This spell can't locate a creature if running water at least 10 feet wide blocks a direct path between you and the creature.
We're going to be hunting down a creature in a bay near our settlement; will open water count as "running water"? Is Locate Creature effectively rendered useless if tracking something in anything larger than a pond? I suspect so, but I wonder if there is a little bit of "DM discretion" here.
To answer the last question first, there’s a bit of DM discretion everywhere. So their ruling will matter more than anything we say here
Personally, I would consider the open ocean to be running water. It’s constantly moving, and moving in more directions than a river. Also I find it hard to believe a 10’ stream would block the spell but not the Pacific Ocean.
Here's my headcannon. Locate Creature is using a magical analog to hunting down the target using bloodhounds. The magical bloodhound catches the 'scent' of the target and tracks them down for you. But, as with real bloodhounds, if the target has crossed through running water it'll scatter their scent trail. The water carries it downstream and washes it off them, so the smell is all over harder to pick up, and in places the target never was.
Somehow, running water does the same thing to the locate creature spell.
So, then I'd just ask myself if the water in question would serve the same function for someone trying to escape capture and tracked by bloodhounds. A small pond probably wouldn't because you can just go around it, but a larger lake would be too big for the spell to go around, itd have to track it through the water, which it can't.
Ymmv. Just my thoughts on why it is like that and how that impacts how to interpret what it is saying in edge cases.
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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.
There is certainly argument that a bay (as an extension of the ocean) is "running" since the water is flowing in, out, and around, constantly refreshing itself. A large lake would not qualify by this interpretation because the water can be still and stagnant.
The fact that is specifies "running water" makes me thing still ponds and lakes are not intended to make the spell fail.
According to the entry on lakes in the encyclopedia, the primary source of currents in lakes is wind, hydraulic gradients, and density gradients. As such, I'd limit "running" water to water that is moving primarily due to gravity, as in the case of a river (or the area where a river pours into or out of a lake).
That said, the ocean does contain particularly strong currents, so I'd allow for "underwater rivers". If the creature being hunted found one of these underwater rivers and hide behind it, then I'd give them credit for it.
Does make you wonder if aquatic race spellcasters have a version that works in water but is blocked by 10 feet of land mass
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
A great many spells are blocked by 10 feet of landmass :)
Only if you're trying to go through it and not over it
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Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
yeesh, I will run into this problem inevitably in my seafaring campaign. guess I'll just plan to just use Conjure Animals and have 8 swimming friends with Perception do the locating instead.
yeesh, I will run into this problem inevitably in my seafaring campaign. guess I'll just plan to just use Conjure Animals and have 8 swimming friends with Perception do the locating instead.
If you're hunting a sea monster, could always go the Jaws route and shoot it or get it to swallow something you can use Locate Object on instead
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
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The last part of Locate Creature reads
We're going to be hunting down a creature in a bay near our settlement; will open water count as "running water"? Is Locate Creature effectively rendered useless if tracking something in anything larger than a pond? I suspect so, but I wonder if there is a little bit of "DM discretion" here.
To answer the last question first, there’s a bit of DM discretion everywhere. So their ruling will matter more than anything we say here
Personally, I would consider the open ocean to be running water. It’s constantly moving, and moving in more directions than a river. Also I find it hard to believe a 10’ stream would block the spell but not the Pacific Ocean.
Here's my headcannon. Locate Creature is using a magical analog to hunting down the target using bloodhounds. The magical bloodhound catches the 'scent' of the target and tracks them down for you. But, as with real bloodhounds, if the target has crossed through running water it'll scatter their scent trail. The water carries it downstream and washes it off them, so the smell is all over harder to pick up, and in places the target never was.
Somehow, running water does the same thing to the locate creature spell.
So, then I'd just ask myself if the water in question would serve the same function for someone trying to escape capture and tracked by bloodhounds. A small pond probably wouldn't because you can just go around it, but a larger lake would be too big for the spell to go around, itd have to track it through the water, which it can't.
Ymmv. Just my thoughts on why it is like that and how that impacts how to interpret what it is saying in edge cases.
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.
There is certainly argument that a bay (as an extension of the ocean) is "running" since the water is flowing in, out, and around, constantly refreshing itself. A large lake would not qualify by this interpretation because the water can be still and stagnant.
The fact that is specifies "running water" makes me thing still ponds and lakes are not intended to make the spell fail.
According to the entry on lakes in the encyclopedia, the primary source of currents in lakes is wind, hydraulic gradients, and density gradients. As such, I'd limit "running" water to water that is moving primarily due to gravity, as in the case of a river (or the area where a river pours into or out of a lake).
That said, the ocean does contain particularly strong currents, so I'd allow for "underwater rivers". If the creature being hunted found one of these underwater rivers and hide behind it, then I'd give them credit for it.
Does make you wonder if aquatic race spellcasters have a version that works in water but is blocked by 10 feet of land mass
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
A great many spells are blocked by 10 feet of landmass :)
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Only if you're trying to go through it and not over it
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
yeesh, I will run into this problem inevitably in my seafaring campaign. guess I'll just plan to just use Conjure Animals and have 8 swimming friends with Perception do the locating instead.
If you're hunting a sea monster, could always go the Jaws route and shoot it or get it to swallow something you can use Locate Object on instead
Active characters:
Carric Aquissar, elven wannabe artist in his deconstructionist period (Archfey warlock)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator obsessed with that one unsolved murder (Assassin rogue)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)