Can you move Dancing lights through materials?

[Rifter]

Can dancing lights only move through air, or can they also be moved through water? what about Ice? If they can be moved through other substances, can they be moved through solid rock, just have no outward affect?

Also, should destroy water work on ice and snow, or does it just work on liquid water?

 

[Cheiromancer]

I would allow Dancing lights to move through a fluid (gas or liquid) but not a solid. Likewise, I would let destroy water destroy any fluid which is mostly water, but not if it is in solid form.

 

[Valmur_Dwur]

I would allow Dancing lights to move thru any medium as long as it stays within the range of the spell. Of course as a DM I would heavily add bonuses to saving throws if you didn't know the dimensions on the other side of the wall were. Then again I might not In the spell description I take it to mean you get a free action to determine speed and general direction "slow and turning to my right".

I don't know destroy water so can only guess. Unless your trying to bring down an avalance; I would say ice and snow would count. But like I said I don't know the spell

 

[dcollins]

The key here is the rule on spell "line of effect" (PH p. 150); anything that blocks spell line off effect must prevent control of dancing lights through it.

- Rock clearly blocks line of effect.
- Ice (like a window) is a solid barrier that blocks line of effect.
- Water, according to the underwater rules published in WOTC's online enhancement (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/we/we20010713b, p. 5), only blocks line of effect for fire spells (which dancing lights is not).

Therefore: Water, yes. Ice and rock, no.