Horwath
Legend
depends on how loose is your DM on definition of loose earth.
i would say anything that is not easily grabbed by hand is not loose.
D&D General How the heck do you fight a medieval war in winter?
- Thread starter Shades of Eternity
- Start date
i would say anything that is not easily grabbed by hand is not loose.
Zardnaar
Legend
Point. Mine would be anything that hasn't been compacted. So no clay or trail.
Might not work on grass.
kigmatzomat
Legend
The simplest definition of compacted soil vs loose soil is "a shovel doesn't work". Do you need a metal implement to break the soil before you can move it with a shovel? Spell fails. Does a shovel actually dig into the ground in when you step on the shovel? Spell works.
If Mold Earth doesn't work where there's grass or other plant life, it is limited to moving sand. At that point, why bother having the spell be called anything other than "Move Sand"?
Based on the spell not being able to inflict any damage, my assumption has been the dirt either liquefies the soil to a slow moving, mud-like state or breaks into tiny, slow moving granules, then it returns to its normal consistency once deposited.
If Mold Earth doesn't work where there's grass or other plant life, it is limited to moving sand. At that point, why bother having the spell be called anything other than "Move Sand"?
Based on the spell not being able to inflict any damage, my assumption has been the dirt either liquefies the soil to a slow moving, mud-like state or breaks into tiny, slow moving granules, then it returns to its normal consistency once deposited.
JamesLFlowers
Villager
Don't forget that for every major war spell your wizards cast, my wizards are going to be casting to defend and vise versa. Mercedes Lackey, in one of her Valdemar novels, I think "By The Sword", talks about all the major casting basically cancelling each other out and the small magics actually making a difference.
I wouldn’t look at spells above 1st level, maybe 2nd, unless we are talking a very high magic world.
Casters of the level needed to cast those higher level spells wouldn’t be common enough to lend to mass armies…and if they were it would make the army way too dependent on them. You take out one person and the army starves…that’s too great a risk.
I will say on the cantrip vs bow debate. I recently read several articles talking about the expense of arrows…limited ammunition is actually quite a big factor in the power of volley bows. But on the flip side how many people would realistically have attack cantrips
Casters of the level needed to cast those higher level spells wouldn’t be common enough to lend to mass armies…and if they were it would make the army way too dependent on them. You take out one person and the army starves…that’s too great a risk.
I will say on the cantrip vs bow debate. I recently read several articles talking about the expense of arrows…limited ammunition is actually quite a big factor in the power of volley bows. But on the flip side how many people would realistically have attack cantrips
Emerikol
Legend
If you want winter wars, you could put yourself in a Roman technological era where some empire can field troops far from home because they have a fairly sophisticated bureaucracy. I would say it would be hard to justify a medieval feudal army staying in the field through winter let alone harvest season.
the Jester
Legend
Goodberry has been massively overlooked. It's a first level spell. Its only downside is that it doesn't improve when cast at higher levels, but it will feed 10 people per casting.
In some ways I think that it goes even further than bureaucracy when it comes to Romans. They also built economies to serve the empire's needs.
Most of us probably came across the factoid about them often paying soldiers with salt. What you don't normally see is details about how that salt would ultimately be traded to local rancher types who would use it to preserve meat for their family and so it could be sold to the Romans for coin later traded for more salt or whatever. Soldiers left the army with land for farming yes, but it was often land that existed in a location that needed more farmers (ie near a road between two cities). All of that kind of thing combined with the spread of knowledge and education made huge differences as the empire grew over time.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Does it still require actual berries as the material component? If yes, that puts some practical limits on it right there.
Zardnaar
Legend
Nope. It's still not hood because you need it a lot.
5000 person army 500 castings per dsy. If you can do that other army has bigger problems.
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