Mending repairs objects of a given bulk or less. Can you repair or partially repair larger objects by using multiple strategically placed castings?
Let's say you're a low level caster who broke the king's prized vase. Sadly the vase's bulk is such that it is beyond what you can repair with a single casting of the mending spell. Not wanting to lose your head over such trifling if unfortunate blunder, you take two or more of the smallest broken pieces and use mending to mend them together. You're not repairing the vase. Just the two pieces. So only they would count towards the spell's bulk limitations. Then, you take the next two (or more) largest pieces and mend them. And so on, until you are left with two or more whole pieces that are, in themselves too large for you to target with mending. For the last few pieces, I suppose you will still have to use a traditional Crafting check to Repair (and hopefully you have some glue on hand!), but I wonder if this would be a good way to take a large object that was essentially shattered, and fix it up so that there is only one crack (or other minor damage) in it.
What do you think? Would it work? If you don't believe it would, why not? What would you do if a player wanted to partially repair an item that was missing one or more pieces (such as a treasure map that was torn into three pieces, but the party only possesses the first two)? Surely if you allow them to mend the two pieces together, than the vase example as described above should be permitted too, right?
First of all, mending is a terrible spell IMO. Especially when compared to Crafting skill!
I understand that mending is very nerfed to not compete with crafting skills in same way that medicine skill is limited way to heal compared to magic. But waste a LvL 1 spell slot casting during 10 minutes to repair a light bulk non-magic item is completely non-sense in mostly cases. Specially if you are a valcian spellcaster and needs to prepare it with antecedence. It's just a terrible workaround when anyone in party don't have a repair kit (because you even need to be trained with crafting to repair things).
Mending repairs objects of a given bulk or less. Can you repair or partially repair larger objects by using multiple strategically placed castings?
Let's say you're a low level caster who broke the king's prized vase. Sadly the vase's bulk is such that it is beyond what you can repair with a single casting of the mending spell. Not wanting to lose your head over such trifling if unfortunate blunder, you take two or more of the smallest broken pieces and use mending to mend them together. You're not repairing the vase. Just the two pieces. So only they would count towards the spell's bulk limitations. Then, you take the next two (or more) largest pieces and mend them. And so on, until you are left with two or more whole pieces that are, in themselves too large for you to target with mending. For the last few pieces, I suppose you will still have to use a traditional Crafting check to Repair (and hopefully you have some glue on hand!), but I wonder if this would be a good way to take a large object that was essentially shattered, and fix it up so that there is only one crack (or other minor damage) in it.
What do you think? Would it work? If you don't believe it would, why not? What would you do if a player wanted to partially repair an item that was missing one or more pieces (such as a treasure map that was torn into three pieces, but the party only possesses the first two)? Surely if you allow them to mend the two pieces together, than the vase example as described above should be permitted too, right?
I don't imagine or allow this as GM.
The mending spell tries to restore the item to it's original state when there's not missing parts. Using mending to fix part of an object simply with mending and then try to fix the rest with crafting is a very ugly try to fix an object and don't make any sense if you have to fix the rest of the object using crafting skill. Simply because if you have a repair kit (or a glue) use the spell don't help in anyway.| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
I imagine it's not really meant to directly compete with the creating skill, more an emergency measure during combat. It's still bad though.
Mending would take 100 rounds to cast. It is definitely not intended for combat use.
Personally, I'd allow mending to make partial repairs to larger objects. Particularly small forms of damage like if something got scraped or nicked, even though that's not RAW.
In the same vein I'd let someone clean part of an object faster than normal with prestidigitation... like say a stain on a carpet.
I'd only use magic to fix stuff which has to be brand new.
Fox example, I think that a wooden door cracked in 2 pieces could be easily fixed by a crafter, but it would be clear ( regardless the crafter skill ) that the door was repaired.
And I expect that magic may solve this issue, leaving no trace of a break in.
That's always been the point in my mind.