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Hi! I want to here youre opinion on this 1st edition spell:

Travel Throu'gh Walls earth level five Range: self Duration: 8 melees per level of the warlock Saving throw: none

This spell enables the warlock to travel/walk right through earth (dirt, sand, and clay but not stone, wood, or iron). The warlock can pass through earth substances like a ghost through a wall. Rate of travel 60 feet per melee through dirt or sand or 40 feet per melee through clay. If in the earth when the spell duration elapses the warlock will materialize and die instantly. He cannot cast spells or speak while traveling through earth.

I cant see that this spell will have any value becuase how many walls are made of dirt, sand and clay ?? Not many. But the spell will have huge value combined with the spell:

Rock to Mud earth level one
Range: 20 feet
Duration: instant/permanent
Saving throw: none
This magic turns any type of stone or rock into mud. The warlock can transform 30 pounds of stone per level of experience. The spell can be cast up to 20 feet away .

Then, in theory, this combination would allow the person to travel through a castle wall or other walls. This can also be done with wood. What do you think ? Is this something that is intended by the rules and Palladium or is this something you would not allow your players to do ? I am asking as a GM.

Thanks!

tmbn wrote:Hi! I want to here youre opinion on this 1st edition spell:

Travel Throu'gh Walls earth level five Range: self Duration: 8 melees per level of the warlock Saving throw: none

This spell enables the warlock to travel/walk right through earth (dirt, sand, and clay but not stone, wood, or iron). The warlock can pass through earth substances like a ghost through a wall. Rate of travel 60 feet per melee through dirt or sand or 40 feet per melee through clay. If in the earth when the spell duration elapses the warlock will materialize and die instantly. He cannot cast spells or speak while traveling through earth.

I cant see that this spell will have any value becuase how many walls are made of dirt, sand and clay ?? Not many. But the spell will have huge value combined with the spell:

Rock to Mud earth level one
Range: 20 feet
Duration: instant/permanent
Saving throw: none
This magic turns any type of stone or rock into mud. The warlock can transform 30 pounds of stone per level of experience. The spell can be cast up to 20 feet away .

Then, in theory, this combination would allow the person to travel through a castle wall or other walls. This can also be done with wood. What do you think ? Is this something that is intended by the rules and Palladium or is this something you would not allow your players to do ? I am asking as a GM.

Thanks!

I have the 2nd edition version of the spell right here and it's pretty much unchanged beyond fluff and semantics... The biggest change is the 2nd ed version allows one to pass through wood as well. Now, to answer your questions...
Yes... in theory this combination allows a player to pass through castle walls. With 2nd ed there is no need to alter the wood with another spell before casting the pass through earth/walls.
Whether intended by Palladium or not, it's a pretty good combination to work with. Dependent on the thickness of the wall, however it may take a pretty high level caster to turn enough stone into clay in order to pass through it. 30 pounds of stone really isn't all that much along the lines of sheer volume. Going by most castle walls you're dealing with a 10 to 20 feet thickness. Making a section roughly large enough for a human to pass through using the spell means a 'corridor' of clay approximately 10-20 feet long, about 3-4 feet wide and 6-7 feet high. Call me crazy, but that volume sounds like a few thousand pounds of rock. You'll need a very high level caster or a LOT of separate castings, all BEFORE the warlock can try passing through the wall. And then, depending on how realistic/mean/evil your GM wants to be, there's the issue of what the surrounding structure of the wall is doing as that section is turned into clay, whether slowly collapsing/caving into the softer clay, staying in place or even oozing out of the section it's transmuted in.
Overall, yes, it's a great theory. Do as you will with what I give you. This is just my take on it.

Good luck and great gaming!

JuliusCreed wrote:

tmbn wrote:Hi! I want to here youre opinion on this 1st edition spell:

Travel Throu'gh Walls earth level five Range: self Duration: 8 melees per level of the warlock Saving throw: none

This spell enables the warlock to travel/walk right through earth (dirt, sand, and clay but not stone, wood, or iron). The warlock can pass through earth substances like a ghost through a wall. Rate of travel 60 feet per melee through dirt or sand or 40 feet per melee through clay. If in the earth when the spell duration elapses the warlock will materialize and die instantly. He cannot cast spells or speak while traveling through earth.

I cant see that this spell will have any value becuase how many walls are made of dirt, sand and clay ?? Not many. But the spell will have huge value combined with the spell:

Rock to Mud earth level one
Range: 20 feet
Duration: instant/permanent
Saving throw: none
This magic turns any type of stone or rock into mud. The warlock can transform 30 pounds of stone per level of experience. The spell can be cast up to 20 feet away .

Then, in theory, this combination would allow the person to travel through a castle wall or other walls. This can also be done with wood. What do you think ? Is this something that is intended by the rules and Palladium or is this something you would not allow your players to do ? I am asking as a GM.

Thanks!

I have the 2nd edition version of the spell right here and it's pretty much unchanged beyond fluff and semantics... The biggest change is the 2nd ed version allows one to pass through wood as well. Now, to answer your questions...
Yes... in theory this combination allows a player to pass through castle walls. With 2nd ed there is no need to alter the wood with another spell before casting the pass through earth/walls.
Whether intended by Palladium or not, it's a pretty good combination to work with. Dependent on the thickness of the wall, however it may take a pretty high level caster to turn enough stone into clay in order to pass through it. 30 pounds of stone really isn't all that much along the lines of sheer volume. Going by most castle walls you're dealing with a 10 to 20 feet thickness. Making a section roughly large enough for a human to pass through using the spell means a 'corridor' of clay approximately 10-20 feet long, about 3-4 feet wide and 6-7 feet high. Call me crazy, but that volume sounds like a few thousand pounds of rock. You'll need a very high level caster or a LOT of separate castings, all BEFORE the warlock can try passing through the wall. And then, depending on how realistic/mean/evil your GM wants to be, there's the issue of what the surrounding structure of the wall is doing as that section is turned into clay, whether slowly collapsing/caving into the softer clay, staying in place or even oozing out of the section it's transmuted in.
Overall, yes, it's a great theory. Do as you will with what I give you. This is just my take on it.

Good luck and great gaming!

Thanks Julius Creed! Yes. It seems to be a nice combo if you want to pass wood walls or regular stone walls. Passing through a castle wall seems a little too much as you said. I will try the combo out, but if somebody is trying to move through a castle wall I think they will end up in trouble

Just some specific numbers for use with Rock to Mud.

The type of rock people build with is generally pretty heavy stuff. Granite is a good example. Granite has an average density of approximately 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter, a number which is roughly what you'll get with many common rocks (sandstone, marble, gneiss, slate, limestone, shale... Basalt is denser). That translates to 44.25 grams per cubic inch. One pound of most common rock is, therefore, roughly 10.26 cubic inches.

The spell Rock to Mud allows a caster to alter 30 pounds of rock per level, or 307.8 cubic inches, approximately a 5 inch by 6 inch by 10 inch area. That is significantly less than a single cubic foot, which is 1728 cubic inches. In fact, a caster must be level 6 before they can make an entire cubic foot of this rock turn to mud. A level 15 caster could change a grand total of... 2.67 cubic feet. That is an area 16.65 inches x 16.65 inches x 16.65 inches - no more.

Rock to Mud is a great spell for doing things like making a bolt come loose from a wall to get a manacle out, causing a chandelier to fall, or having a wall torch drop as a distraction. You can turn the part of a door frame where the hinges or the lock attach to mud and get around some doors, and it's also helpful for making a long, thin peep-hole through a wall, or as one of my players has been doing, creating a patch on the ground under somebody's feet that will throw them off in a fight. It doesn't have much use for going through walls, unless you combine it with a shrink spell, mist form, or other body modification.

J. Lionheart wrote:Just some specific numbers for use with Rock to Mud.

The type of rock people build with is generally pretty heavy stuff. Granite is a good example. Granite has an average density of approximately 2.7 grams per cubic centimeter, a number which is roughly what you'll get with many common rocks (sandstone, marble, gneiss, slate, limestone, shale... Basalt is denser). That translates to 44.25 grams per cubic inch. One pound of most common rock is, therefore, roughly 10.26 cubic inches.

The spell Rock to Mud allows a caster to alter 30 pounds of rock per level, or 307.8 cubic inches, approximately a 5 inch by 6 inch by 10 inch area. That is significantly less than a single cubic foot, which is 1728 cubic inches. In fact, a caster must be level 6 before they can make an entire cubic foot of this rock turn to mud. A level 15 caster could change a grand total of... 2.67 cubic feet. That is an area 16.65 inches x 16.65 inches x 16.65 inches - no more.

Rock to Mud is a great spell for doing things like making a bolt come loose from a wall to get a manacle out, causing a chandelier to fall, or having a wall torch drop as a distraction. You can turn the part of a door frame where the hinges or the lock attach to mud and get around some doors, and it's also helpful for making a long, thin peep-hole through a wall, or as one of my players has been doing, creating a patch on the ground under somebody's feet that will throw them off in a fight. It doesn't have much use for going through walls, unless you combine it with a shrink spell, mist form, or other body modification.

Great information and post. I have never gone that far into detail to see just how much is feasible. Truth be told, I'm the only one in my gaming group who has played an Earth Warlock in the past almost decade that I have been gaming and I never got high enough level to try to combine those two spells, although I had full intentions to do so.

On an unrelated note - I'm so happy to see your post, Lionheart. I actually looked at your profile on here recently to see if you had been active as of late. I was saddened to see how old your last visit was. Hopefully you'll stick around for a while again?