Wizards Spectacular Shovel?

[keterys]

If they're in a container, sure, it could move the container of liquid... maybe it could cup a small amount of liquid in some fashion, much like an actual hand. It'd require a DM allowing 'an object' to apply to 'some liquid' but I imagine many would allow it.

 

[Ryujin]

Ask said engineer if he has ever heard the term "static friction."

In simple gaming terms, Nifft has it absolutely right.

 

[bganon]

This makes about as much sense as extrapolating a lightly loaded character's combat running speed (8 squares per move action) to miles per hour (about 9.1) and concluding that pretty much any D&D character can run a marathon in under three hours.

Which is to say, it doesn't make sense. In real life, running a 3-hour marathon requires significant training. It might be perfectly reasonable to represent this in D&D as training in Endurance. Similarly, the ability to use Mage Hand to dig out tons of earth over the course of an hour shouldn't be a given; it might be represented by some kind of special study or training... perhaps some sort of arcane incantation that the character could learn...

 

[Saeviomagy]

This makes about as much sense as extrapolating a lightly loaded character's combat running speed (8 squares per move action) to miles per hour (about 9.1) and concluding that pretty much any D&D character can run a marathon in under three hours.

Which is to say, it doesn't make sense. In real life, running a 3-hour marathon requires significant training. It might be perfectly reasonable to represent this in D&D as training in Endurance.

Eh, so what? Running a marathon in 3 hours is hardly the sort of heroics that D&D characters have problems with. Weak D&D characters can jump off 3 storey houses and be just fine after a 5 minute breather.

Similarly, the ability to use Mage Hand to dig out tons of earth over the course of an hour shouldn't be a given; it might be represented by some kind of special study or training... perhaps some sort of arcane incantation that the character could learn...

Once again for those who don't want to shell out for DDI?

 

[Ryujin]

Once again for those who don't want to shell out for DDI?

The same thing that someone already stated above; the Excavation ritual.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The same thing that someone already stated above; the Excavation ritual.

See, if he'd just said that instead of burying it in a non-ubiquitous link...

As others have said: digging a hole with mage hand is going to be pretty much identical to having a hole dug by a man with no tools who has a strength of 2.5 and can fly.

So you're probably not going to need a plank to run your wheelbarrow up, but you're not going to move dirt very quickly either.

That said: I've yet to be in a game where the number of tonnes of dirt my party can move per hour has proven to be in any way interesting.

 

[DracoSuave]

That said: I've yet to be in a game where the number of tonnes of dirt my party can move per hour has proven to be in any way interesting.

Well, trench warfare was an important theme of Wraith: The Great War, where your skill at...


...no what am I saying, not even then.

 

[Imperialus]

That said: I've yet to be in a game where the number of tonnes of dirt my party can move per hour has proven to be in any way interesting.

They have an indeterminate amount of time to fortify a village before an unknown (but presumably large) force of Lizardmen show up to make their day suck. He basically wanted to rebuild a section of an earthen rampart that had collapsed.

That said though, in keeping with my 'avoid saying no' policy I ran with keterys' idea to let him use it as an alternative to actually jumping in the mud with a shovel. He can use his arcana skill in the upcoming skill challenge to 'repair the wire' as it were.

 

[DracoSuave]

But that'd be a skill challenge, with their power use providing them an alternate skill to use for the challenge.

Let's see.

Complexity 4. Sure.

Athletics (for physical labor), Diplomacy (to represent coordinating villagers), and Intimidate (to scare the villiagers into action) successes would grant a success to the challenge, failures adding a failure. Intimidate would add two failures if failed.

As well, Nature and History could be used -once- each in order to get a lay of the land or a knowledge of historical battles.

Thievery or Bluff could be used not to garner successes, but to set traps or a funnel that could be used in the oncoming battle.

Insight or Perception (only one) could be used to determine their most likely avenue of attack, granting a success from saved labor.

As well, Athletics checks could not be Aided, as two persons digging with one shovel makes no sense, and everyone's -already- 'Aiding' each other in that sense. Also, failures on Aid Other for other skills end in failure as well.


So within that framework, the Wizard could say 'Well, I'll cloud of daggers the ground to break it up, while using mage hand to move rocks out of the way. Then once the ground is broken, I'll move on, so the villagers can finish the job once the hard part's started.' I'd say 'Excellent, you can use Arcana instead of Athletics to represent your magic being used in place of labor'.

Succeeding the challenge would make the upcoming encounter of a standard difficulty, with a short rest after. Failure would mean the enemy comes with a force that -isn't- slowed down by the defenses, and the difficulty would be higher, and may even be without a short rest.