How would you create an island?

[Mercurial891]

I am asking this here because I do not want to involve epic spells and I understand that 5E has ritual magic. I am writing a fanfic that I may turn into a campaign that involves a Red Wizard raising Northkeep (it is a symbol of human awesomeness that was destroyed by demihumans who didn't know their place) and ruling it as his personal domain. How might this be accomplished without epic spells? I will take ideas inspired by any edition.

I was thinking of a Gate spell (where the gate is pointed downward) linked to the Elemental Plane of Earth and using high tier spells to move stone through it. It would take a long time, but that is one idea. Are there monsters with earth moving powers that can help? Also, maybe druids who create coral that can become islands? What about volcanoes? Thoughts?

[Greywander]

Mold Earth and Shape Water can be used to move dirt and water around. These are cantrips, so you can use them as many times as you want. Even so, it would still take a long time to build an island. You could also fill a bag of holding or similar extradimensional storage with dirt and then dump it out into the sea. Mold Earth only affects dirt, not stone, so for stone you'll need Stone Shape (a 4th level spell) to reform it. You can also use Wall of Stone (a 5th level spell) to build structures, as the walls become permanent if you concentrate on the spell for the entire duration (10 minutes). Fabricate (4th level spell) can be used to turn raw materials into a finished product. For example, you could turn a wall of natural stone into a wall made of stone bricks, or turn logs and hunks of iron into a door. Now that I think about it, Fabricate is basically Minecraft crafting. Fabricate does require the right tool proficiencies in order to make anything complex, so keep that in mind.

I'm not aware of the other things you mention that might help. I'm sure some of them exist, but I'm not aware of them.

[Talionis]

Use magic to turn a peninsula into an island. It’s much easier to do. Cutting a channel shouldn’t be hard. Even with just the cantrips above.

[GentlemanVoodoo]

Some of the things you are describing does involve epic spells. Though if not wanting just "cast spell and done" perhaps a workforce of earth elementals? Non-stop labor force at your disposal to build an island.

[JackPhoenix]

Unsafe Wish?

[Rukelnikov]

Unsafe Wish?

This.

Go to the catch all.

[Chronic]

Nothing prevent a spellcaster to create is own spells. Yours need to be moving a lot of earth, maybe designing a spell that takes a long time to cast or/and as a material cost but can Terraform a decent surface at a time is a good idea. Or having a staff full of earth spells that recharge.

[Imbalance]

Superman Returns, but skip the green kryptonite.

[JellyPooga]

Necromancy.

Undead minions are good at doing stuff all day every day, particularly if it's just digging up dirt and moving it from one place to another and they don't mind such insignificant trifles as "not being able to breathe" or "getting eaten by sharks" (albeit the latter tends to slow then down somewhat).

[Mastikator]

Mold Earth and Shape Water can be used to move dirt and water around. These are cantrips, so you can use them as many times as you want. Even so, it would still take a long time to build an island. You could also fill a bag of holding or similar extradimensional storage with dirt and then dump it out into the sea. Mold Earth only affects dirt, not stone, so for stone you'll need Stone Shape (a 4th level spell) to reform it. You can also use Wall of Stone (a 5th level spell) to build structures, as the walls become permanent if you concentrate on the spell for the entire duration (10 minutes). Fabricate (4th level spell) can be used to turn raw materials into a finished product. For example, you could turn a wall of natural stone into a wall made of stone bricks, or turn logs and hunks of iron into a door. Now that I think about it, Fabricate is basically Minecraft crafting. Fabricate does require the right tool proficiencies in order to make anything complex, so keep that in mind.

I'm not aware of the other things you mention that might help. I'm sure some of them exist, but I'm not aware of them.

I like the first option, because you can cut down on the time by just increasing the number of workers/cantripers, those people can then move on or die of old age. Not only can they create an island but a giant sprawling city that then goes into ruins over time, part of the island is completely obliterated/naturalized and part is ruins, smaller part is useful homes/buildings/dungeons/castles. It would explain why there are tunnels and dungeons where you need them, why there's submerged towns and the hills are made of castle.

If you want to have hostile people living on the island then they could be the descendants of the people who invaded, conquered and drove off/killed off the creators.

Elves tend to have lots of magic at their disposal and live very long so it kinda makes sense that this would be a project they would undertake, as they could be finished well within a single lifetime of an elf.

[Kvess]

If you want to go the direct route: Meteor Swarm. IMHO, the fastest and most robust way to create an island would be to conjure large chunks of burning rocks from the sky to pierce Toril’s crust. The impact could release gouts of magma, which then form volcanic islands as they cool.

If you are running a campaign that you expect will reach high levels, you could use this as foreshadowing for the mage’s spell selection as a Lich. 😈

[Cicciograna]

Necromancy.

Undead minions are good at doing stuff all day every day, particularly if it's just digging up dirt and moving it from one place to another and they don't mind such insignificant trifles as "not being able to breathe" or "getting eaten by sharks" (albeit the latter tends to slow then down somewhat).

Or even better, pile up as many undead as possible until they form a landmass and call it a day!

[noob]

If you want to go the direct route: Meteor Swarm. IMHO, the fastest and most robust way to create an island would be to conjure large chunks of burning rocks from the sky to pierce Toril’s crust. The impact could release gouts of magma, which then form volcanic islands as they cool.

If you are running a campaign that you expect will reach high levels, you could use this as foreshadowing for the mage’s spell selection as a Lich. 😈

Does meteor swarm have enough penetration to pierce the crust?
Since it is a lich then the mage could just in theory cast meteor swarm once a day for a million years if needed.
"when I finish my evil doing day and have a meteor swarm left I cast it here and one day it will reach the magma"
Because 5e liches are necessarily very active undead due to constantly needing to get souls: they are not the kind of people that can lose track of time.

[Imbalance]

Be a voodoo child. Do like Jimi Hendrix.

[Zhorn]

Charm/Dominate Monster on a creature with a Burrow speed and the Tunneler trait.
Get them to dig directly down.
Repeat till you pierce the crust

[Keravath]

Using regular spells there are few that would be powerful enough to create an island and a keep. Even Meteor Swarm isn't that powerful.

However, there are a number of ways you could go about it.

- wish spell might be able to do it - DM discretion
- custom spell - the wizard creates a ritual on the sea floor - perhaps summoning creatures from the plane of fire or earth to pierce the crust of the planet and cause a massive volcanic event, creating an island and causing earthquakes and massive tsunamis.
- summon lots of regular elementals - bind them for a year if you can - fire, earth, water and have them work together to create the island, build it up and construct a keep - the more elementals the faster it goes.
- as above but with undead. These are less effective than elementals since undead can't do as much - but they could be used to build furniture assuming you have moderately intelligent ones at your command.
- as mentioned, the mold earth cantrip might be useful but it doesn't work on rock which might be a problem.

[Segev]

Find the corpse of a truly enormous dragon-turtle, and animate it?

[JellyPooga]

Find the corpse of a truly enormous dragon-turtle, and animate it?

I approve of this method. Even better, seek out the long lost and mythical Elephant Dragon Turtle Graveyard and animate a bunch of them. A quest is better (and more exciting to read about if this is a fan-fic) than some dry and dusty research into a spell.

[yellowrocket]

Simply cut my self off emotionally from all those around me.


Oh wait, not that kind

Mold earth seems to be the easiest. Though a lot depends on when and where you want this.

I think starting by sinking ships and molding earth on top of them. Or finding a shallow shipwreck or an underwater atoll means less work.

For other jokes:

you could find Darrell Revis and put him in the water.(Revis island was his nickname.)

You could join Andy sandberg cover band.

Fill bags of holding full of water til land shows up.

[Aett_Thorn]

Wise Monk answer: one rock at a time.

[Sigreid]

Find a way to bribe some storm giants to do it for you.

Take over a cloud giant flying island and crash it into the location you want an island.

If you have a cooperative DM and are a cleric of a ocean deity, maybe Divine Intervention.

If floating is ok, build a large raft and cover it with dirt and rock.