This spell most often creates a cozy hemisphere of safe space for you and you party. But what if it is an obstacle for you to overcome to get to an enemy NPC group?
This got me thinking, and, with the help of mold earth I think overcoming this ward is fairly straightforward. But I wasn't sure if I'm interpreting everything correctly, RAW, and wanted some insights.
My thinking is that the spell creates one of three things.
A force dome without a floor.
A force dome with a floor.
Just a sphere of force half of which is above ground.
In prior editions is was the last option, but I think this scenario probably plays out the same regardless. We dig. Excavate 5ft cubes of earth from the sides/underneath of the hut. One 5ft cube excavated per round.
If it is a simple top dome, just one round and you got entry into the hut easy.
If it has a floor, then you will need to excavate the dirt out from underneath that floor. Since "Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast this spell can move through it freely." they'll now fall out into the underground tunnel you carved and be venerable (unless they can otherwise fly/hover/cling to the inside)
Same as above but you'll need to excavate a lot more. All around this massive sphere, and then as the dirt and earth inside it crumbles its way out into the now opened area via gravity you excavate that too. All the while the inside of the hut sinks, sinks, sinks, and the occupants try to stay inside until the last bit of earth is removed and they fall out of this massive now exposed sphere.
Am I reading these interactions correctly and is tiny hut really this easy to overcome with just a cantrip?
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I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
I would interpret that as having a floor. I would consider them falling through the bottom if you dug it out, possibly up for debate as to whether the moving freely through it requires a willingness to do so. Beyond that, the only other limitation would be placement, as mold earth would only work on loose dirt, not compacted ground, stone or most any other surface that would make sense to camp on.
Where do you put all those 5-ft cubes of earth in the meantime, if there isn't already space underground to move it aside? Otherwise sure, this is why the party should post a watch during a long rest even with Tiny Hut, and maybe learn to cast it on bare stone or wood floor next time.
1) Mold Earth only excavates loose earth. Almost nothing qualifies; loose in this context means "not dense, close, or compact in structure or arrangement", and earth means soil, dirt, or clay for certain, and probably includes sand but your mileage might vary. It certainly won't work on solid stone, wood, ice, or snow, and it won't work on compacted dirt, like the dirt streets of a village.
2) Tiny Hut has a weirdly illegal range; "hemisphere" isn't a defined AOE shape, and the spell's text never uses the word. However, the spell can't make a sphere that extends into the ground, because the ground blocks all spell AOEs unless the spell says otherwise, and tiny hut doesn't say otherwise. If we assume hemisphere has its common definition of half a sphere, what the range means is that the AOE of the spell halts itself at half a sphere instead of a sphere, which means the hut also doesn't form a sphere in the air (since the hut does explicitly fail to fall) or underwater or the like.
3) It is impossible to determine from the word "dome" whether a given dome has a floor. A dome is a dome with or without one, and when it has one, the floor is part of the dome. This is completely DM fiat.
I think that covers it. Oh, one final thing. There's a JC tweet saying it has a floor and one saying it doesn't, and in both cases, the decision is explicitly based on misunderstanding the rules (one is based on not understanding the word dome and the other is based on not understanding what a spell's range is).
Better to use magic on the earth near the hut and pile it on the dome. And keep piling it on. When the spell ends in a few hours, the people inside can say hello to several tones of dirt falling on them. :-)
@Dan Dillon Does Leomund's Tiny Hut have a floor, or is it vulnerable to burrowing foes?
@JeremyECrawford Leomund's tiny hut creates a dome, not a hemisphere. There's no floor. #DnD
@JeremyECrawford Leomund's tiny hut does have a floor, Mr. Crawford (read your own book). The spell's range entry says the effect is hemispherical. #DnD
@JeremyECrawford There are no "domes" in spellcasting aoe section just spheres, isn't that why spell range says hemisphere?
@JeremyECrawford It intentionally says hemisphere.
tiny hut
This spell most often creates a cozy hemisphere of safe space for you and you party. But what if it is an obstacle for you to overcome to get to an enemy NPC group?
This got me thinking, and, with the help of mold earth I think overcoming this ward is fairly straightforward. But I wasn't sure if I'm interpreting everything correctly, RAW, and wanted some insights.
My thinking is that the spell creates one of three things.
In prior editions is was the last option, but I think this scenario probably plays out the same regardless. We dig. Excavate 5ft cubes of earth from the sides/underneath of the hut. One 5ft cube excavated per round.
Am I reading these interactions correctly and is tiny hut really this easy to overcome with just a cantrip?
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
The spell as written in the PHB says:
I would interpret that as having a floor. I would consider them falling through the bottom if you dug it out, possibly up for debate as to whether the moving freely through it requires a willingness to do so. Beyond that, the only other limitation would be placement, as mold earth would only work on loose dirt, not compacted ground, stone or most any other surface that would make sense to camp on.
Where do you put all those 5-ft cubes of earth in the meantime, if there isn't already space underground to move it aside? Otherwise sure, this is why the party should post a watch during a long rest even with Tiny Hut, and maybe learn to cast it on bare stone or wood floor next time.
Helpful rewriter of Japanese->English translation and delver into software codebases (she/e/they)
Issues:
1) Mold Earth only excavates loose earth. Almost nothing qualifies; loose in this context means "not dense, close, or compact in structure or arrangement", and earth means soil, dirt, or clay for certain, and probably includes sand but your mileage might vary. It certainly won't work on solid stone, wood, ice, or snow, and it won't work on compacted dirt, like the dirt streets of a village.
2) Tiny Hut has a weirdly illegal range; "hemisphere" isn't a defined AOE shape, and the spell's text never uses the word. However, the spell can't make a sphere that extends into the ground, because the ground blocks all spell AOEs unless the spell says otherwise, and tiny hut doesn't say otherwise. If we assume hemisphere has its common definition of half a sphere, what the range means is that the AOE of the spell halts itself at half a sphere instead of a sphere, which means the hut also doesn't form a sphere in the air (since the hut does explicitly fail to fall) or underwater or the like.
3) It is impossible to determine from the word "dome" whether a given dome has a floor. A dome is a dome with or without one, and when it has one, the floor is part of the dome. This is completely DM fiat.
I think that covers it. Oh, one final thing. There's a JC tweet saying it has a floor and one saying it doesn't, and in both cases, the decision is explicitly based on misunderstanding the rules (one is based on not understanding the word dome and the other is based on not understanding what a spell's range is).
Better to use magic on the earth near the hut and pile it on the dome. And keep piling it on. When the spell ends in a few hours, the people inside can say hello to several tones of dirt falling on them. :-)
Or cover the dome with fuel and set it on fire.
A solid hemisphere shape normally has a flat surface, so a floor in other words.
Also a Dev confirmed it has a floor being an hemisphere on twitter https://twitter.com/jeremyecrawford/status/823774362293542912?lang=en