I’m sure this is at the discretion of the DM but had a situation when the Druid had the mold earth spell (which does no damage) but they were fighting an earth elemental so we were trying to figure out if the Druid could use mold earth to reshape the earth elemental doing damage. Curious what people’s think about this.
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Moved from Bugs & Support to Rules & Game Mechanics
I’m sure this is at the discretion of the DM but had a situation when the Druid had the mold earth spell (which does no damage) but they were fighting an earth elemental so we were trying to figure out if the Druid could use mold earth to reshape the earth elemental doing damage. Curious what people’s think about this.
It’s the wrong forum for this, but I’ll still answer the question.
Spells do what they say they do, and nothing more or less. Ruled as Written, absolutely nothing. You’re using a cantrip on a CR5 creature trying to reshape its body, the magic just isn’t strong enough to do that. If the DM wanted to reward creative thinking, then you could have it deal damage in line with a cantrip against a CON save of the creature, dealing d8 scaling damage on a failure, zero on a success. Same concepts as Sacred Flame for Clerics.
I I were DMing I would allow some creative uses of the ability... maybe use your action to mold earth to give an ally advantage on an attack (basically "aid another"), or damage similar to another cantrip (1d10 damage - CON save)
The part of the cantrip about reshaping the material includes the words "If you target an area of loose earth". I would assert that an Earth Elemental is most decidedly NOT "loose earth". The part about causing shapes/colors/etc. is clearly worded to describe something appearing ON the earth or stone, it does not change the structure of that earth or stone. And when it comes to the last part of the cantrip, making an Earth Elemental "difficult terrain" just makes no sense.
Now, if you were in a fight against an Earth Elemental and someone in your party conjured or summoned their own Earth Elemental, I could absolutely see a use of Mold Earth to mark which one is which(drawing a bulls-eye on the enemy one, for example) so the party doesn't get confused.
Thank you everyone for your input. Spidey please let me know the proper forum so I can try and get the rest of them in the right one. This just seemed to be the only one I could create a new forum so I put a few here.
Thank you everyone for your input. Spidey please let me know the proper forum so I can try and get the rest of them in the right one. This just seemed to be the only one I could create a new forum so I put a few here.
So it got moved to the right one! Rules and Game Mechanics is the proper one!
thanks, I did figure it out. the create new thread wasn't popping up on my phone but it is working great on the computer.
Use landscape mode on the phone/browser.
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I’m sure this is at the discretion of the DM but had a situation when the Druid had the mold earth spell (which does no damage) but they were fighting an earth elemental so we were trying to figure out if the Druid could use mold earth to reshape the earth elemental doing damage. Curious what people’s think about this.
It’s the wrong forum for this, but I’ll still answer the question.
Spells do what they say they do, and nothing more or less. Ruled as Written, absolutely nothing. You’re using a cantrip on a CR5 creature trying to reshape its body, the magic just isn’t strong enough to do that. If the DM wanted to reward creative thinking, then you could have it deal damage in line with a cantrip against a CON save of the creature, dealing d8 scaling damage on a failure, zero on a success. Same concepts as Sacred Flame for Clerics.
I I were DMing I would allow some creative uses of the ability... maybe use your action to mold earth to give an ally advantage on an attack (basically "aid another"), or damage similar to another cantrip (1d10 damage - CON save)
The part of the cantrip about reshaping the material includes the words "If you target an area of loose earth". I would assert that an Earth Elemental is most decidedly NOT "loose earth". The part about causing shapes/colors/etc. is clearly worded to describe something appearing ON the earth or stone, it does not change the structure of that earth or stone. And when it comes to the last part of the cantrip, making an Earth Elemental "difficult terrain" just makes no sense.
Now, if you were in a fight against an Earth Elemental and someone in your party conjured or summoned their own Earth Elemental, I could absolutely see a use of Mold Earth to mark which one is which(drawing a bulls-eye on the enemy one, for example) so the party doesn't get confused.
Thank you everyone for your input. Spidey please let me know the proper forum so I can try and get the rest of them in the right one. This just seemed to be the only one I could create a new forum so I put a few here.
So it got moved to the right one! Rules and Game Mechanics is the proper one!
thanks, I did figure it out. the create new thread wasn't popping up on my phone but it is working great on the computer.
Use landscape mode on the phone/browser.
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.