Can we talk about how a level 1 druid with druid craft, mold earth, and shape water would be an absolutely world-renowned farm super-doctor and most successful greenhouse owner in history
I had an idea of a Fighter/Wizard who had all 4 Elemental Manipulation Cantrips. It sounds fun even though it's not great for combat. (Echo Knight/Wizard Utility & Mobility Build)
You’ve never played a Druid before, have you? You can use spells like Dig in 2nd edition AD&D to dig canals, make ditches and deposit dirt to make dams. You can also use it to excavate a hollow under a city wall, causing it to collapse. Depending on how you interpret the area of effect, those 10’x10’x10’ squares can be 5’x5’x40’ of trench or tunnel, so a goblin or pech can dig out long tunnels in a single casting. I once played a dwarf ranger/druid who was renowned for his roadbuilding through hostile territory. In addition to the 10’ deep ditches on either side of the road, he also built fortified encampments a day’s walk apart along the road.
@@absolstoryoffiction6615 hey more power to you for making an ultra utility character who isn't just about combat! A fighter will still fight real well, regardless
@@Calebgoblin I think you need to level up your social skills, friend. Also how would one "pay attention" and know what edition you are talking about when you don't even mention which one it is? For all I know reading your post you could talk about any RPG with a level system.
@@ikariyabiollante867 I know what Yakuza is, and the antics it gets up to. But at no point have I ever heard an argument to play it be nearly as convincing as the one you just posed.
... In a fight? This is one of those things that makes me want to play a dwarven conjurer with a strong focus on magic that creates construction, artwork, statuary, CIVILIZATION.
In 5e... These Cantrips suck in terms of DPS. In real life... Fire, Wind, Water, and Earth Manipulation Cantrips are busted for common life. Fire Manipulation Cantrip is exactly like Fire Bending but small scale. Enough to heat a pot of water etc. Water MC is Water Bending but scaled to a Bucket of Water and it cannot manipulate Ice. Air MC is Air Bending but enough to push paper, cause a breeze, or push a toy boat. Earth MC is Earth Bending but it only affects Dirt and Gravel. Compared to Minor Illusion Cantrip. Which, in a 5ft Cube, can be anything you want. Like a still figure hologram or a boom box for music. Or the Light Cantrip that sticks light on whatever you target. Think of Skyrim's Mage Light and Candle Light spells.
It works in every edition of D&D and Pathfinder 1st. I had a goblin Druid for a pathfinder game who used spells to quickly dig trenches around an encampment.
Thinking about it, if you take the four elemental Cantrips (Control Fire, Gust, Mold Earth, and Shape Water) a cantrip mage wouldn't need the laborer's to loosen the soil, use Shape water to turn the topsoil to mud, and use magical water pressure to dampen the earth deeper and cut through roots, hell, with Control Fire and Gust they can take the leftover soil and bake their own slabs for the road
GURPS puts some control on this, still a useful ability especially taking 1 second instead of 6, but at least you feel as tired as you would from 2 hours shovelling.
GURPS puts some control on this, still a useful ability especially taking 1 second instead of 6, but at least you feel as tired as you would from 2 hours shovelling.
Shape Water and Mold Earth would play together quite nicely. Pull a cart around with barrels of water. Shape Water to move the water into the ground and freeze it, potentially loosening the soil. Maybe this takes a few freeze/thaw cycles, but hey. Magic. Then you've got your loose soil for Mold Earth.
I've used them in combo to make spike traps. Pits dug with mold earth, and shape water to make cones and freeze them. Used it as a trap maker artificer, and it was funny
Was just thinking this but as water excovation. The earth is now mud and you can just use the freezing and pressure to pry it lose even around plant roots. Even faster if you work in tandem with someone. I am over here thinking of how you would be able to use a mix of Shape water, mold earth, and Presditigitation to filter water, build structures, and do extensive farming and land management. As a DM I would reason that concrete would count as dirt while it is dry powder or as wet paste as it is just mud of a specific compound. Imagine making huge builds with just some rebar, maybe some moulds, and some time. you don't have to hop around like a mad man too. just get yourself a chair and as long as you don't break line of sight you can build a house out of packed dirt or concrete in about an hour. Use some ice structures to make pipe holes, modify the big sections later. and with a capenter or, the ability to use carpenter's tools and the fabricate spell, and you can just make homes even faster. Civil worker mage guild!
Combine it with something like plant growth to cause the giant root networks under the ground to swell and effectively tear up layers of solid earth into layers of loose earth. This would eliminate the need for laborers to exhaust themselves for the mage to work.
Loose earth to me is anything you can move with a trovel or by hand, anything you leave foot prints in when walking over. But still a very handy cantrip! For the earthen wall, add a few workers or golems to pound in wooden beams as anchors for the earth to be packed around for increased stability... A lot of things you can do with it!
I would argue that the act of using mold earth to turn soil into difficult terrain would require it to be worked and loosened in the process. This means that even packed dirt could be turned into loose earth with the first cast of mold earth and then a subsequent casting would allow you to move the now loosened soil. Additionally it could be argued that as long as the soil retains a similar enough shape it would return to being packed dirt after the initial casting wears off, effectively creating 5ft cubes of packed dirt that can be moved almost at will.
Funny thing about 5ft Cube in 3d Space... It doesn't have to be 5ft Cube exactly. Simply... Make a 5ft Cube of Ice. Melt it. Then see what shape you can form with that volume of water. A 5ft Cube is a lot of space.
I think something that you could touch on is the impact of potential negative uses of spells too Dispel magic could be used (with sufficient synchronization among casters) to cut off an entire teleportation circle network
I had another thought after I posted that comment, the order in which a government decides to reestablish a circle network could result in a revolution
@@SusCalvin True You can't undo transmutations with Dispell Magic. Once you turn mud into stone. That's that. But if the stone is maintained by magic to keep its form. Then Dispell Magic Upcasted will work.
Some of the older designers agreed with you in 2e the equivalent I found is a 6th level spell. Take a look. Note: an older editions all spells improved with the casters level. Kind of like how cantrips do now. Also 1 round was 1 minute. Move Earth Range: 10 yards./level Duration: permanent When cast, the move earth spell moves dirt (clay, loam, sand) and its other components. Thus, embankments can be collapsed, hillocks moved, dunes shifted, etc. However, in no event can rock prominences be collapsed or moved. The area to be affected dictates the casting time; for every 40 yard × 40 yard surface area and 10 feet of depth, one turn of casting time is required. The maximum area that can be affected is 240 yards × 240 yards, which takes four hours. If terrain features are to be moves as compared to simply caving in banks or walls of earth it is necessary that an earth elemental be subsequently summoned to assist. All spell casting or summoning must be completed before any effects occur. As any summoned earth elemental will perform most of its work underground, it is unlikely that it will be intercepted or interrupted. Should this occur, however, the movement of the earth requiring its services must be stopped until the elemental is once again available. Should the ele mental be slain or dismissed, the move earth spell is limited to collapsing banks or walls of earth. The spell cannot be used for tunneling and is generally too slow to trap or bury creatures; its primary use is for digging or filling moats or for adjusting terrain contours before a battle. The material components for this spell are a mixture of soils (clay, loam, sand) in a small bag and an iron blade. Note: This spell does not violently break the surface of the ground. Instead, it creates wavelike crests and troughs, with the earth reacting with glacierlike fluidity until the desired result is achieved. Trees, structures, rock formations, etc. are relatively unaffected, save for changes in elevation and relative topography.
There also military hygiene. Latrine duty is much easier when the pit digs itself and covers itself up, a massive hygiene boost to limit disease (Presdigitation follow up also helping).
Yeah I always considered Mold Earth as World changing. Thanks for all of your amazing ideas. Here are some other Cantrips or 1st level spells from D&D 5e to consider: Comprehend Languages, Create or Destroy Water, Goodberry, Mending, Message, Purify Food and Drink, Shape Water, and Speak with Animals.
Create water is an incredible spell, it can create enough water to comfortably give water to 11 people. A level 1 caster can give water to 22 people. Which yeah okay whatever. But scrolls exist. Now nearly anyone can use this scroll. It costs a set of nice clothes or a book. Now you can provide water for your entire platoon for the cost of some finery. Yeah okay that could get pricey right? It's true but compared to needing to employee a wizard even a fresh faced one it's great. You could create food and water which gets you the same water at the high cost of 500 gp and a week of downtime. So you can easily calculate how much money it costs to fund that endeavor without any real overhead. It's pretty awesome and needs to go with this stuff I fully agree
@@Zippyser Imagine furthermore the irrigation uses of Create Water! The ability to literally conjure water from thin air could be used to grow crops nearly anywhere, even in excessively dry conditions... With enough casters, anyway. This benefit also applies to the Decanter of Endless Water, though, and arguably much moreso with the Decanter. The power of such an item to maintain fertile land would be incredible.
I would say mix mold earth with something like an decanter of endless water. You have a moat. Actually, in mideval combat you had layered defenses. The main wall was only the first layer. You could build both ways, having a raised platform in between the moat and wall while your archers peppered attackers the whole time But quick houses/shelter, fortifications, and temp roads. You bust them up later for building materials for something more permanent. Downside- flying creatures, magic such as mold earth, stone shape wreck the fortifications. On the other hand you can make a wall section a construct with the ability to cast this as a cantrip, then it does slam attacks on anything in its areas
Wet cement is loose earth. Cement is earth, yet bricks are not. So roman style cement is , as long as it is loose, able to be moved by the spell. The more I learn about 5e the less I see any mundane thing being in the game. Ash is earth also, so a 5ft by 5ft of that just floating around could cause a lot of issues. This spell would make making bricks easy and far more efficient then we do even today, and the mortar is also a form of earth, so villages could literally pop up in just a day or two, with brick homes. Though once dry the bricks and cement are stone. So just have someone that can move stone, so a 5th level wizard or druid. With how high magic 5e is , this should be easy.
loose earth is what you get when an excavator stockpiles excavation spoils--a loose pile of dirt. The only naturally occurring examples of loose earth that readily springs to mind are beaches/dunes/sandbars, scree slopes, swampy muck, and other alluvial deposits. Tilled earth would only be loose as deep as it was tilled. With a team of laborers to loosen the earth tho, sure.
This makes the cantrip basically useless. I would allow its ability to move earth to apply to any dirt that isn't explicitly being held down by roots or packed into a rigid structure. Any dirt that can easily be kicked up like soil for instance.
13:07 Incorrect. If you want "permanent" roads, you can't just use earth/ dirt. You will also need sand (maybe that is also within spell's bounds), gravel of various sizes (from pebbles to finer gravel similar to sand), rocks, potentially mortar, and of course the flagstones. Hell, romans even made cement beds sometimes on particularly important roads. The roads that survive to this day from ancient rome, china or inca territories all share similar features, and none of them are just dirt+flagstones, compacted or not. One of the main problem with compacted earth is that it's both easily hydrated and offers easy soil for plants and insects to proliferate in. It is actually a big problem with compacted earth homes, as they slowly erode even with good rooves and constant whitewhashing.
Fair point! You're right that the Romans had a much more complex system than I implied here. And did indeed use concrete, rubble and sand as layers. But considering upkeep costs are lower with this cantrip too, I would consider this to be a relatively economical medium-term solution for your average rural spot which would otherwise use dirt tracks
Regarding military uses for mold earth, as described in the video: Instant forts is a good one. Romans marched from fort to fort, dismantling the previous day's and assembling today's as the legion(s) marched. This necessiated that large formations are need to be used, since there is a huge amount of labour required to just take apart a "makeshift" fort, and then an order of magnitude more for building one. However, if 1.5 cubic meters of earth can be moved per minute by a single caster, then having 10 around would allow much smaller, more specialized units to move around in enemy territory with good defenses set up, basically setting up the way for ancient/ medieval special forces. Another immediately useful prospect is making fortifications mid-battle. If the objective is to take and hold a hill to gain surveilance of the area, then after capture a gaggle of casters could whip up BOTH ditches to slow down enemy movement, and ramparts to provide protection for the defenders. Can't do shit with your fireball if it's LOS and you are 1.5 meter down a ditch, the target is crouching behind half a meter of compacted dirt, right on top of a 30° incline. Defilade is a thing. It would also probably be very useful to when besieging coastal/ island fortifications. The casters could go Alexander and just build a road to the target on the sea. On that note, it would also help in constructing wave-breakers near the coast, so fleets won't be lost to bad weather that much, or one could entrap a fleet by constructing a semi-circle around them, or the straight/ canal where they could leave from. They could also remove mud, if the spell's loose earth definition fits, or cover it with more walkable earth if it doesn't. Imagine if during the battle of Agincourt the french would've not been bogged down, and could charge into the english formations. Would've gone in a different direction that's for sure. It could maybe also used to level the ground for siege engines and the like, which would be quite more efficient if the engineers operating it don't have to calculate with the weapon's iclination too. Lastly, I guess it could be used for sabotage, like destroying parts of dykes, dams, fortifications, wave-breakers, etc. Basically all the above but reversed.
@@Grungeon_Master Your "average rural spot" is either using river transport or is close to a major road, or is so insignificant it doesn't even have a documented road, and just uses a trampled path that changes with the seasons. Those "earth roads" you see are A) fairly modern, as in last couple of centuries, or B) actually old "stone" roads that have been covered in dirt since the MILLENIA they've been built. Also, I'm not just talking about romans here. The Inca Road, or roads made by the ancient and medieval chinese were quite similar in construction. They all fought the same issues, as in the weather, expected traffic, the landscape and it's barriers (rivers, mountainranges, etc.), and the availability of resources. Anyway, point still stands: Earth roads are never permanent.
For adventurers, it would be simple to use this spell to make a levelled camp with a wall around it. As a GM, if I wished to limit industrial level use of cantrips I would argue that just as someone can lift a 70 pound package as an ordinary action, doing so hundreds of time would be fatiguing. One of the background things I have in my campaigns are leylines that make it easier to cast cantrips repeatedly without exhaustion. So magical civilizations tend to congregate around those leylines. Rural wilderness may be more resistant to having a magical order imposed on them, and building a road with magic may be more likely to arouse enmity of nature spirits. This video leaves out some of the really powerful applications for Mold Earth and Shape Water. You can move them uphill. Shape Water could be used for irrigation, for filling a mill pond. You could compact earth with a gigantic wheel where the mage moves earth or water from one side to the other so that gravity causes it to spin. Now, if there is any amount of loose chaos magic in your campaign, this sort of contraption would certainly attract it. And one of the limiting factors may be the innate chaos of magic that *resents* being channelized so much. But if "loose earth" includes small rocks, you could conceivably use this to set a page for printing, or otherwise use the temporary effect to imprint something more permanently. And while forcing clay to take a particular form may only last an hour, if that clay is fired in a kiln in that hour, would that fix its form permanently? You could form interlocking bricks, or pots, or clay tablets with writing on it and then fire it. The limiting factor on a lot of industries would be the part that the magic could NOT do, or could not easily do. So that is where the drudge labor would end up.
DnD's suite of earth and stone based spells are perfect for accelerating construction and mold earth is the slowest but most repeatable. If you use spells like wall of stone which can leave permanent stone walls then you can massively cut down on the construction of stone walls or fortresses.
Being able to quickly etch messages and images on slate or similar stone would also be quite effective for printing presses. You wouldn't even need to remove the stone from the press each time.
Ok noticed one issue. It can only really move a large part of earth if it's loose. So at some point you're going to run out of loose soil and require tools. Though this cantrip is great for making trenches and dirt walls which would be great for quick defenses in a situation like a war were you have prep time before a battle
@@zacharyweaver276 yep. Nothing stopping wizards researching new spells in 5e. Older editions of d&d had spells for just this purpose. “Harden/ Soften Earth and Stone” was a 2nd level spell. Trench as a second level spell which dug a trench, smaller dimensions if it was hard earth. Not to mention transmute stone to mud, which is still a thing in 5e. Building castles was a thing in 1st and second edition.
You should a video on how spells can be used for education. Like how you mentioned with the the stone carver . Magical stencils for scribes to follow. Magical control of someone's body for them to learn through muscle memory. And "bad" spells like friendship are good for calming an upset student bc when it wears off the lesson is finished and student won't as likely to hold a grudge against the castor.
If you were able to, somehow, preserve the properties of Goodberry indefinitely, it would also change how war was waged, there would be no more need for supply lines, and cities could hold against a siege (maybe) for years.
You wouldn't need to preserve it indefinitely? Just make a scroll of it. Anyone can use scrolls. Not just wizards. Printing press would make the world go hyper brrrrrrr. Gone are the days of heavy food, now you send bound books of goodberry as supplies. Gentle repose scrolls to keep the berries
Aqueducts construction, sewers, cellars Basements for storage, trenches, moats, tunnel networks, land reclamation, artificial islands, pit fall traps, easier to put in supports for building larger buildings.
I love your videos so much! I don't think there's anyone else on the Internet that doves as far into the societal ramifications of game mechanics, I love it! I really used a lot of your material for inspiration in my own world building. Keep your stick on the ice, we're all in this together.
Depending on density you are talking about moving roughly 5 tons of dirt. That is a tremendous amount of potential energy, the trick is figuring out mechanisms and means to use that energy. With even the most rudimentary of engineering this would enable construction and excavation on a scale that rivals modern methods. This spell turns dirt into fuel, 5 tons moved 5 feet every 6 seconds could equate to upwards of 500 horse power?
Earthdawn exists in this sort of world. Low-key magic and general aura effects and nonsense affects daily life. Low-level adepts are common and can pop out magic all day.
A level 3 coffee-lock can replace quite a few different kinds of technology we have, adding a level in Cleric or Druid dramatically increases this utility. Your descriptions and reactions show how many people view magic abilities to be OP and is often needlessly handicaped. It's a game, have fun.
I am just starting the video but I had a campaign where one of the societies basically answered this question with: yes. So I’m v excited to watch. I love these videos because they go to the same places I do w these spells. In an upcoming game I’m making a character partially around these kinds of spells (mold earth, unseen servant, prestidigitation after your video on it) can’t wait to watch !!
I bet this would make casting metal, acid etching and differential heat treating VASTLY simpler than it is even today. wet clay ought to work too or.... ok so about the very detailed stuff.... i think it is reasonable to expect this would still be dependent on the artistic skill of the caster. So they might be able to do a sand castle roughly like the enemy camp, but if they want detail it still takes time...less than sculpting tools but crafting and sculpting is more than simply the manipulation of the material
I imagine most military commanders above a certain rank have a mage as part of their general staff, and if said mage has a familiar (especially an avian) they could be watching through its eyes and constructing exactly what they see in real time as they see it. Would be immensely helpful to have what essentially could be akin to an RTS video game map, complete with troop formations
I might have missed this being explained but since the roots were mentioned i could not stop thinking: When exactly will roots become a problem? Could i mold earth the earth away from the roots? I could see this work for the quick replanting of older plants and trees, perhaps into an elven-nature styled home with living trees or quick battlements of living trees? Allthough living or dead trees would not make a difference i suppose. but howsabout landscaping for the rich? if you could remove dirt from between roots i could see forests turned into fantastical parks serving both as art aswell as defences in perhaps an afternoon's work. but then where to draw the line...
The mention of grave-robbing got my thinking about a culture in my homebrew setting that practices cannibalistic funeral-rites, and I had the epiphany that they’d be a lot less vulnerable to grave-robbing in general and necromancers in specific because they eat their dead.
The thing that makes this spell so greatly overpowered in these scenarios is the fact that it is a Cantrip. Where even the simplest normal spells could only be used a few times a day even by powerful casters, a cantrip could be used thousand's of times in the day at no cost to even the most novice caster. This from a worldbuilding point of view is utterly reticula's. This drastic disparity is a complete no issue in the game, where you mostly use spells in specific combat scenarios and dungeons explorations, but it really shows how broken the system is when applied to these kinds of serous worldbuilding analysis. These has to be some kind of of limit to Cantrip spells over the course of prolonged use during the day that wouldn't make it an infinitely spamable power with no consequences. Like maybe some kind of spell fatigue system that limits how often you can use cantrip during a day that scales from your level and stats, going from a few dozen for novices, to over 1000 for max level spellcasters .... ....
I think they were fools who made Light a cantrip. It creates situations like this. You could use this spell but it was not level 1. Bums faced weird situations where workers could not approach. But Ralph-Gandalf could crawl in and toss the spell.
I think a simple way of putting it is: you get to use about 10 cantrip spell slots before you need a short rest. There's no real need to track it meticulously, just roughly 10 rounds of combat or so in equivalent. The only real restrictions this would apply is for some kind of an intensive repetition of using a cantrip over and over in a single day.
@@guyman1570I would say your con mod plus plus your spell casting stat. It's exhausting doing labor like that. That gives a level 1 caster with a 10 con and 15 for a core stat, 25 times. For most intents that's infinite for them. Basically 2 and a half hours of medium intensity work. It's got spell components like words and hand gestures doing that every six seconds will tire a normal person out after a couple hours. Even an experienced person falls off at 4 hours without a break. This is taking actual people doing work rather than magic. I would say if they have an 18 con and a 20 casting stat they earn that four hours of dedicated time. You could probably do feats or class features to increase the time. Endurance would mean you can do more without getting physically or mentally exhausted from repeating the same line 38 times in a row Even then I would rule it would take a feat to cast it for a full workday.
@@guyman1570 Well....yes...obviasly. Intencive repeated continues use of the cantrip and its worldbuilding inplications was the whole point of this vidoe. The descusion isnt about how you would apply the cantrip in your compain, but how a fantasy world whoes magic system operates by DnD rules would operate. And aperently when you do that, a spell like mold earth that the most besic entry level Wizard, Sorcerer or Druid can learn with no expenditure of material is able to exert power, change and lasting effect apon the world over the course of the day on the same level as many expencive hight level spells. This is in my opinion a general problem with Dnd's magic system (and to some extent Vanciant magic as a whole), and how it kinda breaks down when traing to applay it logicly in worldbuilding fantasy worlds and story's. Thats why I tuought it necesery to give a limit to the use of Cantrips over extencive use. Your idea of haveing a limit refreshes every short rest is preaty good, though I feel that while 10 is deacent for lowest skill level of casters, high level casters should logicly be able to do cast way more before tireing out
@@Zippyser Hmmm...thats actually a preaty great idea. Although the math could use more work. 25 continues castings is 2 and a half minutes, not hours, and would total 15 cubed feet of earth moved and 25 squear feet of temporaraly altered terain before needing a short rest
For those curious, assuming an average crawler excavator, Mold Earth moves more roughly 1.2 to 22 times depending if you’re just interested in moving dirt 5ft or 90ft (about the farthest a crawler excavator can move dirt without moving). Assumptions: 3 cycles per minute and a 20ft^3 bucket for calculations
Good guess using common sense and logical thinking. As an experienced (and old) civil construction foreman, you are almost correct, but try 4 to 8 meters reach,(with a medium sized ( 12- 25t) excavator. and 3 cycles per minute is slow, even for a large excavator. For example, a 300t excavator, with around 8 meters of reach, is expected to load 50t of rock in a dump truck every three minutes, including backing up and driving off. This is around 5-6 buckets in a minute and a half, or you taken off the machine.
I have always thought because of similar things like this, that magic heavy DnD worlds are awefully inconsistent. So I generally build low magic worlds to keep things cobsistent. After having discovered this channel I see that you have put way more thought into this. I think you have your first kikckstarter cut out for you. What about a high magic dnd world that is consistent ( not realistic) ?
In 3.5, I thought Stone to Mud could be used to make some serious fortifications, provided you had a substantial stone outcrop. This is even more broken, given it is a cantrip. I don't know if 5 has Stone to Mud, but if it does, combining the spells can shape quite a bit of ground.
Turns it into something akin to medieval WW1 with one side charging into the enemies trench, then desperately trying to turn the trenches defenses around to stop the inevitable counterattack
@@erikvale3194 by that same logic, fireball is inside a Longbow’s short range. There’s nowhere truly safe barring staying back in the generals tent, and that assumes the enemy doesn’t launch a stealth raid. Nowhere in warfare is safe friend.
An interesting aspect to this spell in the case of civil uses is the increased availability of complex sewage systems, it may not be super apparent in the campaign, but have sewage changes the perspectives of the people living there, they would be less worried about diseases, they would prioritize cleanliness, and depending on the way the city/town organizes the sewage, it could shape society to be more or less communal. Idk if it would really change that much, but it could be an interesting thing to keep in mind
The (in)famous "Think dirt not stone" was likely done because there's not very much loose dirt that would go down 5' so I believe it was meant to help with that issue
This has always been my answer to questions about, eg, how you feed so many large carnivores, or how dwarves can have large populations with such little surface foodprint, etc. People don't think about how much more productive power a society with first level spellcasters would have than anything in premodern (or arguably even modern) Earth history.
One of the most amazing things about this interpretation is that while the GM would narrate a highly altered field, with so much engineering works the WW1 trenches would look like childs play, the PCs would see the terrifying results of a war.
Was considering this and your Undead video. Why not a Necromancer with signed off cadavers they use to till or otherwise loosen soil, then said Necromancer uses Shape Water and Mold Earth for projects. Adding on the Undead raised could require legal documents to "possess", on top of paying families or the local government for prisoners, there's a lot that could sprout from that line of work. That's no even considering adding a Druid (maybe Spore for more labour) to that in order to make quick and flourishing farmlands.
I imagine this would accelerate the further development of defenses and fortifications reliant on earthworks. For example, the first line of defense for 'star forts' were earthworks that channeled attackers along specific pathways. Have 100 people with pickaxes to break the soil, 1 caster with the cantrip, all the builders and lumber you need, but only 24hrs or less: Prep a mote and bailey. Have the same people and supplies but a week (or more) to prepare: Prep the land for a star fort.
The definition of what you can move with Mold Earth will let you move anything that can already be moved with a shovel in any capacity‐ dirt, clay, sand, gravel, small rocks, mud, etc. Irl a particular mix of soil, clay and sand is used to make rammed earth walls that are compacted to the point of nearly being as hard as stone. Just requires wooden molding to hold in the mix and vibrating/impacting the top of the mix to compress it.
So i would cap the move earth thing where a mage cant move more than a certain amount of mass consecutively without taking con checks or take levels of exhaustion. 5x level maybe. so you can move a bunch of earth but it might give you a migraine if you wanna do it that quickly. Also if it cant do damage, i am picturing a fairly imprecise spray of dirt into an adjacent square.
You can also move the earth/clay in molds which accelerates building bricks. If they are done very small / light you can then use invisible servants to build a brick wall.
Yeaahhh... Mold Earth & Shape Water are GREAT for Utility. I especially love the "Can shape water into ANY shape and then Freeze it" so you can create a 10 ft long ladder, a shovel, a pickaxe, a chair, bindings, truly fantastic
Oh yeah, and you can create 2 five foot cubes of ice... sooo you could use this to (very slowly) walk on water at level 1. Also creating ice barrels on command
So, this would also effectively change warfare in how the tactics work. There wouldn't be much time between forces seeing one another and engaging because you can't give your enemy time to get entrenched as a few days of cantrip use, and they have a pretty solid defensible base camp. It will make surprise attacks, betrayal attacks, etc, more common. It will probably also increase the amount of cavalry castles have as they would be the fastest attack groups you have.
Specifying that one way of realizing the "...cause it to become difficult terrain..." function of the cantrip is to make the designated area (temporarily as may be) into loose earth (if you've ever tried to walk through an area of genuinely loose dirt, you know how much it slows you down), I see no problem with using the "...excavate..." function as the second simultaneous effect, allowing the earth in question to resume its previous level of compactedness and plant root interpenetration once that portion fades but in the new, reconfigured shape and location. This can be enhanced and reinforced via use of a very simple technology: bags. Specifically sandbags, filled with the temporarily loose earth can be easily moved via manual labor to a desired location and used to form stabilized earthworks of fairly significant size. Alternately, simple woven baskets can be used in the bags' stead, made from the grasses and other plants in the area to be shaped. (Possibility exists for a custom cantrip that takes such materials and weaves baskets or canvas bags for the user...) Add in some finishing work to cover the new earthworks with some additional soil, the planting of grasses on the sides and thorny hedge bushes along the top, and a use of the 3rd level spell Plant Growth, followed by pruning of the results via tool or grazing animals, and you've got a nice, steep, sturdy barrier with slick short grass on the outside slope creating easily maintained difficult terrain. Want a wooden palisade along the top instead? Plant saplings instead of thorn bushes and reduce to the previous problem's solution. As for field prep for farming, again the temporarily loosened dirt need only be raised into long, thin structures along the line of plowing, then it can be knocked over easily manually, then furrowed as needed via another use of the cantrip. Easy-peasy.
It's not 5 cubic feet, it's a 5-foot cube, which is 125 cu ft. That's a massive amount of soil that weighs over 700 lbs, give or take depending on moisture levels.
A few thoughts I had in the realm of construction and craftwork This spell could also be indispensable to anyone working with clay or cement, both of them, when suffused with water, are basically just mud. They can be moved around at ease and filled into whatever shape they need, now you can make cement by giving a brand new mage a giant tub and equal parts stone powder and water and then apply it with magical precision Additionally it can be used for preparing clay mud for pottery. OR, get around that "packed earth" limitation. Clay in the natural world is very hard, practically rock, much like packed earth is, but when it becomes wet, like with rainfall or a mage that can cast create water or shape water, it becomes extremely soft mud, a mage with this cantrip could absolutely make barriers of loose clay mud that become nearly as hard as stone after the sun dries them out in a day, making it even more useful depending on the terrain. Not to mention just how useful being able to clear an area of sediment would be in any kind of construction project or in mining, the act of breaking hard rock creates a lot of loose dirt that needs to be moved. But yeah, depending on how early a society has this cantrip, it sets the timetable they have access to cement or brickwork way further back and massively cuts the preparation time, which carries incredibly massive implications for that civilization.
The interesting thing about the spell is that you could cut a square of grass away, excavate the soil under it, and then put the grass back on for a simple and effective pit trap.
7:23 - to be fair, with all the Invocations you can stack? Eldritch Blast is pretty hard to beat, but yeah Mold Earth is very nice, you can fortify a reasonably large camp site for a long rest in less than an hour’s work, via having a wall-trench combination, and still be ready to use the rest of the long rest yourself, with just a cantrip, it’s great.
You get to move loose dirt. With a single casting, you can turn 20% of a grid cube of loose (not packed) earth into a three foot ditch behind a 1.5 foot high loose pile. In thirty seconds, a creature 5.5' tall could have a personal earthwork providing concealment and coverage (a 3' trench behind a loose 2' sloping pile). You would still need shovels and excavators and everything else if you want to deal in sturdy earthworks or place your adobe fortress atop an existing elevation, perhaps to maintain a desirable sightline
Somethings to keep in mind with this spell. a 5 foot cube is not 5 cubic feet. It's 125 cubic feet. It also states that each cast of this spell effect a portion of dirt or stone that fits inside a 5 foot cube. Not that IS IN a 5 foot cube, but that fits in one. In otherwords you can take 125 cubic feet of dirt and move it up to 5 feet in any direction along the ground in 6 seconds. Considering the 'the ground' is just a way to describe dirt/soil you can theoretically use the dirt you are moving to qualify meaning you can get some wacky shapes out of this. You can also combo this well with Shape Water as some other people have mentioned.. but there's an extra layer here. If you have alchemy proficiency you should likely understand how to make cement. Which is effectively 'loose earth'. You can now use this spell along with Shape Water to make massive cement works in moments. They will need time to set of course but you can still build entire castles effectively with this so long as you have the logistics to get the materials for cement to where you are, and with vastly less manpower/labour needed. Additionally this can be used to get some pretty sophisicated manufacturing going since you can use it to move, and shape sand to use as a mould for different types of metal casting processes, in high detail. All you need is the abilty to produce an intense enough flame to melt whatever metal you want to cast. This means that some fairly modern production methods are avaialble using cast aluminum or in theory iron/steel Then lastly there's the really immediate military implication. You know that thing the Romans were famous for where they would dig a fortification in every night when they made camp? Yea.. this cantrip can probably do a 10 foot long section of that trench wall every 6 seconds. It's a wildly good cantrip and I take it or shape water just about every game. Or both if I can manage it.
in my (non-dnd) setting, the equivalent to dwarves have a very similar ability to this as a part of their magic system. i had been only thinking about it in terms of making tunnel-building easier - they can compress soil, sand, or soft stone into a denser material, making it possible to “dig” large tunnel systems without the need ned to haul away huge amounts of debris (or worry as much about stability, as the caster has control of the shape the earth is molded into and can easily form arches and other stable shapes). now this video has me thinking about how many applications this magic would have if taught to surface dwellers - something im definitely gonna have to work in especially to the more diverse cultures in the setting! the implications for irrigation and water-management alone would be history-changing, even if the material can’t be lifted up in the same way it can with the dnd spell.
A government hiring a mage for infrastructure would likely also invest in magical tools, such as a stick that vibrates and loosens soil for the cantrip to take hold of with minimal effort. Mix in the water and fire cantrips, and you could easily set up a kiln on wheels and have a mobile clay factory.
I believe loose earth was referred to as anything you could do with a shovel. So your legion of troops could be resting and drinking while the mage toils away, moving dirt around.
Lots of spells can be used to losses earth and break up packed earth. Mold earth would probably be the last step, by the apprentices. What happens when you heat up and quickly quench rocks? , they crack and break up(and sometimes even explode.). What is sand but rocks ground to smaller particles? Does sand, or very fine gravel classify as loose earth? Well, in older versions of d&d it does. There were spells in older versions of d&d such as Dig, or Harden/soften Earth,, or Trench. This was a big thing back in the day when Castles and fortresses were available to players.
This is an easy one shape the dirt, which is a thing you can do. Shape it to have little holes between it. Not so much it falls over but enough that a solid blow will cause it to crash down. That's now loose earth. You can stop concentrating on the first spell. Then you can use a second casting to move 1500+ pounds of dirt. If you assume that you certainly don't have to move ALL of the dirt in the spell says then everyone gardeners or otherwise would be using this. I mean I have worse too. With the story from before on undead, they can easily accept cantrips from artificers so a 3rd level druid artificer can do feasibly put 2 first level castings of whatever cantrip or first level spell they want on anyone such as an undead workforce.
In a lot of places, compaction occurs at quite shallow depths. Applying the limitation of "loose" implies that no manipulation would be possible below that depth. In my location that would prevent manipulation much below a couple of feet or 50cm... 🤓👍
Depending on the GM, a Circle of the Shepherd Druid with just their 2nd level Aura would be the Florence Nightingale of the Modern Fantasy world, for one reason; Goodberry. It becomes better if your higher level, and either have Sorcerer’s Flexible Casting to pump and dump 1st level spell slots, or the Spell Point Optional Rule to avoid wasting bonus actions on Font of Magic Sorcerer Point transfers.
Mold Earth would also be revolutionary in irrigation. Ditches to route water to fields would be produced almost overnight. Humanoid-inhabited lands might not have any deserts or swamps at all; they would be watered or drained respectively by a handful of people armed with one cantrip. If any uncultivable wetlands or deserts remained, it would probably have to be by royal decree declaring them as national parks. China’s Grand Canal would be a trivial accomplishment. Any isthmus between large oceans or even rivers would have a canal connecting them. I asked a few weeks ago about what castles would be like in D&D worlds. I think this video answers that: they’ll be mottes and baileys, and they’ll be incredibly common, to the point that every village will have one, because they’re that cheap and easy to make. Still, the more I learn about 5th edition cantrips, the more I feel that they break the game. Cantrips were originally intended to be trivial, largely for atmosphere. Serious work was supposed to be done by numbered-level spells, which were limited to prevent magic from being overpowered. When cantrips revolutionize the world this way, it becomes hard to imagine a D&D world not completely dominated by spellcasters, a world in which Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser would have no place.
Good Video! as a note, having a fellow mage with control water can fracture land into loose earth by freezing the moisture in the ground to shatter the ground's cohesiveness. They can also remove the water from the ground just packed by the earth shaper to in effect create sandstone. All our ancient cultures build with packed earth to create a 'stone' foundation for huge buildings. Look up the Chinese history on their castles. Thinking Egyptian what about a Sphynx in a day? This is why magic is at a waaaay lower level in my campaign. Rarity breeds value. The moment cantrip level magic becomes commonplace, you get 'MagicPunk'. Hard pass! :D As a note, move your teleprompter or script closer to your camera. I put my just under it, (an ipad) no one can tell I'm reading it!
I mean, this is one of a dozen low level magics that I have been doing calculations over to determine how much a single modest mage with several apprentices, or low-level priest with several acolytes, the apprentices or acolytes mostly there to practice cantrips) could change the risk and pacing of medieval construction of forts, bridges, temples, noble estates, or even castles.
22:45 A necromancer could arm a dozen skeletons with shovels, skeletons literally never get tired, because they are immune to exhaustion, meaning, not just 8 hours a day, they can work for 24 hours a day, you can tell them to go off digging overnight in a straight line, and just not to stop at all Since you can excavate faster than they dig, when you wake up, you follow after them at a leisurely pace and eventually you catch up, after 8 hours, then they have the next 16 hours to go on ahead of you while you rest, and you catch up over the next 8 hours Remember skeletons work more efficiently than humans because they don't get distracted, they don't need to stop to eat, they dont take breaks (hard labour is very intensive) The mage doesn't need to "wait" for anyone, since the skeles can go on ahead while the mage rests and sleeps, you could be doing 1 mile a day!
Once you get into assaulting Star Forts with firearms or a magical equivalent you'd be able to make trenches using Mold Earth extremely easy. The initial tunneling for sappers probably couldn't be done with it but you could use it to clear the dirt away.
I feel like the obvious answer is loose dirt, means there can't be anything holding the dirt, such as grass, trees, rocks. Basically a tilled field you could go to town, but an overgrown field you're straight out of luck.
In the novel series "The Death Gate Cycle," simple magic could temporarily enhance an individual's drawing and painting skills, as well as magically improving the fidelity of architecture and construction drawings based on visual observation of things like buildings and machines. The effect would diminish with repeated use. I wonder if this led to humans in The Death Gate Cycle developing perspective drawing and painting skills at a faster rate than those in our own reality. If so, it would suggested that artists initially used those particulary advanced techniques under the effects of magic, without fully realizing their actions. Only later would it have occured to them to stop and deconstruct the details of what had been created, so that then people would sometimes decide to try making similar art without using any magic.
You ended on the battlefield defense aspect, but quite logically, anything one caster can build, another could break. It would be interesting, the casters attempting to open and close lines in their hasty earthworks.
With only one caster, sure. But a caster using mold earth to make walls with a few other people ready to compact it would render it unaffected by another castor's mold earth.
@Sivanot, true, unless they have their water casters, as stated several times, working in concert to break the compaction. Druid, looking at the compact soil: "There's a lot to unpack there."
so when a player takes this cantrip and then learns you as the dm have decided it doesnt work on anything but sand, would you let them swap it out for a different cantrip or would you have to find a new player?
Not sure I'd quite put it like that. It works on sand, topsoil, mud, gravel, wet clay and tilled earth in my games. And generally, yes, I allow my players to swap things around if they're not fulfilling the fantasy. Whether my players are using this spell to its full potential or not, the people of the world certainly are. Even with these limitations (which, again, are implied by the spell's own wording) it's still incredibly powerful.
every time i play a wizard i take this cantrip, i always tell people it's the best cantrip in the game. one good thing is just making quick cover, i had a wizard/alchemist artificer, i would make good use of the flight experimental elixir and mold earth, he was a gnome so he was small, i could make a hole and jump in it with a wall facing the enemy, then use my 10 foot flight speed to fly up, pop and enemy with a spell, fly down to avoid being hit, or i could do it the other way and give myself a 5 foot wall and put the 5 foot pit in front, so anyone approaching from that area has a 10 foot climb, and i could use minor conjuration to make myself a step stool to pop up, shoot, pop back down. mold earth gives you full cover just about anywhere. i had a bunch of enemies coming and a few minutes so i made a 10 foot wall with a 10 foot moat in front of it all around my party and our wagon. sadly it wasn't enough...3 frikken armies with a dragon came and parlay seemed the better option (we were level 2 at this point, i hadn't even TAKEN artificer yet) wasn't too long before all our encounters were in stone dungeons and similar stone areas. also, if you need to barricade a door, 125 cubic feet of dirt can do a pretty good job. just killed a bunch of enemies and wanna do something about the bodies? burial is super quick. my dm nerfed it a bit by not allowing me to shape the excavated dirt except through the time limited effect, and so the pile of dirt isn't so much a wall as it is a mound of loose soil. basically like you just dug up a hole and threw the dirt out...which...i guess fair enough, but it limits its usability a bit. also mold earth+druidcraft+fabricate=a saturated linen market.
I don't know how common the racial bonuses PCs get would be in the world as a whole but assuming even 1 in 1,000 humans were variant humans it would be very common for many of them to pick up magical adept or one of the numerous other magic feats without even needing a class level. This would make humans an incredibly valuable race to have as part of your nation, army, etc.
You could probably use the make difficult terrain on the surface to disrupt the surface. The difficult terrain needs to come from something and it lasts for a minute. Then you just move the desturbed surface. It wont be a full 5 ft hole but it would work
2:06 One think to add. From a worldbuilding point of view, I think you shouldent be able to mold earth a detaled schematic or artustuc structructure with the same easy as say, writing leters or crude shape. It wouldent make sence that a person that cant visualise/drow anything better then a stick figure could mold a map of Rome on the ground😅 I think that mechanicly one need to be of higher level (abilety to upscale the spell for better resolution) or have a background of already being artiaricly inclined to pull off the more complex stuff mentioned in the vidoe, or some combination of the two. Homebrew masters, get on that😂
Seeing as most d&d worlds have been handily stuck in the medieval age for as long as anyone remembers, it would be reasonable to say the surface of a world would be coated in various artificially made hills and barriers.
Honestly with this cantrip and the prevalence of magic in most D&D settings, I cannot see how any city would ever be flooded by fresh water via storm events. Mold earth could easily grade the ground to flow appropriately to detention basins, weirs could be made on riverbanks leading to these things... Who needs a wall to protect from water when you could just have a seasonal lake to get fresh water from? It almost makes me wonder if battalions of war mages would have invented trench warfare much "earlier" then the equivalent real world time period normally depicted.
I'm a professional laborer and I'm particularly good at digging. It takes me about 45 minutes to dig out a cubic yard. I did the math for mold earth before and it is particularly frustrating hpw casters cheat around doing things knowing the reality of what it takes to accomplish the same work by hand.
