Cantrip uses

[ZorroGames]

Shape water for a Water Genasi Monk. Long story...

Short version is how best to utilize this at level 1 and later.

[KorvinStarmast]

Shape water for a Water Genasi Monk. Long story...

Short version is how best to utilize this at level 1 and later.
Fun Stuf to do
1. Ice sculptures at the wedding reception for the local duke's child who got married.
2. Never drink a warm margarita again.
3. When you go fishing, you don't need to buy a Yeti to keep your caught fish on ice.
4. Find one bird bath. Freeze water. Ice skating for mice.
5. At a banquet, the Queen's glass of water, in a beautiful crystal tumbler, suddenly turns the color of pee. Hilarity ensues.
6. Make some water flow up hill in the local aqueduct. Confuse the plumbers.
7. Ice cubes for the fire giant king's glass (largish) of whiskey and soda
Practical In-Game Usage:
8. Use the shapes made of water to help you tell a story to a group of humanoids whose language you don't understand, and they don't understand yours. A bit better than sign language.
9. Hide something in your goldfish's bowl. Turn the water black, or the exact same color as the item you hid. (making it "hide in plain sight")
10. Your fighter grapples an ogre zombie whose foot is in a 3' deep trench. You freeze the water around that foot. Ogre zombie has slippery shoe now. (Should slow or somehow impede movement, work with your DM).
11. Spread water on the floor. Freeze it. Slippery surface. (maybe treated like ball bearings? Check with DM)
12. You are looking down a well that is 25' deep. There is a thing glittering at the bottom. You lower a rope into the well. You freeze the water around the bitter end of the rope such that the frozen bit encompasses the item. (But not the whole well diameter, since water expands when it freezes. You pull up the rope. Water thaws, glittery thing is now yours. No climbing into the well to get ambushed by {X}
13. Drop a 5' cube off ice off of a cliff onto a monster. Discuss with DM ahead of time what kind of attack roll you can make, and what the damage dice are/should be.
14. Pour water on floor. Freeze. Slide heavy think you cant carry for 5'. Rinse and repeat. You can have 10 cubic feet, spread out, of slippery surface going at one time.
15. Make block of ice. Slide it before you as you go down a dungeon passage. You may trip/trigger a few traps by doing so. You may also bump it into a gelatinous cube.


Shape Water
Transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: S
Duration: Instantaneous or 1 hour (see below)
You choose an area of water that you can see within range and that fits within a 5-foot cube. You manipulate it in one of the following ways:
• You instantaneously move or otherwise change the flow of the water as you direct, up to 5 feet in any direction. This movement doesn’t have enough force
to cause damage.
• You cause the water to form into simple shapes and animate at your direction. This change lasts for 1 hour.
• You change the water’s color or opacity. The water must be changed in the same way throughout. This change lasts for 1 hour.
• You freeze the water, provided that there are no creatures in it. The water unfreezes in 1 hour.

If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have no more than two of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.

[sophontteks]

Check out Stealthscout's post about creative cantrips. He pretty much exhausts all the possible ways one can abuse this spell.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?481560-Creative-Cantrips-Shape-Water

Edit: kudos to KorvinStarmast for making a pretty impressive list as well.

[ZorroGames]

Thanks for the quick response. The player may enjoy the creativity as much as the practicality.

[KorvinStarmast]

Check out Stealthscout's post about creative cantrips. He pretty much exhausts all the possible ways one can abuse this spell.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?481560-Creative-Cantrips-Shape-Water

Edit: kudos to KorvinStarmast for making a pretty impressive list as well.Oh my goodness, what a great post/link. Thanks! I'll make sure my players do see it, that's some wonderful stuff.

[ZorroGames]

Check out Stealthscout's post about creative cantrips. He pretty much exhausts all the possible ways one can abuse this spell.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?481560-Creative-Cantrips-Shape-Water

Edit: kudos to KorvinStarmast for making a pretty impressive list as well.

The most dangerous weapon a player (or IRL) has is their mind.

Great thread (locked for threadomamcy so the last question goes forever unanswered?)

[Mr Adventurer]

I don't understand the Shape Water "instantaneously redirect the flow of water" use. If it's an instantaneous effect, a 5' cube of water will be redirected - but the larger flow will continue, so this use has no effect at all on rivers, streams, waterfalls, etc.?

Water always follows the easiest route by gravity, so it'll just switch back immediately.

[ZorroGames]

I don't understand the Shape Water "instantaneously redirect the flow of water" use. If it's an instantaneous effect, a 5' cube of water will be redirected - but the larger flow will continue, so this use has no effect at all on rivers, streams, waterfalls, etc.?

Water always follows the easiest route by gravity, so it'll just switch back immediately.

“Magic?” Maybe the larger flow moves around the redirected water?

[Mr Adventurer]

“Magic?” Maybe the larger flow moves around the redirected water?

Sorry, I overstated it - it WOULD have an effect, but the effect is that up to a 5-foot cube would be instantaneously redirected. The rest of the inflowing water would fill the gap at its normal rate. So there'd be a gap for, like, a second.

The spell would need to be rewritten to get the effect you suggest though.

[Ventruenox]

If you spend sufficient time casting Mold Earth as well, you could have a way to permanently redirect those streams and rivers.

I've found that having a Decanter of Endless Water makes the Shape Water cantrip immensely more useful. I've annoyed my DM by solving a dozen scenarios with that combo. That might be one reason he required my character to spend substantial downtime and skill checks to figure out how to make pykrete before I started in game shenanigans with it.

[Mr Adventurer]

If you spend sufficient time casting Mold Earth as well, you could have a way to permanently redirect those streams and rivers.

I've found that having a Decanter of Endless Water makes the Shape Water cantrip immensely more useful. I've annoyed my DM by solving a dozen scenarios with that combo. That might be one reason he required my character to spend substantial downtime and skill checks to figure out how to make pykrete before I started in game shenanigans with it.

I think you only need Mold Earth, to make the channel for the water the most efficient route into what you want it to be. Otherwise the water flow will eventually erode back to its starting position (mold earth only does loose earth after all).

I'd be really interested to hear some of those stories - maybe it'll help me to get it.