Can a wizard fabricate stairs out of a castle wall?

Question

The fabricate spell can do a lot of interesting things, but I'm not sure as to what counts as raw materials.

• To build a brick building, would newly crafted unused bricks be a raw material or river bed clay?

• If bricks can be used, could a wizard use a broken house as material to build a new building?

• Could the wizard use an intact building for materials for his tower?

Finally, could a wizard turn someone's fortifications into a staircase leading right to them?

Assuming: space and area limits for the spell are being observed and the wizard has all nessary tool proficiencys to do this.

Answer 1

5E D&D doesn't have a strict definition of the word "raw," but the examples given in the first paragraph of the spell description appear to set some clear parameters. The raw materials listed are all in a totally natural, unworked state. Although there's an example of fabricating "a wooden bridge from a clump of trees," there's nothing along the lines of fabricating a bridge from a pile of lumber.

If we want to be safe and take a conservative reading of the spell, then river bed clay is a great candidate for a raw material, but newly crafted bricks (and used bricks from a broken house) don't seem to be in the spirit of the spell as worded. Once that clay got baked into bricks, it's no longer "raw" in any conventional sense.

I could see a DM taking "raw" in a somewhat metaphorical sense and allowing the spell to affect what we would more rigorously term "unworked" material. This would stretch the terms of the spell quite a bit, but wouldn't seem to be grossly out of line with the flavor or power level of the spell.

But stretching the spell so far as to "turn someone's fortifications into a staircase leading right to them" can't really be defended. Those bricks have been baked, assembled, mortared together. There's nothing raw about them. If the spell had been intended for that type of transmutation, it would simply refer to "materials."

Answer 2

Just use stone shape. It is one spell level lower, and does the job.

Fabricate won't affect worked stone. The spell is very clear in the wording, you need raw materials. A building is not raw material.

Replying to those that stated that raw is not defined in 5e: 5e does not need to define raw. It uses natural language, and the dictionary already does it perfectly.

a (1) : being in or nearly in the natural state : not processed or purified and c : not being in polished, finished, or processed form

A castle wall is in processed form. The materials used to build it are no longer raw. (by myself). comment source

Regarding the spell wording:

You convert raw materials into products of the same material. For example, you can fabricate a wooden bridge from a clump of trees, a rope from a patch of hemp, and clothes from flax or wool.

Choose raw materials that you can see within range. [...]

The stone shape spell can affect a section of a wall, if it is made of stone:

You touch a stone object of Medium size or smaller or a section of stone no more than 5 feet in any dimension and form it into any shape that suits your purpose. [...]

the downside is twofold:

• Stone Shape is a touch spell

• Stone shape only affects 1/8th of the area of fabricate (a 5ft square section of stone, versus eight 5ft cubes)

But it can be done with a 4th level slot.

Answer 3

I would say it depends upon what the castle wall is made from.

Stone roughly thrown together or chistled down to be shaped I would say are raw, because the only change is their size, while if it was made of brick as some others pointed out, I would not consider them raw since the material has been added to and worked much harder.

A final note the mortar keeping all of the stones or bricks together would most certainly not be a raw material, so it would not be affected.

Answer 4

It's interesting to note that previous versions of the Fabricate spell did not specify raw material: "By means of this spell, the wizard is able to convert material of one sort into a product that is of the same material." Though the examples given were the same, it could be argued then that worked materials were usable to power the spell.

In 5e, the Fabricate spell actually specifies the term raw material: "You convert raw materials into products of the same material." So what is a raw material?

According to Wikipedia: "A raw material, also known as a feedstock or most correctly unprocessed material, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished products, energy, or intermediate materials which are feedstock for future finished products." Here, the specification is unprocessed; however, lumber (wood that has been processed into beams and planks) is considered a raw material in the Wikipedia article.

This corresponds to BusinessDictionary's definition of raw material: "Basic substance in its natural, modified, or semi-processed state, used as an input to a production process for subsequent modification or transformation into a finished good." Here, semi-processed is one of the accepted states.

It seems like bricks and planks could be argued to be raw materials so long as they had not been fashioned into a finished product, like a wall. You might also be able to argue that a pile of loose bricks retrieved from a ruined house would also be acceptable as raw material since they are no longer part of a finished product.

The nature of the fortification in your question would be important to determine whether this spell would work. Is it a natural cliff face? Yup, Fabricate away. Packed earthen ramparts? Maybe, up to DM intepretation (it's a finished product, but the earth is still raw and unprocessed). Castle wall? No, not in 5e.

Answer 5

Since the spell actually uses the word "fabricate" to describe the process, the word itself has two relevant definitions.

1. to make by art or skill and labor; construct
2. to make by assembling parts or sections.

Definition 2 would strongly suggest that it is only substitutes the assembly portion of the process, so bricks (not clay) would be required. In definition 1, however, "labor" could be stretched to encompass the shaping and firing of clay which would put this firmly in GM-fiat territory. I would personally go with definition 2 but as with most things it is most important to make the ruling clear and not change it without careful consideration and notice.

Regardless, bricks are definitely a viable option for the spell and given this, one could theoretically make a new structure from a preexisting one, provided there were enough intact pieces that could be assembled in an appropriate manner. Remember fabrication is assembly, not disassembly, so you probably couldn't turn a 10ft x 10ft wall segment into a 100ft by 1ft border marker. Not unless you were willing to break it apart first. Although the spell does appear to allow for the reworking of raw materials into other shapes so again, GM-fiat. Likewise, a critical raw material for a permanent brick structure is mortar (or the raw materials thereof). However, if permanency and stability are not required mud (especially clay-mud) can make a suitable stabilizer.

By extension, an intact building could be used as raw materials. However, if you rule that the spell cannot disassemble constructed materials the building will need to be less than the area of effect for this to be useful in any way.

Likewise, the final question depends on the GM ruling. But that said, while clever, there are infinitely many ways to construct a means of scaling the fortifications without potentially destabilizing the structure.

Which brings us back around to the reason I would not allow the spell to disassemble pre-constructed materials. The ability to use this spell on structures would functionally negate the value of stone fortifications since any spellcaster who can cast Fabricate (a 4th level spell) would be able to selectively remove bricks from the fortification, causing it to collapse, at a greater distance than most medieval siege weaponry works at. I'm not against magic breaking the rules, but why bother to build stone fortifications in such a world?

Answer 6

Can a wizard fabricate stairs out of a castle wall?

Short Answer?

Yes, but it's really not worth it.

Long Answer?

I have to lead off by pointing to KRyans answer regarding what constitutes as "Raw Material" in Can coins count as raw materials for Fabricate?
Example 1: You can make bricks into a 5ft wall, but you can't make bricks into a pot.
Example 2: A raw egg is viable Raw Material to make a Hard Boiled Egg or a Scrambled Egg, but if I crack it out of the shell, I can no longer make it into a Hard Boiled Egg, even if the egg is still raw.

It's really all about context.

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"To build a brick building, would newly crafted unused bricks be a raw material or river bed clay?"

As per the rules of the Fabricate spell: (PHB 239)

If you are working with metal, stone, or another mineral substance, however, the fabricated object can be no larger than Medium (contained within a single 5-foot cube).

Bricks: Valid. Dry-stacking is a documented construction method.
Clay: Even Better. On top of making bricks to whatever specification you want, clay mortar was also commonly used in the medieval era.

However,as both materials are mineral substances you would be limited to building within one 5 foot cube at a time, costing 10 minutes and at minimum a 4th level spell slot each time.

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"If bricks can be used, could a wizard use a broken house as material to build a new building?"
(emphasis mine)

• No. Well, kind of. A wall isn't really raw materials. You'd have to salvage the bricks out of it first.
• See previous point about size limitations for mineral substances.

You may find yourself asking: "But what if the broken house was made of wood?" To that I say: Get out of here we're clearly talking about bricks. But since you asked so nicely, it depends on how much of the wood is salvageable because as per the spell description:

The quality of objects made by the spell is commensurate with the quality of the raw materials.

If this hypothetical broken wooden house had been burned down or smashed to splinters, then that is not a viable construction material for making a new building. Any broken lumber would have to be salvaged first before being used in the spell the same way that it would be used if you were to do this without the spell. This is supported by the requirement for tool proficiency to fabricate things requiring a high degree of craftsmanship, such as building within the increased limitations of reclaimed lumber.

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"Could the wizard use an intact building for materials for his tower?"

• Kind of. See above regarding salvaging materials.

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"Finally, could a wizard turn someone's fortifications into a staircase leading right to them?"

• Kind of. See above regarding salvaging materials.

But bear in mind that even after breaking down the stone fortifications of a castle for raw materials, it would take you 10 minutes and a 4th level spell slot for every 5 feet of stairs you made. Meanwhile, anybody that noticed could try and counterspell you every 6 seconds.

Furthermore, a staircase "right to someone" is a bit subjective. If you spend an hour casting spells the "someone" in question could just leave.

You'd be better off Fabricating a wooden ladder.

Answer 7

I've always viewed any game system as a foundational ruleset. In that regard, it is up to the gamemaster / dungeonmaster to decide upon the rules that apply in their campaign.

So, as the GM / DM, it's kind of your call to make as to what is an acceptable use the spell.

If you're a player, then talk to your campaign's GM / DM.