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Do people play it like it creates a river of lava that magically takes the place of the ground (as in the 5 ft deep per level)
or
Have it be 5ft deep per level but not going into the ground and spread out over the top of the ground like honey poured from a bucket.

If it replaces the ground will it go under houses/walls.
if it runs along the bottom of a wall like a moat will it melt the (stone) wall
What happens when cast up a mountain (more then 45 degrees, does it follow the terrain or bore a hole)
down a mountain (does it go straight out and make a cool looking lava waterfall)
on a boat
while flying more then 120ft off the ground
how long does it take to cool
what happens if you cast 2 on top of each other.

Just things my players have bugged me with.

I have always done it as Flowing over the top of the ground.
It probably will not melt a stone wall. Just heat it up.
Also it would act just like real lava and not like cartoon lava. So it will flow more like a river and not melt a hole through the terrain.
it will probably catch thew boat on fire unless it is one of those magic ships of stone or something.
i figure at least the length of the spell before it begins to cool. So maybe a few hours til its fully cold off.
The height of river of lava would indicate that it needs to happen close to the ground and not in the air. So no Rain of lava.
I figure if you cast more than one it will make a wider river of lava (double the width).


As a side note, I learned one day how powerful this spell really is and how lame some of the demons are when my player cast a river of lava on top of one. The poor sucker died very very quickly and his bio-regen did nothing for it. there is defiantly one pist off demon spirit somewhere.

I have done it as 'the ground in X area turns to lava' so if there is rock/dirt there its now lava. if there was water...nothing happens. *shrugs* has worked for me, but individual mileage will vary.

I tend to go with the "turns ground to lava" option. I don't allow it to go through solid objects (i.e. you can't start it outside and have it continue into the house beneath the wall). Eventually, the ground will cool, and there will be a scar of rock until it sinks into the earth or gets covered.

I do it so it goes into the ground as well, and it can get pretty deep, going straight into solid rock. Lived in houses are protected because of the threshold (basically an aura for the walls of a house) but walls and public buildings aren't.
It wont melt stone as it cools to quickly but it will set fire or scorch flammable things.
For fun get a fire warlock to cast river of lava down a mountain and surf down it.

and what mineral does the lava turn into when cooled?
I have had players that wanted to mine walls of stone (first eds are permanent) and the lava stream is almost as good an alternative. A fire/Earth warlock could keep a quarry going indefinitely if he does it into prepared channels and/or fill statue moulds.

I've usually depicted it as lava bursting forth from 'point X' and flowing like a river (the way lava does) on top of the ground in the direction decided by the caster. Once the lava has flowed on top of a certain part of the ground, it is now (magically) 'deep', and no longer just on top of the ground. I've also usually prohibited it from being cast on things/places that lava couldn't flow from, similarly to how Call Lighting usually (in my games) can't be cast inside as the lightning will come down from the sky and hit the roof of the building.

Other times running things more mechanically it's just been 'area X is effected by spell Y, it does ZD6 and you all have to roll a 16+ to dodge' and just not thought about it too hard.

The text of the spell presumes that the lava is in the ground.

One of the best use of the spells was the idea for the making of the road (which I didn't use...Because I didn't want to risk it catching stuff on fire. However it was a great idea).

I have also used it to heat up a river and heat a town in the winter, dispose of trash and other waist, dispose of vampire's coffins, cremate vampire, etc.

From the description, it transforms whatever material is making up the ground into lava, making up a lava moat. Hence why it can be cast under enemies' feet. However, I'm having a hard time figuring out how it can have a current if it has a definite end point and doesn't require additional time to reach that end point. Does it just pump continuously out one end and disappear back into a crack in the ground at the other end?

Edit: And what happens after the spell ends? Does the dirt magically come back? Is there a trench? Or (less likely since the spell having a duration would hint the lava goes away at the end) a hardened lava field?

The least side effect riddled option I can think of would be:

Temporary confluence of the elemental plane and the material world which replaces the ground (no water, air, buildings) in a predetermined area with a region of lava. At the end of the duration the ground is returned. Anyone/thing that fell in is left on top of the ground, it's magic why not. Because it is a dimensional pocket, it does not have to conform to physical laws of the world around it: it can have current without anywhere to flow from/to, it wont overflow its banks and run downhill if cast on a slope, etc.

I've always played it where basically one end was the mouth of the volcano, and lava was pouring out that end, and flowing to the other, on top of the ground (but, depending on the type of ground, it could be melting it down).

At the end of the spell, the lava disappeared, but whatever damage it did to ground or buildings was permanent.

Mark Hall wrote:I tend to go with the "turns ground to lava" option. I don't allow it to go through solid objects (i.e. you can't start it outside and have it continue into the house beneath the wall). Eventually, the ground will cool, and there will be a scar of rock until it sinks into the earth or gets covered.

100% agreed