Open/Close

[Nibbens]

So, one day, my player questions my judgement on a spell. "Open/Close" is supposed to be used to open or close small doors or small objects.

Only when I started reading did I realize that I had misreading the EFFING SPELL FOR THE LAST 18 YEARS OF MY ****** LIFE!

It "opens or closes doors or light things." NOT "opens or closes doors or lightS things."

My life is upside down now. Open/Close doesn't light things on fire... :P

Anyway, anyone else out there did this, or is it just me?

[Deophaun]

How did...

What...

I don't...

Why?

All those wizard towers burnt to the ground, just because the owner was too lazy to use the doornob.

[Psyren]

As a general rule of thumb - always, always go to a spell's full description to see what it does and does not do. Do not rely on the quick blurb in a class spell list for any reason.

[AngelOfFaith]

If that spell could set things on fire you could burn countries to the ground with cantrips...

[Troacctid]

I mean, you can burn countries to the ground with torches, too, so...

[Nibbens]

I mean, you can burn countries to the ground with torches, too, so...

Well, there is spark spell which lights things on fire, so a cantrip for lighting things on fire already exists, it's just a different spell instead of open/close doing two separate things. lol.

[Chronos]

Why wouldn't it be called "open/close/ignite", then? And heck, why would such completely different functions be bundled together in the same spell, anyway?

[Nibbens]

Why wouldn't it be called "open/close/ignite", then? And heck, why would such completely different functions be bundled together in the same spell, anyway?

I always wondered that myself, to be honest. It's such a low level spell, no one in my group never really gave it any thought. Just sort of a "oh whatever, it's just another cantrip that does minor things." I just never thought about it enough, nor did it ever come up, for me to really question it like I just did today.

It was just years and years of "yeah, that's what the spell does and no I don't have the time to fact check every little detail while I'm in the middle of a game." When you're certain of something, you're certain - there's no reason to double check the math of 2+2, because you know it equals 4. Same thing here, I guess. Except this time my math of 2+2 I thought equaled 5 and I was dead wrong. lol.

[goto124]

I wish to hear your campaign stories. The ones where people burned buildings down while trying to open a door.

[Nibbens]

I wish to hear your campaign stories. The ones where people burned buildings down while trying to open a door.

LOL. Never happened. It was always an option to do either "open/close" a door, or "ignite a candle" never both at the same time. That would have made my "there's something really wrong here" alarm go off. Haha.

[Nibbens]

Why wouldn't it be called "open/close/ignite", then? And heck, why would such completely different functions be bundled together in the same spell, anyway?

Oh! and they already do have one - it's called prestidigitation. It does a whole bevy of minor things, so it's not unreasonable that 1 cantrip does multiple things.

[Chronos]

To be fair, burning a door to ash does generally open it.


Oh! and they already do have one - it's called prestidigitation. It does a whole bevy of minor things, so it's not unreasonable that 1 cantrip does multiple things.
Yeah, but that's it's whole schtick: Presti does a bunch of things. Most other cantrips, though, have some specific purpose. Light is for making light. Acid Splash is for doing a little bit of damage. Mage Hand is for moving small stuff around. Open/Close is for...

[Nibbens]

To be fair, burning a door to ash does generally open it.


Yeah, but that's it's whole schtick: Presti does a bunch of things. Most other cantrips, though, have some specific purpose. Light is for making light. Acid Splash is for doing a little bit of damage. Mage Hand is for moving small stuff around. Open/Close is for...

No argument there. And I agree, I always found it weird that open/close would do that too. I was dead wrong. lol.