[RPG] Could you use shape water to cause erosion

dnd-5espells

On further study of the shape water spell (from Elemental Evil), it says that you are able to freeze water as an action, so if you transform it into ice (expanding the water in the process), could you repeat use of it to slowly erode such things as locks or hinges, breaking them enough so they become inoperable?

Best Answer

Purely at the permission of your GM. It's physically reasonable, but clearly outside the wording of the spell. Some GMs will look at that an say, "that's a clever idea, sure." others will look at it and say "that's clearly more powerful than the spell is intended to be, no." 5e gives a lot of latitude to the GM in terms of rule interpretation. So if it's not clearly covered by the spell description, it's up to the GM's interpretation.

As a comparison, Arcane Lock is a second level spells that locks doors and/or windows (with some other benefits) so you're talking about using a cantrip in place of a 2nd level spell, which a DM may say is over powered.