Bigby's Hand Spells

[Scott]

These spells have never really come up in my campaigns, but recently, my cousin's magic-user Maylin turned a few pages in his Book of Infinite Spells and ended up with Bigby's Crushing Hand. The hand inflicts damage and takes damage. No AC is listed. No 'to hit' info is listed. It's a 9th level spell. Does it grab and squeeze automatically? As a 9th level spell that seems likely. What about attacks at the hand? Is there an AC, is it like hitting a door, i.e. attacks just hit? Any thoughts?

[geneweigel]

POLYHEDRON #16 had a DISPEL CONFUSION article which was supposed to be the more official SAGE ADVICE in 1983:

ADQ: What AC do the " hands" produced
by the Bigby's Hand spells have?
ADA: The Armor Class of the " hands" is
the same as the current AC of the mage
who cast the spell.
ADQ: Can the Bigby 's Hands be hit by
normal weapons?
ADA: No, magical weapons are required
to hit them .

[Scott]

Not how I would have ruled at all.

[geneweigel]

Its also recorded on a scroll as the MU's ac and HP at the time as seen for example in S4 LOST CAVERNS OF TSOJCANTH on page 8:

The giants have 4,000 sp, 5,000 sp, two base 500 gp gems, and a scroll of two magicuser's spells (shocking grasp, Bigby's crushing hand (AC 6, hp 35; at the 15th level of spell use). The scroll is in a leather tube.

[Scott]

That's somewhat dubious, since the caster level is 4 levels lower than the minimum level that scroll should have. That would be the default scroll level for the 7th level version of the spell, but it does seem to indicate that is the rule.

[geneweigel]

Thats actually an option for the inscriber from DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE page 128 TREASURE (SCROLLS) where they can have a typical "quick" level but they're modular at higher levels that are clear of the restrictions and go as low as 6th:

Spell Level of Scroll Spells: All scroll spells are assumed to be written so as
to make it as easy and quick as possible for the writer. Thus, the level of
the spell, its characteristics with respect to range, duration, area of effect,
etc., where level is a factor, is typically but 1 level higher than that required
to actually use the spell, but never below 6th level of experience.
Thus, a sixth level magic-user spell is written at 13th level of ability, a
seventh at 15th level, etc. A scroll fireball or lightning bolt spell is of 6 dice
(6d6) in most cases, but as DM you may decide to make certain scroll spells
more powerful by increasing the level at which they are written; however,
this will certainly affect the chance of spell failure as given below:

[geneweigel]

and we're just supposed to assume the class and points stay the same regardless.

[Scott]

I wouldn't allow a scroll to be written at a caster level lower than the minimum required to cast the spell, but I do bump them up a lot. I also make it more expensive for PCs that want to write scrolls above the minimum caster level.