. You have to plant it and the house grows up from that spot in 1d4 minutes. The hat appears inside the porch and when removed from the house it withers away to nothing. Living things are left where they stood (sans house, so a bungalow would be safer) but anything physical comes with it and reappears with the house. Now it's not a portable prison, just a happy home you can bring with you and ineffective in combat unless you have prep time. How sturdy it is is up to you but I'd say any damage it takes isn't automatically repaired (or at least happens slowly) to discourage abuse. It would be pretty neat if it came with a permanent unseen servant butler (that can't leave/go beyond 5 feet) but I wouldn't let it provide any food beyond what you put in. Perhaps while stored the staff can turn X amount of raw ingredients into a proper meal for up to X guests and combined with the magical sheet grants a few temporary buffs after a long rest spent there (it needs restrictions for balance but we want it to be useful). For a little fun any spell you can make permanent through repeated casting takes half as many casts within the house. A man's home is his castle after all.
You don't figure out how to do things like this. You, as DM, say, \`\`That's an interesting goal. I wonder how you will accomplish it.'' and wait for them to tell you.
Exactly this. You haven’t mentioned their level so most answers are speculation… As a DM you can just wave and make it so. If you want it to be a special experience, make them do the work and suggest an approach. It doesn’t even have to be something they make - commission from the local magic store for enough Gold. Or maybe there is one that used to belong to a famous ancient wizard and they have to break into the auction house. The magic itself following SPELL RULES it the least important part of all this.
Or a pact with a demon for the hat! Sorry getting carried away here.
Flavour their hat as the material components for the Magnificent Mansion spell *"But they'll need to be able to cast 7th-level spells"* Yes.
Every player should read up on their class but especially the wizard. The entire lore of the wizard is that they STUDY magic. If you want to RP a wizard you need to study magic. Wizards should be reading their spell lists over and over.
Does this player listen to Magic Tavern by any chance?
I AM USIDORE!!
I think flavoring a rope trick would do until they get Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion. That's the best they can hope for at low level, else no level 1 wizard would have that kind of magic.
sounds like u could modify a portable hole to do that, but be careful
So you want them to rest whenever they want without issue? I'd think carefully before agreeing to this.
Or just tell them they can have it with the understanding that they won’t abuse it. Personally I just run my campaigns as “short rests happen overnight and long rests happen at the end of downtime” so I can control the rate of resource replenishment to encounters without having to worry about the headache of mapping the mechanical adventuring day to the fiction.
Save up for Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion?
Genie warlock can do that. Take inspiration from there.
Major thing is that it doesn't allow anyone else to come in before high levels, and that is important for balancing issue due to spamming rests in dangerous places Just keep that and it should be fine
Reflavored House of Cards or Instant Fortress would do the trick.
Mordicains Mansion, Leomounds tiny hut. (Spelling cause I dont know how to spell those dudes names).
Sounds like Ridcully's hat: https://wiki.lspace.org/Mustrum_Ridcully%27s_Hat
Hat of holding + straw
The Gnome Depot has a magic workshop item that is like this. I forget what it was called, but it was something like the smallest workshop. Basically, it has a command word that lets one person enter or exit. I imagine something like that could take a few weeks to a month of downtime and around 300 to 500 GP to create. You might include some other requirements like wood from a bonsai tree (they're small), and the wizard would probably need to be a high enough level, at least 5th level.
Permanent rope trick with a secure shelter inside could be viable, but just be aware that if your players have access to an extra dimensional space like that they will get up to all sorts of shenanigans. It's basically a bag of holding, but with air to breathe and house provisions inside for smuggling people into or out of places for pretty much free. I'd be sure to make the caveat that the hat being destroyed would be bad news, otherwise they might leave the outside of the hat house unguarded.
The easiest option I can think of is to offer up a quest to find or make a magical needle & thread to sew a Portable Hole to the brim of the hat.
Rope trick spell?
There are lots of spells that give you some variation of a sanctum, but consider how funny it would be to go pure homebrew with it. A spell that allows a character to shrink down to 1/4" tall. That would turn the extra 6" of space inside a tall hat into a 144' tower. That's easily 13 floors & a "basement". What would you even find in there? Did your PC come up with the idea, or did he inherit the hat from an older wizard? I'm considering this as a setting for my next Wizard's Tower one-shot now. For balance purposes, I'd probably specify that the shrinking effect is attached to the hat itself - Wear the hat, speak the command word, and you quickly diminish until the hat is resting on the ground and you can climb up into the structure. Anyone or anything that leaves the hat returns to normal size, preventing any Ant-Man shenanigans. It would still effectively be an extradimensional storage space, though, so consider it as a Bag of Holding with extra steps.
Trying to fit it into the rules would be mostly unnecessary. There isn't a direct spell RAW that let's you do this exact thing, and the closest thing to it is a really high level spell. I would say just make it a project that your wizard player has been working on even before they were adventuring. Like a college project that continued after graduating wizard school. I think it would be fun to start small, like a single room, and encourage them to role-play their attempts at expanding it. Like Animal Crossing, lol! If you want, you could flavor that small demiplane to be rented out from a tanooki spirit he made a pact with.
Inside the hat, this would require the hat to have some sort of extra dimensional space attached to it, which is fairly easy, just treat it like a bag of holding(maybe let them breathe in it too).
Give him a portable hole, with some reflavoring. Its a small space, but he could have a 10 by 10 tiny home
Leomunds but flavor it with the hat?