this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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The Rule of Cool Has Limits (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 1 year ago by cryomancer20x6@lemmy.sdf.org to c/rpgmemes@ttrpg.network
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[–] ShranTheWaterPoloFan@startrek.website 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

When people try to drown someone with create water they aren't talking about creating water then drowning the person the old fashioned way, it's "I cast create water in the lungs of that guy!"

Other popular "ideas" include - -Casting light on someone's eyes so they go blind -Trying to target eardrums with shatter -Conflating charm person with dominate person -Attacking with mage hand -prestidigitation solves every problem and has no limits

It's not that there is an arbitrary "number too low" problem, it's that these spells explicitly state what they can do. Players sometimes feel "creativity" means they perform actions the spell doesn't allow, and moreover are actually achieved by much more powerful spells.

[–] TheLepidopterists@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago

Casting light on someone's eyes so they go blind

Funny enough, in b/x D&D this was explicitly allowed. They got a save though, and light was a 1st level spell, not a cantrip so it was more like color spray that also gave you a magical light that followed you around afterward than an infinitely castable save or suck cantrip.

[–] booty@hexbear.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

it's "I cast create water in the lungs of that guy!"

I mean that just obviously doesn't work because you don't have a clear path to that guy's lungs. His clothes and skin and bones are in the way. Furthermore, a creature's lungs are not a container, and even if they were, it would be difficult to argue that they are an open container. But there are still a wide variety of ways it would be possible to drown someone using create water, and personally, I would sooner assume that the hypothetical player involved is considering one of those ways rather than a completely nonsensical way that doesn't even begin to fit with the basic rules of spellcasting.