The "Tiny Hut" spell is the focus of this question but branches over into the Radius and Sphere area of effects.

According to the reading of the spell it makes a Dome of force the caster can control to keep bad weather and nasty things out. It is magic prof from incoming and outgoing spells. You can change the color of the dome outside effectively making it so nothing can see your party inside. However, you can still see out, not indicating there is any control on this feature. You can also have the dome create light inside for your party.

The spell is very clear about the dome only being around and above you. Not below you, but the image on the area of effect online shows a Sphere. The spell it is based on is much clearer "Lemund's Tiny Hut" in the book indicating it is only a dome and not a sphere.

Even if it is a sphere, I am led to believe a Sphere cannot travel through solid ground. It has to do with line of sight or something like that. I could argue if you were "Water Walking" a sphere/radius ie. The "Spirit Guardians" spell could affect things underwater in the area of effect. Because if you were under the water and able to breathe you could have the spell on you all around as water is usually clear enough. 

 Looking at the spell "Tiny Hut" the ground is not protected as the dome says it only covers around and above. So something burrowing up from below could get in. 

In addition, the dome keeps out bad weather, monsters, and magic. But I don't see it saying anything about sound. Or if something were to strike the dome does that make any noise at all? As an example, if the party was in a Tiny Hut and a Dragon was on the outside clearly knowing what the spell was. He could in effect pound on the dome for hours. Howl, taunt, badger, and verbally torment the party inside making it impossible over time to get an 8-hour rest because of all the audio and mental disruption. It would be like you were trying to get a good night's sleep at home but the neighbors were throwing an all-night rager of a party. You can't be physically harmed but you can't rest with all the hooting, loud booming music, and whatnot. And that ignores the fact that the party next door at least doesn't want to kill you.

But because dragons are the way they are one could in effect burrow underneath the dome and attack if not harm the players inside. Yes, dragons can burrow, I found that one out in their options under movement (at least blues can at half speed).

Any help making me understand or giving me a more solid way to rule this would be appreciated.

The ground would probably provide cover against AoE spells in all the cases I can think of. And if a dragon wants to roast you, its breath is going to go right through the hut anyway.

I agree with your first statement about the AOE effects but the Dome is a wall of force, so magic, physical things, and breath weapons can't penetrate it. Unless you are reading something I haven't.

My only issue with that is I will take it if it's written in the rules or even sage advice so I can talk to my players. But having to find different posts from game designers explaining how things should work is not what I can call acceptable. Besides that if that is what they intended why not update the spell description with the new errata? It's an easy fix.

To take it a step further yes I know I can DM rule this the way I see fit but for what it's worth I do try to keep things rooted in the rules when I can. It gives the players a sense of honesty when dealing with my general rulings. Sometimes I rabbit hole on a subject trying to find all possible answers. Then I turn to all of you for help. Which I really do appreciate.

Leomund's Tiny Hut says that it's a hemisphere in its "range" entry so it has a floor.  In my opinion it can be assumed that Tiny Hut has the same shape -- perhaps they just don't have a hemisphere shape for their graphic (yet) so they used the sphere graphic instead.

As for sound -- spells only do what they say they do.  I don't see anything in the description that says that it's sound proof so it's probably not.

As for being fire proof -- that will depend on whether or not the DM considers fire to be an "object".

Also potentially of interest -- Disintegrate can destroy the hut.

Tiny hut's description is very clear that it is a hemisphere, which means that it is a dome with a floor. 

Thus the dragon can not burrow and come up inside the hut because only creatures inside the hut when it forms can freely come and go. The dragon can breathe its breath weapon and as long as it doesn't count as magic or an object the breath would enter through the hut's barrier and hit everyone inside it. 

the dragon could just bury the dome like a dog.

Then wait for the dome to come down and bury the characters. It would take some tricky magic to get out of that problem.

How would you rule, if I climb up a tree and cast the spell there? Would it be possible to knock the hut down by hitting it? How would it behave if somebody cut the tree down? Would it fall with the tree or stay suspended in the air in original location? 

Quote from Aasimar11 >>

How would you rule, if I climb up a tree and cast the spell there? Would it be possible to knock the hut down by hitting it? How would it behave if somebody cut the tree down? Would it fall with the tree or stay suspended in the air in original location? 

Here are the relevant bits of text:

immobile dome of force springs into existence around and above you and remains stationary for the duration

and

The spell fails if its area includes a larger creature . . . Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast this spell can move through it freely

So, the first thing a DM needs to decide is if being up in a tree within and surrounded by branches, leaves and foliage causes the spell to fail -- in other words, is the tree considered to be a large creature and/or does it provide a barrier (or cover) which blocks AOE spells from affecting a certain area or from materializing in the first place.  If the branches were allowed to exist inside the dome but protruding out of the dome when cast, what happens when the branches sway in the wind?  And so on.  Although technically the spell description only restricts the size of creatures and not objects, I believe the 3-dimensional area where the walls and floor will exist must be clear and that medium sized creatures and comparably sized objects must be fully inside or outside this area when the spell is cast or else the spell will fail.  An alternate interpretation might be that the walls and floor of "force" instantly sever all of the branches in that area, causing all severed branches outside the dome to fall to the ground and an entire severed section of the tree will remain wedged inside the dome -- this is a bit weird but might be valid given the spell description.

Your other questions are much easier.  The hut is immobile and remains stationary.  It cannot be knocked down and if the tree were cut down the hut would remain suspended in the air.  This is also why some of the previously suggested scenarios -- such as digging a hole under the hut and expecting the hut to fall into the hole so that it could be buried -- would not play out as expected.

First off why I didn't think of these things at the time is disappointing. Second, burying the hut would be amazing. What I would do is dig a hole under the hut really deep. That way when the spell drops they or whoever is left in it would drop. To be really vindictive the dragon would first cover the dome so no one could see what he's doing. Then dig the hole because they would have to come out to look around and they won't be able to once he buries the dome. Not much but just enough to make them think he really did a good job. Then dig the hole, since the dome is immobile it will remain in place until end of the spell. They fall with rubble on top.

Thank you everyone for helping me understand this spell. Plus coming up with ways creatures that are smart enough might react to it's presence.

This reminds me of a time a band of orcs used a hut to protect their camp.  Under cover of a silence spell, the PCs dug an enormous pit around the hut -- 60 feet deep, 60' wide -- creating a kind of donut with the hut on a tall pillar in the middle.

Then they set up a false camp in plain sight at the edge of the new pit, and scattered through the terrain around the giant pit an waited for the orcs to awaken so they could do ranged attacks with surprise.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

This reminds me of a time a band of orcs used a hut to protect their camp.  Under cover of a silence spell, the PCs dug an enormous pit around the hut -- 60 feet deep, 60' wide -- creating a kind of donut with the hut on a tall pillar in the middle.

Then they set up a false camp in plain sight at the edge of the new pit, and scattered through the terrain around the giant pit an waited for the orcs to awaken so they could do ranged attacks with surprise.

 

 ... and none of the orcs happened to wake up the entire night even to relieve themselves and happen to notice that the ground around their camp was vanishing? One would also think that even orcs would be experienced enough to set a watch :)

I'm also really curious how the characters managed this feat of engineering? Did they use Wish?

- using a burrowing creature doesn't remove the earth since most of them don't eat it, they just push it to the side as they move through.

- mold earth cantrip is cool but fails for this purpose since the pit is 904,000 cubic feet (each casting can only move 5 cubic feet of earth and can only move that 5') ... if you ignore the 5' movement limit it is a minimum of 300 hours of casting and that doesn't include moving the dirt from the inner ring to the outer ring or the massive PILE of earth that would be created around the pit

- disintegrate is more efficient at 1000 cu ft per shot but it still takes 900+ castings to create the hole ... and if they had disintegrate they might as well blast the hut and get the fight over with.

I have trouble believing that anyone would be surprised to be attacked after someone went to the effort of digging such a large pit around their camp, even an orc. :)

Quote from David42 >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

This reminds me of a time a band of orcs used a hut to protect their camp.  Under cover of a silence spell, the PCs dug an enormous pit around the hut -- 60 feet deep, 60' wide -- creating a kind of donut with the hut on a tall pillar in the middle.

Then they set up a false camp in plain sight at the edge of the new pit, and scattered through the terrain around the giant pit an waited for the orcs to awaken so they could do ranged attacks with surprise.

 

 ... and none of the orcs happened to wake up the entire night even to relieve themselves and happen to notice that the ground around their camp was vanishing? One would also think that even orcs would be experienced enough to set a watch :)

I'm also really curious how the characters managed this feat of engineering? Did they use Wish?

- using a burrowing creature doesn't remove the earth since most of them don't eat it, they just push it to the side as they move through.

- mold earth cantrip is cool but fails for this purpose since the pit is 904,000 cubic feet (each casting can only move 5 cubic feet of earth and can only move that 5') ... if you ignore the 5' movement limit it is a minimum of 300 hours of casting and that doesn't include moving the dirt from the inner ring to the outer ring or the massive PILE of earth that would be created around the pit

- disintegrate is more efficient at 1000 cu ft per shot but it still takes 900+ castings to create the hole ... and if they had disintegrate they might as well blast the hut and get the fight over with.

I have trouble believing that anyone would be surprised to be attacked after someone went to the effort of digging such a large pit around their camp, even an orc. :)

 

 
Well, I noted the silence spell, of course, but the excavation was accomplished using a series of Move Earth spells. Mostly from scrolls, iirc (this was like 20 plus years ago, lol).

I will note that the orcs had a mage themselves. He dimension doored over to the fake camp after first round, and summoned a swarm of killer bees. I forget the final outcome but the discussion here made it pop into my head because I have always remembered the sleeping orcs on a pillar of earth in a meadow that was wiped out by the players.

Need to ask if it was our then budding drafter who thought that one up.

I am fairly sure there was some additional reason they didn't get noticed, but it also could have been just good ole fate helping them out ;). I am a sucker for a fun idea of that sort, and my players know it.

To the OP, Tiny Hut is one of those spells whose interpretation is often up to the DM and how they want to run it in their game.

1) The spell description says Dome while the text in the printed players handbook explicitly calls out the range as "Self (10-foot-radius hemisphere)" not 10' radius dome. A hemisphere has a bottom, a dome usually does not.

2) The spell states: "immobile dome of force" so the dome can't move even if the ground it was sitting on happens to be removed. The spell also states "Creatures and objects within the dome when you cast this spell can move through it freely." Does this mean that they have the choice to move through it or not?

This becomes relevant in terms of how the DM might rule a tiny hut where someone excavates underneath it. If it has a floor, does everything inside fall through? How does this apply to objects which don't have an ability to decide whether they would go through or not? Do objects lying on an unsupported tiny hut floor fall through? If they don't, how could an arrow fired from a crossbow pass through a wall of the dome. Either unattended objects can pass through freely or they can't.

Or do the rules of the Tiny Hut only apply to the "dome" part of the structure and not to the rest of the hemisphere? If they don't apply to the floor then the characters could not dig a tunnel out from the middle of the hut to escape a trap since they can only pass through the dome, not the floor?

3) "All other creatures and objects are barred from passing through it." , "immobile dome of force". This is fairly straight forward depending on how "realistic" you want to get. Air is composed of millions of tiny objects - if they are blocked then outside air and gases can't get in. Sound is transmitted through the vibration of air particles. If air can't get in then neither can sound.

However, if a DM decided that sound can get in then that implies the air gets in which then raises the question about noxious gases and other effects.

The hut does say that "The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry, regardless of the weather outside." However, it doesn't say that it will be SAFE. For example, could an odorless gas that causes creatures to fall asleep, die or go insane penetrate the dome? If you go with the particles of air are objects approach then no. As mentioned this would also block sound.

If a DM rules that dragon breath weapons can pass through the dome then does the fact that the dome maintains a comfortable atmosphere mean that these don't work?

Poison breath - well poison gas certainly would not be a comfortable atmosphere.

Fire breath - well a super heated atmosphere certainly wouldn't be comfortable either.

If these effects could penetrate the dome then does the constant comfortable atmosphere inside the dome prevent them from doing anything?

4) "Nine creatures of Medium size or smaller can fit inside the dome with you. The spell fails if its area includes a larger creature or more than nine creatures." This one also imposes some limits for a DM. Does this mean that the characters have to somehow sterilize the area before casting tiny hut? Even tiny creatures like Spiders are in the Monster Manual. Spiders, flies, insects, snakes, mice and bunny rabbits are all creatures. There are smaller creatures than these too. However, the dome is limited to 9 creatures. Played strictly RAW there would very rarely be an opportunity for Tiny Hut to be successfully cast since the party would need to make sure there are no other creatures ... which might have to include fleas too :)

This can also be a DM tool for preventing the hut being used with a large party - just have an invisible creature like the wizard's quasit familiar sit themselves down within the area of the hut and then watch the characters pull their hair out as the spell fails over and over. It does assume that no one notices the invisible creature but some of them are good at hiding :). Also having an invisible stalker with the party floating above their heads as the spell is cast can make for an interesting encounter when it attacks later when they are all sleeping securely in their magical hut.

Anyway, the bottom line is that Tiny Hut is a spell that is filled with wording that will require a DM ruling on how it works in practice in their game and there will be some table variation that results.

Quote from Rathkryn >>

Tiny hut's description is very clear that it is a hemisphere, which means that it is a dome with a floor. 

Thus the dragon can not burrow and come up inside the hut because only creatures inside the hut when it forms can freely come and go. The dragon can breathe its breath weapon and as long as it doesn't count as magic or an object the breath would enter through the hut's barrier and hit everyone inside it. 

 But if you dig under it the characters inside fall right on out. The dome doesn't bar their exit.

It is by far the easiest way to yoink players of the spell’s protection. 

In that case you'd just have to dig out under the spell's caster. Once that creature leaves the interior the dome disappears entirely.

But the description states that creatures inside can move through it freely. It doesn't state they could be forced to fall through the dome or floor of the hut. 

Quote from Rathkryn >>

In that case you'd just have to dig out under the spell's caster. Once that creature leaves the interior the dome disappears entirely.

But the description states that creatures inside can move through it freely. It doesn't state they could be forced to fall through the dome or floor of the hut. 

Yeah they aren't choosing to pass through it. Falling makes that choice for them. It is forced movement. Unless they can fly, having nothing to stand on means you fall.

 Nah.  The hut has a floor.  Creatures don't fall through floors.

Quote from Ravnodaus >>

Yeah they aren't choosing to pass through it. Falling makes that choice for them. It is forced movement. Unless they can fly, having nothing to stand on means you fall.

 If that's how you want to rule it when you're DMing, you do you. But there is nothing in the spell's description that says you can't choose to lean against the inside wall without falling out or that you would fall through the floor without wanting to. 

I'll personally never understand this need by some DMs to hate on or cheese the Tiny Hut. It's as if they're saying Oh noes, my players can take a long rest without worry of random encounters! The horror of the game not being bogged down! How terrible! Just have your random encounters wait outside for a Good Morning Roll Initiative! 

Tiny Hut, as written, blocks creatures, objects, spells, and magical effects, so any effect that is none of those will pass through it. In addition, "The atmosphere inside the space is comfortable and dry". This is actually not as restrictive as it sounds.

• Creatures and Spells are fairly obvious
• According to the basic rules, "For the purpose of these rules, an object is a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone".
• According to the SAC, answering "Is the breath weapon of a dragon magical?", you have to look at the following criteria
  
  • Is it a magic item?
  • Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?
  • Is it a spell attack?
  • Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
  • Does its description say it’s magical?
  • If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the feature is magical.

This means there are actually quite a few things that can pass through the hut, including

• Many creature attacks or powers that do non-physical damage. For example, a dragon's breath weapon.
• Liquids and gases, as they are are not discrete. The air inside the hut is required to be comfortable and dry, but there's nothing saying there has to be any air inside the hut. Thus, for example, redirecting a river will flood the hut.
• Natural energy effects, such as sound and lightning.
• Laser and antimatter weapons, if those exist in your setting.
• There might be some player effects that can do the job, though I don't know off hand what they are.

I suspect all of these exclusions are accidents rather than intended, but people who use tiny hut deserve to be the victims of rules lawyering :).