D&D 5E Wall of Force Question; Can it cut through Stone?

[Iry]

You don't have Line Of Effect to things behind full cover, so you cannot make Wall of Force appear inside a solid substance in the first place. So no cutting stone. However, if you manage to make something fall onto a Wall of Force, you could definitely fluff the fall damage as being cut.

 

[LordEntrails]

About that

Spoiler

It really bothers me that the manticore went chasing a bat. Why? Do manticore chase all bats? How did the manticore know this wasn't an everyday bat?

Because there are no bats there. The manticores live on the cliffs, they are intelligent, and a bat was unusual. So they knew it did not belong. Also being intelligent, they know magic exists AND it's likely they know magic can be used to transform enemies into things that appear not to be enemies.

Magic and intelligence are not something only the PCs know about. Intelligent bad guys also know about invisibility spells, and polymorph, and wildshape, and all the other stuff PCs often do to try and hide themselves. If a bat flew into the tavern owned by my players and roosted on a rafter, you better believe they would kill it before allowing it to listen in on their plans to defeat the evil overlord. NPCs are going to do the same darn thing.

 

[LordEntrails]

I'm wondering how the rogue out ran the manticores? Cloak has a fly speed of 40' and Manticores have a fly speed of 50'.

Except rogues can take a dash as a bonus action. So, move, dash, dash = 120ft. No where does RAW say that the rogue's ability only works with "native" movement. And the cloak just give the player a fly speed, it doesn't say they can not take dash actions etc.

 

[Ancalagon]

Because there are no bats there. The manticores live on the cliffs, they are intelligent, and a bat was unusual. So they knew it did not belong. Also being intelligent, they know magic exists AND it's likely they know magic can be used to transform enemies into things that appear not to be enemies.

Fair enough... but be careful not to be adversarial. If the enemies know that there are no bats there, wouldn't the PCs, also being intelligent and aware of magic, might not have a chance of knowing this?

 

[LordEntrails]

Fair enough... but be careful not to be adversarial. If the enemies know that there are no bats there, wouldn't the PCs, also being intelligent and aware of magic, might not have a chance of knowing this?

Sure, but they would actually have to tell me they are looking around. And unless they were wondering about bats or other flying creatures any check would probably be at disadvantage.

 

[77IM]

I totally allow these kind of shenanigans IF the caster can pass a DC 10 Int check. On a failure, there's some sort of consequence commensurate with the benefit sought on success. In this case, having rocks fall on the party (8d6 for a 5th-level spell; Dex save half) seems both fair and delightfully ironic.

This sort of blowback is why people don't usually use wall of force this way, but if the PCs want to go for it, they can. A little guidance and Bardic Inspiration and maybe burning a regular Inspiration and it can become a done deal.

 

[cmad1977]

So... I allow this sort of thing from time to time based upon a couple factors.
If the party is in a fight then spells work as written.
Outside of the action I’m much more lenient upon the effects of a given spell. If it’s a loss of decent leveled spell I’ll allow other uses of it.

Ex: Shatter doesn’t do enough damage to blow down a door when the ogres are chasing the party.
It will blow open the door if the party are “outside” initiative.