Undermaster and Stronghold construction

[justinsluder]

My 18th level artificer recently came into possession of 1000 acres of land and a magical ring which allows him to use undermaster (Spell Compendium pg 227) whenever he likes. It has a caster level of 20.

My question is, how high, wide and long of an earthen wall can be created with a single casting of move earth?

Also, can stone shape be used to merge two walls of stone?

Thanks in advance,
Justin

 

[Nail]

...how high, wide and long of an earthen wall can be created with a single casting of move earth?

The spell text - as I'm sure you know - just gives an area and depth: "The maximum area, 750 feet by 750 feet, takes 4 hours and 10 minutes to move. and "up to 10 ft. deep".

...so you can take this one of two ways:

• #1) Calculate the volume of earth you can move (562,500 blocks of 10 ft cubes), and then construct the wall out of that (so a wall of Earth 150 feet high, 50 feet thick, and 750 feet long). Given the wording, you can't make the earth move out of the 750 ft by 750ft area.

or

• #2) You can only change the maximum/minimum topography by 10 feet, since the spell only extends down that far. So a earthen wall 750 feet long and 10 feet high.

... can stone shape be used to merge two walls of stone?

Sure.

...so long as the DM doesn't interprete the spell text word "piece" to mean that the part of the stone wall to be shaped is small enough to fit inside the spell's AoE.

As an aside, for even more fun constructiong strongholds, consider the amazing utility of Transmute Rock to Mud, combined with Dispel Magic. The 3e equivalent to Ready-mix(tm). And don't miss out on the other cool construction spells in the Spell Compendium!

 

[justinsluder]

As an aside, for even more fun constructiong strongholds, consider the amazing utility of Transmute Rock to Mud, combined with Dispel Magic. The 3e equivalent to Ready-mix(tm). And don't miss out on the other cool construction spells in the Spell Compendium!

Tell me more please. I hate missing these things.

 

[Nail]

My PC's stronghold was mid-way up a small mountain. By using well-placed walls of stone as funnels and forms, I could cast Transmute Rock to Mud on parts of the mountain above my construction, and just smile as the mud slid down into the forms. A few Dispel Magics later, and I had wonderfully thick stone walls.

(As an aside, I put Walls of Iron in the middle of the forms before the "pour", for strength, spell resistance, and Earth Elemental control. Not to mention that irritating ability of that PrC...which was that, again? You know, the one that can see through solid rock.)

In Spell Compendium there are lots. My list (and books) are elsewhere, but Earth Lock, Sign of Sealing (greater, too), and (my favorite) Hardening. There are lots of others I've missed, I'm sure.

 

[justinsluder]

Excellent! Thank you very much! I'll get to looking for more. I'm not usually looking for noncombat spells, so my knowledge of the SpC spells for such is lacking.

Thanks again.