[RPG] Can Shape Water make an ice bridge over water

dnd-5espells

The cantrip Shape Water can freeze a 5' by 5' by 5' cube of water. The water unfreezes in 1 hour.

I've often read or hear that this can be used to make an ice bridge across water, by continuously freezing 5' of water.

However, the spell has stipulation:

If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have no more than two
of its non-instantaneous effects active at a time.

To me this implies that the spell can at most make a 10' long bridge of ice.

Am I missing something, or is the cantrip Shape Water unable to build ice bridge longer than 10'?

Best Answer

You can freeze at most 2 areas of water at a time.

The cantrips Control Flames, Mold Earth and Shape Water indicates that effects are instantaneous by

  1. Including the adjective "instantaneously" in the description of the effect:

You instantaneously expand the flame [...]

If you target an area of loose earth, you can instantaneously excavate it [...]

You instantaneously move or otherwise change the flow of the water [...]

  1. Instantaneous effects are listed before non-instantaneous effects for each cantrip.

  2. Non-instantaneous effects have a duration of 1 hour.

The freezing water effect, in isolation, could be either instantaneous or non-instantaneous. However, if we look at the broader context of the Control Flames, Mold Earth and Shape Water cantrips, we can see that

  1. Its description does not contain the word "instantaneously".
  2. It is listed last, after a non-instantaneous cantrip.
  3. Its effect is reverted after 1 hour.

Hence we can conclude that the freezing water effect is intended to be non-instantaneous, and as such only two such effects can be active at a time.

Related Topic