Wall of Ice - does it need to be flat?

[ForceUser]

Just curious. Does the ice plane version of wall of ice need to be a flat plane, or can you curve or wend it within the dimensions allowed by your caster level? Can you make it snake through a group of opponents, or appear in a bell shape? My sense is it must be a plane, but I'd like to hear interpretations.

Thanks.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

The spell description, to me, says "flat plane". If it wasn't so, then you could use Wall of Ice to make 4 Ice walls that would emcompass much more than what an Ice hemisphere could.

AR

 

[UltimaGabe]

I don't see why you couldn't shape it to whatever you want. In a solo adventure I ran for my party's Sorcerer/Cleric a while back, she was searching this big mountain in the middle of a blizzard, and she encountered a couple Winter Wolves. She scared them off well enough with some Spellfire, but they just ran off and alerted their Frost Giant friend- she couldn't see it through the blizzard, but she heard it coming, so she simply moved to the side and cast Wall of Ice on the ground. The Frost Giant charged in, expecting to see a little elven girl shootin' off fire, and he simply flew right off the edge of the mountain.

 

[Silveras]

Effect: Anchored plane of ice, up to one 10-ft. square/level, or hemisphere of ice with a radius of up to 3 ft. + 1 ft./level

and

Ice Plane: A sheet of strong, hard ice appears. The wall is 1 inch thick per caster level. It covers up to a 10-foot-square area per caster level (so a 10th-level wizard can create a wall of ice 100 feet long and 10 feet high, a wall 50 feet long and 20 feet high, or some other combination of length and height that does not exceed 1,000 square feet). The plane can be oriented in any fashion as long as it is anchored. A vertical wall need only be anchored on the floor, while a horizontal or slanting wall must be anchored on two opposite sides.

Each 10-foot square of wall has 3 hit points per inch of thickness. Creatures can hit the wall automatically. A section of wall whose hit points drop to 0 is breached. If a creature tries to break through the wall with a single attack, the DC for the Strength check is 15 + caster level.

Even when the ice has been broken through, a sheet of frigid air remains. Any creature stepping through it (including the one who broke through the wall) takes 1d6 points of cold damage +1 point per caster level (no save).

Compared with

Effect: Stone wall whose area is up to one 5-ft. square/level (S)

and

Unlike a wall of iron, you can create a wall of stone in almost any shape you desire. The wall created need not be vertical, nor rest upon any firm foundation; however, it must merge with and be solidly supported by existing stone. It can be used to bridge a chasm, for instance, or as a ramp. For this use, if the span is more than 20 feet, the wall must be arched and buttressed. This requirement reduces the spell’s area by half. The wall can be crudely shaped to allow crenellations, battlements, and so forth by likewise reducing the area.

Note that Wall of Stone explicitly states you can shape it. Also, Wall of Stone has the "(S)" marker on the effect line, indicating a spell whose effect is shapable. Neither of those is true of Wall of Ice. Wall of ice offers 2 choices: a single flat sheet of ice or a hemisphere of ice.

 

[ForceUser]

Thanks Silveras.