Shape Water: Get Your Feet Wet With This Versatile Cantrip

Tags Spell Spotlights author-riley-silverman

Hydration is important. Most would consider it an essential element of survival. But what about those of us who are not content with simply consuming water? What if we won't be satisfied until we unleash our inner Katara and truly bend the wave to our will? If you're looking to make such a splash in your Dungeons & Dragons campaign, maybe it's time to dip your toes into the shape water cantrip found in Xanathar's Guide to Everything!

What Does Shape Water Do?

A druid raising water out of a pool

A transmutation cantrip, shape water does exactly what it says on the tin. This useful cantrip allows you to redirect the flow of water that you can see up to 5 feet in any direction. You can even form it into simple animated shapes that will last up to an hour without concentration. These changes aren't just limited to the shape or direction of the water. You can also freeze it or even change its color and opacity, creating ice sculptures or elaborate, literal water ballets.

Deeper Dive

Shape water is a non-combat cantrip, which means that none of its effects can directly be used to damage enemies. The redirected flow doesn't have enough strength to harm an opponent, and the freezing effects cannot trap enemies in a block of ice. This certainly doesn't mean it isn't an extremely useful cantrip to have in your toolbox.

Seafaring adventurers will absolutely appreciate shape water when their ship starts taking on water. The spell's instantaneous casting time means a few somatic casting motions can turn you into a one-being bucket brigade, directing that overflow back out to the sea pronto.

How to Use Shape Water

A merfolk uses magic to draw water from a bottleThe more advanced uses, freezing, shaping, or changing color, can only have up to two effects active at a time. These abilities open up a whole well of potential roleplaying options:

  • Dungeon delvers could use a nearby puddle to leave a liquid message for folks following behind you, such as an arrow or a warning.
  • You could make a block of ice to temporarily plug a leak until a more permanent solution can be found.
  • A spellcaster could carry a small waterskin in order to pour water into locks, then freeze it to burst them open. Your DM may ask for a skill check using your spellcasting ability modifier to determine whether this succeeds.
  • You could leave a slick, slippery surface behind you, forcing enemies to make a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to avoid falling prone. You could even have some hidden icy spikes to cause a more damaging hazard. Your DM would be the judge of how much damage the spikes would do.
  • If you're suspicious that a creature lurks inside a murky puddle, you could use the cantrip to reveal them by lifting the water out. An even more subtle approach would be attempting to freeze it to see if the presence of a creature bars you from doing so.
  • If you're in a situation where you have to check your weapons to enter a location, prepping a water container ahead of time could provide you with two frozen improvised weapons or shields if you need them.
  • If your DM allows you to use the cantrip to make temporary weapons out of holy water, the cantrip's last effect could be a fairly powerful ambush to spring on a vampire.
  • If you're a squishy spellcaster caught in the middle of a tough battle, you could make yourself some cover with a chunk of opaque ice. The amount of available water and space could determine if you get half, three-quarters, or full cover according to the cover rules in the Player's Handbook.
  • Similarly, if you're trying to create a safer haven to have a short rest, you could make a door out of ice to keep the creepy crawlies of a given dungeon out until naptime is over or at least give you a tiny bit of warning before they invade.
  • You could unleash your inner Kevin McCallister and drop or slide a giant block of ice onto your foes.

Who Can Cast Shape Water?

With their connection to the primal magic of the world, druids are a natural fit for shape water. It's also accessible to sorcerers and wizards at character creation. Because it's on the wizard's spell list, a high elf can also select shape water as their cantrip of choice at character creation.

For those thinking outside the bucket, a feat such as Magic Initiate also allows access to shape water. It can also be added via the use of magic items that grant the ability to access a cantrip from any spell list, such as the artificer's all-purpose tool.

Why We Love This Spell

Shape water falls firmly in the bucket of cantrips that have an excellent blend of form and function. Like we said above, it's got some pretty practical applications for use in the game, but it also just begs to be used in ways that flavor the moment and your own character in the process. If you're playing a character who feels drawn to the water, it gives them the ability to craft their own personal World of Color or dancing fountains. It can do a lot to establish a history of having honed their water shaping into an art form.

The aforementioned artificer may have spent their morning analyzing the elemental nature of water in order to properly align their tool to allow themselves to manipulate it. There's a lot of versatility to how you can shape your water to best fit your character, which makes it one of the more aesthetically interesting spells in the game.

FAQ: Shape Water

Shaping water around a party so they can breathe underwater

Can shape water be used to shape other liquids, such as blood or alcohol?

The spell description specifically states water as the target of the spell and not other liquids that may or may not have water as part of their base. However, the opposite is possible. You could use the ability to change the water's opacity or color to trick someone into thinking there has been a bloodbath of a crime scene or by remaining secretly sober while others drink themselves into loosened tongue territory.

Can you use shape water to breathe underwater?

You could use shape water to create a temporary bubble of air around yourself or others in order to pass through a watery space by displacing the water around you. However, you would not be able to create new oxygen once within the bubble, so this would not be a long-term solution or a replacement for higher-level spells to breathe underwater.

Can you unfreeze ice or boil water into steam using shape water?

The cantrip doesn't have the ability to turn water into vapor or melt ice that wasn't created by the spell itself. However, teamwork makes the dream work, and perhaps partnering with a fellow party member utilizing create bonfire or fire bolt could still lead to a 5-foot cube of boiling water that is now at your beck and call.

Can you create snow with shape water?

Using the freeze feature, you could create snow from falling rain or water pouring down from above. Of course, you would have to keep casting the spell as the water moved in and out of the area, and the water you had previously frozen would then unfreeze due to the two-at-a-time active effects restriction on that ability. But it would certainly look cool.

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Riley Silverman (@rileyjsilverman) is a contributing writer to D&D Beyond, Nerdist, and SYFY Wire. She DMs the Theros-setDice Ex Machinafor the Saving Throw Show, and has been a player on the Wizards of the Coast-sponsoredThe Broken Pact. Riley also played as Braga in the official tabletop adaptation of theRat Queenscomic for HyperRPG, and currently plays as The Doctor on the Doctor Who RPG podcastThe Game of Rassilon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.

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