[RPG] Can a wizard fabricate stairs out of a castle wall

dnd-5espells

The fabricate spell can do a lot of interesting things, but I'm not sure as to what counts as raw materials.

  • To build a brick building, would newly crafted unused bricks be a raw material or river bed clay?

  • If bricks can be used, could a wizard use a broken house as material to build a new building?

  • Could the wizard use an intact building for materials for his tower?

Finally, could a wizard turn someone's fortifications into a staircase leading right to them?

Assuming: space and area limits for the spell are being observed and the wizard has all nessary tool proficiencys to do this.

Best Answer

5E D&D doesn't have a strict definition of the word "raw," but the examples given in the first paragraph of the spell description appear to set some clear parameters. The raw materials listed are all in a totally natural, unworked state. Although there's an example of fabricating "a wooden bridge from a clump of trees," there's nothing along the lines of fabricating a bridge from a pile of lumber.

If we want to be safe and take a conservative reading of the spell, then river bed clay is a great candidate for a raw material, but newly crafted bricks (and used bricks from a broken house) don't seem to be in the spirit of the spell as worded. Once that clay got baked into bricks, it's no longer "raw" in any conventional sense.

I could see a DM taking "raw" in a somewhat metaphorical sense and allowing the spell to affect what we would more rigorously term "unworked" material. This would stretch the terms of the spell quite a bit, but wouldn't seem to be grossly out of line with the flavor or power level of the spell.

But stretching the spell so far as to "turn someone's fortifications into a staircase leading right to them" can't really be defended. Those bricks have been baked, assembled, mortared together. There's nothing raw about them. If the spell had been intended for that type of transmutation, it would simply refer to "materials."