side effects of available magic nutrition

[lunar2]

how would D&D campaign worlds be different if common access to food and/or water creation spells were taken into account?

take the extreme example of a full fledged tippyverse, where cities are supported by create food and water traps pumping out thousands of gallons of water and tons of food every day, adding new matter into the system. why is the world not one huge swamp or ocean after that much time? the prevalence of extraordinarily large creatures compared to the real world may account for some of that, but eventually the planet would be flooded.

is the end result of every campaign world going to be an aquatic environment populated by overfed baleen whales?

[2xMachina]

Sphere of Annihilation probably. And open gates to the plane of water to drain off excess water.

[lunar2]

so, artifacts and permanencied 9th level spells are the only solutions to a problem created by a 0th and 3rd level spell? that sucks. especially since the denizens of the plane of water would be unlikely to appreciate you using their home as a garbage dump.

[Seerow]

Why would anything be flooded? The traps are activated by someone setting it off. People set off the food/water traps as they need them, so you never have waste.

[skycycle blues]

Why would anything be flooded? The traps are activated by someone setting it off. People set off the food/water traps as they need them, so you never have waste.

Except the literal waste has to go somewhere.

[lunar2]

those traps service giant cities. every time they are activated, they create:

food for 15 people or 5 horses and 7.5 gallons of water (a person is supposed to have 1/2 a gallon a day, so 15 people get 7.5 gallons of water). it only requires a city of 2,000 people to generate 1,000 gallons of water a day.

[ericgrau]

Surface area of earth: 4 * pi * (4000 mi.)^2 = 201,081,600 mi.^2
Surface area of oceans: about 3/4 * 201,081,600 = about 150,000,000 mi.^2
= 4,200,000,000,000,000 ft.^2

A gallon of water a day is 0.134 ft.^3.
0.134 ft.^3/day * 7,000,000,000 * 365 days/year x 100 years = about 34,200,000,000,000 ft.^3

34,200,000,000,000 ft.^3/4,200,000,000,000,000 ft.^2= 0.008 ft.

The oceans rise about 1/10th of an inch every hundred years. Obviously this varies based on population and world size. Most fantasy worlds are a bit smaller than earth but have a way lower population, so the ocean is likely to raise slower.

A gate spell at the bottom of the ocean for a couple minutes (or even forever) likewise wouldn't drain the oceans very fast. A rule of thumb whenever someone tries to do something to the entire world is that the impact is imperceptible.

[Rubik]

so, artifacts and permanencied 9th level spells are the only solutions to a problem created by a 0th and 3rd level spell? that sucks. especially since the denizens of the plane of water would be unlikely to appreciate you using their home as a garbage dump.According to the Manual of the Planes and the Planar Handbook, there are natural gates to the inner planes in places where one element dominates, such as at the bottom of the ocean (plane of water), inside volcanoes (plane of fire), on mountaintops (plane of air), deep below ground (plane of earth), inside the sun (positive energy plane), deep within undead-infested crypts (negative energy plane), and secreted away in the Hidden Valley (paraelemental plane of dips and dressings).

The gates to the plane of water would siphon off extra water.

[prufock]

For dealing with the waste and excess, we have Shrink Item (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/shrinkItem.htm) (3rd) and Disintegrate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/disintegrate.htm) (6th) for somewhat lower-level coping. Polymorph Any Object (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/polymorphAnyObject.htm) (8th) can make it into something else.

Remember that Create Food and Water (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/createFoodAndWater.htm) is a Conjuration (Creation) spell. Creation spells do not actually "add new matter to the system" as you put it - they convert matter from one form to another.

"A creation spell manipulates matter to create an object or creature in the place the spellcaster designates (subject to the limits noted above). If the spell has a duration other than instantaneous, magic holds the creation together, and when the spell ends, the conjured creature or object vanishes without a trace. If the spell has an instantaneous duration, the created object or creature is merely assembled through magic."

Of course, it doesn't say what matter is converted, so presumably the caster doesn't have a choice. However I don't think it would be that big a stretch to find a way to convert excess or wastage into another material.

[Suddo]

Its not that big of an issue. If you want you can either: Send it to an element plane. Or create planes just as water receptacles. This could make war fare fun as you could open gates to said planes above a city to flood them before attacking.
Oh and just as a note you can probably get rid of poop either with the Genesised planes, and fling poop upon your opponent, or putting it in water and casting purify water (the spell will destroy any non-water substance).

Edit: Oh and while on the topic: Can you dispel conjured food. If so, can you kill someone who has been eating conjured food for the past year by destroying all nutrition in their body.

[Rubik]

If anything, this kind of thing is needed to keep the amount of matter in a plane constant.

After all, spell components are disintegrated into nothing when used.

[Ernir]

Can you dispel conjured food. If so, can you kill someone who has been eating conjured food for the past year by destroying all nutrition in their body.

Food created with Create Food and Water does not cease to exist when the conjuration runs out, it simply becomes inedible.

[hydraa]

...Oh and just as a note you can probably get rid of poop either with the Genesised planes, and fling poop upon your opponent, or putting it in water and casting purify water (the spell will destroy any non-water substance).

...

Actually this may be what the spell emulates

I cast create food and water (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20072270-71/japanese-scientist-creates-poop-burger-surely-not/)

[Rubik]

Actually this may be what the spell emulates

I cast create food and water (http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20072270-71/japanese-scientist-creates-poop-burger-surely-not/)It's called 'tasty paste'.

[bloodtide]

how would D&D campaign worlds be different if common access to food and/or water creation spells were taken into account?

take the extreme example of a full fledged tippyverse, where cities are supported by create food and water traps pumping out thousands of gallons of water and tons of food every day, adding new matter into the system. why is the world not one huge swamp or ocean after that much time? the prevalence of extraordinarily large creatures compared to the real world may account for some of that, but eventually the planet would be flooded.

is the end result of every campaign world going to be an aquatic environment populated by overfed baleen whales?

Well, it would take a lot of food and water to fill up a world and it would take years. Would civilization last log enough for it to be done? Maybe not.