Unutterable Blasphemies (ooc and questions lV)

[drpete]

Maybe Bo and Pip's plans can be combined... the cage blocks most of the tunnel, and stone shape secures it in place? Might be more "legit" that a paper thin wall...?

[DadsAngry]

Hoom has no gear. He has a short sword and studded leather.

[OGRE MAGE]

Maybe Bo and Pip's plans can be combined... the cage blocks most of the tunnel, and stone shape secures it in place? Might be more "legit" that a paper thin wall...?

I am all for this, if it works!

[Inferno]

If Bo wants to build a wall across a 10' passage, he can make it 5' high and 1.7" thick, or 7' high and 1.2" thick. Is a stone wall that's just over an inch thick strong enough to keep out an onrushing horde of abominations? I guess we'll find out.

Thanks Zhym,
True, but the enemy wouldn't know that immediately. To them it would a appear that a stone wall has magically appeared after Bo cast a spell. They might believe it's an avalanche. Or a ten foot thick wall. Or an illusion. It would take them time to investigate, test and eventually figure it out. In that time, you'd have a head start up the rope. It's less a true physical barrier than a trick of sorts that will delay your enemies.

More thoughts to follow.

[Inferno]

If stone bars (like a portcullis) would use up less of the mass, perhaps that would suffice?

Hi OM,
The spell description calls out that the created object is rough hewn, and not finely detailed, so I don't know if a lattice of bars would be possible.

[Inferno]

Maybe Bo and Pip's plans can be combined... the cage blocks most of the tunnel, and stone shape secures it in place? Might be more "legit" that a paper thin wall...?

I am all for this, if it works!

Hi,
This is feasible. The benefit is that it would double your wall depth to ~3 inches thick.
The drawback is that, through the bars of the iron cage, your enemies could still see you (and therefore target you with spells) and know the wall is a thin sham veneer and would attempt to break it down sooner without losing time on investigating and testing to understand what it really is.

Please let me know what you'd like to do. Thanks.

[Inferno]

Hoom has no gear. He has a short sword and studded leather.

Hi Dads,
Oh, that's right. He was bodysnatched by the PCs!

Okay, so even with an 8 strength, he's totally unencumbered. But studded leather has a max speed of 9". So Hoom's maximum climbing speed here is 4.5" a round, or 45 feet a minute.
Thanks.

[Zhym]

FWIW, I usually interpret "rough hewn" to mean you can make just about any shape, but you can't embellish details on the shape and you can't make the shape into a machine. You can make a statue if you want, but you can't make it into a lifelike image of Abe Springfield. That sort of thing.

I find the math a little interesting, so let's do it for a lattice. Assume a 7x7 space, with bars spaced every 1'. That's 6 vertical bars and 6 horizontal bars, each 7' long, or 84' of bar (give or take the 36 intersections). With 7 cubic feet of material to work with, a bar can have a cross-section of 7/84 square feet in area. 7*144/84=12, so the cross-section is 12 square inches. Rectangular bars would be about 3.5" per side; cylindrical bars would be 3.9" thick.

If you wanted a 3 bar x 3 bar lattice (1'9" apart), rectangular bars would be 4.25" across and cylindrical bars would be about 4.75" thick.

So sacrificing bars doesn't add much thickness. And using a lattice instead of a solid wall roughly doubles the thickness (in a 7x7 space, a solid wall would be about 1.7" thick. The math there is even easy: 7 cubic feet of AoE / 49 cubic feet of wall = 1/7 of a foot thick = 1.71").

But, y'know, Ogre Mage is leaving the math to the DM.

[Zhym]

How big is the cage? You wouldn't need a big wall to hold the cage in place—just some appropriately-placed posts.

[ChubbyPixie]

FWIW, I usually interpret "rough hewn" to mean you can make just about any shape, but you can't embellish details on the shape and you can't make the shape into a machine. You can make a statue if you want, but you can't make it into a lifelike image of Abe Springfield. That sort of thing.

I find the math a little interesting, so let's do it for a lattice. Assume a 7x7 space, with bars spaced every 1'. That's 6 vertical bars and 6 horizontal bars, each 7' long, or 84' of bar (give or take the 36 intersections). With 7 cubic feet of material to work with, a bar can have a cross-section of 7/84 square feet in area. 7*144/84=12, so the cross-section is 12 square inches. Rectangular bars would be about 3.5" per side; cylindrical bars would be 3.9" thick.

If you wanted a 3 bar x 3 bar lattice (1'9" apart), rectangular bars would be 4.25" across and cylindrical bars would be about 4.75" thick.

So sacrificing bars doesn't add much thickness. And using a lattice instead of a solid wall roughly doubles the thickness (in a 7x7 space, a solid wall would be about 1.7" thick. The math there is even easy: 7 cubic feet of AoE / 49 cubic feet of wall = 1/7 of a foot thick = 1.71").

But, y'know, Ogre Mage is leaving the math to the DM.

Math is hard. Call me when it's time to decorate the wall.

[Inferno]

How big is the cage? You wouldn't need a big wall to hold the cage in place—just some appropriately-placed posts.

Hi Zhym,
7' x 3.5' x 3.5'.

[Zhym]

So, not big enough to block the passage by itself. There may be a way to lodge the thing in place and block off the rest of the passage, but I think a solid wall is better for the reasons you mentioned.

[ChubbyPixie]

All this talk reminds me of the time in Barrier Peaks that I tried to figure out the area of a fireball. I blacked out.

[drpete]

How about 3 "pillars" 7 feet long x 7 inches x 7 inches for stone shape?

Lodge the cage in, then "pierce" it with three pillars like this, that might block going around either side of the cage and hold the cage in place?

[Inferno]

All this talk reminds me of the time in Barrier Peaks that I tried to figure out the area of a fireball. I blacked out.

As I recall, it was Tomb of Horrors and the fireball ended badly for Eduardo.

[Zhym]

Math is a core skill of the competent wizard.

[ChubbyPixie]

Math is a core skill of the competent wizard.

“Competent” being the key word here.

[ChubbyPixie]

All this talk reminds me of the time in Barrier Peaks that I tried to figure out the area of a fireball. I blacked out.

As I recall, it was Tomb of Horrors and the fireball ended badly for Eduardo.

That was a different fireball calculation that went very, very poorly. Thus began my interest in correctly calculating the area of a fireball...

[Inferno]

Ingrid Esthof
Ingrid has a current strength of 4, which allows her to carry 10 pounds. She is wearing splint mail, which has an encumbrance value of 40# and a maximum movement of 6". Her magic mace, which she will carry with her, is 10#. The shield and cloak she will leave behind. Otherwise, she just has her worn clothes, which do not count towards encumbrance, a small belt pouch and mirror (1#), holy symbol, prayer beads, and Signet of Khorst- as well as the scroll of Earthquake. If she can't get the armor off, she isn't going to be able to move.

Thanks, Scott!

Fyi, removing splint armor will take at least 3 rounds. Here's the house rule about donning it, for comparison: viewtopic.php?p=216080#p216080

But there is (relatively) good news: As per PHB p. 9, with a 4 strength, Ingrid adds 25 lbs to her Encumbrance for purposes of calculating her Movement.
You've tallied 51 lbs of equipment, above. So her Effective Encumbrance, in armor, is 76 lbs.

As per PHB p. 101-102, at this Encumbrance, she can Move 6" which is what her splint armor allows. This would let her climb 3" a round, in armor.

Please let me know if this changes things for you. If you'd like to alter your post, you may. Thanks.

[Inferno]

Hi everyone,

Ogre Mage gave me his intent for his spell. So once Ingrid confirms her action, and Pelias posts, I can continue with the dreadful proceedings.

Thanks.