Decanter of Endless Water

[Crothian]

Decnater of endless water breings water to the world from the elemental plane of water. So, if there are quite a few of them in use won't they eventually flood the world since its new water being added and it won't have anywhere to go?

 

[Scion]

Decnater of endless water breings water to the world from the elemental plane of water. So, if there are quite a few of them in use won't they eventually flood the world since its new water being added and it won't have anywhere to go?

Who is to say that the world isnt kept in some sort of balance? If you add more of one perhaps it is taken out from somewhere else, or maybe more of the other elements are added in and the world becomes larger

 

[Jack Simth]

Who is to say that the world isnt kept in some sort of balance? If you add more of one perhaps it is taken out from somewhere else, or maybe more of the other elements are added in and the world becomes larger

Or, perhaps, there is an open portal at the bottom of an ocean, constantly shipping water back to the EPOW every time the EPOW has some of it's water removed....

Wouldn't be that difficult in practice, either (assuming the portal, of course); water pretty much has a constant density; if you assume the EPOW has a set volume, then anytime an amount of water is pulled from the EPOW, suction will pull more water through the portal.

 

[moritheil]

Or, perhaps, there is an open portal at the bottom of an ocean, constantly shipping water back to the EPOW every time the EPOW has some of it's water removed....

Wouldn't be that difficult in practice, either (assuming the portal, of course); water pretty much has a constant density; if you assume the EPOW has a set volume, then anytime an amount of water is pulled from the EPOW, suction will pull more water through the portal.

The end result of all this discussion is to make plumbers out of adventuring parties.

 

[moritheil]

Why would we want to do that?

Because otherwise it's impossible to explain why the world is the way it is. Unless, you know, you have no problem with the disconnect between problems and solutions available. ("We've had a desert here for 5,000 years, and countless people have died due to thirst, but nobody ever thought of importing a decanter of endless water?")

 

[dcollins]

Actually, it's a lot higher than that if you check every hour. Think of it this way, the first hour, there is a 99% chance that an elemental is not summoned. Next hour, it's a 98%... all the way to 76%. If you multiply all of those together, you end up with a daily chance of about 3.8% that an elemental is not summoned... that means that there is a 96.2% chance that AT LEAST one elemental will be summoned per day.

You're assuming that the chance is rising cumulatively, which I don't think the original poster intended. If the chance-per-hour is 1%, 1%, 1%... then the original poster is nearly correct with a chance-per-day of 1-(.99)^24 = 21%. If the chance-per-hour is 1%, 2%, 3%... then you are correct with a chance-per-day of 96%.

 

[Rkhet]

Because otherwise it's impossible to explain why the world is the way it is. Unless, you know, you have no problem with the disconnect between problems and solutions available. ("We've had a desert here for 5,000 years, and countless people have died due to thirst, but nobody ever thought of importing a decanter of endless water?")

You can't do that anyway. Magic breaks conservation of energy so bad that the universe should have collapsed 0.000000001 seconds after it was created.

Just try to ignore the bits that make no sense. It's magic.

 

[moritheil]

You can't do that anyway. Magic breaks conservation of energy so bad that the universe should have collapsed 0.000000001 seconds after it was created.

Just try to ignore the bits that make no sense. It's magic.

Magic or not, DnD still involves storytelling and suspension of disbelief. The suspension of disbelief is simply much more generous.

Re: conservation of energy, the normal laws of physics do not necessarily apply to DnD. There may well be no conservation of energy law at all, which I find quite likely. That being said, it is one thing to replace the laws of physics and another to replace the laws of economics.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Every good aventurer knows the BEST way to flush out a dungeon and grab its loot is to open a Gate to the Elemental Plane of Water so that it pours down into the doorway. It gives you a much better flow than a measly decanter.

Granted....it also tends to fill the dungeon up with nasty water beasties, but you can close it off and wait for it to drain out after a day or two.

DS

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

You're assuming that the chance is rising cumulatively, which I don't think the original poster intended.

I'm absolutely positive that that's what he intended.

But aside from that. You could always just say that, if you use a decantur too long there's an increasing percentage chance that a elder water elemental pops out. like say 1% per hour used, checked every hour of use. for every day of non-use %chance drops 1%.
so use it a whole day you have about 1/4 chance of pissing off some water elemental. seems fair.