Need help with calculations

[mehs]

Ok so in the homebrew setting we are doing, the oceans got blasted away (mad max world caused by magic nukes). The GM agreed that he knows that isn't how the water cycle work, and I suggested that the oceans are now just floating in the sky. GM agreed with this headcanon, and now there are giant ocean clouds causing a nuclear winter.

In the future, I will get the ability to spam cast control water, and GM already said yes on using that to colony drop deluge enemies If im able to get up high enough (should also have spammable air walk pretty much by then). But what im asking about now is how I should go about using control water to return the ocean clouds to being on the ground. A giant "here comes the rain" thing. Calculations include: how long would that take, how damaging would such a rainstorm be and how slow should I take it, etc. Do you guys have the knowledge?

[Emperor Tippy]

How is the water remaining suspended in the air?

If you are doing it "by hand" (i.e. with individual castings of Control Water) then you are going to be at it for a very long time given that Control Water is "Water in a volume of 10 ft./level by 10 ft./level by 2 ft./level" for the area affected.

[PoeticallyPsyco]

Historically speaking, the last time the oceans were completely evaporated, it rained for literally millions of years to create them. On the plus side, it took the surface of the earth being consistently above the boiling point to make that happen in the first place, so it probably is constantly raining already in the setting unless there's something preventing that.

[tiercel]

Ok so in the homebrew setting we are doing, the oceans got blasted away (mad max world caused by magic nukes).

You have a plot event that changed the whole world; this really smells like a plot event is supposed to Save The World, whether it be the direct result of a long quest or even a more indirect journey to wake up the gods and Help Put Right What Once Went Wrong, not so much “level up until you can spam a spell hard enough to refill the oceans one thimble standard action at a time.”

But hey, let’s math this.

Earth’s oceans contain roughly 320 million cubic miles of water, so about 4.7 * 10^19 cubic feet.

Let’s assume that control water actually affects volume of water rather volume of cloud, and that (for convenience) you can spam it at CL 20. Then, each casting affects 200x200x40 = 1.6 million cubic feet. That’s 3* 10^13 castings.

There’s about pi * 10^7 seconds in a year, so youre looking at around six million years of spamming control water with no break of any kind longer than a move action, ever.

Going on the quest to just save the world will probably be faster :wink:

[mehs]

Currently what is keeping it up in the air is a very thick atmosphere and gravity shenanigans. The oceans being in the air is mostly because the GM wanted the entire world to be arid and then the ensuing fridge logic that the oceans wouldn't just vanish if they are evaporated means that they would be somewhere at least. Them being in the sky was the logic we went with.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Maybe the majority of the planet's water was evaporated away, and it rose so high that it froze in the upper atmosphere, enclosing the planet in a sphere of ice? That would turn the whole world into a greenhouse, trapping the sun's heat. There would be humidity in some places, but never rain because of no cold fronts, just clouds suspended between the heat of the surface and the chill of the ice layer. Condensation on the ice would just make it grow thicker, and any actual rain would evaporate as soon as it hit the ground.

In this scenario you could have creatures that fly above the clouds and cling to or even burrow into the ice layer. Strange peoples could live on platforms suspended from the ice, jealously guarding their gardens which are watered by what little condensation is able to drip down before it freezes. The ice could have pockets of liquid water where strange ecosystems exist in the sky, interconnected all the way around the planet in a cold, flooded neverdark.

The lighting at the ground would be unusual, to say the least. The light of the sun would be refracted through the uneven ice, causing the light to come down from the entire sky. It could be impossible to find shade without being completely under cover. The ice layer wouldn't even rotate at the same speed as the planet, so its effect on the daylight in a given place would vary throughout the months. There could be naturally shady spots that most of the light is refracted away from, which is slightly cooler than everywhere else and maybe an occasional light rain could occur. Nomadic tribes would try to stay in these areas, carrying gardens on the backs of giant turtles or something equally interesting. Maybe one part of the ice is shaped just right to create a lensing effect that focuses the sunlight into a destructive ray at certain times of day. A blackened scorch mark across the planet would show the path it had taken, it wouldn't be a solid line but it would be easy to tell where it will come down next.

[mehs]

It is more of a skypeia situation with giant. Clouds and oceans just kinda floating a few thousand feet up.

[Telonius]

Is the world a standard planet sphere? I'm wondering if you couldn't just Reverse Gravity on the land to flip it upside down, so the water ends up where it's supposed to be. Or possibly rearrange it so you're walking on the inside of a hollow sphere.

[mehs]

It is a sphere but none of the party members will get reverse gravity.