A perplexing possibility to ponder:

Can you do Avatar style earth-bending?

For example, can you "earth-bend" the stone into a spike attack directed at someone? Or, can you touch the stone at the feet of an opponent within 5 feet to cause it to wrap around their legs or body? If so, how would you rule this?

A 5-foot cubed block of stone is a lot of stone to work with.

(I'm the DM, by the way, and while I like to reward creativity, I don't want to create something imbalanced or so good that it overshadows someone else's abilities. I'm considering this specifically for an NPC, but should a player pick up Stone Shape, they are likely going to want to do the same things.)

Does stoneshape work on gemstones? Or are gems not actually considered stones or something like that. It doesn´t mention gemstones here specifically which makes me think it could work on them as the transmute feature of a transmutation wizard specifically mentions them, just wanted too check for an idea I had in my head.

I don't think it would work on gemstones, as they're more akin to minerals than to rock.
Check back with your DM, though!

Or flesh to stone stone shape and then transmute rock and then purify food and water and finally destroy water

It says that you must touch a stone "object". That means that it does not work on a creature.

Quote from DDMaster28 >>

I had a similar idea. Could you theoretically petrify someone with this spell? Especially interesting to creatures sleeping or laying on a floor made of stone.

 You could not petrify them, but if they had a lot of contact with stone you could possibly cover them with stone.

Quote from ADF >>

It says you can create stone weapons, but are there any official rules on how to handle weapons made out of stone? There has to be some sort of detriment that makes them less useful than forged weapons.

 A stone club, greatclub or hammer would be about as effective as an iron (or wood) one.

I don’t think you could quite do Avatar style stuff with this. The touch range, to me, means you are shaping the stone you touch. Plus there are other spells, like Erupting Earth that seem to be more like some of those earth spikes from Avatar. That’s not to say you couldn’t do some of the cool stuff from Avatar, I think it’s just multiple spells.

Could you use this to weaken or cut a 5x5x5 block of stone above an enemy in a dungeon or cave  so it falls and crushes them? If so, how would you calculate damage? I’m guessing some kinda of Dex save and then ... Xd6 based on how far above the enemy it was.

Quote from CapedCoward >>

I don't think it would work on gemstones, as they're more akin to minerals than to rock.
Check back with your DM, though!

 Except rocks are minerals... well, made up of them anyway. There are very different kinds of rocks made up out of various different minerals, gem stones are just that, stones. But magic always gets iffy when you think too closely about how the real world works, lol.

So is this Stone golem insta-kill?

 I.e. shape their head off their shoulders

Interesting idea, but I think the Stone Golem's Immutable Form comfortably protects against these shenanigans. 

Quote from C4mSH4FT >>

A perplexing possibility to ponder:

Can you do Avatar style earth-bending?

For example, can you "earth-bend" the stone into a spike attack directed at someone? Or, can you touch the stone at the feet of an opponent within 5 feet to cause it to wrap around their legs or body? If so, how would you rule this?

A 5-foot cubed block of stone is a lot of stone to work with.

(I'm the DM, by the way, and while I like to reward creativity, I don't want to create something imbalanced or so good that it overshadows someone else's abilities. I'm considering this specifically for an NPC, but should a player pick up Stone Shape, they are likely going to want to do the same things.)

 Generally, if one of my players tries to use a utility spell offensively in a reasonable manner, I'll assign it a reasonable saving through (strength or dexterity for this) and the damage of a spell one level lower (8d6 from fireball or lightning bolt) of a reasonable type (bludgeoning or piercing). This ensures that it's worse than other damaging spells of its level, like blight, and so the min-maxer will generally avoid it, but it still allows the creative player to have fun, and could be tactical if the player needs to get a damage type or saving throw they didn't prepare.

It's a little harder if they try to use it as a control spell, but I'd take the same approach. If you spend a 4th level spell slot on a utility spell, I'll give them a tweaked 3rd level control spell, like a 3rd level hold person with a strength instead of wisdom saving throw.

Can someone explain to me why this isn't, like, a 1st level spell?

For comparison: According to the DMG, pg. 284, a 4th level spell can be expected to deal 6d10 damage on a single target, or 7d6 as an AOE. All classes, except for the Warlock, only get 3 4th-level spell slots at level 20. Sure, this spell has a lot of potential uses and can be used with creativity, but I don't see how this doesn't have an area of at least a 30-foot cube with no creatures in it, so you can actually build something significant when expending that spell slot.

I'm not really a veteran though, so I wonder if I'm missing something here.

Does this spell have rules for effecting creatures that have been petrified?

couldn't you do flesh to stone, than use stone shape on your self. Giving you a extra pair of arms or something?

Quote from DDMaster28 >>

I had a similar idea. Could you theoretically petrify someone with this spell? Especially interesting to creatures sleeping or laying on a floor made of stone.

 You could encase them in stone

DM's hate this simple trick!

My strategic butt: "I cast stone shape and make a back door to the castle"

DM with an elaborate plan of traps and encounters: "I guess thats FINE"

(True story)

Quote from Rulebook >>

Ok so heres a question. 
A druid in my campaign has taken stone shape and wants to create a suit of half plate armour so he can wear this and gain the AC of metal armour as a druid. 

Would stone shape be able to create armour or is this a step to far? 

 Toph

Add concentration for 10munits and give it a full 18 ac

Quote from DnSteve >>

Quote from Rulebook >>

Ok so heres a question. 
A druid in my campaign has taken stone shape and wants to create a suit of half plate armour so he can wear this and gain the AC of metal armour as a druid. 

Would stone shape be able to create armour or is this a step to far? 

 

Just my opinion, but that sounds like a step too far to me.  Plate armor has all sorts of straps and buckles to distribute the weight across the body, and the spell explicitly says it can't do moving parts more complicated that a coupld of hinges and a latch.

Even if you choose to allow it, a suit of armor shaped out of stone will be much thicker and probably heavier than a suit of plate mail, I'm thinking.  And it will less durable in the end.  I'd say anything that deals bludgeoning damage will break away bits of the stone on impact.  Maybe piercing too, your call.

Bottom line: making a functional, durable suit of armor requires more than just shaping any given material into the same form as the armor you're imitating.

 Unless it is the Fabricate spell. Then it works. Although it would have to be durable metal.