I'm making a Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind) so I have Mind Sliver plus 4 more cantrips. I always get Minor Illusion on my spellcasters so my question is, if I have Minor Illusion would it be redundant to also have Mold Earth?
Mold earth is very situational you have to be outdoors in an area of soil or loose rock (sand, gravel, etc) which doesn’t fit the typical dungeon crawl. It’s use to change a section of terrain from difficult to Normal or the reverse is generally useful but the really nice feature is that it gives you pretty much instant 3/4 cover from at least 1 direction as it scoops out a 5’ cube of soil and deposits it in front of you leaving you with a 5’ high 5’ long wall with a moat in front of it. Too bad it only lasts an hour or it would be great for building camps in the wild. Minor illusion is useful everywhere but the protection it may grant is not real while mold earth’s is. Your decision.
You can cast it multiple times in a round. And nothing is stopping you from moving the new dirt pile another 5 ft away with the same cantrip.
With a little imagination you can even turn your wizard into a personal tunnel boring machine. Just dig down under the surface and start digging horizontally moving the fresh dirt behind yourself. Gnomes turn into huge moles. Breathing is a problem after your hold breath ability is used up. But that can be fixed.
I have even used it on a road in the bark to stop the bad guys from chasing after me during a horse chase. Sorry their horses were hurt.
The holes and the earth moved from digging the hole last forever. The other effects only last one hour.
The spells Minor Illusion and Mold Earth are very different in terms of utility since one create a sound or an image of an object while the other manipulate a portion of dirt or stone tin some way so they do very different things that can each be useful under certain cirtumstances.
Both spells are relatively useful spells and depends on what theme of an sorcerer you planning on playing. I myself played a Snake Oil Sales man sorcerer and had mold earth as one of my cantrips, would use it to change the color of the ground I walked on to a tentacle like red color, and spoke abyssal to convince drunk thugs that I was a demon. In my opinion I would choose either Mold Earth or Minor illusion depending on the nature of an sorcerer you wish to use
Both of these cantrips are useful spells that rely on the player's creativity to be useful. They are both different enough that it would not be redundant to have both of them.
When used correctly you will cause the DM to change the way they do things
I was being charged by an enemy once and the DM gave me an action. So I used Mold Earth and excavated the dirt that it was charging into. It fell in the hole, I had initiative and moved the dirt back onto the monster.
I also once used Mold Earth to excavate a canal to divert water from a river and cause flooding. The flow of water also cause mass erosion and major flooding.
Dig a hole with Mold Earth, and then place an illusion over the top to make it look like it's still there. Stand and wait to be charged!
with perseverence, you could dig a pretty deep hole in the ground for them to fall into. dig steps down, then refill the steps except the lowest one, for a 30ft. deep hole.
I'm making a Sorcerer (Aberrant Mind) so I have Mind Sliver plus 4 more cantrips. I always get Minor Illusion on my spellcasters so my question is, if I have Minor Illusion would it be redundant to also have Mold Earth?
Mold Earth doesn't do much, but it's pretty distinct from Minor Illusion.
Mold earth is very situational you have to be outdoors in an area of soil or loose rock (sand, gravel, etc) which doesn’t fit the typical dungeon crawl. It’s use to change a section of terrain from difficult to Normal or the reverse is generally useful but the really nice feature is that it gives you pretty much instant 3/4 cover from at least 1 direction as it scoops out a 5’ cube of soil and deposits it in front of you leaving you with a 5’ high 5’ long wall with a moat in front of it. Too bad it only lasts an hour or it would be great for building camps in the wild. Minor illusion is useful everywhere but the protection it may grant is not real while mold earth’s is. Your decision.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Stand in the hole and you have total cover.
Use it like digging a hole in MIne Craft.
You can cast it multiple times in a round. And nothing is stopping you from moving the new dirt pile another 5 ft away with the same cantrip.
With a little imagination you can even turn your wizard into a personal tunnel boring machine. Just dig down under the surface and start digging horizontally moving the fresh dirt behind yourself. Gnomes turn into huge moles. Breathing is a problem after your hold breath ability is used up. But that can be fixed.
I have even used it on a road in the bark to stop the bad guys from chasing after me during a horse chase. Sorry their horses were hurt.
The holes and the earth moved from digging the hole last forever. The other effects only last one hour.
The spells Minor Illusion and Mold Earth are very different in terms of utility since one create a sound or an image of an object while the other manipulate a portion of dirt or stone tin some way so they do very different things that can each be useful under certain cirtumstances.
Both spells are relatively useful spells and depends on what theme of an sorcerer you planning on playing. I myself played a Snake Oil Sales man sorcerer and had mold earth as one of my cantrips, would use it to change the color of the ground I walked on to a tentacle like red color, and spoke abyssal to convince drunk thugs that I was a demon. In my opinion I would choose either Mold Earth or Minor illusion depending on the nature of an sorcerer you wish to use
Both of these cantrips are useful spells that rely on the player's creativity to be useful. They are both different enough that it would not be redundant to have both of them.
Mold Earth is an overpowered Cantrip.
When used correctly you will cause the DM to change the way they do things
I was being charged by an enemy once and the DM gave me an action. So I used Mold Earth and excavated the dirt that it was charging into. It fell in the hole, I had initiative and moved the dirt back onto the monster.
I also once used Mold Earth to excavate a canal to divert water from a river and cause flooding. The flow of water also cause mass erosion and major flooding.
I would say get both.
Dig a hole with Mold Earth, and then place an illusion over the top to make it look like it's still there. Stand and wait to be charged!
with perseverence, you could dig a pretty deep hole in the ground for them to fall into. dig steps down, then refill the steps except the lowest one, for a 30ft. deep hole.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
DM's Guild Releases on This Thread Or check them all out on DMs Guild!
DrivethruRPG Releases on This Thread - latest release: My Character is a Werewolf: balanced rules for Lycanthropy!
I have started discussing/reviewing 3rd party D&D content on Substack - stay tuned for semi-regular posts!