Creation: The Right Tool for Any Job
Usable By: Artificer, Sorcerer, Wizard
Spell Level: 5
School: Illusion
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 30 feet
Duration: Special
Components: V, S, M (A tiny piece of matter of the same type of the item you plan to create)
You pull wisps of Shadow material from the Shadowfell to create a nonliving object of vegetable matter within range - soft goods, rope, wood, or something similar. You can also use this spell to create mineral Objects such as stone, Crystal, or metal. The object created must be no larger than a 5-foot cube, and the object must be of a form and material that you have seen before.
The Duration depends on the object's material. If the object is composed of multiple materials, use the shortest Duration.
Material - Duration:
Vegetable matter - 1 day
Stone/crystal - 12 hours
Precious metals - 1 hour
Gems - 10 minutes
Adamantine/Mithral - 1 minute
Using any material created by this spell as another spell's material component causes that spell to fail.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 6th Level or higher, the cube increases by 5 feet for each slot level above 5th.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Creation should feel incredible to use, but it doesn't to me. It should be everything I want in a spell; it's simple, yet opens up a world of options to the caster by offering them any physical object with a minute of casting. I always run into the problem of when would I actually use this instead of just some other magic?
If you need a key or lock pick, knock is a lower level slot and requires nothing fancy to work. A pickaxe can break through a wall, but so can passwall. Rope is fairly abundant in fantasy games typically, and a 5 ft. cube of it is a lot, but wouldn’t fly or feather fall handle that issue better anyway?
There are some cool applications, specifically in forgery. Copying a key can add legitimacy to an elaborate break in scheme, or forging duplicate papers on identical parchment can add legitimacy to fraud. You could try passing off the gems for money but that grift gets old fast and magical merchants absolutely will have detection at the ready for that kind of nonsense.
At its best I see it as a spell for a big aladdin style impersonation event. It can create fine gowns, lavish jewelry, and other expensive presentation pieces to sell a specific lie that holds up to physical inspection. Otherwise, the practical uses for physical objects are tiny compared to the magical options at your disposal.
I encourage you to take creation and use it as often as possible because I crave being wrong here. I want so badly for creation to be the limitless tool of imaginative solutions to weird problems; I just have yet to see it, and have always found better solutions in lower level spells.
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