Everyone knows that if you don't want to be an outlaw, Alchemy Minor is pretty useless, right? Wrong, and I can prove it.
Perhaps this ability would be useless if it were not for something that the Greek scientist Archimedes discovered in the 3rd century BC: different materials have different densities!
Before explaining, let's see what the Player Handbook says: "(...) you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, changing it from one substance into another. You perform a special alchemical procedure on one object composed entirely of wood, stone (but not a gemstone), iron, copper, or silver, transforming it into a different one of those materials. For each 10 minutes you spend performing the procedure, you can transform up to 1 cubic foot of material. "
Density is mass / volume, if we change the physical properties of an object, transforming it into another material with different density, or the mass or volume will necessarily change. The text explicitly mentions the volume ("1 cubic foot of material"), but only to demonstrate the speed of the transformation (0.1 cubic foot / minute), nowhere is it said whether the transformed material will maintain its volume or its original mass, so it can be understood that this decision rests with the transmutator.
But why is this all important? This list of materials with their respective densities can illustrate the implications of the difference in density (numbers are approximate to facilitate math):
Steel: 7860 oz/ft3 or 7.86 g/cm3 Iron: 7400 oz/ft3 or 7.4 g/cm3 Copper: 8900 oz/ft3 or 8.9 g/cm3 Silver: 10500 oz/ft3 or 10.5 g/cm3 Wood: 785 oz/ft3 or 0.785 g/cm3 Stone: 2700 oz/ft3 or 2.7 g/cm3
As you can see, the density of wood is approximately TEN TIMES lower than the density of steel! That is, if you transform steel into wood and choose to keep the mass, the object must necessarily have a volume ten times greater! The opposite is also true, if you choose to keep the volume, the object will have a mass ten times less.
This opens up a range of incredible applications for Minor Alchemy! Some examples: - transform only a piece of a lock into wood, increasing it in volume and breaking the lock. - transform the stone pillar of a wall into iron, making it smaller, collapsing the structure. - transform the steel bars of a prison into silver or copper, causing them to decrease and become loose.
In addition, this interpretation brings great roleplaying opportunities in the best Breaking Bad style! The transmutation school is perfect for a character who likes science and an alchemist would certainly know the difference in density of the materials. Science B ***!
What is your opinion? Do you have another interpretation of the rules? Would you allow that if you were the DM?
Seeing as the spell specifies value but not mass, it seems that's the only operative element. As such, say you transmuted a 1 ft. sphere of wood into iron, you'd get a 1 ft. sphere of iron; same volume, much more mass.
From a practical point of view, it seems easier for a DM to adjudicate "Okay, you've turned this iron door into an identical wooden door. It's now weaker and lighter" than expecting them to look up the density of materials and work out the conservation of mass to decrease/increase in volume ratio. People can better intuit "turning thing from wood into iron makes it lighter"
Ultimately the complexity of your approach seems well outside the scope of D&D.
Seeing as the spell specifies value but not mass, it seems that's the only operative element. As such, say you transmuted a 1 ft. sphere of wood into iron, you'd get a 1 ft. sphere of iron; same volume, much more mass.
From a practical point of view, it seems easier for a DM to adjudicate "Okay, you've turned this iron door into an identical wooden door. It's now weaker and lighter" than expecting them to look up the density of materials and work out the conservation of mass to decrease/increase in volume ratio. People can better intuit "turning thing from wood into iron makes it lighter"
Ultimately the complexity of your approach seems well outside the scope of D&D.
I see your point and you're probably right. But I was not saying that you should do all the math, but that in the same way that you can intuit that turning iron into wood will make it lighter, people can intuit that it can become bigger. But that is a unorthodox approach it would be up to to the DM, it looks a creative way to change a useless abilty into something at least useful without breaking the RAW.
I would tend to agree that the intent is same volume for same volume, but what isn't clear is what flexibility you have on TYPE of the selected materials (wood, stone, iron, copper, or silver - and by the way, why not any other materials, like rope, water, etc.?). For example, can you choose to change that iron door into balsa wood? Is Sand a viable option for Stone? I think Minor Alchemy becomes much more useful if you start thinking in those terms. The Sand option alone makes for some interesting options (no more picking locks; just change the whole lock mechanism to Sand, and pull the door open...; change the sword at the hilt to sand, and watch the blade fall off of your enemy's weapon....; change incoming arrows/bolts/ javelins to sand...; a supporting chain for something...). The wood option works, too, although less for defense (the weapon thing still works, it just allows the weapon to break in your enemy's hand when he uses it; used on incoming arrows/bolts/ javelins, it should reduce the chance of damage to almost nothing...).
I have some other questions, though - what's the range on Minor Alchemy? Do you have to be touching the item? Can you cast it like a spell? What does the 'special alchemical procedure' look like? Is it any different than casting any other spell? Is a somatic element involved, and if so, what?
It says that for each 10 minutes you perform the spell, you convert up to 1 cubic foot of material. It doesn't say you have to spend at least 10 minutes performing it. There are 100 combat rounds in 10 minutes; if you break it down, that means that you can convert 17.28 cubic inches of material per combat round. That's an area about 3"x6"x1" (or 2"x2"x4"). And if you're using the Sand option, you don't have to hold concentration for long, once the material has fallen apart, do you really care whether it goes back to it's original material?
And there are combinations... convert a small rock (stone) into silver, then use the Catapult spell to throw it at a lycanthrope. You don't care if it bends, it'll do 3d8 damage...
I have some other questions, though - what's the range on Minor Alchemy? Do you have to be touching the item? Can you cast it like a spell? What does the 'special alchemical procedure' look like? Is it any different than casting any other spell? Is a somatic element involved, and if so, what?
Granted, the RAW does not clarify the range, but I think the intent is that it is range touch. If it's range infinity the PC is an unstoppable force who cannot face genuine challenges, and there's no coherent argument for any particular finite range between zero (touch) and infinite. So I think touch fits best.
Well, I think so, as just explained.
Definitely you don't have to cast a spell - minor alchemy isn't even magic, and you can do it in an antimagic field. It's its own distinct action.
It looks like how you and the DM agree it looks like, but since you know it requires no tools, no components or catalysts, and no facilities - literally a nude Transmuter who's been thoroughly waxed and locked in prison under a permanent antimagic field can turn the stone walls of their prison to wood - I suggest you roughly copy Full Metal Alchemist, and just give the Transmuter a transmuting slap (or kick, or really uncomfortably drawn out lick).
It has no similarities at all to casting a spell. Arguably, based on the name, it has some similarities to making soap, perfume, antitoxin, vials of acid, alchemist's fire, and, if at least one item is to be believed, mayonnaise.
See line 4.
The biggest problem I see with Minor Alchemy is you're pinning your hopes on the DM overriding the RAW in your favor, because most objects you want to target don't qualify. For example, you mentioned arrows, bolts, and javelins. The ability doesn't work on these - they have wooden shafts but metal heads. The ability requires the target object to be pure, and the greatest leeway you have is that the word "object" is never well-defined anywhere, so there's wiggle room to debate it (like your argument that a lock is a single object). But in general, you will virtually never find an object made entirely of wood. I've seen them in the real world and they're really neat, but I have none in my home, and I doubt you do, either. And pure iron? I haven't seen that since chemistry class. I haven't seen pure gold, of course, since in the real world pure gold is literally impossible to make, but in d&d you can literally declare a wizard did it and all gold coins are pure. True 24K gold, baby.
Obviously I don't expect any DM to be remotely that finicky, which is my main point - anyone using the ability is counting on the DM not to literally follow the RAW and instead be lax and let the ability actually function. E.g. letting the transmuter work on wrought or cast iron should be totally cool - just pick a reasonable line so you don't let them work on anything most would consider steel, and you'll be fine. It's just that, like with stealth and illusion magic, it's always risky building your character around something your DM might interpret the rules for wildly differently from you.
Oh, incidentally, to cover your point about partial work - I think you're clearly right and the rate is 1 cubic foot per ten minutes, but I want to explicitly point out you can't make partial progress. You transform a target object or you don't. So if you declare a rowboat your target - and I weep for your DM, because I have no idea what the actual volume is of a rowboat; hollow objects make Minor Alchemy a pain in the ass - and your DM decides it's close enough to pure wood, the whole boat is wood until the whole boat is, say, granite. Or, if your DM agrees with the sand thing - and I know I would - glass. You know, whatever. So larger objects are a genuine pain in the neck to destroy.
And there are combinations... convert a small rock (stone) into silver, then use the Catapult spell to throw it at a lycanthrope. You don't care if it bends, it'll do 3d8 damage...
Waste of time. Lycanthropes take full damage from Catapult with or without silver.
You can't transmute wood into sand any more than you can transmute wood into silver ball bearings. It works on one object and only changes substance, not structure. This is not a free ticket to just disintegrate anything you want.
And it doesn't have to say you have to spend the entire 10 minutes converting the material because that's a given in how things work in D&D. Duration and casting times are well-defined concepts. You can't cast one Magic Missile as a bonus action, you can't create half a Tiny Hut in 30 seconds, and you can't transmute 1% of a cubic foot in 6 seconds.
It's a decent second level feature. It does neat stuff but not broken stuff. Yes, you can break out of prison by turning the bars to wood. No, you cannot shrink a piece of a column or expand a piece of a lock because it effects one object, not a part of one object.
Ok, I really like the Transmutation school of magic in this game because the spells and abilities are so cool and typically 'magical' in the storybook classical wizardly way. Imagine winning a fight by literally turning your foe into a frog. But people are right, early on when ALL wizards are pretty weak and only become badass and powerful later (if they survive), Trans Wizards do still get a little short sided compared to the rest. So, these are the uses i can think of for Minor Alchemy which i reckon can be pretty awesome:
Money. This is the first thing most people think of with this power, but transforming a solid block of wood or stone into pure silver and selling it at market will make you free cash. The only issue would be getting out of there within the hour before it reverts back. You could always use a similar approach turning copper coins into silver coins and using them to buy stuff ... but you'd need to check with your DM whether coins in your world are finely shaped or detailed in case the difference is obvious.
Free Weapon. Sure, you'd have to know a fight was coming given the 10 minutes to prepare, but you can take any snapped off piece of bark or tree branch or random stick, turn it into iron and you have free instant weapons for the fight. An impending attack coming? Make a free javelin or dagger to protect you and your party.
Prison Break. I tried this once and completely failed because i used the wrong material (that or because i used thunderwave in a jail cell on the bottom of a ship at sea). Every transmuter has had the idea of turning the iron bars or iron lock of their prison cell into wood and then either smashing it or burning themselves free. Instead, turn the iron into stone! Specifically, Shale, Schist, Clay, OR (If your DM allows it) Sand. You could quite literally walk out of prison, after just a little push.
Poison. Now this is one of my most cleverest innovations. Cinnamon, a most common and delicious cooking ingredient, comes from tree bark which makes it an edible wood. All you need do is have somebody ingest a large amount of cinnamon ... and transform the cinnamon INSIDE their body into silver. Just 2 tsp of cinnamon can provide a lethal dose of Silver Poisoning. Perhaps maybe not enough to kill a person (given the 1 hour window) but THAT much silver in a persons body all at once can cause fever, discolouration, kidney failure, liver failure, vomiting, and diarrhoea. If you used Copper instead, you'll get flu-like symptoms which can still be deadly in a medieval D&D world. A further perk would be that you can turn the metal back into cinnamon and suddenly this person is dreadfully ill (or dead) with not a single trace of poison inside their body.
Major Transformation. Now this one requires a little patience. Eventually your Transmuter Stone will be capable of transforming any non-magical object into any other object you can think of. However, the rule here is that the new object must be of equal or lesser value, which means you can't go turning tree branches into swords or a chicken egg into a diamond or a hat into a boat. BUT! You could use Minor Alchemy to transform the object in question into pure silver, which increases its wealth value which allows you to major transform the object into a much wider variety of items.
If you have to be able to touch the object to transmute it, how do you touch the cinnamon once it's inside their body? Or is touching their body good enough? In which case you still get left with being the last person to touch them before they got sick and died, which won't go too well for you...
If you have to be able to touch the object to transmute it, how do you touch the cinnamon once it's inside their body? Or is touching their body good enough? In which case you still get left with being the last person to touch them before they got sick and died, which won't go too well for you...
Transmute silver into cinnamon. THEN feed it to the victim. Then it reverts in one hour.
Physics, chemistry, and all the natural systems of our world do not exist as mechanics in D&D. The closest we get is crude approximations, such as with fall damage.
What you are talking about is not a rules and mechanics discussion. It is a homebrew discussion.
EDIT: and it looks like it's moved to the right forum now. Cheers.
Everyone knows that if you don't want to be an outlaw, Alchemy Minor is pretty useless, right? Wrong, and I can prove it.
Perhaps this ability would be useless if it were not for something that the Greek scientist Archimedes discovered in the 3rd century BC: different materials have different densities!
Before explaining, let's see what the Player Handbook says:
"(...) you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, changing it from one substance into another. You perform a special alchemical procedure on one object composed entirely of wood, stone (but not a gemstone), iron, copper, or silver, transforming it into a different one of those materials. For each 10 minutes you spend performing the procedure, you can transform up to 1 cubic foot of material. "
Density is mass / volume, if we change the physical properties of an object, transforming it into another material with different density, or the mass or volume will necessarily change. The text explicitly mentions the volume ("1 cubic foot of material"), but only to demonstrate the speed of the transformation (0.1 cubic foot / minute), nowhere is it said whether the transformed material will maintain its volume or its original mass, so it can be understood that this decision rests with the transmutator.
But why is this all important? This list of materials with their respective densities can illustrate the implications of the difference in density (numbers are approximate to facilitate math):
Steel: 7860 oz/ft3 or 7.86 g/cm3
Iron: 7400 oz/ft3 or 7.4 g/cm3
Copper: 8900 oz/ft3 or 8.9 g/cm3
Silver: 10500 oz/ft3 or 10.5 g/cm3
Wood: 785 oz/ft3 or 0.785 g/cm3
Stone: 2700 oz/ft3 or 2.7 g/cm3
As you can see, the density of wood is approximately TEN TIMES lower than the density of steel! That is, if you transform steel into wood and choose to keep the mass, the object must necessarily have a volume ten times greater! The opposite is also true, if you choose to keep the volume, the object will have a mass ten times less.
This opens up a range of incredible applications for Minor Alchemy! Some examples:
- transform only a piece of a lock into wood, increasing it in volume and breaking the lock.
- transform the stone pillar of a wall into iron, making it smaller, collapsing the structure.
- transform the steel bars of a prison into silver or copper, causing them to decrease and become loose.
In addition, this interpretation brings great roleplaying opportunities in the best Breaking Bad style! The transmutation school is perfect for a character who likes science and an alchemist would certainly know the difference in density of the materials. Science B ***!
What is your opinion? Do you have another interpretation of the rules? Would you allow that if you were the DM?
Seeing as the spell specifies value but not mass, it seems that's the only operative element. As such, say you transmuted a 1 ft. sphere of wood into iron, you'd get a 1 ft. sphere of iron; same volume, much more mass.
From a practical point of view, it seems easier for a DM to adjudicate "Okay, you've turned this iron door into an identical wooden door. It's now weaker and lighter" than expecting them to look up the density of materials and work out the conservation of mass to decrease/increase in volume ratio. People can better intuit "turning thing from wood into iron makes it lighter"
Ultimately the complexity of your approach seems well outside the scope of D&D.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I see your point and you're probably right. But I was not saying that you should do all the math, but that in the same way that you can intuit that turning iron into wood will make it lighter, people can intuit that it can become bigger. But that is a unorthodox approach it would be up to to the DM, it looks a creative way to change a useless abilty into something at least useful without breaking the RAW.
I would tend to agree that the intent is same volume for same volume, but what isn't clear is what flexibility you have on TYPE of the selected materials (wood, stone, iron, copper, or silver - and by the way, why not any other materials, like rope, water, etc.?). For example, can you choose to change that iron door into balsa wood? Is Sand a viable option for Stone? I think Minor Alchemy becomes much more useful if you start thinking in those terms. The Sand option alone makes for some interesting options (no more picking locks; just change the whole lock mechanism to Sand, and pull the door open...; change the sword at the hilt to sand, and watch the blade fall off of your enemy's weapon....; change incoming arrows/bolts/ javelins to sand...; a supporting chain for something...). The wood option works, too, although less for defense (the weapon thing still works, it just allows the weapon to break in your enemy's hand when he uses it; used on incoming arrows/bolts/ javelins, it should reduce the chance of damage to almost nothing...).
I have some other questions, though - what's the range on Minor Alchemy? Do you have to be touching the item? Can you cast it like a spell? What does the 'special alchemical procedure' look like? Is it any different than casting any other spell? Is a somatic element involved, and if so, what?
It says that for each 10 minutes you perform the spell, you convert up to 1 cubic foot of material. It doesn't say you have to spend at least 10 minutes performing it. There are 100 combat rounds in 10 minutes; if you break it down, that means that you can convert 17.28 cubic inches of material per combat round. That's an area about 3"x6"x1" (or 2"x2"x4"). And if you're using the Sand option, you don't have to hold concentration for long, once the material has fallen apart, do you really care whether it goes back to it's original material?
And there are combinations... convert a small rock (stone) into silver, then use the Catapult spell to throw it at a lycanthrope. You don't care if it bends, it'll do 3d8 damage...
Anyway, just some thoughts...
The biggest problem I see with Minor Alchemy is you're pinning your hopes on the DM overriding the RAW in your favor, because most objects you want to target don't qualify. For example, you mentioned arrows, bolts, and javelins. The ability doesn't work on these - they have wooden shafts but metal heads. The ability requires the target object to be pure, and the greatest leeway you have is that the word "object" is never well-defined anywhere, so there's wiggle room to debate it (like your argument that a lock is a single object). But in general, you will virtually never find an object made entirely of wood. I've seen them in the real world and they're really neat, but I have none in my home, and I doubt you do, either. And pure iron? I haven't seen that since chemistry class. I haven't seen pure gold, of course, since in the real world pure gold is literally impossible to make, but in d&d you can literally declare a wizard did it and all gold coins are pure. True 24K gold, baby.
Obviously I don't expect any DM to be remotely that finicky, which is my main point - anyone using the ability is counting on the DM not to literally follow the RAW and instead be lax and let the ability actually function. E.g. letting the transmuter work on wrought or cast iron should be totally cool - just pick a reasonable line so you don't let them work on anything most would consider steel, and you'll be fine. It's just that, like with stealth and illusion magic, it's always risky building your character around something your DM might interpret the rules for wildly differently from you.
Oh, incidentally, to cover your point about partial work - I think you're clearly right and the rate is 1 cubic foot per ten minutes, but I want to explicitly point out you can't make partial progress. You transform a target object or you don't. So if you declare a rowboat your target - and I weep for your DM, because I have no idea what the actual volume is of a rowboat; hollow objects make Minor Alchemy a pain in the ass - and your DM decides it's close enough to pure wood, the whole boat is wood until the whole boat is, say, granite. Or, if your DM agrees with the sand thing - and I know I would - glass. You know, whatever. So larger objects are a genuine pain in the neck to destroy.
Waste of time. Lycanthropes take full damage from Catapult with or without silver.
You can't transmute wood into sand any more than you can transmute wood into silver ball bearings. It works on one object and only changes substance, not structure. This is not a free ticket to just disintegrate anything you want.
And it doesn't have to say you have to spend the entire 10 minutes converting the material because that's a given in how things work in D&D. Duration and casting times are well-defined concepts. You can't cast one Magic Missile as a bonus action, you can't create half a Tiny Hut in 30 seconds, and you can't transmute 1% of a cubic foot in 6 seconds.
It's a decent second level feature. It does neat stuff but not broken stuff. Yes, you can break out of prison by turning the bars to wood. No, you cannot shrink a piece of a column or expand a piece of a lock because it effects one object, not a part of one object.
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
Ok, I really like the Transmutation school of magic in this game because the spells and abilities are so cool and typically 'magical' in the storybook classical wizardly way. Imagine winning a fight by literally turning your foe into a frog. But people are right, early on when ALL wizards are pretty weak and only become badass and powerful later (if they survive), Trans Wizards do still get a little short sided compared to the rest. So, these are the uses i can think of for Minor Alchemy which i reckon can be pretty awesome:
Money. This is the first thing most people think of with this power, but transforming a solid block of wood or stone into pure silver and selling it at market will make you free cash. The only issue would be getting out of there within the hour before it reverts back. You could always use a similar approach turning copper coins into silver coins and using them to buy stuff ... but you'd need to check with your DM whether coins in your world are finely shaped or detailed in case the difference is obvious.
Free Weapon. Sure, you'd have to know a fight was coming given the 10 minutes to prepare, but you can take any snapped off piece of bark or tree branch or random stick, turn it into iron and you have free instant weapons for the fight. An impending attack coming? Make a free javelin or dagger to protect you and your party.
Prison Break. I tried this once and completely failed because i used the wrong material (that or because i used thunderwave in a jail cell on the bottom of a ship at sea). Every transmuter has had the idea of turning the iron bars or iron lock of their prison cell into wood and then either smashing it or burning themselves free. Instead, turn the iron into stone! Specifically, Shale, Schist, Clay, OR (If your DM allows it) Sand. You could quite literally walk out of prison, after just a little push.
Poison. Now this is one of my most cleverest innovations. Cinnamon, a most common and delicious cooking ingredient, comes from tree bark which makes it an edible wood. All you need do is have somebody ingest a large amount of cinnamon ... and transform the cinnamon INSIDE their body into silver. Just 2 tsp of cinnamon can provide a lethal dose of Silver Poisoning. Perhaps maybe not enough to kill a person (given the 1 hour window) but THAT much silver in a persons body all at once can cause fever, discolouration, kidney failure, liver failure, vomiting, and diarrhoea. If you used Copper instead, you'll get flu-like symptoms which can still be deadly in a medieval D&D world. A further perk would be that you can turn the metal back into cinnamon and suddenly this person is dreadfully ill (or dead) with not a single trace of poison inside their body.
Major Transformation. Now this one requires a little patience. Eventually your Transmuter Stone will be capable of transforming any non-magical object into any other object you can think of. However, the rule here is that the new object must be of equal or lesser value, which means you can't go turning tree branches into swords or a chicken egg into a diamond or a hat into a boat. BUT! You could use Minor Alchemy to transform the object in question into pure silver, which increases its wealth value which allows you to major transform the object into a much wider variety of items.
If you have to be able to touch the object to transmute it, how do you touch the cinnamon once it's inside their body? Or is touching their body good enough? In which case you still get left with being the last person to touch them before they got sick and died, which won't go too well for you...
As a DM I quash almost everything that tries to put science into the game. I'm all for creativity but not when it starts to look like work.
The spell makes absolutely NO reference to being able to enlarge or shrink things!
Transmute silver into cinnamon. THEN feed it to the victim. Then it reverts in one hour.
Physics, chemistry, and all the natural systems of our world do not exist as mechanics in D&D. The closest we get is crude approximations, such as with fall damage.
What you are talking about is not a rules and mechanics discussion. It is a homebrew discussion.
EDIT: and it looks like it's moved to the right forum now. Cheers.