Melt through Worked Stone

[Albanymusicfund]

Dear gianttip members,

I hope you are doing well. I had a question about players being able to bypass worked stone. The move earth spell specifies that it cannot bypass worked stone.

Therefore what are some ways a player can bypass worked stone? Mining seems like the obvious and simplest in concept but there must be a spell out there that can destroy worked stone easily.

Best,
AlbanyMusicFund

P.S.
In the Monster Manual it says that the Thoqqua creature can bypass stone. Can I summon one? Can I polymorph a friend into one?

[icefractal]

Thoqqua are a good way, yeah. They're on the Summon Nature's Ally list, or you could use Lesser Planar Binding.
Alternately there's Disintegrate, removes a 10' cube.
Or Stone Shape, but that's a much smaller volume.

[ShurikVch]

Heroics (Spell Compendium) for Martial Study: Mountain Hammer

Umber Hulk is able to burrow even through the solid rock, and leave a usable tunnel if it chooses to. You can Polymorph into it at 8th level

Passwall (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/passwall.htm)

Sphere of Ultimate Destruction (Spell Compendium) - 9th-level spell, but still...

[Remuko]

Adamantine weapon?

[rel]

Stoneshape is a nice lower level option. when faced with brick you target the mortar then dismantle the wall brick by brick. When faced with solid stone that has just been carved and faced you remove the outline of the tunnel you want and pull out the resulting stone plug.
It still takes a bit of work beyond the spellcasting, but a cleric gets it from level 5. And the GM is less likely to send wondering monsters or drop the ceiling on the party than if you just punch your way through the dungeon.

[Fizban]

Stone Shape off Clr/Drd 3 is the benchmark I believe the game uses for "the party may be asked to go through a stone wall." Use your inverse imagination and shape a thin cut through- many thin cuts, turning the volume into a bunch of cubes, chunks, or spheres which are more easily removed. Or Soften Earth and Stone from Drd 2 to turn it to clay and chop it out (the arcane version's component says you have to sculpt what you want to make, but the divine version doesn't, and sor/wiz level is the same as Rock to Mud or Passwall which are better for this purpose).

If you specifically want to melt stone (or damage it through heat), you merely need 18 points of fire damage in a round (*1/2 to 9, -8 to 1 point of damage). A metamagic'd Flame Blade could get there, but the total hit points of a wall will take ages to chew through.

There's also a spell in Shining South for Clerics, Stonefire, which is a weird fire spell clearly taking from Wall of Fire but dealing less damage and burning through a foot of stone per round, for effectively 1 foot/level of stone. . . burned, rather than "melted."

[Gruftzwerg]

Shatter (2nd) or its warlock equivalent Baleful Utterance will get rid of most stuff (if it is a single object!) in your way.

Being or becoming incorporeal (e.g. Ghostform 8th) is another option to get pass solid stuff.

Or use teleport spells that can work with sole directions and distances as designation spot. Dimension Door (warlock: Flee the Scene) is a good candidate for this. You just need to know how thick/deep the object is to assume a safe teleport distance.

[Telonius]

Google says stone melts around 1500 C (2750 F). Blue flame will probably get you there.

So, standard response. Apply fire. If that doesn't work, apply more fire. :smallbiggrin:

[ShurikVch]

Earth Glide (Races of Stone) - 8th-level spell, but circumvent need to melt through worked stone
Rockburst (Shining South) - destroys the whole wall (let's hope - not the whole building! :smallwink:)
Stonefire (Shining South) - burn that wall!
Stone Shatter (Spell Compendium)
Stone Metamorphosis (Underdark) - turn those stones into pumice, then - break through it
Stone to Flesh - make it a wall of flesh, then - carve through it!
Transmute Rock to Lava (Spell Compendium) - 9th-level spell; wouldn't affect the wall itself, but cast it on the wall's foundation - and the wall would melt

[Telonius]

Overkill mode: 9th-level Planeshifter (Prestige class from Manual of the Planes) can use their Planar Area Swap to switch the stone with an equal area of the Elemental Plane of Air.