I’m just wondering how GM’s and players perceive and/or layout the passwall spell. The overall mechanic of the spell is very easily understood but the actual perception of the spell once cast is not. With that said, I am wondering how some other players actually lay the spell out. For instance, do you just make the material the passwall spell has affected simply disappear for the duration of the spell? If not do you make the material transparent so you can see that the material has been affected by the spell? Finally, would the material affected still look solid but you can walk through it just like an illusion? The last instance would double your characters movement each square and in my mind hamper the overall use of the spell. Hope to here back from others who could throw their two cents in the pot.
You create a passage through wooden, plaster, or stone walls (...) If the wall's thickness is more than the depth of the passage created, then a single passwall simply makes a niche or short tunnel. (...)
Well, the spell is of the transmutation school, so I'd say it will let the material simply disappear for the duration of the spell.
Also, the use of sesame seeds as material components is a big hint in that direction.
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I’m just wondering how GM’s and players perceive and/or layout the passwall spell. The overall mechanic of the spell is very easily understood but the actual perception of the spell once cast is not. With that said, I am wondering how some other players actually lay the spell out. For instance, do you just make the material the passwall spell has affected simply disappear for the duration of the spell? If not do you make the material transparent so you can see that the material has been affected by the spell? Finally, would the material affected still look solid but you can walk through it just like an illusion? The last instance would double your characters movement each square and in my mind hamper the overall use of the spell. Hope to here back from others who could throw their two cents in the pot.
It's just a personal preference really. As long as you pick something and go with it consistently you should be fine. I personally like the idea of the wall/door/etc still being there, but it turns translucent, so you can see through it and walk through it (sort of desolidified but visible). Of course, whats on the other side can also see through it.
If you happen to open your passwall passage into the Orcish Ladies Locker Room, which just happens to be populated by the Lower Orvan Championship Ladies Blade Dancer team (National Champions 14 years running), well, you are probably going to be frantically trying to dissipate your own spell. ;)
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If you happen to open your passwall passage into the Orcish Ladies Locker Room, which just happens to be populated by the Lower Orvan Championship Ladies Blade Dancer team (National Champions 14 years running), well, you are probably going to be frantically trying to dissipate your own spell. ;)
Man, I've been waiting for their swimsuit calendar for months!!
If you happen to open your passwall passage into the Orcish Ladies Locker Room, which just happens to be populated by the Lower Orvan Championship Ladies Blade Dancer team (National Champions 14 years running), well, you are probably going to be frantically trying to dissipate your own spell. ;)Man, I've been waiting for their swimsuit calendar for months!!
Yeah, the team manager is really sorry about that. The girls keep chopping off the head of the photographers so they can play soccer. Really throws a monkey wrench into the works.
On an unrelated note, if anyone is a photographer, there is a very lucrative contract to take pictures of an athletics team of very attractive women. Did I mention it pays a lot?
Given the fact that you are shunted aside if you're within the wall when the spell expires (or is dispelled) seems to indicate that the spell physically creates a passageway through the barrier (plus it being a Transmutation effect). Just my 2 cp.
Given the fact that you are shunted aside if you're within the wall when the spell expires (or is dispelled) seems to indicate that the spell physically creates a passageway through the barrier (plus it being a Transmutation effect). Just my 2 cp.
I don't think anyone's arguing that. I think the question is the 'special effect' of the passageway.
Does it look like a tunnel that leads from point A to point B through the wall (as if you dug it with a pick)?
Does it make a passageway that's there, but not visible unless you know it (basically make the material of the wall as passable as walking through air, but doesn't actually remove the material of the wall)?
Or is it a middle ground between the two, the material of the wall becomes translucent and you can see through it, but you also can tell there's really a wall there, even if you can walk through it?
From what I gather there isn't an official appearance, it's up to the player/gm/group to decide what it looks like. (I myself like the visual of the wall seeming to open up like a maw, inviting entrance, ready to snap shut at the end of the spell)
Oh, and MDT...
** spoiler omitted **
That's not a bad visual either. :)
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IIRC, the spell used to shunt the material to the Ethereal Plane, so it just "ceases to be" on the Prime Material Plane.
In the 1st ed game I used to play in, there was a researched spell called "Permenant Passwall" that was used to not only make passages but to also seal rooms off from infiltration via the ethereal plane.
Oh, and back then, you weren't politely shunted into an open space if the effect ended with you in it, you became a permenant addition to the wall....
If you happen to open your passwall passage into the Orcish Ladies Locker Room, which just happens to be populated by the Lower Orvan Championship Ladies Blade Dancer team (National Champions 14 years running), well, you are probably going to be frantically trying to dissipate your own spell. ;)
Well, young one, in the old days we first edition wizards ("Magic-users" they used to call us...) normally used "glassee". But, ach, it seems to me that this little gem of a spell did not find its way into 3rd or later editions. Funny I didn't notice until now.
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If you happen to open your passwall passage into the Orcish Ladies Locker Room, which just happens to be populated by the Lower Orvan Championship Ladies Blade Dancer team (National Champions 14 years running), well, you are probably going to be frantically trying to dissipate your own spell. ;)Well, young one, in the old days we first edition wizards ("Magic-users" they used to call us...) normally used "glassee". But, ach, it seems to me that this little gem of a spell did not find its way into 3rd or later editions. Funny I didn't notice until now.
It was in a book from Necromancer Games for 3.X. It's name escapes me (Eldritch Sorcery, maybe?) but it was written by Skip Williams mostly and had an absolute TON of 1st and 2nd ed spells that didn't make the cut for 3rd ed. Things like Glassee, Affect Normal Fires, Fumble, and so on.
If you happen to open your passwall passage into the Orcish Ladies Locker Room, which just happens to be populated by the Lower Orvan Championship Ladies Blade Dancer team (National Champions 14 years running), well, you are probably going to be frantically trying to dissipate your own spell. ;)Well, young one, in the old days we first edition wizards ("Magic-users" they used to call us...) normally used "glassee". But, ach, it seems to me that this little gem of a spell did not find its way into 3rd or later editions. Funny I didn't notice until now.
For the record I'm 43 yrs old and have all the old rule books starting with the red box set. I truly do appreciate the "young one" quote but I am very far from that stage in my life, unfortunately.
I just threw the question out there wondering about how others see the over all mechanics of todays game. I beleive I'm going to continue to play the perception of the spell as a transparent visual that is truly on the verge of returning to its true form @ any given moment.
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If you happen to open your passwall passage into the Orcish Ladies Locker Room, which just happens to be populated by the Lower Orvan Championship Ladies Blade Dancer team (National Champions 14 years running), well, you are probably going to be frantically trying to dissipate your own spell. ;)Well, young one, in the old days we first edition wizards ("Magic-users" they used to call us...) normally used "glassee". But, ach, it seems to me that this little gem of a spell did not find its way into 3rd or later editions. Funny I didn't notice until now.For the record I'm 43 yrs old and have all the old rule books starting with the red box set. I truly do appreciate the "young one" quote but I am very far from that stage in my life, unfortunately.
I just threw the question out there wondering about how others see the over all mechanics of todays game. I beleive I'm going to continue to play the perception of the spell as a transparent visual that is truly on the verge of returning to its true form @ any given moment.
Woohoo! I had that response first on the list! I win! I win! I win! I win! I win! I win! I win! I win! I win! I win! I win! I win!
Uh..
What did I win?
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I tend to change up spell effects depending on who is casting the spell.
I also let my players detail the physical expression of their spells so long as they actually stay within the mechanics of the spell. Once they choose an appearance for one of their spells that manifestation can't change unless there is some overwhelming reason to alter it. I also encourage my players to tailor the spell names for their use.
So one wizard may cast passwall and it appears to dissipate in a bank of mist that lingers until the duration ends. Another wizard, this one more aligned with the demons of the Abyss, might have a manifestation that causes the wall to open like the maw of a lamprey and turn the walls inside an odd, fleshy color. Still stone, just looks a bit odd. Still another might cast the spell and cause the stone to melt away like ice, but floor doesn't get wet or slippery. When the spell expires, it "re-freezes" back into a wall shape.
Somewhat on topic, one of my players had a wizard character that themed all his spells around the stars. Fireball took on the appearance of a starburst, like an exploding sun. Magic Missile was called Shooting Star and it created motes of light that lanced across the room, trailing stardust like its namesake. Mechanically the spells didn't change.
I always found changing the window dressings of a spell adds a lot of fun to the game. Nothing new and revolutionary, just a bit of fun.
Seems like we could get a whole thread providing alternate appearances for the spells in the core book. Might be entertaining.
Sorry to blather on there. I hope I was within the boundaries of the question asked. :)
For the record I'm 43 yrs old and have all the old rule books starting with the red box set. I truly do appreciate the "young one" quote but I am very far from that stage in my life, unfortunately.
Darn... I started with the 1st ed. AD&D Hardcovers...
but I'm 43 too. So... hello, same age one.
... I am wondering how some other players actually lay the spell out.
In our game the caster basically opens a hole in the wall. I describe it much like I would a similar use of stone shape, i.e. the material is molded by an unseen force just as if it where made of clay or a similar material.
So if a passwall makes part of a structure disappear for the duration of the spell would that cause a stucture to become unstable or perhasp collapse? Perhasp when used in conjunction with Knowledge Engineering... Can it collapse a building?
I would say no, that's why I generally make it a translucent hole in the wall, to show that the wall is still there, it's just passable. Passwall has no mechanics for how much damage it does, so there is no way to know what hardness it could 'remove' or how many hitpoints it takes away from a building, etc.
That's sort of like trying to milk a special effect into a pound of C4.
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So if a passwall makes part of a structure disappear for the duration of the spell would that cause a stucture to become unstable or perhasp collapse? Perhasp when used in conjunction with Knowledge Engineering... Can it collapse a building?
Ask your DM. There is no RAW to support your position.
I wouldn't allow that, because to me the lack of "this could destabilize the surrounding rock" means the structure still exists, but there is a passage through it. Call it an extra dimensional passage if you like.