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I'm playing a 3.5 Druid and I'm looking for ways to weaponize the Create Water spell. My first idea was to create a long, thin column of water some 100 ft above an enemy while Wildshaped in an avian form, as per these posts. Ideally, the water would act like a waterfall or a water jet cutter crashing down on some unsuspecting baddy's head. However, due to spell's limitations on range and volume, by my calculations the best I can do at Level 6 is the force of a fire hose (300 gallons per minute) for about half a second. Not very impressive.

Instead, my thought is to create an amorphous blob of hot, almost boiling water just above an adversary and rely on the heat rather than the force of falling water to do damage. 12 gallons of scalding water to the face is no small potatoes.

My question: is this a reasonable interpretation of the Create Water spell? It doesn't say anywhere in the text that the water must appear at a certain temperature. Similarly, the text never mentions what shape you can create the water in, which seems to be the justification for allowing the water column technique I mentioned earlier. Am I on track here or completely off base?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Since you can't create suspended water anyway with a Conjuration, the thing fails to begin with. \$\endgroup\$
    – user17995
    Dec 4, 2015 at 9:02
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    \$\begingroup\$ I know, I just thought that the specific text of the spell provided an exception and overrode those rules as per this post and this one. \$\endgroup\$
    – proteopneum
    Dec 4, 2015 at 9:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ Are you looking for a RAW answer? Because this is obviously you trying to abuse a cantrip for mechanical gains, which will not fly with just about any DM. \$\endgroup\$
    – Erik
    Dec 4, 2015 at 9:29
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    \$\begingroup\$ The rather well-upvoted, accepted answer to the first question you linked appears to cover that rather well. \$\endgroup\$
    – user17995
    Dec 4, 2015 at 9:37
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Diego Whether it's authoritative enough is beside the point - happens to be a pretty good answer in my opinion, but comments are simply not the place for any quality of answer, good or bad or half-done or whatever. Thanks for being responsive, and thanks for posting it. \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener
    Dec 4, 2015 at 16:44

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No

The description of the spell effect doesn't grant any choices about temperature, so that is not under the caster's control.

Besides…

This spell generates wholesome, drinkable water, just like clean rain water.

…clean rain water isn't boiling hot. The spell's effect simply doesn't cover what you wish to do.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you. I figured the "rain water" specification would get me, but it never hurts to check. \$\endgroup\$
    – proteopneum
    Dec 4, 2015 at 19:51
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The text explicitly says "drinkable water". While that is likely to refer to its toxicity, I'd argue that boiling water is NOT drinkable water.

So I'd lean for a RAW no.

Also, usually conjuration cantrips have very limited offensive ability, so I'd guess that also the RAI should be no.

Note that if you do allow temperature to be in your control, a far more effective way to cast it is as a block of ice dropped on someone's head from high above ;)

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks! I assumed ice was outside the limits of the spell in the same way steam or fog would be because they're not really water. I do have another question though: why are certain spells (conjuration cantrips as you mentioned) not "meant" to be offensive or weaponizable? It seems to me that one should be able to use all the tools at their disposal, not just the ones with the highest level. \$\endgroup\$
    – proteopneum
    Dec 4, 2015 at 19:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ @proteopneum Higher level spells are more powerful. If there was no limitations the game would lose fun, because you'd just use that high level combo all the time, hence spell slots. If low level spells were strong in combat, spell slots would not be effective. Hence "free" spells (cantrips) have limited combat ability, but usually nice narrative aspects: if you play realistically, you need to keep track of food rations, and free water is extremely important. You are encouraged to use them in alternative ways, just not try to break the game, it's about fun after all :) \$\endgroup\$
    – Diego Martinoia
    Dec 6, 2015 at 10:52
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There is nothing in the spell to say that you can change the temperature of the water. It does say this, though (emphasis mine):

This spell generates wholesome, drinkable water, just like clean rain water.

Lacking any other description of the water, it seems clear that it should be conjured at rain water temperatures. Great for waking somebody up, but not for scalding them.

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Specific overrides general. Therefore, the cantrip in question can create the water suspended in the air. However, that doesn't allow the water to deal damage. In fact, the result of the described summoning would be a somewhat extended, but narrow area of rain/drizzle as the water spread out into droplets due to air resistance and turbulence as it fell. (It would also rapidly cool as it fell.)

If you want to make Create Water dangerous, just use it in freezing temperatures.

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