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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 7303470" data-attributes="member: 2629">Seconding the underestimating the benefit of mold earth.  You're instantly moving 5 feet of loose earth from one location to an adjacent location with just a wave of your hand (no verbal or material component).  D&D does not define loose soil, but common English does as anything not firmly fixed together.  Basically, if a shovel could move it, so can this spell - 125 cubic feet at a time.  You can't shape the earth too well per the language of the cantrip (although the name is misleading if you can't), but you can do it over and over to create massive changes to the landscape.  It isn't useful in every environment, but when it is useful, it can be very useful.  I'd say that nearly any natural environment is fair game, and there are places in developed areas where it can also be used if you think about it.  In some games that will limit the benefits, especially at earlier levels.  At higher levels, you can use real spells to get access to the loose earth beneath or behind construction - and then you can wreck havoc.  It can be used to create barriers and moats.  It can take a foundation out under a building or vehicle.  You can use it to block passages.  You can use it to collapse natural ceilings.  You can use it to bury features or objects.  Change the course of a river.  Create floods.  And all of this can be done quietly as there are no verbal components.  Heck, a first level spellcaster can make pretty good coin just working in the construction and demolition business.  He can excavate a construction site with this spell faster than a crane.* "Huh.  What would happen if I just block off where this underground river exits this chamber...."* "So the rope bridge across the chasm connects to what now?"* "I move all the earth around the base of that tree away."* "I remove all the earth around the right side of the base of the tower." Or how about uses by NPCs?  The PCs go to rest in a forest and wake up on an island.  DMs are left up to their own devices to address what happens when you remove the earth from beneath a creature or building, but even conservative approaches are going to be fun.</blockquote>

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