You choose an area of water that you can see within range and that fits within a 5-foot cube. You manipulate it in one of the following ways:
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You instantaneously move or otherwise change the flow of the water as you direct, up to 5 feet in any direction. This movement doesn’t have enough force to cause damage.
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You cause the water to form into simple shapes and animate at your direction. This change lasts for 1 hour.
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You change the water’s color or opacity. The water must be changed in the same way throughout. This change lasts for 1 hour.
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You freeze the water, provided that there are no creatures in it. The water unfreezes in 1 hour.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have no more than two of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.
you are a genius
If you create two 5' cubes of ice next to each other you effectively have a small wall of ice. Enough to block a double door or typical gate. That block would weigh roughly 7 tons and you could freeze the water while it was in contact with the door/gate , making it VERY difficult to open that door or gate.
Two blocks on top of each other could effectively block a typical hallway.
You could theoretically use a spider familiar thats inside someones throat to move the water into their trachea and then freeze it in place because there are no creatures in the water, the water is inside a creature.
Technically, you could only create a single block of ice with one caster.
A familiar can only deliver a spell with a range of touch.
This is the perfect assassination if ur target is drinking out of a clear cup or you can see the water going down there throat you can use the water/drink to chock them get the drink to pool up in there throat and then forme the water into a shape that will cloge it up and freeze it and maby add some spikes so they will have to deal with internal bleeding and choking
Being able to create effects that are cosmetically similar to certain leveled spells != completely replacing said spells. For example, I would argue that levitating a sphere of water is covered under "You cause the water to form into simple shapes and animate at your direction" (and no less cantrip-y than e.g. using Mage Hand to retrieve a book from across the room), but being floating and sphere-shaped doesn't mean that water being controlled in this fashion suddenly gains Watery Sphere's ability to forcibly engulf and restrain up to four Medium creatures or one Large one.
Literally a lifesaver anywhere with frigid water if you can't dry off. Specifically this happens a lot in Icewind Dale ROTF and can be fatal very quickly.
Lol
Can you surround a creature with it, then use an ice spell to freeze the enemy solid?
"You cause the water to form into simple shapes and animate at your direction. This change lasts for 1 hour."
Could a Locathah PC use the cantrip once every hour animating it to follow the player, making an easy water source for their Limited Amphibiousness trait?
So, what about removing the water from the body :O
Humans are 40-70% water...
Also has no save roll thing...
(IDK what it's called)
I use this for my regal half-elf, she cleans herself everyday and can't stand to have filth on her for too long. Get a pot of warm or hot water and Voila!, improvised shower for you to use anywhere and anytime. Enjoy.
Here is my interpretation.
The spell shapes visible pools of liquid water - not steam nor ice and definitely not bodily humors. DnD clearly distinguishes physical phases as different elements as seen in the composition of the Inner Planes and their boundaries. Any of the four effects of Shape Water takes a whole action. A lot of ideas in this thread seem to merge effects into a single action, overpowering the cantrip. It should be noted that you can only have two instances total of the persisting effects - (2), (3), or (4) -at any time.
Let's look at the possible actions.
(1) You can target up to a 5-foot cube (i.e. 125 ft^3) of water, which you can then move up to 5 ft. Moving the water any appreciable distance would take several actions and would require it to first be shaped, as in action (2), because otherwise gravity would take over. The movement of the water cannot cause harm. Can it cause damage in other ways? Sure.
(2) You can shape the water and animate it, having it hold its form. You cannot move it outside its 5-foot cube vicinity with this action, because that requires action (1).
(3) You can magically color the water such that its opacity is also affected. This is not the same as changing its refractivity (but I'd love if a player suggested that to create an invisibility shield of sorts).
(4) You can freeze water that does not contain creatures, meaning the creatures are not in contact with it. It's easy to interpret that the Weave of water is perturbed by a lifeform.
So, what does this imply?
I think that's enough posting about Shape Water for today. Feel free to agree or disagree. Have fun with your cantrips, but don't break the game :)
tritons are amphibious. there's literally no need to use shape water except to fool other people.
Agree with the first point especially. While I can see some wiggle room for phases (since you can turn what you are controlling into Ice, if you could only affect liquid water you would no longer be able to control it as it is no longer "water" anymore), line of sight definitely cuts off many of the shenanigans.
That’s 25 square feet. 125 cubic feet is a 5x5x5 ft cube.
but you cant see the water in your body with shape water you can only manipulate water that you can see like blood on an ekner wound unless your DM says it's okay, but that would be OP
Question about shapewater. My character is a gloomstalker damphir. Could I stand on the ceiling above an enemy. Shape water from my cantor of water into a spike freeze it and let gravity drop it onto an enemy?
Can you use this spell to make water cover a monster face. So they would suffocate or at less freak out.