How useful is a pillar of ice?

[Togath]

So there's this lit (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/ice-spears)tle spell (http://archivesofnethys.com/SpellDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Ice%20Spears)...
Given I've had a chance to make an ice mage(sage sorcerer, specifically), I'm now curious what uses people can think of for it~
Presumably, even in a hot environment a massively think chunk of ice lasts a little while... and when the environment is already frozen over... it seems VERY useful.

[Coidzor]

In Irrisen or some other land that's eternally frozen or is cold for most of the year, it basically lets you make an Ice Palisade.

In warmer environments, one can put it into an ice house and be able to sell ice year round.

IIRC the water from the ice melting sticks around, so it's an alternative to create water for when you want to fill a pond or otherwise have water stick around but don't have a decanter of endless water.

I suppose you could chuck it into wells and have the well water be extra cold for a while.

There might be ways to make ice explode, but all I can think of right now is chucking it into hot oil. Although if you already have thermite and want to use it to make an ice bomb instead of any of the other applications of thermite... (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6cMmk8LZgQ)

[dhasenan]

Create a space station. Use Pillar of Ice to absorb waste heat. When the ice melts, vent it to space. Or drink it.

[Coidzor]

I suppose you could rig up something so that the ice is supporting something and then that thing falls or closes as the ice melts enough, as a crude timer.

You might also be able to use it to hold a gate open for a while if you don't want to use something like Stone Shape or Warp Wood.

[redwizard007]

That could be one hell of a trap in a dungeon hallway.

Temporarily seal a doorway.

Supports for a temporary shelter.

Easily identifiable landmark.

[Coidzor]

That could be one hell of a trap in a dungeon hallway.

Temporarily seal a doorway.

Supports for a temporary shelter.

Easily identifiable landmark.

Heh. Yeah, I suppose a bunch of pillars of ice giving me the finger from somewhere would be readily identifiable, as long as it was close enough to make them out or a spyglass was employed.

What sort of trap are you thinking, though? A magic trap that casts it so that it erupts underneath intruders and then resets while the pillars of ice melt away normally, perhaps into a channel the provides water elsewhere in the dungeon?

[redwizard007]

Heh. Yeah, I suppose a bunch of pillars of ice giving me the finger from somewhere would be readily identifiable, as long as it was close enough to make them out or a spyglass was employed.

What sort of trap are you thinking, though? A magic trap that casts it so that it erupts underneath intruders and then resets while the pillars of ice melt away normally, perhaps into a channel the provides water elsewhere in the dungeon?

I was thinking high level caster on a stretch of 5' wide corridor. Auto reset for sure. The drainage I hadn't considered... floor groves leading to a cistern or fountain would be neat, but a flooded 10' pit nearby could be a neat unintended consequences, especially if it proceeded the ice pillar trap as a warning.

[Togath]

Definitely getting some fun ideas~
For more mid-combat-y stuff, I realized it could be used to create walls to protect weaker allies.
Or even just to funnel foes in a specific direction.

[MindTheGap97]

From my experience anything that modifies terrain is pretty useful, this can be used to shut corridors off, get cover from enemy archers, at higher levels you can even create small walls, disrupting enemies' position, also looks pretty powerful against giants, there is one thing that is unclear to me though, what happens to enemies that pass their saves? I tend to think that they are simply pushed away from the area that they are standing in, if it works like that than it is even more powerful, as it also disrupts the position of enemies that pass their saves.

[Coidzor]

Oh, and since the ice sticks around, this may be one of the best ways to generate the ice necessary to make Frostfallen Creatures (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/frostfallen-creature-cr-1) without traveling to the frozen north or waiting for winter before one has the ability to just teleport up there or travel to the Paraelemental(Quasi?) Plane of Ice.

Anyone know how much an Ice Spear should weigh?

It says that they're 10 feet tall and their listed HP is 30, when the value for ice listed is 3 hp per inch of thickness (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/damaging-objects), suggesting that each spear is 10 inches thick, which would give us a cylinder with a diameter of ten inches and a height of 10 feet plus some amount of tapering at some point.

OTOH, Ice Spears says the ice spears have Hardness 5, while normal ice has Hardness 0.

Still, 10 feet by 10 inches cylinder gives us ~9424.78 cubic inches of ice. Seems like Ice has a density of 0.03312 pounds per cubic inch. I think you multiply the two numbers, but I'm a bit rusty on the math. That'd give something like ~312.148714 pounds per ice spear, probably round down a bit due to the tapering to a point.

[Lormador]

I like the spell, but think it might be a tad too strong for just a 3rd level thing. Compare to Sudden Stalagmite. This compares favorably, I think, being a crowd control spell. Maybe go to 1 icicle per 5 CL, or require them to be adjacent. I don't know.

You may find some of the language from Sudden Stalagmite useful, like the saving throw bonus granted to foes that are flying at a low enough altitude to be affected, or about stopping its growth when it encounters a structural obstacle.

As for additional spell uses: cover and concealment?

Also, it's not actually a use of this spell, but Silent Image could help out with it a lot, putting Ice Spears in front of enemies that "just missed," they now block the way forward.