In its current form, the spell Wind Walk is broken. So, the spell states for 8 hours you and your party can become cloud like and move at 300 feet flying and only use the Dash action. So, in other words you could move at 600 feet per round or travel up to 516 miles, bypassing any encounters or most any danger. It in my opinion makes the entire adventuring ruined. In my campaign I will not allow the use of this spell. Additionally, such a powerful spell should require an expensive component that must be consumed. This needs to be fixed before the new players handbook is released.
Wind Walk is a spell only 11th level druids get access to, so by the time you're getting it the point of "adventuring" has changed. This party isn't walking over the highlands any more. They're using teleportation circle to get to most major landmarks, finding the destination and then dealing with something that is an appropriate challenge. In two levels, they get teleport, which also doesn't have a component cost.
If wind walk were at 3rd spell level, sure. It's not tho. It's at 6th.
I dunno, it's only available to one class, doesn't come online until 11th level and takes a minute to cast. It's not like they can go "oops we're being attacked better Wind Walk out of it" and by that level the party usually has other ways of getting around so it's not like it's the only way they'll have to be avoiding the dangers of the road
That's when you introduce other potential threats to their travel, like a huge wind storm that threatens to separate the party unless they make checks to stick together, or a wandering giant that likes to capture clouds in a bottle :P
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Really for most of tier 3 the sheer cost of a 6th level slot is a significant offsetting factor; if you use it during a day you’re expecting combat, that’s a lot of damage you’re passing up on. Plus it’s not exactly subtle, and transitioning back means you’re unable to act for 1 minute and the only protection you have is resistance to non-magical PSB; for infiltration purposes the phrase “sitting ducks” comes to mind. As for bypassing random traversal encounters, that’s rather the point.
If there's no downside to skipping every encounter up to the boss, then it sounds like those encounters didn't have a lot of purpose. For players who are more engaged in the plot than in simply killing bad guys, those encounters might feel like needless busywork. An obstacle to progression.
If you design encounters to have a purpose - save the prisoner, cut off the reinforcements, disrupt the protective ritual, etc - and sprinkle in plot-relevant discoveries or useful information about upcoming events, then the players won't want to skip them because they are the progression.
There may be a rather niche useage, and I'm happy to be wrong about it but technically speaking I think if you combine it with the Charger feat you could use the dash action from Wind Walk to move then use the bonus action attack from Charger to make one attack as you zoom pass someone and bonus points if your a Rogue and can sneak attack them as you go or shove the target off of something.
I assume this works as the spell says you can only use your action to dash or revert your form which means you still keep your bonus action (because you only lose that if you cannot take any actions at all) and the spell does not say you cannot attack or that any of your stats change. This does of course mean you have to have one or more characters investing in what is considered a bad feat but there it is.
Small EDIT: DM'ing myself to counter my own combo: the spell does say the targets enter a "Gaseous Form appearing as wisps of cloud" so you might infer that this form has the same restrictions as the lvl 3 spell Gaseous Form which would negate the above charger option.
There may be a rather niche useage, and I'm happy to be wrong about it but technically speaking I think if you combine it with the Charger feat you could use the dash action from Wind Walk to move then use the bonus action attack from Charger to make one attack as you zoom pass someone and bonus points if your a Rogue and can sneak attack them as you go or shove the target off of something.
I assume this works as the spell says you can only use your action to dash or revert your form which means you still keep your bonus action (because you only lose that if you cannot take any actions at all) and the spell does not say you cannot attack or that any of your stats change. This does of course mean you have to have one or more characters investing in what is considered a bad feat but there it is.
Small EDIT: DM'ing myself to counter my own combo: the spell does say the targets enter a "Gaseous Form appearing as wisps of cloud" so you might infer that this form has the same restrictions as the lvl 3 spell Gaseous Form which would negate the above charger option.
The only actions you can take are Dash and Revert. This means you can't use a bonus action unless you have a Bonus action Dash such as a monk or rogue.
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I dunno, it's only available to one class, doesn't come online until 11th level and takes a minute to cast. It's not like they can go "oops we're being attacked better Wind Walk out of it" and by that level the party usually has other ways of getting around so it's not like it's the only way they'll have to be avoiding the dangers of the road
Honestly, I forgot about this too. If the Druid is using their highly valuable 6th tier slot to cast this spell, they're giving up other spells like Heroes' Feast, Sunbeam, Transport Via Plants(which is just teleport for Druids, with no chance at failure but having the restriction of needing a large plant on both ends), Heal, etc.
The only actions you can take are Dash and Revert. This means you can't use a bonus action unless you have a Bonus action Dash such as a monk or rogue.
One of those "I wouldn't let my table do it" type things. RAW, totally works since it says the only "action" you can take but doesn't specify bonus action/reaction. That said, like I just talked about, we already have Transport Via Plants at this level too so Wind Walk really is if you need to actively search for something across a very, very large distance very quickly.
step one cast Ashardalons Stride, step two: cast wind walk for, potentially, 1 minute of travelling 640ft per round (because ashardolons stride give you a +20ft speed) dealing 1d6 fire damage once per round to each person you pass and it also does not trigger oppotunity attacks.. Thats likely enough to wipe out a small village and might be an interesting move for a villain although does require either a Druid wroking in conjuction with an artifcer, ranger, sorcer or wizard or just one very evil bard investing in those spells with magical secrets.
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step one cast Ashardalons Stride, step two: cast wind walk for, potentially, 1 minute of travelling 640ft per round (because ashardolons stride give you a +20ft speed) dealing 1d6 fire damage once per round to each person you pass and it also does not trigger oppotunity attacks.. Thats likely enough to wipe out a small village and might be an interesting move for a villain although does require either a Druid wroking in conjuction with an artifcer, ranger, sorcer or wizard or just one very evil bard investing in those spells with magical secrets.
OK that's just pure evil
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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)
step one cast Ashardalons Stride, step two: cast wind walk for, potentially, 1 minute of travelling 640ft per round (because ashardolons stride give you a +20ft speed) dealing 1d6 fire damage once per round to each person you pass and it also does not trigger oppotunity attacks.. Thats likely enough to wipe out a small village and might be an interesting move for a villain although does require either a Druid wroking in conjuction with an artifcer, ranger, sorcer or wizard or just one very evil bard investing in those spells with magical secrets.
It takes a minute to change into the cloud, Ashardalon’s Stride will drop at the same time you could start doing it.
step one cast Ashardalons Stride, step two: cast wind walk for, potentially, 1 minute of travelling 640ft per round (because ashardolons stride give you a +20ft speed) dealing 1d6 fire damage once per round to each person you pass and it also does not trigger oppotunity attacks.. Thats likely enough to wipe out a small village and might be an interesting move for a villain although does require either a Druid wroking in conjuction with an artifcer, ranger, sorcer or wizard or just one very evil bard investing in those spells with magical secrets.
It takes a minute to change into the cloud, Ashardalon’s Stride will drop at the same time you could start doing it.
Nah, per RAW it would work. wind walk takes a minute to cast but the initial transformation is immediate, so one (or more!) of the targets could cast ashardalon's stride on themselves right before it takes effect
A DM could rule that the targets are incapacitated while the spell is being cast, just as they are during the spell's duration when changing forms, but that would be RAI at best and kind of brings with it some unintended consequences and applications
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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)
step one cast Ashardalons Stride, step two: cast wind walk for, potentially, 1 minute of travelling 640ft per round (because ashardolons stride give you a +20ft speed) dealing 1d6 fire damage once per round to each person you pass and it also does not trigger oppotunity attacks.. Thats likely enough to wipe out a small village and might be an interesting move for a villain although does require either a Druid wroking in conjuction with an artifcer, ranger, sorcer or wizard or just one very evil bard investing in those spells with magical secrets.
It takes a minute to change into the cloud, Ashardalon’s Stride will drop at the same time you could start doing it.
Nah, per RAW it would work. wind walk takes a minute to cast but the initial transformation is immediate, so one (or more!) of the targets could cast ashardalon's stride on themselves right before it takes effect
A DM could rule that the targets are incapacitated while the spell is being cast, just as they are during the spell's duration when changing forms, but that would be RAI at best and kind of brings with it some unintended consequences and applications
Just for fun....You have a 11th level Elven Sorcerer casting Ashardalons Stride and using Extended spell metamagic to give it a 2 minute duration. The 11th level Druid casts Wind walk and off goes the pyromaniac Sorcerer (hopefully using the Pyromancer origin from MTG Planeshift: Kaladesh thing they put out an age ago). As the Ashardalons Stride wears off the Sorcerer flies off to somewhere safe and reverts to normal, recasts Extended Ashardalons Stride and repeats this process until they are out of level 3, 4, 5 and 6 spell slots. They then zoom off and find a safe place to take a 4 hour long rest (because they are Elven) and repeat the process until whatever they were attacking is dead.
I'm sure someone must have done this before.
Just in case anyone isn't familiar with the Planeshift: Kaladesh setting here's a link where you can download a pdf, the Pyromancer origin is in a small box on page 9: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Plane_Shift
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Flying enemies and enemies with ranged attacks exist. Flying around really fast also is not going to solve and bypass every encounter. Part of the fun of leveling up is so that the players can have a variety encounters that match their level of power, so while they can bypass some encounters with flight, they cannot bypass all of them.
If you want to ban Wind Walk, you can do that too. Your table, your rules. Quite a few GMs ban stuff like flight and Silvery Barbs. Just make sure you let your players know before hand at session zero what your list of homebrew rules are, so players know what they are getting into and have a chance to leave, so no one is wasting each others' time.
And you also do not seem to like how rest is handled according to your other post. Gritty Realism rest exist, and if that is not sufficient, just homebrew what you want and let your players know at session zero.
My group teleports all over the place to get home or to an area near where we are going. Wind Walk would serve the same basic purpose. If players use it to skip encounters then make it so doing such puts them at a real disadvantage in the Boss encounter. They don't get useful magic items they would have looted from an encounter. A map fragment that would show them a secret door is never found. All the smaller bad guys along the way have been summoned to the Boss lair for some reason when the party arrives.
Maybe I was a little dismissive, so I will edit my post. But I do think they can simply ban the spell from the game. It is their table, so they can do whatever they want.
step one cast Ashardalons Stride, step two: cast wind walk for, potentially, 1 minute of travelling 640ft per round (because ashardolons stride give you a +20ft speed) dealing 1d6 fire damage once per round to each person you pass and it also does not trigger oppotunity attacks.. Thats likely enough to wipe out a small village and might be an interesting move for a villain although does require either a Druid wroking in conjuction with an artifcer, ranger, sorcer or wizard or just one very evil bard investing in those spells with magical secrets.
It takes a minute to change into the cloud, Ashardalon’s Stride will drop at the same time you could start doing it.
Nah, per RAW it would work. wind walk takes a minute to cast but the initial transformation is immediate, so one (or more!) of the targets could cast ashardalon's stride on themselves right before it takes effect
A DM could rule that the targets are incapacitated while the spell is being cast, just as they are during the spell's duration when changing forms, but that would be RAI at best and kind of brings with it some unintended consequences and applications
Just for fun....You have a 11th level Elven Sorcerer casting Ashardalons Stride and using Extended spell metamagic to give it a 2 minute duration. The 11th level Druid casts Wind walk and off goes the pyromaniac Sorcerer (hopefully using the Pyromancer origin from MTG Planeshift: Kaladesh thing they put out an age ago). As the Ashardalons Stride wears off the Sorcerer flies off to somewhere safe and reverts to normal, recasts Extended Ashardalons Stride and repeats this process until they are out of level 3, 4, 5 and 6 spell slots. They then zoom off and find a safe place to take a 4 hour long rest (because they are Elven) and repeat the process until whatever they were attacking is dead.
I'm sure someone must have done this before.
Just in case anyone isn't familiar with the Planeshift: Kaladesh setting here's a link where you can download a pdf, the Pyromancer origin is in a small box on page 9: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Plane_Shift
Just to DM myself again.....
I forgot one important thing....Concentration on a spell ends when you become incapacitated so you can't do this combo after the first ashardalons stride wears off, but still..for one or two glorious minutes you can be a tiny pyroclastic cloud blitzing its way around a village. They should prbably add "cannot concentrate on spells" to the incapacitated condition.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
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In its current form, the spell Wind Walk is broken. So, the spell states for 8 hours you and your party can become cloud like and move at 300 feet flying and only use the Dash action. So, in other words you could move at 600 feet per round or travel up to 516 miles, bypassing any encounters or most any danger. It in my opinion makes the entire adventuring ruined. In my campaign I will not allow the use of this spell. Additionally, such a powerful spell should require an expensive component that must be consumed. This needs to be fixed before the new players handbook is released.
Wind Walk is a spell only 11th level druids get access to, so by the time you're getting it the point of "adventuring" has changed. This party isn't walking over the highlands any more. They're using teleportation circle to get to most major landmarks, finding the destination and then dealing with something that is an appropriate challenge. In two levels, they get teleport, which also doesn't have a component cost.
If wind walk were at 3rd spell level, sure. It's not tho. It's at 6th.
I dunno, it's only available to one class, doesn't come online until 11th level and takes a minute to cast. It's not like they can go "oops we're being attacked better Wind Walk out of it" and by that level the party usually has other ways of getting around so it's not like it's the only way they'll have to be avoiding the dangers of the road
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D&D StaffThat's when you introduce other potential threats to their travel, like a huge wind storm that threatens to separate the party unless they make checks to stick together, or a wandering giant that likes to capture clouds in a bottle :P
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Really for most of tier 3 the sheer cost of a 6th level slot is a significant offsetting factor; if you use it during a day you’re expecting combat, that’s a lot of damage you’re passing up on. Plus it’s not exactly subtle, and transitioning back means you’re unable to act for 1 minute and the only protection you have is resistance to non-magical PSB; for infiltration purposes the phrase “sitting ducks” comes to mind. As for bypassing random traversal encounters, that’s rather the point.
If there's no downside to skipping every encounter up to the boss, then it sounds like those encounters didn't have a lot of purpose. For players who are more engaged in the plot than in simply killing bad guys, those encounters might feel like needless busywork. An obstacle to progression.
If you design encounters to have a purpose - save the prisoner, cut off the reinforcements, disrupt the protective ritual, etc - and sprinkle in plot-relevant discoveries or useful information about upcoming events, then the players won't want to skip them because they are the progression.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
There may be a rather niche useage, and I'm happy to be wrong about it but technically speaking I think if you combine it with the Charger feat you could use the dash action from Wind Walk to move then use the bonus action attack from Charger to make one attack as you zoom pass someone and bonus points if your a Rogue and can sneak attack them as you go or shove the target off of something.
I assume this works as the spell says you can only use your action to dash or revert your form which means you still keep your bonus action (because you only lose that if you cannot take any actions at all) and the spell does not say you cannot attack or that any of your stats change. This does of course mean you have to have one or more characters investing in what is considered a bad feat but there it is.
Small EDIT: DM'ing myself to counter my own combo: the spell does say the targets enter a "Gaseous Form appearing as wisps of cloud" so you might infer that this form has the same restrictions as the lvl 3 spell Gaseous Form which would negate the above charger option.
The only actions you can take are Dash and Revert. This means you can't use a bonus action unless you have a Bonus action Dash such as a monk or rogue.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Honestly, I forgot about this too. If the Druid is using their highly valuable 6th tier slot to cast this spell, they're giving up other spells like Heroes' Feast, Sunbeam, Transport Via Plants(which is just teleport for Druids, with no chance at failure but having the restriction of needing a large plant on both ends), Heal, etc.
One of those "I wouldn't let my table do it" type things. RAW, totally works since it says the only "action" you can take but doesn't specify bonus action/reaction. That said, like I just talked about, we already have Transport Via Plants at this level too so Wind Walk really is if you need to actively search for something across a very, very large distance very quickly.
Hypotheical #2: you could also do:
step one cast Ashardalons Stride, step two: cast wind walk for, potentially, 1 minute of travelling 640ft per round (because ashardolons stride give you a +20ft speed) dealing 1d6 fire damage once per round to each person you pass and it also does not trigger oppotunity attacks.. Thats likely enough to wipe out a small village and might be an interesting move for a villain although does require either a Druid wroking in conjuction with an artifcer, ranger, sorcer or wizard or just one very evil bard investing in those spells with magical secrets.
OK that's just pure evil
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)
If you think wind walk is broke, wait til you find out what teleport does.
It takes a minute to change into the cloud, Ashardalon’s Stride will drop at the same time you could start doing it.
Nah, per RAW it would work. wind walk takes a minute to cast but the initial transformation is immediate, so one (or more!) of the targets could cast ashardalon's stride on themselves right before it takes effect
A DM could rule that the targets are incapacitated while the spell is being cast, just as they are during the spell's duration when changing forms, but that would be RAI at best and kind of brings with it some unintended consequences and applications
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)
Just for fun....You have a 11th level Elven Sorcerer casting Ashardalons Stride and using Extended spell metamagic to give it a 2 minute duration. The 11th level Druid casts Wind walk and off goes the pyromaniac Sorcerer (hopefully using the Pyromancer origin from MTG Planeshift: Kaladesh thing they put out an age ago). As the Ashardalons Stride wears off the Sorcerer flies off to somewhere safe and reverts to normal, recasts Extended Ashardalons Stride and repeats this process until they are out of level 3, 4, 5 and 6 spell slots. They then zoom off and find a safe place to take a 4 hour long rest (because they are Elven) and repeat the process until whatever they were attacking is dead.
I'm sure someone must have done this before.
Just in case anyone isn't familiar with the Planeshift: Kaladesh setting here's a link where you can download a pdf, the Pyromancer origin is in a small box on page 9: https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Plane_Shift
Flying enemies and enemies with ranged attacks exist. Flying around really fast also is not going to solve and bypass every encounter. Part of the fun of leveling up is so that the players can have a variety encounters that match their level of power, so while they can bypass some encounters with flight, they cannot bypass all of them.
If you want to ban Wind Walk, you can do that too. Your table, your rules. Quite a few GMs ban stuff like flight and Silvery Barbs. Just make sure you let your players know before hand at session zero what your list of homebrew rules are, so players know what they are getting into and have a chance to leave, so no one is wasting each others' time.
And you also do not seem to like how rest is handled according to your other post. Gritty Realism rest exist, and if that is not sufficient, just homebrew what you want and let your players know at session zero.
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This post ain't it. We can debate issues, but you're attacking the person here. Stop.
My group teleports all over the place to get home or to an area near where we are going. Wind Walk would serve the same basic purpose. If players use it to skip encounters then make it so doing such puts them at a real disadvantage in the Boss encounter. They don't get useful magic items they would have looted from an encounter. A map fragment that would show them a secret door is never found. All the smaller bad guys along the way have been summoned to the Boss lair for some reason when the party arrives.
Maybe I was a little dismissive, so I will edit my post. But I do think they can simply ban the spell from the game. It is their table, so they can do whatever they want.
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Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
Just to DM myself again.....
I forgot one important thing....Concentration on a spell ends when you become incapacitated so you can't do this combo after the first ashardalons stride wears off, but still..for one or two glorious minutes you can be a tiny pyroclastic cloud blitzing its way around a village. They should prbably add "cannot concentrate on spells" to the incapacitated condition.
From Chapter 10, Spellcasting, Concentration:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/dnd/basic-rules-2014/spellcasting#Concentration
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.