Author Topic: Question about walls  (Read 1494 times)

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Offline Ruffie

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Question about walls
« on: August 25, 2021, 04:17:23 PM »
Hello,

Our druid likes to cast walls a lot (and I mean a lot) so the bad guys are catching up to these neat little tricks.

1. To cast a wall at least a few cubic pounds  of the same material must be present. In what area and in what state must it be present? For instance, will a bag of rocks carried around be enough to summon a wall of stone?

2. Dispel channeling from the of channeling book 5803, can the spell be used to dispel a wall and would it crumble away?

Very tired as I am writing this. Hope I am making sense.

Offline jdale

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Re: Question about walls
« Reply #1 on: August 25, 2021, 07:19:17 PM »
1. Barrier Law says: All "Wall" spells (except Wall of Force) require that at least 1 cubic foot of the material that the wall consists of be within 50' of the caster.  1 cubic feet of rocks is going to be a pretty heavy load to carry around (165 lbs for "average" stone in case you are wondering), but assuming you could, I don't see why it wouldn't qualify. The rule doesn't say it needs to be where the wall will be created (just within 50' of the caster), and 1 cubic foot is not sufficient to be molded into the wall, so I might explain that as either the character is using that material as a template to copy for the wall, or as a connection to whatever external plane the material will be drawn from.

2. If the wall has a duration (e.g. Light Wall has a duration of C, Light Wall II is 1 min/lvl), you could dispel it and it would be gone. If the wall has a duration of "P" it is permanent, it has created real matter which is now just ordinary stuff and therefore cannot be dispelled.
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Offline Ruffie

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Re: Question about walls
« Reply #2 on: August 26, 2021, 05:00:14 AM »
Thank you for the reply. What if the druid wants to make a wall of wood but all the wood around them is magically enchanted to be resistant to spells.

A small situational sketch:
My players find themselves on the Alcarondas, the boat used by the Numenoreans to assault the Undying lands. All of this is a Middle-Earth setting. The boat didn’t sink but somehow is still adrift.

I reckon the Numenoreans were smart enough to enchant their wooden boat against magical assaults as they knew the elves were very powerful. Would the wood get a RR to be used in the creation of a woodwall?

Also, the druid list were woodwall is on doesn’t have the requirement listed for the mandatory presence of the element. How would you handle this?

Offline Hurin

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Re: Question about walls
« Reply #3 on: August 26, 2021, 09:03:20 AM »
The wood itself (i.e. the wood in the boat) is not being enchanted; so I personally would not give it an RR.
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Offline jdale

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Re: Question about walls
« Reply #4 on: August 26, 2021, 04:17:37 PM »
If the spell list doesn't say you need the material present, I think they can cast the spell regardless. I don't think that's meant to be a universal requirement for all wall spells, otherwise it would appear in 7.1.13 and also be noted on the other spell lists.

Ignoring that for the moment, if the requirement did apply, it seems like a GM judgment call. Hurin's answer is perfectly valid. I think at most the effect on the wood of the boat is informational, and there normally isn't an RR vs informational spells in RMSS, so that gives the same conclusion, unless there are enchantments on the boat specifically against informational/detection type spells.

In my game, most of the wall spells work by shaping existing material, so in that case an RR would be required since the wood is actually being affected. If you change how spells work, though, it's a good idea to let the players know before they are using them.
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Offline Ruffie

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Re: Question about walls
« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2021, 08:05:51 AM »
Thank you for the answers. I’ll make good use of them in the upcoming session and preparation.