5

Say I create a spiritual weapon in the form of a (horizontal) quarterstaff. Can I grab it and use the bonus action to move it and myself 20 feet? Say move me across a pit, or allowing me to take the rest of my normal movement, or even avoid introducing and attack of opportunity.

My character happens to have a pole-dancing proficiency... Can she conjure up a pole and perform with it? What about a net, and cradle myself up a tree? "The weapon takes whatever form you choose." Can a spiritual weapon be any object? A Pillow -- I really want to have a pillow fight dealing 1d8+ChMod A bed, a surfboard, a ladder, a chair?

GcL
  • 34,278
  • 4
  • 107
  • 172
JoeA
  • 57
  • 4
  • 2
    This is really two questions that need to be split off from each other - one about whether a spiritual weapon can carry someone some distance as part of its movement, and one about how much control you have over the spiritual weapon's shape and behavior. – Stop Being Evil Aug 06 '20 at 01:21
  • 1
    Very relevant post about moving with your spiritual weapon. – Thomas Markov Aug 06 '20 at 03:55
  • I concur with @StopBeingEvil about splitting this question. I suggest dropping the shape of the spirit weapon from this question as it appears to be dependent on the locomotion aspect. Recommend narrowing it to "Can I grab it and use the bonus action to move it and myself 20 feet?" – GcL Aug 06 '20 at 14:53

2 Answers2

18

No. Spiritual weapon cannot be used for the character locomotion

Spells do what they say they do, and spiritual weapon only has a provision for moving itself. Without an effect for granting move speed or lifting some weight, the spell cannot do it.

Examples of spells that can carry weight or provide movement.

Contrast this to levitate, floating disk, fly, or telekinesis. All of those spells either impart a move speed or directly address moving some weight.

Spiritual weapon lacks any of those abilities. It cannot lift nor drag weight.

Permitting is likely imbalancing.

The proposed use is very clever. Characters with this spell would be gaining 20' of flying movement in addition to their regular move with an additional attack at the end of the move.

Granting some player's characters a very useful and versatile power at a low level can tend to outshine other characters that don't get special provisions. Getting a shorter, but potentially better version of telekinesis as a second level spell strikes me as something that would be one of those powers.

GcL
  • 34,278
  • 4
  • 107
  • 172
0

Not by RAW, but if your GM allows it

Since the spell name says its a weapon, hoverboards and pillows are probably not intended.

By RAW, it seems that one cannot physically interact with the weapon at all, except when attacking someone. This was discussed in this question and is also evident from the description which says a "spectral" weapon.

Concerning the form, the description suggests that it takes any form of weapon since that is the intended use of the spell and since the description gives examples of weapons, e.g. hammer.

Pillow fight is just flavor

Then again, your GM can allow any creative ideas you can come up with. The example of the pillow might or might not fit the tone of your game, but it does not have any balance implications if you do not change attack modifier, damage and so on.

Other things give new powers to the character

"Hover sticks" and ladders give the spell a lot of versatility that is probably not intended, but your GM can totally allow this. Anyway, they already gave you poledance proficiency which does not appear in the rulebook as far as I know. This seems to indicate that your GM has no problem with new ideas and that the surfboard and other stuff might fit the game, so you should totally ask them. When implementing / allowing this in the game, it is important to bear in mind that a) this only fits a game where creative ideas trump hard rules, and b) that allowing this might favor you before other players unless they can also gain advantages by bringing creative ideas on the table.

Anagkai
  • 16,524
  • 6
  • 61
  • 133