Decanter of Endless Water

[IcyCool]

Despite the quick rate of the decanter, the dungeon will fill very slowly (unless the 'dungeon' were really just a thin hole). The monsters therein will come out soon enough to figure out what is up. Of course, that in itself might be a good use of the decanter. Kinda like smokin' 'em out.

That's also assuming that the dungeon is watertight.

 

[Bad Paper]

Look at the Manual of the Planes and apply the "Impeded" trait to water magic in the area.

aha! This is a good idea, although I should have applied it when the druid was creating water while they were crushing undead... well, I am known (unfortunately) as something of a revisionist DM, so they'll just roll their eyes and move on

 

[Hypersmurf]

I guess it would depend on what additional uses you can find for it. I would imagine in the hands of a Cleric or Paladin they could beat the living (or unliving) daylights out of many many undead by blessing the water as it erupts from the decanter. Thats about it that I can think of.

Bless Water affects one pint of water, it requires five pounds of powdered silver, and it has a 1 minute casting time.

No Holy Water Cannon for you

-Hyp.

 

[Caliban]

I've always been fond of the decanter-powered horseless carriage engine

-Hyp.

Real fun is a decanter mounted on the underside of a small raft - a magical jetski!

 

[Eldragon]

I was just trying to price the item according to the guidelines in the DMG. Doesn't make sense.

I ask because a player wants to create a magical well/font/aquifer/whatever in a tower (he has claimed Nightfang Spire as his keep, ha ha) in the middle of the desert. I'm trying to figure creation requirements. The well doesn't have to be fancy, but must provide at a minimum for about twenty creatures per day, but ideally will provide more, including possibly the ability to irrigate surrounding land, provide water for passing guests/horses/camels/mules, etc. This is a weird thing to scale... 40 gallons per day up to maybe a thousand? I don't know much about agriculture. OK, I don't know anything about agriculture; I can't even keep a potted fern alive.

In a campaign I ran a little while back, this exact scenario occured. Party takes over a keep in the middle of the desert, puts in a decanter of enless water, and watched as an entire city grew around the tower. We advanced the timeline many years to where the "City of Endless Water" had become a desert oasis, utopia, and superpower. It was probably the best campaign I have ever played in and I think you should encourage your player's creativity.

Let them put in a Decanter of Endless Water, and soon the desert people will flock to the tower. After a few years maybe a few wars will be fought over the Decanter, or a cult of people worshiping it. A good D&D campaign is not about limiting the player's ambitions, it is about embracing them and reveling in the consequences!

 

[Doom3524]

Bless Water affects one pint of water, it requires five pounds of powdered silver, and it has a 1 minute casting time.

No Holy Water Cannon for you

-Hyp.

Awwww, thats crap!!! Haha, how cool could that have been though. I actually am stating to like this decanter though, with all of these ideas running about.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I've always been fond of the decanter-powered horseless carriage engine

Maneuvering thrusters/anti-personnel weapons for a spelljammer.

I've really been thinking about the implications of magic items like this in a setting that's capable of taking advantage of them-- for instance, my Galactic Planescape project.

Put enough light-tight mirrors around a set of photovoltaic panels, for instance, and cast continual light on all of them. Solar power in deepspace, drivespace, or even at the center of a nebula. Quite a lot of it, too, since it's a 24/7, continuous, and intense light source.

 

[darthkilmor]

what? no one's mentioned the "how many decantars would it take to flood the world" scenario yet?

In a campaign I played, we got control of a keep and were basically lords of a small fief in a city. In the interests of making our area more hospitable and safe, we basically bought about 30 decantars and gave them to our hired on police/fire fighter force.

Also, is it codified in the rules that vampires cant cross running water? would a decantur jammed in one side of a hallway spraying across count?

 

[William_2]

Of course it'll be worth more in the middle of a desert. If you go changing the base assumptions about the gameworld, you rearrange the relative value of all kinds of magic.

In the 2E desert setting Al-Qadim, create water was a 9th-level spell!

That is interesting. Relates very well to this topic not just because it is water-related, too. It is a perfect example of D&D taking an exactly backwards approach to magic in relation to societal needs. I think it is pretty obvious that a desert culture would make water-related magic a top priority, and endeavor to refine and spread such spells as much as possible. Instead, the game obscurely makes people who desperately need such spells have less access to them than people who barely need them at all. It makes no sense in terms of Arcane magic, and just seems vindictive in terms of divine magic…

 

[Kobold Stew]

Korimyr's mention of continual light brings up another life-changing technology equivalent from low-level magic. The infrastructural benefits of street lights on urban living are profound, diminishing crime and affecting other issues of public safety, notions of appropriate work hours, etc. There are indirect results in terms of sanitation, community health, etc.

While at 110 gp a light, it is probably not efficient to introduce streetlights to a city, again we have something that over time would revolutionize the economy of an urban centre. Still, it is a comparatively cheap way to advance a city significantly towards a post-industrial revolution (say 19th C London) economy.