Create Water... Too Powerful?

[redboxrazor]

My adventure is about to be completely derailed by the spell 'Create Water'. I am tracking heat/dehydration and other survival factors... The fact that this spell is at-will is... a wrench in my plans. I'm not sure how to handle this. I'm running the Serpent's Skull adventure path.

How have you handled this spell in your groups (has it come up?)

Also, as an at-will spell that creates 2 gallons of water per casting, couldn't a character flood an entire village by simply casting this spell all day long? That's 28,800 gallons of water every 24 hours (assuming he stayed up and casted that long).

I hope I'm not over-reacting, but I feel like this is going to take a lot of the excitement out of the adventure... I don't want to punish my players for making a good choice. I'm just not sure what to do...

 

[frankthedm]

How have you handled this spell in your groups?

Switched to WFRP 2E. WotC D20 makes mundane thirst a non issue with that spell. Mundane hunger might take a higher level spell, but D20 pretty much takes a stance of thirst does not matter if a divine caster is available, Pathfinder more so.

If thirst is supposed to be a campaign issue, make the spell a higher level and reduce the amount of water the spell provides ala AD&D 2E Dark*Sun.

 

[Mojo_Rat]

your over reacting. basically it's good I'n an emergency. (ie bob needs water now) but if they are casting it somewhere that it has no container to land I'n just say it vanishes. if they want to constantly cast it I'n the Jungle let them their movement will slow to a crawl and the casting will give them away.

we just finished an adventure I'n the mwangi expanse and it never came up except at camp.

 

[fdnickerson]

Also, as an at-will spell that creates 2 gallons of water per casting, couldn't a character flood an entire village by simply casting this spell all day long? That's 28,800 gallons of water every 24 hours (assuming he stayed up and casted that long).

I hope I'm not over-reacting, but I feel like this is going to take a lot of the excitement out of the adventure... I don't want to punish my players for making a good choice. I'm just not sure what to do...

28,800 gallons of water would fill a cube that's almost 16 feet on a side. That's enough to to flood a small room, but the water would start to disappear well before you could flood a valley.

 

[Volaran]

If you want thirst to be a factor, then bump it up to a first level spell or otherwise impede it (maybe they're in a desert and the connection to the elemental plane of water is weak). Just let your players know.

 

[Maidhc O Casain]

I'm letting my players have it as is. Not even keeping track of it, nor of whether or not they specify that they cast it or have a container. We're early on in the adventure (second day on the island) and there's PLENTY going on to keep 'em occupied.

• NPC Interactions: They've gotten two of the NPCs up to Friendly, but dropped all the others to Hostile (one's gone AWOL).
• Food: After a full 4 hours of foraging (3 of the 4 PCs), they have enough food for today, plus 1 day for 2 people. Nine folks is a LOT to feed with the survival skill.
• Heat: 2 of the PCs and 3 of the NPCs were fatigued by the heat the first day.
• Disease: No one contracted anything the first day, but it's only a matter of time . . .
• Random Encounters: If ever there was an adventure to feature random encounters, this is it!

 

[DaveMage]

As a PC that's been through the first part of the adventure path - the create water (and endure elements) spell may have kept us playing the module.

As Mowgli mentions, there are so many other environmental hazards that having create water is one of the few things that actually may keep the players playing.

Also, since the water from the spell disappears after 24 hours, there can be no village flooding.

 

[jefgorbach]

its one of those spells that looks "dangerous" at face value but is already well-nerfed because while they CAN cast it at-will, the resulting water drains away like normal water unless cast into a container and even then vanishes after 24hrs.

secondly, google implies a standard swimming pool holds approx 40,000 galleons of water so presuming your calc is correct, the devoted PC could as long as he wanted doing nothing but casting it and never get the pool more than half-full.

 

[Scott DeWar]

doing nothing but casting it and never get the pool more than half-full.

or would that be half empty.

but seriously though, play it as is. They still need to come up with food and still need to deal with the heat. That can be just as dangerous. I use to live in the Mojave Desert. Believe me when I say that water is not all you need.

 

[redboxrazor]

I'm glad to hear that I was mostly over-reacting. I am leaning towards "leave it as is it", as well - at least until I see how it plays out.

There certainly are a lot of other hazards to deal with. Hearing it from everyone else has made me more confident (I really want the survival aspect to matter here - and I'm sure our druid will be happy to put his Survival skill to good use).

Everyone is so helpful here. ^^ Thank you.