D&D 5E Wall of Force - Incorporeal creatures ?

[Amatiel]

Wall of Force - Nothing can physically pass through the wall. It is immune to all damage and can't be dispelled by dispel magic. A disintegrate spell destroys the wall instantly, however. The wall also extends into the Ethereal Plane, blocking ethereal travel through the wall.

So can an incorporeal creature such as a will o wisp or a wraith pass through the wall ?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

No because the Wall extends into the Ethereal plane. Which is how incorporeal creatures move around.

 

[Pandaemoni]

No because the Wall extends into the Ethereal plane. Which is how incorporeal creatures move around.

That was the 3.5 rule. The Incorporeal Movement trait no longer says it is ethereal. In fact, a Ghost can be either in the ethereal plane or the material plane, but it has the incorporeal movement ability regardless. Other incorporeal creatures have no tie to the ethereal plane at all mentioned in the RAW. Take Will-o-the-wisps, which are incorporeal yet nothing in the description even mentions the ethereal plane.

Plenty of creatures and spells do expressly mention ethereal travel and so those would be blocked by a wall of force, but by RAW nothing suggests that incorporeal movement trait can be thwarted by force effects or the Wall of Force specifically.

Even the description of the Ethereal Plane in the SMG does not mention incorporeal creatures in general (it mentions the ghost specifically, but the ghost expressly can move into the ethereal plane as a special ability listed in the Monster Manual which other incorporeal creatures lack). This means if you were ethereal, you could spy on a wraith and it could not see you, because it does not have the ability to see ethereal creatures.

Obviously, your DM could rule that in his game world "force" effects black incorporeal creatures, but RAW suggests that those creatures would just treat them as difficult terrain as they do with any object.

 

[jaelis]

Incorporial lets you move through objects. I would not say that a wall of force is an object, myself.

Usually though a ghost could bypass a wall of force by moving through the ground below.

 

[Pandaemoni]

Incorporial lets you move through objects. I would not say that a wall of force is an object, myself.

Usually though a ghost could bypass a wall of force by moving through the ground below.

That's fair, though it's odd to me that they are relying on 3.5 instincts here if they intended that to be the way it works.

They clearly made a decision at some point to delink incorporeality and etherealness (because they included the ghost that is both ethereal and incorporeal and no other incorporeal creature has that etherealness add-on), but then they did not mention anywhere that force effects impede incorporeal creatures. It could be an error, but the trait "Incorporeal movement" appears in a number of entries and no where mentions being blocked by anything.

It's easier to me to read it as they can pass through anything, but with the movement penalty stated in the "incorporeal movement" trait.

Certainly, outside of my 3.5 era expectations, I have no reason to believe that a "force field" would stop a ghost. I can picture a will o' the wisp shooting through one easily enough.