What is "ground"?

[StrayKit]

I am looking at starting a 1E game for some friends and this came up with a player looking into the Stonelord Archetype for Paladin.

"These benefits are halved when not touching the ground or a stone structure."

This is text about Heartstone, the ability to replace Divine Grace at level 2. I would have been really happy if it stopped at ground, but including stone structure (which I think was done as part of the flavor) makes me stop.

What if they end up on a boat? But I extrapolate from there, second story of the inn built of wood or just that boat runs onto shore and is stuck on land?

I think my answer is to say the character is on ground, mounted, airborne or waterborne? Just break it down mostly into those simple circumstances, but I ABSOLUTELY hate looking back to seeing the call out of stone structure.

[Belafon]

It's less complicated than you are reading it. Just think about the commonsense answers if someone asked you whether you are touching the ground:

-On a boat? No.
-Walking on grass? Yes.
-In an inn? Not on upper levels, maybe not on the lower level, depending on flooring.
-On a boat that was wrecked on the shore? No, you're on the decking. Maybe there is some ground that ripped through the hull at the bottom you can stand on.
-Flying? Absolutely not.

The stone structure addendum is just a bonus. If you are standing on the battlements of a stone castle, you get the full benefit even though you aren't directly touching the ground.

[LunarVale]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I see a fairly straightforward reading of this. It's probably vague enough to leave room for disagreement, but putting it in the clearest terms I can, it is active when you're standing on earth, dirt, mud, or rock connected to the contiguous chunk of rock that makes up the bulk of planet/plane's crust (which would still be true inside a cave). It also works if you're standing on or in a stone building or structure.

Boat: No.
Inn's Second Story of an Inn with Wooden Floorboards: No. (it also wouldn't work on the first story if the inn had wooden floorboards, but would work on any floor of an inn with stone floors and walls)
Mounted: Might get some variable responses on this, but I would say the RAW is definitely no, and the RAI is probably not (but harder to tell).
Airborne: No.
Waterborne: No. (unless you are walking on the bottom of a lake, for example)

Minor interferences probably shouldn't impact this, like grass or carpeting.

I do think that the ability is much weaker than Divine Grace (which is competing for strongest class features) and would likely give a player a compensatory advantage for going with this archetype (depending on the rest of the party composition and optimization of the specific table), but that's neither here nor there.

[Azothath]

RAW is written in descriptive american english and the meanings are "in context". Sometimes the game makes distinctions like in spell descriptions.

For the purposes of what you're reading it's the ground, earth, or stonework, so they could be on the 4th floor of worked stone in a castle or ramparts. It wouldn't work on wooden floors raised off the ground (like the interior of most buildings). I'd agree that minor vegetation/ground cover shouldn't be a problem.

I'd say no to a wooden or steel boat, Stone boat or concrete? hmmm... likely not as while the hulls are stone the floors and trusses are generally not.

You made need to say as a home rule the stone needs to be 75 tons (light approximate weight of 10ft cube or (8) 5ft squares) or at least 16-18 inches thick and connected to the earth in general (covering most antique stone bridges and battlements) and not an active magical effect. This will stop most of the creative workarounds. It would allow a small sized earth elemental to squeeze through the area.
BTW, if you think a Knowledge check DC for this information is above 10, don't divulge it to the players as their PCs need skills and need to roll skill checks. GMs are not a font of free technical information.

For burrow there are differences (ground or soft earth versus stone or hard earth). Marsh or bog, etc etc. But that's not the context you are in.

[Belafon]

LunarVale wrote:

I do think that the ability is much weaker than Divine Grace (which is competing for strongest class features) and would likely give a player a compensatory advantage for going with this archetype (depending on the rest of the party composition and optimization of the specific table), but that's neither here nor there.

Tangent:

I do agree it is generally weaker than the base paladin. However it is really, really good in its native environment. A dungeon crawl, especially one with narrow passageways is a chance to shine.

I played an AP where one of the other players was a Stonelord. We grumbled a bit about his lack of spells and healing channels but any time we headed underground he was awesome. Started his defensive stance and held back all the melee enemies while the casters and archer picked them off. Meanwhile his elemental buddy would earthglide around the fray to harry their ranged attackers.