Ice Floe

Spell — see Magic and Spellcasting for the rules and the Spell Index for the full list.

Arcane 1, Divine 1 Type: elemental (water), wall

Range: touch Duration: 8 hours

This spell instantly freezes a portion of a body of water that the caster touches, creating a flat pack of ice that floats on the remaining water. The ice floe created by the spell may be up to 10’ long and 10’ wide and up to 1’ thick, for a total volume of up to 100 cubic feet. The ice floe’s length, width, and thickness cannot exceed the length, width, and depth of the body of water from which it is created. It cannot be evoked so that it appears where objects or creatures already are. The water inside a living creature cannot be turned into an ice floe, no matter how large the creature is.

As ice is less dense than water, the top of the ice floe will be about 10% higher than the surface of the water. A typical 1’ thick ice floe will stick up about 1.25” above the water. The ice floe can support up to 5lbs of creatures or objects per cubic foot while remaining afloat, but any additional weight will cause the ice floe to sink below the surface of the water. If the caster concentrates while touching the ice floe, he can magically move it across the water at a combat speed of 20’ per round.

The ice floe is only as resilient as any other large block of frozen water. It counts as a structure with AC 2 and 5 shp. Man-sized creatures, large creatures, and light ballista cannot deal damage to the ice floe. Huge creatures, non-magical fire, and magic can deal 1/5th damage. Artillery, gigantic creatures, and magical fire can deal full damage.

When the spell expires or is dispelled, the caster loses the ability to magically move the ice floe, and it will no longer remain frozen by magic. If the ambient temperature is notably above freezing, the ice will melt more or less instantly; if the temperatures are lower, the ice may thaw more slowly or remain frozen until temperatures rise (it is not magically heated back up).