Wall of Force - How tight the seal?

[Anabstercorian]

Last session, the wizard in our party cast a Wall of Force while invisible to cut off the retreat of a group of sentries. I want to know the following:
- How tight can he make the seal? If the area he seals is very irregular hewn stone and natural cavern, for example, can he make it tight enough to hold water, like a wall of stone can, or are there going to be gaps around the edges?
- Does a Wall of Force block sound entirely, muffle sound, or have no effect on sound?

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

I guess it comes down to what your definition of "unbroken" is (since the wall must be flat, vertical, and unbroken). For me, an unbroken plane would be a plane in which any two points of the plane can be connected by a continuous straight line.

In a natural cavern, there isn't a good chance of totally sealing off a passageway, IMO.

Good question about sound. If it blocks everything, then it should block sound... or at least a good part of it?

AR

 

[Anabstercorian]

I sort of visualize Wall of Force as being an Ether Seed - You plant this two-dimensional shape in space and it grows to the limit of the power of the spell, wrapping around static obstacles as it goes. So I'm willing to entertain the idea of a wall of force being able to seal an irregular passage...

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

I'll take a different interpretation: if the area of the Wall of Force you can create is greater than the area you're attempting to seal with it, then yes, it would be a perfect seal. I don't see any reason to treat it differently from Wall of Stone or the other Wall spells in that regard. No reason to introduce unnecessary complications, particularly when those complications aren't going to make the game faster or more fun.

For sound, meh. Probably it should muffle it, and I wouldn't allow a Sonic-based spell effect to cross it. But I probably wouldn't dwell on the subject, or emphasize that PCs on one side can't hear anything from the other.

--
i suspect i just don't care enough
ryan

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

No reason to introduce unnecessary complications, particularly when those complications aren't going to make the game faster or more fun.

But isn't this what this forum is all about?

AR

 

[Deset Gled]

There was a rather lengthy thread about this a while back. I believe it was entitled "Can you make a really frilly Wall of Force?" If someone could search for it, I believe it would shine a lot of light on the subject.

In the long run, I think it boils down to the fact that you can make Wall of Force obsenely complex and powerful if you interpret the text to mean that you can make the wall in any shape, or keep it extremely limited and simple if you interpret the text to mean that the wall only works in the shape of squares.

 

[isoChron]

Wall of Force: The wall must be continuous and unbroken when formed. If its surface is broken by any object or creature, the spell fails.

If you want to seal of a passage with hewn walls against incoming water you have to fit the wall at least 1 millimeter to EACH part of the walls and ground. That means you must study every inch very carefully. If you miss one little stonenose and this breaks your surface, the spell fails.
I think it ist possible to seal the passage against intruders but not against water or air. You will keep at least 2 inches of tolerance at each edge of the wall of force. Just not to accidently break the surface.

Just my point of view. I'm curious what arguments will heat this discussion.

 

[apsuman]

Back in the 2e day, I played a game and the DM described the room we just enetered along with the baddies in the room. Our mage case burning hands, and the DM said that the spell went off but did no damage because the bad guys were too far away.

I said that was unfair, that a mage would know how far away his spells would be effective. I (like the mage) was under the impression that the room we were in was small enought that burning hands would have hit most of the bad guys.

So I went into that to say these two things. Either interpretation is fair as long as the player and the DM agree to it. IMHO, the wall when formed should be able to exist with the immovable terrain around it as long as the player says so when casting. By that I mean when the player says my sorcerer cast Wall of Force to go from the floor to the ceiling from the left wall to the right wall, the the wall of force "fits" itself into that space. Now in your campaign, that might mean that the largest vertical rectangle possible without actually touching the edges, or it might mean a "tight seal"


Now, my personal opinion is this: the spell should conform to the edge of the caster defined space. IMHO, just because the spell CAN take up to 1 10 foot square per level does not mean that the wall must be square or even have flat edges. Given that magic is supposed to be magic and not engineering, and for the sake of fast game play, I would have the wall make a tight seal.

 

[The Souljourner]

Unbroken just means you can't have a hole in it nor can you have it completely split down the middle by something.

I'd say it reflects all sound... in order for sound to go through it, it would need to vibrate, and somehow I just don't see a force effect vibrating. Since it's perfectly rigid, the soundwaves would just bounce off.

It's wall of force, for god's sake, it should be damn good. I'd say that if you can make a perfect seal with wall of stone, you can certainly do the same with wall of force. Otherwise, there would be an easy way around it, especially in an irregular cavern. "Sorry, there's a 2' concave section of the wall here, so anyone can just shoot magic missiles right through it." Nuh uh. Perfect seal, no magic, no sound, no water, no air.

-The Souljourner

 

[CrimsonTemplar]

I'd allow it, but I'd also house-rule it to cause the spell to fail if you tap on the glass when you use it to stop the torrent of water.