D&D 5E Wall of Force Question; Can it cut through Stone?

[Flamestrike]

Nope.

 

[BlivetWidget]

No, just from a Staff of Power.

They ended up not doing this, they figured it would not actually land on the bad guys since they were in caves. Though it might trap them inside, it would have cut them off too.

Even though they decided not to do this, for future reference a staff of power has two spells that I think could reasonably be used to start an avalanche: fireball and lightning bolt.

I’m picturing that scene in Fellowship of the Ring where Saruman hits the mountain with lightning and nearly wipes the party, thus forcing them into the mines.

 

[jasper]

I don't see anything RAW...
RAI or your own rulings, can a wall of force cut through ground/stone?

Specific use case, players are at the top of a cliff and are considering using a WoF to cut off the edge of the cliff and cause it to crash on those down below.

Rule of Cool means I'm thinking of letting it work this way. Thoughts? Concerns?

DM. YEs yes yes. It can cut through stone.
PC. Hmm if can cut through stone. Then can cut through monsters. I cast a horizontal wall of force. Killing the monsters in the room.
DM. I giving them a saving throw.
PC. It says nothing about saves. You are an icky nasty cheating DM.
DM. I will allow it and quit with the wedgie.
PC. Wall of Force. Wall of Force. I WIN MONSTERS LOSE.
4 days later.
DM. Wall of Force. Wall of Force. TPK! TPK!.
Players flip the table.
DON'T ALLOW IT. The above is a summary of what happen during a lot of my 1E high school games.

 

[jasper]

There were references in the Mystara gazetteers (iirc) to people using Walls of Force as cutting tools, but I'm pretty sure later designers nixed that idea, just like blinding enemies with Light spells.

Shades of my 1E high school games.

 

[Ancalagon]

No, just from a Staff of Power.

They ended up not doing this, they figured it would not actually land on the bad guys since they were in caves. Though it might trap them inside, it would have cut them off too.

Wall on force on the mouth of the cave wasn't an option?

 

[S'mon]

It seems to only push air out of the way; it won't cut through solids and will fail if you try that.

Of course you could try your GM with the Crawford version of Leomund's Tiny Hut, AIR he decided/tweeted based on a dictionary definition of 'hemisphere' that the bottom of it was solid, maybe that will decapitate monsters if you cast it while flying...

 

[Hawk Diesel]

I once played in a game where a dragon was coming full speed at us. One of our party cast wall of force in front of us. Since it was invisible and the dragon was too far to see the casting clearly enough to know what it was, dragon had no idea. It ended up breaking its neck from the impact. Had it been placed edge on, perhaps a saving throw or spell attack roll might have been appropriate, but theoretically it could have ended up like Gypsy Danger against Raiju.

But the difference I see is that Wall of Force is static. As it is static, it doesn't exude it's own force outside of the normal force (for you physics nerds our there).

 

[LordEntrails]

Wall on force on the mouth of the cave wasn't an option?

The cliff is 800 feet high. Cave mouth is out of range and they really couldn't see it anyway.

It's from Sleeping Dragon's Wake.

Spoiler: Situation

They didn't take a ship, instead travelled overland. One of them has a cloak of the Bat, turned into a bat and went to scout. 3 Manticores chased him. He outran them and hid in the cave. The party was trying to figure out how to get rid of the manticores. (As well as how to get down to rescue the bat/rogue).

In this end this is what happened;

Spoiler: quick story

Rogue scouted out the loot storage cavern. Went through to the barracks on the west side. Turned and went back to loot, set off the glyph of warding, drank a potion of climbing and climbed out, hiding on the wall. Checked out the captured ship, climbed over the top and back to the BBEG's lair (which was now empty as the BBEG was blaming her guards for trying to steal from her (the glyph). But as the BBEG and fiend hounds returned, he fled with her journal (which I added to the adventure). He escaped and climbed back up the cliff.

Except the invisible stalker found him and attacked as he climbed. He switched between hiding from the manticores and out climbing the stalker as he climbed up. Finally once in range of the ranger, the ranger started shooting the manticores. By the time the rogue got to the top, the manticores were dead. But the stalker tried to pull the bard off the cliff but failed. The drow bard then put fearie fire on the stalker and the party was able to kill it before it could grapple and pull anyone off the cliff.

 

[Ancalagon]

The cliff is 800 feet high. Cave mouth is out of range and they really couldn't see it anyway.

It's from Sleeping Dragon's Wake.

Spoiler: Situation

They didn't take a ship, instead travelled overland. One of them has a cloak of the Bat, turned into a bat and went to scout. 3 Manticores chased him. He outran them and hid in the cave. The party was trying to figure out how to get rid of the manticores. (As well as how to get down to rescue the bat/rogue).

About that

Spoiler

It really bothers me that the manticore went chasing a bat. Why? Do manticore chase all bats? How did the manticore know this wasn't an everyday bat?

 

[Yardiff]

I'm wondering how the rogue out ran the manticores? Cloak has a fly speed of 40' and Manticores have a fly speed of 50'.