Decanter of Endless Water

[VirgilCaine]

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?")

I don't see it as a big problem to adjust.
Sure, cities could easily have a decanter-water system. Sure, deserts are easier to live in with a decanter--it doesn't mean that people will want to live there when there's better and easier places to live.
Water doesn't make the monsters go away, it doesn't make it cooler, it doesn't provide clothing, shelter, or a reason to live in a desert (like mines or oil or...). It does provide food, in the form of crops or animals.

 

[AuraSeer]

My impression is that darthkilmor was talking about one roll per day, with a chance equal to the number of hours of use.

Use it for 24 hours, make one roll at 24% (hence the "about 1/4 chance"). Use it again the whole following day, make another roll at 48%. Leave it alone for three days and then use it to refill your canteen, roll at 45%.

I guess it doesn't really matter which idea he was originally talking about, since they're all house rules anyway. Just pick one you like.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

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

No, but my brother once calculated the time that it would take 1 of them to flood a world the size of Earth.

Let's just say that if one was left uncapped for a while, we wouldn't have to worry about it any time soon.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

My impression is that darthkilmor was talking about one roll per day, with a chance equal to the number of hours of use.

Which is why he specifies, "checked every hour of use"?

 

[Doom3524]

No, but my brother once calculated the time that it would take 1 of them to flood a world the size of Earth.

Let's just say that if one was left uncapped for a while, we wouldn't have to worry about it any time soon.

If anyone really cares. By figuring the quare feet produced by the decanter per round (20) and figuring the square miles of the surface of the planet (196,940,400) and knowing that a round takes 6 seconds, the time it would take for the planet to be covered by one decanter is 52,229,673.21 years. Thats a long time to wait!!!!

 

[darthkilmor]

My impression is that darthkilmor was talking about one roll per day, with a chance equal to the number of hours of use.

Use it for 24 hours, make one roll at 24% (hence the "about 1/4 chance"). Use it again the whole following day, make another roll at 48%. Leave it alone for three days and then use it to refill your canteen, roll at 45%.

Yeah, I just wasn't thinking properly about the increasing chance(as previous math shows a very high percent chance of at least one pull after 24 day)

"Hey blublbulublbb(some water elemental), there's a hole in our plane!"
"well fix it, before the whole darn thing drains out!"

 

[nookleer]

Oh damn..

Oh come on people.. you talk about D&D not having physics, but you are most definitely not taking all details into account.

A desert could never be filled by a decanter of endless water. Neither could the world, no matter how long it lay open.

The prime material plane is formed when and where the primary elemental planes overlap. This is an important detail. This means that there is, more or less, a set volume of each element present to comprise the world that the players exist on. Any excess caused by the forced intrusion of an elemental plane will "bleed off" back into the plane whence it was derived. Like adding water to a metaphysical glass, it cannot be caused to "overflow".

Even if you could cause a stream large, powerful, and fast enough to cause an appreciable gain in a desert - assuming there is enough to counteract evaporation, absorption, and consumption by plants and animals - the fact is that not only would it take decades, if not centuries (assuming there is no large water table under the desert) but even if one succeeded, the chances are that it would not only cause terror with the weather patterns above the ex-desert, but it would likely just cause a desert to form elsewhere.

It's just not feasible to flood a desert when it is that much simpler to just get used to it.

 

[Bad Paper]

Oh come on people.. you talk about D&D not having physics, but you are most definitely not taking all details into account...The prime material plane is formed when and where the primary elemental planes overlap. This is an important detail. This means that there is, more or less, a set volume of each element present to comprise the world that the players exist on. Any excess caused by the forced intrusion of an elemental plane will "bleed off" back into the plane whence it was derived. Like adding water to a metaphysical glass, it cannot be caused to "overflow"....It's just not feasible to flood a desert when it is that much simpler to just get used to it.

Right, then. That settles it. The Decanter is overpriced, err, I mean, underpriced. Wait, no. What were we talking about, again?

 

[Dross]

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.

I tried pricing a decanter of holy water about 12 months ago using the guidelines for pricing magic items. While not cheap it was not outrageously expensive. However as soon as you included things like the damaging effects on undead, the price skyrocketed (or geysured? ) out of reach, as it should for what had become a weapon. Unfiortunately I can't remember the cost now.

 

[FrostedMini1337]

You know, I never realized it til now, but doesn't 5 pounds of crushed silver to one pint of water seem like a bit much?