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I was recently looking at the spell Wall of Stone and I was thinking about whether or not it would be possible to create an almost impenetrable cube using this spell.

Here is my math:

In the spell description it says “The wall can have any shape you desire” and "you can crudely shape the wall to create crenellations, battlements, and so on." I want my wall be in the shape of a 5 ft by 5 ft cube without a bottom: that is, it has a ceiling and four walls but no floor, since the spell description says it must “merge with and be solidly supported by existing stone” we'll have it connect to the stone on the ground.

Then we consider how many hit points it would have: We have “ten 10-foot-by-10-foot panels” to work with. Each panel can be any shape we wish, and could be seen to be made up of four 5 foot by 5 foot panels, so we could consider that we have 40 5ft×5ft panels that are each 6 inches thick. If we divide those 40 panels among the 5 sides of our cube (being the four walls and ceiling) each side can get 8 panels. 8 panels × 6 inches per panel × 30 hp per inch equals 1440 hit points per side, and it would seem you get 7200 hp for the entire cube (in case for some reason your enemies decide to not concentrate their fire on one side).

Would this work? Am I forgetting any rules that say I can't do something like this?

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2 Answers 2

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The spell cannot create 5x5 panels

Which means the math in the question is moot.

The spell states, it creates "ten 10-foot-by-10-foot panels." at 6 inches thick. Or, "10-foot-by-20-foot panels that are only 3 inches thick."

The closest a character could do is create a box that has two panels on each side (qty 8) and two more on top to use up the 10 panels. This would give them a foot of wall on each side.

So the math would be...

12" thick sides x 30hp = 360 hp per side

4 walls + 1 roof = 5 surfaces x 360 hp = 1800 hp total for the structure

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    \$\begingroup\$ @Consus No, it means you can shape the panels how you wish... a box, a long wall, a maze. But it is quite clear that there are only two "shapes", 10x10 and 10x20 panels \$\endgroup\$
    – MivaScott
    Commented Mar 27, 2022 at 21:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Consus: even in that question, they are only making 10 panels of 6 inches each, for a total of 1800 hp to bash through. \$\endgroup\$
    – Nobody the Hobgoblin
    Commented Mar 27, 2022 at 21:39
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    \$\begingroup\$ "You can crudely shape the wall to create crenellations, battlements, and so on." These are not made up of 10ft by 10ft panels, so it can be make shapes other than just panels \$\endgroup\$
    – Consus
    Commented Mar 27, 2022 at 21:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ This answer would be better without addressing the OP directly in the answer. Essentially, drop the "you". Suggest something like "Using 5x5 panels is not available." \$\endgroup\$
    – GcL
    Commented Mar 28, 2022 at 3:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Consus you're allowed to chip away parts of the wall for crude shaping, but that doesn't mean you can use the chippings to create additional panels. You could maybe even get away with chipping it into 5ftx5ft panels, but you'll still only have 10 of them. \$\endgroup\$
    – Erik
    Commented Mar 28, 2022 at 8:12
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This won't work exactly as you envision

Wall of Stone says:

The wall is 6 inches thick and is composed of ten 10-foot- by-10-foot panels. Each panel must be contiguous with at least one other panel. (...)Each panel has AC 15 and 30 hit points per inch of thickness.

So you can combine the panels in any way, as long as they rest on a solid foundation, but they still are at most six inches thick and are 10x10. If you could instead create more 5x5 panels, the spell would say so.

You can form the panels reducing the amount of stone in them to create finer shapes or supports if it is a bridge:

You can crudely shape the wall to create crenellations, battlements, and so on. (...) If you create a span greater than 20 feet in length, you must halve the size of each panel to create supports.

However, I think you would be able to create a box of stone of 2x5 10x10 panels, doubling the wall strength on each side and the top to 12 inches, and a total of 360 hit points on each side. If you were hiding in this box, it still would give you a pretty solid buffer for your enemies to bash through.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The spell states "the wall can have any shape you desire." I assume that that means that I can be more creative than just arranging the panels in different patterns. I have seen questions where people talked about making domes with Wall of Stone, which means that they broke the panels up into thousands if not millions of extremely small panels. \$\endgroup\$
    – Consus
    Commented Mar 27, 2022 at 21:34
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    \$\begingroup\$ People do all kinds of fun and crazy stuff playing this great game. That does not mean they are playing it by the rules. \$\endgroup\$
    – Nobody the Hobgoblin
    Commented Mar 27, 2022 at 21:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ This answer would be better without addressing the OP directly in it. \$\endgroup\$
    – GcL
    Commented Mar 28, 2022 at 3:18
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    \$\begingroup\$ @consus if the 10x10 (and 10x20) panel stipulations are meaningless, why are they there? A good rule of thumb in thinking these things through is that major statements like are put into spell descriptions for a reason, not for no reason. \$\endgroup\$
    – Novak
    Commented Mar 28, 2022 at 3:19
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    \$\begingroup\$ Exactly... Compare Wall of Ice to Wall of Stone: Wall of Ice can specifically be a dome, sphere, or 10-foot panels; Wall of Stone can only do the panels. If they meant for Wall of Stone to be able to make domes and such or be freely shapeable, they'd have said so. \$\endgroup\$
    – Darth Pseudonym
    Commented Mar 28, 2022 at 13:55

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