So I've got a question for all you out there, and wondering how you each tackle this. DMing a game and I've learned the terror of the Wall of Force.
The spell in question is Wall of Force , particularly the fact it can be used to make a sphere. Unlike Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere this doesn't let a creature get saving throw normally and technically wouldn't even let air pass as unlike the sphere, the Wall doesn't include that exception. As the sphere Wall of Force creates can be 10ft in radius, outside of counterspelling the casting, how would someone/something nonmagical combat a wizard who has this spell? The second you get trapped, you are stuck in a limited air space for 10 minutes (enough to kill anyone from suffocation who can be trapped in the sphere under the rules of suffocation) if the wizard can keep up concentration with no save to resist being trapped in the sphere.
Kind of kills Medium-large sized enemies from being a threat unless they have an army behind them once a player gains the ability to cast 5th level spells, as if they can manage to have that spell available they can just one shot him.
The particular use of the spell was used to trap a fleeing vampire in Mist form to delay 10 minutes of the hour they had to return to a coffin, and reposition their source of light to incinerate the vampire that was trying to flee and was an interesting use of the spell to stop the escape, but these thoughts came to me as I was evaluating if it would actually work.
If you don't want an anticlimactic end to an important encounter, don't have 1 Big Bad Evil Guy fighting alone. The difference in the number of actions available to the players and the monster is just too big.
The counter to Wall of Force is that it requires concentration. Because of how narrow the range of ACs and DCs is in 5th edition, even low CR monsters have a very reasonable chance of hitting and thus disrupting concentration. Monsters also have disproportionately high HP values and there's only so much players can do with their reactions. If the wizard incapacitates the boss monster with a spell, everyone else should risk life and limb to rush the wizard.
Recurring villains should also be quick to retreat if a fight's going poorly, before their minions are all dead. Having a magic item as an exit strategy is also highly recommended. Being able to teleport even just 30 feet is enough to get out of all sorts of bad situations.
I question your premise. In order to work, the sphere must be large enough entirely enclose the creatures' space. For a medium creature, that means a diameter of at least a little more than 7'. That's about 5250 liters in volume.
Now, assuming vampire physiology is similar enough to human in this respect, it's not running out of oxygen but the concentration of carbon dioxide — once you get to about 3%, that's trouble. For our sphere, that means a limit of about 150 liters.
A human at rest produces about a quarter liter a minute. If the vamp can calm itself quickly (and that seems perfectly appropriate if your vampires are the cool, charismatic and intelligent type rather than the animalistic kind), they'd easily be able to last hours. Even with very strenuous exercise, we don't produce 15 liters a minute (more like one or two), so even if the victim doesn't calm down, 10 minutes is not a problem.
Remember to look at things through the perspective of the game.
The creature can hold its breath for 1-5 minutes. Surviving with the amount of air that is currently in its lungs for 1/10 to 1/2 of the the duration of the spell. There is probably 100-1000x the amount of air in its lungs in the sphere (maybe more). It will be ok.
Now if you used wall of stone, and it had no effect way to damage the stone, yeah, you just made a coffin for the creature.
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So I've got a question for all you out there, and wondering how you each tackle this. DMing a game and I've learned the terror of the Wall of Force.
The spell in question is Wall of Force , particularly the fact it can be used to make a sphere. Unlike Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere this doesn't let a creature get saving throw normally and technically wouldn't even let air pass as unlike the sphere, the Wall doesn't include that exception. As the sphere Wall of Force creates can be 10ft in radius, outside of counterspelling the casting, how would someone/something nonmagical combat a wizard who has this spell? The second you get trapped, you are stuck in a limited air space for 10 minutes (enough to kill anyone from suffocation who can be trapped in the sphere under the rules of suffocation) if the wizard can keep up concentration with no save to resist being trapped in the sphere.
Kind of kills Medium-large sized enemies from being a threat unless they have an army behind them once a player gains the ability to cast 5th level spells, as if they can manage to have that spell available they can just one shot him.
The particular use of the spell was used to trap a fleeing vampire in Mist form to delay 10 minutes of the hour they had to return to a coffin, and reposition their source of light to incinerate the vampire that was trying to flee and was an interesting use of the spell to stop the escape, but these thoughts came to me as I was evaluating if it would actually work.
If you don't want an anticlimactic end to an important encounter, don't have 1 Big Bad Evil Guy fighting alone. The difference in the number of actions available to the players and the monster is just too big.
The counter to Wall of Force is that it requires concentration. Because of how narrow the range of ACs and DCs is in 5th edition, even low CR monsters have a very reasonable chance of hitting and thus disrupting concentration. Monsters also have disproportionately high HP values and there's only so much players can do with their reactions. If the wizard incapacitates the boss monster with a spell, everyone else should risk life and limb to rush the wizard.
Recurring villains should also be quick to retreat if a fight's going poorly, before their minions are all dead. Having a magic item as an exit strategy is also highly recommended. Being able to teleport even just 30 feet is enough to get out of all sorts of bad situations.
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I question your premise. In order to work, the sphere must be large enough entirely enclose the creatures' space. For a medium creature, that means a diameter of at least a little more than 7'. That's about 5250 liters in volume.
Now, assuming vampire physiology is similar enough to human in this respect, it's not running out of oxygen but the concentration of carbon dioxide — once you get to about 3%, that's trouble. For our sphere, that means a limit of about 150 liters.
A human at rest produces about a quarter liter a minute. If the vamp can calm itself quickly (and that seems perfectly appropriate if your vampires are the cool, charismatic and intelligent type rather than the animalistic kind), they'd easily be able to last hours. Even with very strenuous exercise, we don't produce 15 liters a minute (more like one or two), so even if the victim doesn't calm down, 10 minutes is not a problem.
Remember to look at things through the perspective of the game.
The creature can hold its breath for 1-5 minutes. Surviving with the amount of air that is currently in its lungs for 1/10 to 1/2 of the the duration of the spell. There is probably 100-1000x the amount of air in its lungs in the sphere (maybe more). It will be ok.
Now if you used wall of stone, and it had no effect way to damage the stone, yeah, you just made a coffin for the creature.