Playing Rime of the Frost Maiden as a Wild Magic sorc and was wondering if i could use Shape Water on snow to turn it into ice for the sake of cover? I mean it LITERALLY works on water and all snow is is literally just frozen water...I understand the cantrip tries to be like "naw only WATER" but i mean ...all ice is is literally JUST water?
I would give you 3/4 cover which is +5 to AC. Now if you go prone behind it . Total cover. Thanks. And I hope my players don't think of this.
I'm not sure how I'd rule yet, but shape water does give you the option of freezing water. It says "you can freeze water" which then unfreezes in an hour, but it doesn't say "you can unfreeze that ice," or "you can turn water into steam" or "steam into water" or anything like that, so it's reasonable to rule that it's only intended to affect water in the colloquial, fluid sense, not in the chemical H2O sense. I might stretch the limits of the spell to include things like affecting the opacity of mist and fog, but I'm leery of extending it to ice and snow. Partly because it would be such a game changer in RotFM.
The spell says regarding it's non-instantaneous effects that "you can dismiss such an effect as an action". You can't unfreeze naturally occurring ice, but as an action can do so for water you've frozen yourself.
I've spent way too long looking at Shape Water. My short answer is yes, without wording to narrow the usage of water down to just its liquid form SW can be used on water in any state. For a longer answer, I've just added a new answer in Stack Exchange, where I've tried to be as comprehensive as possible.
People are arguing how this would be such a massive power boost for a cantrip when Mold Earth can do the same thing in a wider variety of environments. Consider that it takes an entire action and then requires the caster to stay in that spot to get any benefit - which can be negated simply by the enemy moving around it. It's cool and in a lot of cases it's no better (or even just plain worse) than taking the Dodge action.
So regarding the limit of two non-instantaneous effects. Doesn’t that mean I can only have x2 5-foot cubes simultaneously? That you can’t make a third block unless you take an action to unfreeze one of them (per Khazide87) …
I’ve seen discussions where people talk about ice bridges, walls, dams etc? What am I missing?
So regarding the limit of two non-instantaneous effects. Doesn’t that mean I can only have x2 5-foot cubes simultaneously? That you can’t make a third block unless you take an action to unfreeze one of them (per Khazide87) …
I’ve seen discussions where people talk about ice bridges, walls, dams etc? What am I missing?
You can only have two cubes at the same time.
But the volume of water in a 5 x 5 x 5 space is immense.
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
So regarding the limit of two non-instantaneous effects. Doesn’t that mean I can only have x2 5-foot cubes simultaneously? That you can’t make a third block unless you take an action to unfreeze one of them (per Khazide87) …
I’ve seen discussions where people talk about ice bridges, walls, dams etc? What am I missing?
You aren't. People misintrepret rules all the time, and these cantrips like this typically happens a bit. The way I always DM it is if its out of combat or just some flavor type stuff, I'm fine with it but once it enters a combat situation or is used to solve a real problem, I stop it because spells only do what they say they do. Ice Bridge would only work if the body of water in question was less than five feet deep and you were putting only yourself across it. Since you could climb on one, freeze the next area in front of you, step forward, repeat until done.
Would the ice from shape water be considered magical or non-magical?
For spells like conjure barrage
It's non-magical.
Spells do what they say they do, nothing more or less. Since the spell doesn't have a clause that states it's magical, it is not. It's like the food from Create Food and Drink.
It allows you to freeze the water, so it should interact with frozen water, question is whether you can manipulate solid ice. If you don't draw the line somewhere it might get crazy.
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I would give you 3/4 cover which is +5 to AC. Now if you go prone behind it . Total cover. Thanks. And I hope my players don't think of this.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
I'd allow shaping snow similar to mold earth. But it would remain snow. It wouldn't provide cover, but it would provide concealment.
The spell says regarding it's non-instantaneous effects that "you can dismiss such an effect as an action". You can't unfreeze naturally occurring ice, but as an action can do so for water you've frozen yourself.
I've spent way too long looking at Shape Water. My short answer is yes, without wording to narrow the usage of water down to just its liquid form SW can be used on water in any state. For a longer answer, I've just added a new answer in Stack Exchange, where I've tried to be as comprehensive as possible.
People are arguing how this would be such a massive power boost for a cantrip when Mold Earth can do the same thing in a wider variety of environments. Consider that it takes an entire action and then requires the caster to stay in that spot to get any benefit - which can be negated simply by the enemy moving around it. It's cool and in a lot of cases it's no better (or even just plain worse) than taking the Dodge action.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
Hi all,
So regarding the limit of two non-instantaneous effects. Doesn’t that mean I can only have x2 5-foot cubes simultaneously? That you can’t make a third block unless you take an action to unfreeze one of them (per Khazide87) …
I’ve seen discussions where people talk about ice bridges, walls, dams etc? What am I missing?
You can only have two cubes at the same time.
But the volume of water in a 5 x 5 x 5 space is immense.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
You aren't. People misintrepret rules all the time, and these cantrips like this typically happens a bit. The way I always DM it is if its out of combat or just some flavor type stuff, I'm fine with it but once it enters a combat situation or is used to solve a real problem, I stop it because spells only do what they say they do. Ice Bridge would only work if the body of water in question was less than five feet deep and you were putting only yourself across it. Since you could climb on one, freeze the next area in front of you, step forward, repeat until done.
Would the ice from shape water be considered magical or non-magical?
For spells like conjure barrage
It's non-magical.
Spells do what they say they do, nothing more or less. Since the spell doesn't have a clause that states it's magical, it is not. It's like the food from Create Food and Drink.
It allows you to freeze the water, so it should interact with frozen water, question is whether you can manipulate solid ice. If you don't draw the line somewhere it might get crazy.