Can you move while affected by Meld into Stone?

[Alejandro]

"Meld into stone enables the character to meld the character's body and possessions into a single block of stone... While in the stone, the character remains in contact, however tenuous, with the face of the stone through which the character melded... At any time before the duration expires, the character can step out of the stone through the surface that the character entered."

What constitutes a "block" of stone? If a character melds into one side of a hewn passageway, can he walk down that contiguous stone face (bypassing intervening doors and obstacles) and exit further down?

 

[kreynolds]

[BWhat constitutes a "block" of stone? [/B]

I'd think that a "block" of stone is any section of stone that is big enough to hold you, but not bigger than what is needed. So, if you meld into the side of a 80 foot high, 80 foot thick, 80 foot wall, and you're human, the block will only be 5-foot x 5-foot, and I don't think it lets you leave that "block" by moving further down the wall. That's what Passwall (sp?) or Ghostform is for.

EDIT: Ah. Here's something from the SRD that explains this pretty well...empahsis mine...

At any time before the duration expires, the character can step out of the stone through the surface that the character entered.

 

[Xarlen]

That sucks.

I thought you could meld into the wall of a cavern, and travel along the wall. Sort've an 'Excape' plan.

 

[kreynolds]

That sucks.

I thought you could meld into the wall of a cavern, and travel along the wall. Sort've an 'Excape' plan.

Oh, I didn't say I know I'm right. That's just my interpretation, so I'm not confident enough to claim that's the rule. Hopefully we'll get some more opinions on this.

 

[bloodymage]

"Melt" Into Stone

This question intrigued me so I did a little research. The word "meld" means "to declare" usually in the sense of declaring hands in card games. That is the only definition listed, even in the Oxford! So, I went to the word "melt" which derives from the Old Teutonic "melt" stemming from the Indo-Germanic "meld". The most applicable definitions for "melt" in the Oxford that I could find were:

1) "To filter in, become absorbed into."
2) "To pass by imperceptible degrees into something else."

The second definition seems to imply a passage of time to accomplish and casting time on the spell is "1 action" so that would indicate the first definition as the most accurate.

The definition in the Oxford for "absorbed" is, "Swallowed up; imbibed." The pertinent definition for the root word "absorb" is, "...To swallow up, to include or take a thing in to the loss of its separate existence; to incorporate. To be absorbed, to be swallowed up, or compromised in, so as no longer to exist apart." Incidentally, the only reasonable definition for our purposes for "filter" was something like, "to pass as through a filter." Not very helpful.

All of this entymology seems to imply that the caster can't move after becoming "incorporate" with the stone. If the spell description didn't explicitly state it, I wouldn't allow personal spell casting either. But it's D&D and it's magic so not all is strictly logical, nor should it be.

My ruling: No transiting the stone.

 

[Artoomis]

Meld is a technical term:

meld
(definition)

Definition: Joining several data structures with particular properties into one large data structure having those properties. For instance, some priority queue implementations support the operation of joining two priority queues into a larger one.

From the National Institute of Standards and Technology

In that sense, you become part of the stone, thus you cannot move through it. You could change switch the word "meld" wioth "merge" to get a more common word with the pretty much the same meaning.

As in:

... to become combined into one ...

From Webster.

 

[kreynolds]

vomit
v. intr.
1) To eject part or all of the contents of the stomach through the mouth, usually in a series of involuntary spasmic movements.
2) To be discharged forcefully and abundantly; spew or gush: The dike burst, and the floodwaters vomited forth.

I thought this was an rpg board. Feels like Mr. Rogers is gonna walk in any second now.

 

[Artoomis]

vomit
v. intr.
1) To eject part or all of the contents of the stomach through the mouth, usually in a series of involuntary spasmic movements.
2) To be discharged forcefully and abundantly; spew or gush: The dike burst, and the floodwaters vomited forth.

I thought this was an rpg board. Feels like Mr. Rogers is gonna walk in any second now.

Can you say "Meld?"

I knew you could.

 

[kreynolds]

Can you say "Meld?"

I knew you could.

Would you like to be my neighbor? <takes off shoe>

 

[bloodymage]

Meld is a technical term:

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
meld
(definition)

Definition: Joining several data structures with particular properties into one large data structure having those properties. For instance, some priority queue implementations support the operation of joining two priority queues into a larger one.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


From the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Originally posted by bloodymage

"...To swallow up, to include or take a thing in to the loss of its separate existence; to incorporate. To be absorbed, to be swallowed up, or compromised in, so as no longer to exist apart."

From the Oxford English Dictionary

It would appear that it's a good possibility that the technical term, "meld" dervives from the Old Teutonic "melt" stemming from the Indo-germanic "meld"! Fascinating!