What would happen if you put something besides a Plant in the Pot of Awakening or performed the Awakening spell on something besides a plant or dumb animal? Would it just not work, end-of-discussion, or is there leeway for DM discretion? What if Awakening is cast on a carrot instead of a plant, or on a freshly-cut, still-green piece of wood?
I don't see mention that the target must be a plant or dumb animal anywhere in the spell description except the first sentence where it says "you touch a Huge or smaller beast or plant", but why couldn't someone cast Awakening on a rock or chunk of metal ore, a piece of wood, or even on a crafted metal coin or a multi-component hammer? Any of those object would gain hitpoints and enough intelligence/awareness to obey commands and defend itself against attack, so why couldn't any of them be Awakened to permanently gain those traits?
Why can't a person make Plank from Ed, Edd, and Eddy alive? Why can't a person cast Awaken on their pet rock and turn it into a living creature? What if I want my own living, breathing Mr Potato Head like in Toy Story?
If not, then what about if the spell was cast at a higher level?
Awakening Spell "After spending the casting time tracing magical pathways within a precious gemstone, you touch a Huge or smaller beast or plant. The target must have either no Intelligence score or an Intelligence of 3 or less. The target gains an Intelligence of 10. The target also gains the ability to speak one language you know. If the target is a plant, it gains the ability to move its limbs, roots, vines, creepers, and so forth, and it gains senses similar to a human's." https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/awaken
Animate Objects "Objects come to life at your command. ... Each target animates and becomes a creature under your control until the spell ends or until reduced to 0 hit points." https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/animate-objects
Let's start with this. The answer is always yes. With absolutely everything. Any question you can ever fathom regarding D&D - the answer is yes. Every time. The DM can remove, bend, alter and invent any ruling for their game that can be possibly imagined by human consciousness.
But this isn't the DM fiat forum, this is the rules forum, so I presume you're interested in the spell as ruled by the official D&D 5e books.
"What would happen if you put something besides a Plant in the Pot of Awakening"
Nothing.
"or performed the Awakening spell on something besides a plant or dumb animal? "
Nothing.
"What if Awakening is cast on a carrot instead of a plant, or on a freshly-cut, still-green piece of wood?"
Nothing.
"I don't see mention that the target must be a plant or dumb animal anywhere in the spell description except the first sentence where it says "you touch a Huge or smaller beast or plant", "
Why would it need to repeat itself? It's very clear. The target must be a Plant or a Beast with an Intelligence score of 3 or less. It doesn't work on anything else.
"but why couldn't someone cast Awakening on a rock or chunk of metal ore, a piece of wood, or even on a crafted metal coin or a multi-component hammer? Any of those object would gain hitpoints and enough intelligence/awareness to obey commands and defend itself against attack, so why couldn't any of them be Awakened to permanently gain those traits?
Why can't a person make Plank from Ed, Edd, and Eddy alive? Why can't a person cast Awaken on their pet rock and turn it into a living creature? What if I want my own living, breathing Mr Potato Head like in Toy Story?"
Because the spell doesn't work that way. It only works on plants and Beasts with an Intelligence score of 3 or less.
As for "why" well - because the designers designed it that way. You'd need to ask them for more details but they don't read these forums and I don't think the people who wrote the original version of this spell in 1st edition are even still around. So, best of luck. 🤣
As for an in-game lore reason... None exists in D&D 5th. There doesn't need to be. That's for you or the DM to invent if you need it. I'd imagine, it something that taps into the potential of something living to grant or expand the mind into real intelligence and from this a real personality. It's a spell of nature (hence Druids and Bards) and so limited to the life of standard nature : hence plants and beasts, rather things of more foreign natures like elementals (from other planes), monstrosities (unusual natures), aberrations (aliens/horrors from the Far Realm) etc. But that' my personal take on it. Your DM may come up with something different.
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What Cyb3rM1nd said, but I would say a freshly picked carrot abd maybe a freshly cut branch could be targets for the spell. They are living plants and can stay alive if planted properly.
I'd probably allow casting it on an intelligent beast like a Giant Eagle. In this case it would have to be a willing target. You would basically just grant it the ability to speak a humanoid language.
What Cyb3rM1nd said, but I would say a freshly picked carrot abd maybe a freshly cut branch could be targets for the spell. They are living plants and can stay alive if planted properly.
Read this and thought “how would a carrot move around? Drag itself by its top leaves?” It doesn’t sprout legs it can only use what it already has, so a carrot plant, which has roots, could use those for mobility. Same for a cut branch. But maybe just being too much of a stickler on it.
What Cyb3rM1nd said, but I would say a freshly picked carrot abd maybe a freshly cut branch could be targets for the spell. They are living plants and can stay alive if planted properly.
Read this and thought “how would a carrot move around? Drag itself by its top leaves?” It doesn’t sprout legs it can only use what it already has, so a carrot plant, which has roots, could use those for mobility. Same for a cut branch. But maybe just being too much of a stickler on it.
What would happen if you put something besides a Plant in the Pot of Awakening or performed the Awakening spell on something besides a plant or dumb animal? Would it just not work, end-of-discussion, or is there leeway for DM discretion? What if Awakening is cast on a carrot instead of a plant, or on a freshly-cut, still-green piece of wood?
I don't see mention that the target must be a plant or dumb animal anywhere in the spell description except the first sentence where it says "you touch a Huge or smaller beast or plant", but why couldn't someone cast Awakening on a rock or chunk of metal ore, a piece of wood, or even on a crafted metal coin or a multi-component hammer? Any of those object would gain hitpoints and enough intelligence/awareness to obey commands and defend itself against attack, so why couldn't any of them be Awakened to permanently gain those traits?
Why can't a person make Plank from Ed, Edd, and Eddy alive? Why can't a person cast Awaken on their pet rock and turn it into a living creature? What if I want my own living, breathing Mr Potato Head like in Toy Story?
If not, then what about if the spell was cast at a higher level?
Awakening Spell
"After spending the casting time tracing magical pathways within a precious gemstone, you touch a Huge or smaller beast or plant. The target must have either no Intelligence score or an Intelligence of 3 or less. The target gains an Intelligence of 10. The target also gains the ability to speak one language you know. If the target is a plant, it gains the ability to move its limbs, roots, vines, creepers, and so forth, and it gains senses similar to a human's."
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/awaken
Animate Objects
"Objects come to life at your command. ... Each target animates and becomes a creature under your control until the spell ends or until reduced to 0 hit points."
https://www.dndbeyond.com/spells/animate-objects
Awakened Shrub
"An awakened shrub is an ordinary shrub given sentience and mobility by the awaken spell or similar magic."
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16791-awakened-shrub
"or is there leeway for DM discretion?"
Let's start with this. The answer is always yes. With absolutely everything. Any question you can ever fathom regarding D&D - the answer is yes. Every time. The DM can remove, bend, alter and invent any ruling for their game that can be possibly imagined by human consciousness.
But this isn't the DM fiat forum, this is the rules forum, so I presume you're interested in the spell as ruled by the official D&D 5e books.
"What would happen if you put something besides a Plant in the Pot of Awakening"
Nothing.
"or performed the Awakening spell on something besides a plant or dumb animal? "
Nothing.
"What if Awakening is cast on a carrot instead of a plant, or on a freshly-cut, still-green piece of wood?"
Nothing.
"I don't see mention that the target must be a plant or dumb animal anywhere in the spell description except the first sentence where it says "you touch a Huge or smaller beast or plant", "
Why would it need to repeat itself? It's very clear. The target must be a Plant or a Beast with an Intelligence score of 3 or less. It doesn't work on anything else.
"but why couldn't someone cast Awakening on a rock or chunk of metal ore, a piece of wood, or even on a crafted metal coin or a multi-component hammer? Any of those object would gain hitpoints and enough intelligence/awareness to obey commands and defend itself against attack, so why couldn't any of them be Awakened to permanently gain those traits?
Why can't a person make Plank from Ed, Edd, and Eddy alive? Why can't a person cast Awaken on their pet rock and turn it into a living creature? What if I want my own living, breathing Mr Potato Head like in Toy Story?"
Because the spell doesn't work that way. It only works on plants and Beasts with an Intelligence score of 3 or less.
As for "why" well - because the designers designed it that way. You'd need to ask them for more details but they don't read these forums and I don't think the people who wrote the original version of this spell in 1st edition are even still around. So, best of luck. 🤣
As for an in-game lore reason... None exists in D&D 5th. There doesn't need to be. That's for you or the DM to invent if you need it. I'd imagine, it something that taps into the potential of something living to grant or expand the mind into real intelligence and from this a real personality. It's a spell of nature (hence Druids and Bards) and so limited to the life of standard nature : hence plants and beasts, rather things of more foreign natures like elementals (from other planes), monstrosities (unusual natures), aberrations (aliens/horrors from the Far Realm) etc. But that' my personal take on it. Your DM may come up with something different.
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Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
What Cyb3rM1nd said, but I would say a freshly picked carrot abd maybe a freshly cut branch could be targets for the spell. They are living plants and can stay alive if planted properly.
I'd probably allow casting it on an intelligent beast like a Giant Eagle. In this case it would have to be a willing target. You would basically just grant it the ability to speak a humanoid language.
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Read this and thought “how would a carrot move around? Drag itself by its top leaves?” It doesn’t sprout legs it can only use what it already has, so a carrot plant, which has roots, could use those for mobility. Same for a cut branch. But maybe just being too much of a stickler on it.
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Did you not see the pickle Rick episode?
Lol, "stick"ler.