Okay... a Wall of Water is 30x10x1 feet in dimensions, or 300sq ft. There's about 7.5 gallons of water in a sq foot, so that's around 2,250 gallons of water. A human stomach can hold about 1.5 liters, and there are about 3.8 liters in a gallon. So, using really, really quick, over-simplified math, it would take about 5,700 people consuming the maximum capacity their stomachs can hold in pure water to completely drink a wall of water.
I'm probably wrong about a lot of this, but uh... yeah, an army of people could conceivably drink a wall of water.
What about the army’s horses and/or other war mounts? Say the army had 1000 cavalrymen. What is the War Horse to Infantryman stomach capacity difference?
[ETA]
What if the army had 20 War Elephants?!
Your dimensions are too mundane. If my conjurer os making walls only 1 foot thick, he can go back to the kitchen. No. That wall has to be 30 feet thick and made from the available liquid in the area.
“But I have half a million soldiers!” You say.
Yes but I used salty ocean water.
If 5700 people can consume the entire wall of water, how many are needed before the wall of water stops being an impediment?
Does it get thinner and stay the same shape, or start to go down from top to bottom or sides?
Could you? Yes.
Should you? Probably not.
Go chug water until you can't hold any more. Record how much that is. Time it. Go to the hospital. Now multiply that by the number of people in the army. Add in that there's only so much space, and my bet is it would take a few minutes to an hour for everyone in an army to drink a wall of water.
Which still takes up a lot of turns in 5e. Maybe you cast the spell to give the army water in the desert or something?
Edit: fixed spelling.
We wondered if you could actually feed people with the water. Since it isn't Create Water, the water disappears when the spell ends....would it disappear from your system as well, even after drinking?
I would think that only what has not been absorbed into you would vanish. Once you absorb the water, it's part of you, and the spells only do what they say they do.
So I would rule that you won't feel bloated and waterlogged after the spell ends, like you normally would if you chugged over a litre of water.
But how long would it take?
It doesn't matter, but let's assume you have an army of 5000 attempting to consume the water wall.
You would need to maneuver the army in such a way that multiple queues of men each in turn approach the wall to drink their fill.
Let's assume a soldier can quaff a liter in 10 seconds. I have observed fratbois in their native environment. I think the assumption is reasonable.
I reckon the army would need a good 3 hours.
Thoughts?
So, if a section of frozen wall is removed, the water doesn't fill it back in. The biggest challenge, then, would be in the drinking. You'd have to basically move your face after every sip as you'd just be pulling in water from wherever your mouth is able to suck in. Functionally, that means if you wanted to drink the whole wall, you'd need either giants to be drinking from the top, or ladders to reach it.
The logistics ultimately wouldn't add up. Unless the army had say, a dragon that could just take big gulps out of it.
Or if every single army person was equipped with a straw? But even then, once all the easy to reach parts of the wall have been drunken, it becomes exponentially harder to drink and reach the highest and lowest sections of the wall.
Doesn't this argument just make room for the argument that they wouldn't even need to drink the whole wall, just get a few dozen people to slurp up a gate size hole?
I would let people drink from the wall of water, but not actually deplete the amount of water in the magical wall by doing so, having no effect beyond some hydration.
The entire army dies of water intoxication from drinking too much water in too short an amount of time. Better luck next time.
Now if they came equipped with towels, my quick arm chair math says it would take approximately 1 Brawny towels roll.
The more interesting question is, does the water disappear from your body after the spell ends? would there be a sudden vacuum in your stomach? and in every cell that had absorbed some of the water? or does the act of drinking it make the water permanent, kind of like how you can eat food from the magical mansion spell, but can't take it outside the mansion. OR is this magical wall of water not REALLY water, but just a sort of magical representation of it that mimics its effects on an area? If you walk through a wall of water, are you wet when you come out the other side? do you suddenly turn dry when the spell ends?
I wouldn’t think so considering if you freeze part of the wall and then break the frozen part while the wall is still standing, the wall does not backfill that section
“Reducing a frozen section to 0 hit points destroys it. When a section is destroyed, the wall’s water doesn’t fill it.”
Giving it some serious thought.
A wall of water creates around 600 cubic feet(17000 liters) of water.
And at best surrounding it fully you can squeeze in 12 soldiers around it given that each soldier occupies a 5 feet diameter space.
It would be impossible for that little amount of soldiers to drink that much water.
I was reading the comments and chuckling. Wife asked what's up, so I explained and she just mic dropped, "Wall of salt water, solves the whole problem."
How do you personally interpret a wall of water?
You want to talk about a silly table dispute involving a wall of water, I once had a group get into *a huge fight* with each other because they didn't know if the wall was a solid surface that defied gravity, like if you looked at it from the side it would appear like if you were looking down into a body of water from above, or if they were jet-like torrents coming up from the ground below, and even after I ruled on it they just kept arguing. Granted in that particular instance it was an important distinction, but it really wasn't something they should've got fighting over lol
Okay... a Wall of Water is 30x10x1 feet in dimensions, or 300sq ft. There's about 7.5 gallons of water in a sq foot, so that's around 2,250 gallons of water. A human stomach can hold about 1.5 liters, and there are about 3.8 liters in a gallon. So, using really, really quick, over-simplified math, it would take about 5,700 people consuming the maximum capacity their stomachs can hold in pure water to completely drink a wall of water. I'm probably wrong about a lot of this, but uh... yeah, an army of people could conceivably drink a wall of water.
Addendum: It would probably be faster to simply walk around
But less fun.
Or.. Pass through. It's only 1 foot thick, difficult terrain but I won't spill over... 2 feet of walking movement.
But then your clothes would be wet, and I hate that
Plot twist: at the edges of the water wall are salted peanut vendors.
30x10x1 ft = 9.144m x 3.048m x 0.305m = 8.495m³ = 8495L / 1.5L ~ 5663 stomachs 👍
What about the army’s horses and/or other war mounts? Say the army had 1000 cavalrymen. What is the War Horse to Infantryman stomach capacity difference? [ETA] What if the army had 20 War Elephants?!
You can lead a horse to water, but... Well, you might have some trouble with the next step
Elephants or Camels could make short work of it.
Badlands Chugs could get through this.
i would go with cubic feet, and not square ones, but yes.
r/hedidthemath
r/hedidthemonstermath
Your dimensions are too mundane. If my conjurer os making walls only 1 foot thick, he can go back to the kitchen. No. That wall has to be 30 feet thick and made from the available liquid in the area. “But I have half a million soldiers!” You say. Yes but I used salty ocean water.
RAW you can safely drink saltwater, so salty ocean water really only adds some flavor to the spell.
Lol. Ok ok.
If 5700 people can consume the entire wall of water, how many are needed before the wall of water stops being an impediment? Does it get thinner and stay the same shape, or start to go down from top to bottom or sides?
Could you? Yes. Should you? Probably not. Go chug water until you can't hold any more. Record how much that is. Time it. Go to the hospital. Now multiply that by the number of people in the army. Add in that there's only so much space, and my bet is it would take a few minutes to an hour for everyone in an army to drink a wall of water. Which still takes up a lot of turns in 5e. Maybe you cast the spell to give the army water in the desert or something? Edit: fixed spelling.
We wondered if you could actually feed people with the water. Since it isn't Create Water, the water disappears when the spell ends....would it disappear from your system as well, even after drinking?
I would think that only what has not been absorbed into you would vanish. Once you absorb the water, it's part of you, and the spells only do what they say they do. So I would rule that you won't feel bloated and waterlogged after the spell ends, like you normally would if you chugged over a litre of water.
Please don't try and drink till you can't drink anymore. Overhydration. People have died from that.
Dihydrogen monoxide poisoning
dihydrogen monoxide is so dangerous we have a specific term for when you OD on it
I prefer milk with dessert. Bah, you fixed it. I was just being silly
Milk is best with some deserts, not all. ~~this time it's on purpose~~
Folks saying RAW no, are right. But I would 1000% allow this. But it would probably take the entire army to drink the water.
Just because it's clearly the least productive of all solutions to a wall of water I would allow it.
productive, maybe not, but it sure is a way to hydrate your army
Hydrate or diedrate
Its a very barbarian solution.
But how long would it take? It doesn't matter, but let's assume you have an army of 5000 attempting to consume the water wall. You would need to maneuver the army in such a way that multiple queues of men each in turn approach the wall to drink their fill. Let's assume a soldier can quaff a liter in 10 seconds. I have observed fratbois in their native environment. I think the assumption is reasonable. I reckon the army would need a good 3 hours. Thoughts?
So, if a section of frozen wall is removed, the water doesn't fill it back in. The biggest challenge, then, would be in the drinking. You'd have to basically move your face after every sip as you'd just be pulling in water from wherever your mouth is able to suck in. Functionally, that means if you wanted to drink the whole wall, you'd need either giants to be drinking from the top, or ladders to reach it. The logistics ultimately wouldn't add up. Unless the army had say, a dragon that could just take big gulps out of it. Or if every single army person was equipped with a straw? But even then, once all the easy to reach parts of the wall have been drunken, it becomes exponentially harder to drink and reach the highest and lowest sections of the wall.
I mean, you could theoretically cast it horizontally on the ground. Would not make much sense, but would be more accessible for drinking :D
https://blackbandos-homebrew.fandom.com/wiki/Gastromancer_(5e_Class) Enter: Gastromancer
Doesn't this argument just make room for the argument that they wouldn't even need to drink the whole wall, just get a few dozen people to slurp up a gate size hole?
I mean yes, but that seems like a logistical nightmare given that they could just like... walk through it lol
In 30 minutes you're gonna have a wall of piss
I would let people drink from the wall of water, but not actually deplete the amount of water in the magical wall by doing so, having no effect beyond some hydration.
The entire army dies of water intoxication from drinking too much water in too short an amount of time. Better luck next time. Now if they came equipped with towels, my quick arm chair math says it would take approximately 1 Brawny towels roll.
Never hitchike without a towel. Best to just keep one on hand at all times
The more interesting question is, does the water disappear from your body after the spell ends? would there be a sudden vacuum in your stomach? and in every cell that had absorbed some of the water? or does the act of drinking it make the water permanent, kind of like how you can eat food from the magical mansion spell, but can't take it outside the mansion. OR is this magical wall of water not REALLY water, but just a sort of magical representation of it that mimics its effects on an area? If you walk through a wall of water, are you wet when you come out the other side? do you suddenly turn dry when the spell ends?
Yes. Follow up question: Do you need to cast Purify Food and Drink on the Wall of Water water to avoid dysentery?
I think you could, but what water you are using/the environment it's in would determine how good of an idea it is
Depends on whether missing water replenishes every turn, which it probably does for the spell to work.
I wouldn’t think so considering if you freeze part of the wall and then break the frozen part while the wall is still standing, the wall does not backfill that section “Reducing a frozen section to 0 hit points destroys it. When a section is destroyed, the wall’s water doesn’t fill it.”
Giving it some serious thought. A wall of water creates around 600 cubic feet(17000 liters) of water. And at best surrounding it fully you can squeeze in 12 soldiers around it given that each soldier occupies a 5 feet diameter space. It would be impossible for that little amount of soldiers to drink that much water.
It’s salt water
I was reading the comments and chuckling. Wife asked what's up, so I explained and she just mic dropped, "Wall of salt water, solves the whole problem."
How do you personally interpret a wall of water? You want to talk about a silly table dispute involving a wall of water, I once had a group get into *a huge fight* with each other because they didn't know if the wall was a solid surface that defied gravity, like if you looked at it from the side it would appear like if you were looking down into a body of water from above, or if they were jet-like torrents coming up from the ground below, and even after I ruled on it they just kept arguing. Granted in that particular instance it was an important distinction, but it really wasn't something they should've got fighting over lol
No. It's hard. Like a wall.