Wall of Water:3rd-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a drop of water)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
Wall of Water: You conjure up a wall of water on the ground at a point you can see within range. You can make the wall up to 30 ft long, 10 ft high, and 1 ft thick, or you can make a ringed wall up to 20 ft in diameter, 20 ft high, and 1 ft thick. The wall vanishes when the spell ends. The wall’s space is difficult terrain.
Any ranged weapon attack that enters the wall’s space has disadvantage on the attack roll, and fire damage is halved if the fire effect passes through the wall to reach its target. Spells that deal cold damage that pass through the wall cause the area of the wall they pass through to freeze solid (at least a 5-foot square section is frozen). Each 5-foot-square frozen section has AC 5 and 15 hit points. Reducing a frozen section to 0 hit points destroys it. When a section is destroyed, the wall’s water doesn’t fill it.
Spell Lists. Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard
Source: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
PRO’S
- Area Control
- Versatility
- Debuffs
Area Control
So, as always let’s discuss the pros of the spell.
Wall of Water is part of the wall series of spells that are great at controlling the battlefield.
These spells are great for setting up defensive perimeters, trapping enemies, or controlling enemy movements.
As a result, these all do the job well to great depending on scenarios and will always be a solid choice.
Wall of Water, in particular, has 2 forms that you can use: a wall or a circle.
As a result, this spell becomes great for filtering enemies into one path by blocking another with a wall of water, or by creating a defensive barrier to trap an enemy or protect your allies.
All in all, not bad.
Versatility
As talked about before, wall of water is great for controlling an area.
However, the ability to summon water can be used in both non-combat and combat situations.
While talked about more in applications, a few common examples are the use of wall of water to hinder or slow people running away, trapping a person, or blocking dangerous attacks.
In this situation, spells like wall of water have a large degree of versatility as it allows you to create a large construct instantaneously.
Making this a spell limited by the wielder’s creativity in a situation more often than not.
Debuffs
The final big pro to the spell is wall of water has some relevant debuffs in certain situations.
For instance, wall of water will stop most range attacks coming at you, the two most common elements, and make it harder for melee attackers to reach you.
This, while niche, can be the best spell you have if you know what to expect.
CON’S
- Limited Versatility
- Niche Debuffs
- Concentration
Limited Versatility
Ironically enough, while the pro’s are indeed positives, they are often the negatives to the spell as well.
For instance, while wall of water has versatility, it has pretty limited versatility.
The use of wall of water in non-niche settings is much more limited than spells like Fly or Fast Friends.
As a result, the spell will inevitably see less play than others who prefer a utility playstyle.
Niche Debuffs
Moreover, while the debuffs can be game-changing in certain situations, they are only good in those times.
For example, if you are fighting a fire dragon, fire elemental, or anything else that primarily deals fire damage, this is a great spell.
But if you are fighting anything that deals bludgeoning, piercing, slashing, poison, acid, lightning damage, etc, the debuff is useless.
As a result, spells like slow are going to be much more relevant in your everyday encounters and will be a better spell for general application.
That said, this still is a great spell to have for those niche times.
Concentration
Finally, we have the most common debuff to spells, concentration.
Concentration is a great mechanic as it forces spells to be much more planned.
But, because of this, it is a negative for many spells.
After all, casting a spell only to lose access to 75% of your other spells can make a spell detrimental in a battle.
That said, any experienced player can tell you, while concentration is bad, proper planning and understanding can usually remove the issue to be non-existent.
25 USES FOR WALL OF WATER
Now comes my favorite part.
Applications of the spell.
Usually, I will do 1-3 general uses for spells such as sapping sting.
That said, a lot of people think water wall is useless and want to know some creative uses of the spell.
So here are 25 uses of the spell that I could think of or have used in-game.
- Block range attacks
- Kill fire elementals
- Stop fire and ice dragons
- Area control
- Freeze targets
- Water fortress
- Hydrate
- Distractions
- Put out a fire
- Parlor Tricks
- Swim to targets
- Water Slide
- Ice Slide
- Torture (waterboarding being the main example)
- Drowning
- Secret Protection Underwater (who’s gonna see it)
- Trap fire based creatures (fire elementals?)
- Water bed
- Protection from forest fires (used this one recently actually)
- Stop Vampires
- Water art with shape water
- Surfing
- Block known traps
- Target Practice
- Pranks
WALL OF WATER CONCLUSIONS
And there you have it!
25 uses the spell wall of water as well as the pros and cons of the spell.
As you saw, while it has limited uses, the limited uses can be pivotal when they come up.
Making this a great spell with a warning.
Recently I used this spell to protect the group from a forest fire playing a war wizard.
It was a ton of fun and highly suggest checking out my other spells or subclasses to find that perfect fit.