I think of using wood shape to do interesting things like make a wooden shield unwieldable, create holes in the hulls of boats, jam a wooden door in its fame, etc.
However, I just noticed that the target clearly states UNWORKED wood.
What exactly is the point of this spell then? I seriously doubt getting an unworked tree to bend over or twist is going to have many practical adventuring applications.
What am I missing?
I assume you're speaking about the Shape Wood spell.
It appears to be used by elves for shaping trees into houses, furniture or amusing lawn ornaments, and such like.
On an adventure, you could shape a tree into a canoe. Or a bridge. Or a stairway, to reach the Unreachable McGuffin.
I suppose you could even give Pinocchio a nose job, since that nose grew out on its own, rather than having been crafted as such.
But I agree, it's sad that you can't use it on dungeon doors and house walls and the like.
I assume you're speaking about the Shape Wood spell.
...yes. *facepalm*
Unworked wood? Huh...that's kind of a bummer
Well, it looks like it's main use is crafting new stuff.
If Ironwood comes along it of course helps druids get adequate equipment.
Shape tree branches into a stable platform on which to sleep at night, safe from predators that cannot climb.
Make a cage to pen in animals or a prisoner.
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You are fighting a melee fighter in the forest. You back up to a full-grown tree. Next turn, you shape the tree into a crude cage around your foe.
You come across a gorge which uses a fallen log as a bridge. Crossing the log bridge requires Balance with Acrobatics DC 20. You shape the log into a more stable footbridge, no Balance required.
Bandits block the road with a felled tree. You turn the tree into a sphere to roll away so that the princess's coach can proceed through.
You need to climb a stone wall. You shape a nearby tree into a ladder.
You are trapped on an island with only coconut trees for food. You create handholds in the coconut trees so that you can pick the fruit easily.
Wow Warped Wood might have needed a nerf but that’s a pretty substantial one...
So many awesome moments came from warped wood in older games. I had just assumed warp wood wasn’t ported yet but this is more than likely the stand in since it’s the same level and theme.
And I’m fairly certain the “make a cage around your opponent” isn’t even close to allowed. The creature would need to already be inside the tree, it doesn’t say you can move the wood, only shape it and that type of thing would almost certainly allow a save. It’s marginally valuable but nothing to get excited about if only for being limited to when you have access to natural wood.
You back up to a full-grown tree.
Well, the issue with anything you try with a "full-grown tree" is the 20 cubic feet in volume. That's a tree 10' and a 16" diameter. So that bridge, not so much. Block a road, not so much either. Climb that tee with handholds? Hope it's not over 10'. Even a dugout boat is quite limited by the size to maybe tiny creatures.
The spell is pretty useless given the limitations. Maybe 10' ladders or 'prefab' wooden parts to build something bigger like straight pre-notched planks to build a small raft with but with 1/spell that's a LOT of work.
JOB BOARD
Looking for loggers experienced in uprooting small trees without the use of any cutting or harvesting tools.
XD
You back up to a full-grown tree.Well, the issue with anything you try with a "full-grown tree" is the 20 cubic feet in volume. That's a tree 10' and a 16" diameter. So that bridge, not so much. Block a road, not so much either. Climb that tee with handholds? Hope it's not over 10'. Even a dugout boat is quite limited by the size to maybe tiny creatures.
The spell is pretty useless given the limitations. Maybe 10' ladders or 'prefab' wooden parts to build something bigger like straight pre-notched planks to build a small raft with but with 1/spell that's a LOT of work.
A 10-foot-long cylindrical log with volume 20 cubic feet would be 19 inches in diameter. Volume = (10 feet) × (πr^2), so the radius r is the square root of (20 cubic feat)/(π × 10 feet). That gives a radius of 0.80 feet. Double that for diameter and convert to inches to get a 19-inch diameter.
Suppose the gorge to be crossed in 20 feet wide. Making the bridge 25 feet long for good anchoring gives us an average cross section of 0.8 square feet, which is 115.2 square inches. If we simply go for a giant plank 2 feet wide, 115.2/24 makes it 4.8 inches thick. Okay, that plank will be wobbly enough to require a Balance check with Acrobatics DC 5. A 2-inch thick plank with a 2-inch wide 16-inch high solid railing on each side would be more rigid.
I did make the assumption that the spell could affect on the desired 20 cubic feet of the wood, ignoring any excess volume on the log. Otherwise, Shape Stone would be pretty useless, too.
"I can see sunlight through this crack in the cave wall. The surface is only 2 feet away. I can shape a narrow passage to escape."
"No, you can't. That stone is part of the mountain and the mountain is too big to shape."
"I just wanted to shape the piece in front of me."
"The spell doesn't allow just a piece."
JOB BOARD
Looking for loggers experienced in uprooting small trees without the use of any cutting or harvesting tools.XD
The definition of "unworked wood" is a problem. If a lumberjack cuts down a tree and trims off its branches with an axe, then does the log count as unworked wood? If an elf casts Shape Wood on a living tree to make an arboreal sleeping spot, then does the tree count as worked wood and is immune to Shape Wood forever? If a ten-year-old human built a treehouse by nailing planks to a tree, is the tree now worked wood?
Is the shape wood spell really shape naturally fallen untouched tree?
A 10-foot-long cylindrical log with volume 20 cubic feet would be 19 inches in diameter. Volume = (10 feet) × (πr^2), so the radius r is the square root of (20 cubic feat)/(π × 10 feet). That gives a radius of 0.80 feet. Double that for diameter and convert to inches to get a 19-inch diameter.
*shrug* I might have made a small error in there but the point stands that it's not working on a very big tree/log.
If we simply go for a giant plank 2 feet wide, 115.2/24 makes it 4.8 inches thick.
Sure you can make a plank, but if you can find random trees to use the spell on, you most likely can find a 25' tree and with a bit a trimming, come up with a 25' log to do the same thing without the spell. It really only helps if your DM intentionally left trees around JUST short enough to not cover the distance. ;P
I did make the assumption that the spell could affect on the desired 20 cubic feet of the wood, ignoring any excess volume on the log.
Yeah, I can't see how to read that by RAW as being very useful for this reason: Your target is what's limited and not your end product.
Otherwise, Shape Stone would be pretty useless, too.
Not so for one VERY important difference: it works on worked stone. This means any stone building made with blocks 10' square or smaller can be affected. Being able to remove a 10' square out of a wall has some uses as does removing the stone base of a support column, remove a keystone, ect.
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I feel like they should have just added the clause "You cannot effect worn, held, or stowed objects with this spell", because the bigger issue was breaking every axe handle of your enemies in one casting.
That's about the only aspect balance-wise that Warped Wood needed to have nerfed.
But even then, making sure Druids can't just automatically sink ships was another reason. In which case, I would have just made Warped Wood deal damage up to the broken threshold, and if it surpasses that threshold, the object becomes broken (and otherwise is "too sturdy/large" and is thus unharmed). Then high level druids can truly break certain ships, which IMO, makes sense (since other spells can blow them up anyways), so long as the "damage" in this case was dependent on level like other spells.
Oh well. Might just write up Warped Wood for my home games, I have some Druids that really liked that spell and Shape Wood is honestly completely different and pretty unusable in most circumstances.
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Yeah, I may house rule it to unattended wooden items, and have ships be considered attended while crewed.