So does the caster of this spell have to ride the carpet to control it? That was kind of my interpretation since there is no range on it. One of my players read it That the caster could control the carpet from the ground.
What’s the intent? If he’s right, how far away can the creator be and must they have line of sight?
I’m under the impression that there’s no range because it goes far, flies near. Perhaps to the stars away from here.
Really, any place it goes is right.
I’m not sure about the remote control, I’ve never thought of that. I’m usually on it with a comely young lass.
The line “takes as much concentration as riding a horse” somewhat implies there’s a “driver”, and the previous sentence “flies at the spellcaster’s command” could be interpreted to mean that initial takeoff, perhaps, only needs to be initiated by the caster.
I could see an argument being made for being able to give the carpet a destination (“at the caster’s command”) and it would go there, without a driver, with the same failure chance table as Teleport has - that would make it a slow, interceptable version of Teleport.
But active remote control, certainly only with line of sight.
I guess to me the problem I see with that interpretation is that it requires a whole host of assumptions and guess work (can it take orders, can it fly remotely, how far can it be controlled remotely, etc, etc). While the interpretation that the creator is needed to pilot it allows all readings of the spell to make sense without a cascade of unanswered questions.
The creator needs to pilot it.
I’d figured that was the intent, but, hey, intellectual exercise.
I expect you could make a magic item version that could pilot itself - some combination of Magic Carpet, Animate Object, and some Divination parts perhaps - that’d score well up into the ritual level, at which point a magic item may be more long-term cost effective.