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Can Spiritual Weapon be used as a platform to stand on; and potentially fly?

You create a floating, spectral weapon within range that lasts for the duration or until you cast this spell again......The weapon can take whatever form you choose.

Assuming that Spiritual Weapon can move in any direction, including up. Could you potentially create a disc to stand on, and then use your bonus action to move 20' while you are on it? (Inspired by scanlan's hand from Vox Machina.)

As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the weapon up to 20 feet

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Correct me if I'm wrong, but a question should be rated based on the quality of the question. Is the question easy for a reader follow? Does the question address an issue that a player or DM may encounter? That sort of thing. The only downvoted question should be one that's poorly written. If someone is posing a question here, it's something they've encountered or are thinking about. A question may seem ridiculous to some, but consider that a player may be new, and every question is a good question. \$\endgroup\$
    – youknowwho
    Mar 3 at 5:51
  • \$\begingroup\$ @youknowwho the Stack model is predicated on the notion that some questions are not good, some are good, some are great (hence upvotes/downvotes). Since we're not likely to get commentary--nor should we expect it--from any of this question's downvoters, I suggest that more-general discussion of why and when to downvote can be found and should be continued on meta. \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60 ♦
    Mar 3 at 14:43

3 Answers 3

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You're looking for the 5th level spell Bigby's hand.

You mentioned in a comment:

The inspiration is Scanlan's hand from Vox Machina

Scanlan's hand is none other than the 5th level spell Bigby's hand. Bigby's hand can do what you're asking about here by "grappling" the caster (or an ally) using the Grasping Hand feature of the spell and then riding around using the hand's movement (without the usual movement speed penalty while grappling). This works because the spell description explicitly tells you how it works. Spiritual weapon has no provision that makes this possible.

enter image description here

Official art of Scanlan with Bigby's hand, by Kit Buss

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It is unlikely to support your weight

The weapon created by spiritual weapon is described as "spectral". There is no 5e definition of this word, but it is typically used for 'quasi-real' spell effects that can accomplish specific tasks but which in other ways are not physical objects. What these effects can do is enumerated in their spell description, but because they are spell effects and not objects we should assume they don't interact in the world in other ways beyond how they are said to.

Can a spectral force inhibit movement or be pushed against? For many effects the answer is no: Armor of Agathys makes armor, Mage Hand produces at most ten pounds of force, and the spectral shield produced by Wild Surge 51/52 interposes itself with attacks but doesn't stop things moving through its space.

Other spectral effects do interact with creatures in ways that can affect movement - the spectral vines produced by the Oath of the Ancient's Nature's Wrath can restrain a target, Spirit Guardians reduces creatures' speeds, and Guardian of Faith occupies its space the way a tangible object or creature might. Of all the spectral effects, the only one that might be able to bear weight is the Guardian of Faith. Because it occupies its space, presumably something landing on it from above or climbing onto it from below would be prevented from reaching the ground.

Since some spectral effects indicate that they can support weight (guardian of faith) while most don't, it is best to abide by the principle of 'spells do (only) what they say they do'. Spiritual weapon doesn't have any language that suggests that it exists physically or that it can be pushed off of, so it doesn't. You might be able to make a shield-sized disc as a weapon, but you wouldn't be able to stand on it - you would simply fall through the empty space.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Reading your argument again, I'm having trouble understanding why the conclusion isn't something like "up to DM" instead of "it doesn't work", since the whole point of the answer is that it's unclear. The object being pass-through or not seems quite subjective as well, especially for an object that's meant to interact physically with the environment (can't cut something if you can't touch it). \$\endgroup\$
    – Matthieu
    Mar 1 at 7:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Matthieu hopefuly more clear? A spiritual weapon sword doesn't cut - it doesn't do slashing damage, it does force damage. It's shape is merely thematic. The uniting principle of spectral effects is that they only exist in the ways they are said to, and not any ithers. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kirt
    Mar 1 at 15:52
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SamLacrumb No, Kirt's answer is showing you examples of other things made of force that specifically say they can do things that Spiritual Weapon doesn't say. Because those caveats and abilities aren't part of spiritual weapon's block, they aren't part of the spell. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Mar 1 at 17:58
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    \$\begingroup\$ @SamLacrumb To reiterate what NautArch said, a wall of force stops things because its description says it stops things. You can parry a spiritual weapon because its description says it is a melee weapon attack and you can parry melee weapon attacks. It's description does not say it is an object; it can't be grabbed and can't be stepped on. It is not an object, it is a spell effect and it only exists in the ways that the spell says it does. \$\endgroup\$
    – Kirt
    Mar 1 at 18:27
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    \$\begingroup\$ Minor nitpick in the answer here; spirit guardians doesn't create difficult terrain, it just halves the speed of affect creatures in its area. \$\endgroup\$
    – InternetHobo
    Mar 15 at 6:30
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There are no secret rules

Spiritual Weapon doesn’t say it can allow you to fly. So it doesn’t.

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