Segev
2023-03-02, 04:27 PM
"Starting at 6th level, moving through nonmagical difficult terrain costs you no extra movement. You can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed by them and without taking damage from them if they have thorns, spines, or a similar hazard.
In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such as those created by the entangle spell."
I don't know how many modules or DM-created set pieces have nonmagical plants that do damage for moving through them, nor how often your DMs decide a certain area is difficult terrain naturally. That is out of the control of the player, obviously, and how useful this feature is will vary greatly depending on that. But from the PC's own perspective, it's frustrating how it sounds like it should let the Druid turn a lot of his spells into playgrounds, but the "nonmagical" clauses get in the way. STill, there ARE druid spells that make nonmagical difficult terrain and (one) that makes plants nonmagically choke access. (None, sadly, that cause nonmagical damaging effects.)
This thread is to first examine the druid spell list for those spells that do and do not create nonmagical difficult terrain or plant hazards.
Mold earth: magical difficult terrain.
Earth tremor: 10 foot radius around you instantaneously becomes difficult terrain that can (and must, if it's to happen at all) be cleared by hand. Nonmagical difficult terrain.
Entangle: 20 foot square of plants making difficult terrain. definitely magical. Advantage on saves, but can't ignore it.
Spike growth: 20 foot radius in range grows spikes and thorns. Creates magical difficult terrain which may count as plants. Cannot ignore damage due to being magical. Cannot ignore difficult terrain for the same reason.
Web: 20 foot cube of webbing makes difficult terrain, but it is again magically-induced and thus the druid doesn't gain any benefit from Land's Stride, here. (Also, this only shows up on the Underdark list, so it's not on all Land druids' lists.)
Erupting earth: 20 foot cube in range becomes non-magical difficult terrain, similar to how earth tremor works. Land druids can move through the terrain without penalty
Plant growth: instantaneously creates a tangle of plants in a 100-foot radius that cost quadruple movement to move through. The plants are nonmagical once created, so can be moved through by a Land Druid.
Sleet storm: a 40 foot radius is covered in ice and becomes difficult terrain. Thus is a magical effect, so the difficult terrain also slows land druids.
Wall of water: the wall's space is difficult terrain created by magic. Can't walk unimpeded.
Ice storm: instantaneously-summoned hailstones make the space difficult terrain until the end of the caster's next turn. Arguable whether this is "magical" or not to the point that.
Stone shape says nothing about making difficult terrain, but arguably could, and the terrain would be nonmagical since the spell is instantaneous.
Maelstrom creates difficult terrain in a body of water. It is magical, so no Land Druids walking unimpeded through it.
Bones of the earth creates a pillar, and if the pillar is destroyed, its ten foot radius circle it occupied becomes difficult terrain until cleared. Nonmagical difficult terrain!
Move earth: the duration is how long you can work the earth. If you make difficult terrain, it would be nonmagical.
Wall of thorns: both the movement slowdown and the damage are magically-induced by an ongoing spell that goes away when it is over. A Land druid does get advantage on saves against its effects, but that's it.
Earthquake: the difficult terrain it creates is magical and only persists for the spell duration.
Storm of Vengeance eventually creates difficult terrain, but it is magically sustained and thus Land Druids are unable to ignore said difficult terrain.
Discussion
The key point in the above assessment is whether the difficult terrain is the result of ongoing magic, or is a natural consequence of something magic did, but isn't doing now. All the instantaneous spells obviously leave behind difficult terrain that is nonmagical. The one that causes difficult terrain from hail is a little more questionable, but it seems likely that it's also a resultant side effect rather than the magic actually doing something to make it happen.
From this, the big winner is plant growth, which already is a champion for having controllable placement in a huge radius, allowing for tunnels for allies to maneuver through. Now that the druid can walk through it unimpeded while everyone else is stuck moving at quarter speed, it is a great way to escape or otherwise control a battlefield. Dance around, pulling victims deeper into its tangles with thorn whip, or put up a web spell or an entangle spell to create difficult terrain inside to further slow people down (to at least 1/5 speed, possibly as slow as 1/8, depending on how the DM stacks difficult terrain with plant growth's effect). Be aware that those don't create nonmagical difficult terrain, though.
Earth tremor normally is a little risky for a caster; if you're using it, you're surrounding yourself with difficult terrain. Admittedly, jumping over it isn't too hard, but a Land druid can just ignore it. Erupting earth and other similar spells do similar things.
These spells become more attractive as battlefield control and even escape spells because the druid can run around in them more easily than others. However, like a Warlock using the darkness + Devil's Sight trick, remember that your allies aren't so lucky, so still be cautious of placement.
The only other thing I can think of that might be a cool trick would be if you could convince your DM to let you grow plants that have natural caltrop-like brambles that you can scatter using caltrop rules, and then, since the spines are from nonmagical plants, you can move unimpeded through the spaces you scatter them.
The purpose of this thread, aside from just discussing and pointing these bits out, is to come up wtih more ideas on how to use this, or how to make other ideas more robust, so please share critiques, concerns, improvements, comments, and other ideas for exploiting Land's Stride, if you have them!
In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such as those created by the entangle spell."
I don't know how many modules or DM-created set pieces have nonmagical plants that do damage for moving through them, nor how often your DMs decide a certain area is difficult terrain naturally. That is out of the control of the player, obviously, and how useful this feature is will vary greatly depending on that. But from the PC's own perspective, it's frustrating how it sounds like it should let the Druid turn a lot of his spells into playgrounds, but the "nonmagical" clauses get in the way. STill, there ARE druid spells that make nonmagical difficult terrain and (one) that makes plants nonmagically choke access. (None, sadly, that cause nonmagical damaging effects.)
This thread is to first examine the druid spell list for those spells that do and do not create nonmagical difficult terrain or plant hazards.
Mold earth: magical difficult terrain.
Earth tremor: 10 foot radius around you instantaneously becomes difficult terrain that can (and must, if it's to happen at all) be cleared by hand. Nonmagical difficult terrain.
Entangle: 20 foot square of plants making difficult terrain. definitely magical. Advantage on saves, but can't ignore it.
Spike growth: 20 foot radius in range grows spikes and thorns. Creates magical difficult terrain which may count as plants. Cannot ignore damage due to being magical. Cannot ignore difficult terrain for the same reason.
Web: 20 foot cube of webbing makes difficult terrain, but it is again magically-induced and thus the druid doesn't gain any benefit from Land's Stride, here. (Also, this only shows up on the Underdark list, so it's not on all Land druids' lists.)
Erupting earth: 20 foot cube in range becomes non-magical difficult terrain, similar to how earth tremor works. Land druids can move through the terrain without penalty
Plant growth: instantaneously creates a tangle of plants in a 100-foot radius that cost quadruple movement to move through. The plants are nonmagical once created, so can be moved through by a Land Druid.
Sleet storm: a 40 foot radius is covered in ice and becomes difficult terrain. Thus is a magical effect, so the difficult terrain also slows land druids.
Wall of water: the wall's space is difficult terrain created by magic. Can't walk unimpeded.
Ice storm: instantaneously-summoned hailstones make the space difficult terrain until the end of the caster's next turn. Arguable whether this is "magical" or not to the point that.
Stone shape says nothing about making difficult terrain, but arguably could, and the terrain would be nonmagical since the spell is instantaneous.
Maelstrom creates difficult terrain in a body of water. It is magical, so no Land Druids walking unimpeded through it.
Bones of the earth creates a pillar, and if the pillar is destroyed, its ten foot radius circle it occupied becomes difficult terrain until cleared. Nonmagical difficult terrain!
Move earth: the duration is how long you can work the earth. If you make difficult terrain, it would be nonmagical.
Wall of thorns: both the movement slowdown and the damage are magically-induced by an ongoing spell that goes away when it is over. A Land druid does get advantage on saves against its effects, but that's it.
Earthquake: the difficult terrain it creates is magical and only persists for the spell duration.
Storm of Vengeance eventually creates difficult terrain, but it is magically sustained and thus Land Druids are unable to ignore said difficult terrain.
Discussion
The key point in the above assessment is whether the difficult terrain is the result of ongoing magic, or is a natural consequence of something magic did, but isn't doing now. All the instantaneous spells obviously leave behind difficult terrain that is nonmagical. The one that causes difficult terrain from hail is a little more questionable, but it seems likely that it's also a resultant side effect rather than the magic actually doing something to make it happen.
From this, the big winner is plant growth, which already is a champion for having controllable placement in a huge radius, allowing for tunnels for allies to maneuver through. Now that the druid can walk through it unimpeded while everyone else is stuck moving at quarter speed, it is a great way to escape or otherwise control a battlefield. Dance around, pulling victims deeper into its tangles with thorn whip, or put up a web spell or an entangle spell to create difficult terrain inside to further slow people down (to at least 1/5 speed, possibly as slow as 1/8, depending on how the DM stacks difficult terrain with plant growth's effect). Be aware that those don't create nonmagical difficult terrain, though.
Earth tremor normally is a little risky for a caster; if you're using it, you're surrounding yourself with difficult terrain. Admittedly, jumping over it isn't too hard, but a Land druid can just ignore it. Erupting earth and other similar spells do similar things.
These spells become more attractive as battlefield control and even escape spells because the druid can run around in them more easily than others. However, like a Warlock using the darkness + Devil's Sight trick, remember that your allies aren't so lucky, so still be cautious of placement.
The only other thing I can think of that might be a cool trick would be if you could convince your DM to let you grow plants that have natural caltrop-like brambles that you can scatter using caltrop rules, and then, since the spines are from nonmagical plants, you can move unimpeded through the spaces you scatter them.
The purpose of this thread, aside from just discussing and pointing these bits out, is to come up wtih more ideas on how to use this, or how to make other ideas more robust, so please share critiques, concerns, improvements, comments, and other ideas for exploiting Land's Stride, if you have them!