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Assume a high level / epic campaign, and a PC who wanted to create a floating castle or a floating island. Are there any resources in Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition that can allow a player character to do this?

SevenSidedDie
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JasperNakamura
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2 Answers2

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Yes

A few likely options come to mind:

  • Wish. Direct and effective.
  • Divine Intervention. Either the spontaneous will of a deity (possibly in return for some favor), or the Cleric ability of the same name.
  • The rules allow for custom-researched spells. It's the DM's call what the research and casting involves, but this seems reasonable to me as a 9th level spell. A permanent version of the seventh level Reverse Gravity, third level Levitate, or a reshaped, permanent version of seventh level Forcecage.

As do a few unlikely or DM dependent options:

  • A hilarious number of Immovable Rods and sufficiently large stones to form a foundation
  • An equally ridiculous number of flying carpets/brooms
  • A truly absurd number of enslaved befriended Air Elementals or your choice of flying, ethereal creatures
  • @TimGrant recommends getting a Cloud Giant to give/loan/rent you a Solid Cloud (MM 150)
  • In a similar vein, the Elemental Plane of Air also seems to have solid clouds, as well as floating rocks. These rocks may or may not still float if transported to the Material Plane
  • The plane Acheron is made of giant floating iron cubes. Steal one or two of those and hope they still float in the Material Plane
  • Ask your DM if the Dragon Turtle, being a quadruped, is sufficiently horselike for the Horseshoes of a Zephyr to allow it to float 4 inches off the ground. Sadly, the Tarrasque is bipedal
  • The rules for creating a sentient magic item are, ah, nonspecific as to its size, so perhaps you could create a single enormous, sentient flying carpet
Joel Harmon
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    +1 for an absurd number of immovable rods, which is now the cannon way to get floating islands in all my future campaigns – Randomorph Jan 12 '17 at 00:52
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    You could also include acquiring a “solid cloud” from a cloud giant and building your castle on it. (MM p.150) – Tim Grant Jan 12 '17 at 02:31
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    Sword Coast Adventure Guide also explains there were once many floating cities held aloft by magic until the Fall of Netheril, now the only remaining one in the Faerun is Chessenta... They don't say what spell was used, but it does mean that it cannon that such things exist in the 5e. – J. A. Streich Jan 12 '17 at 03:53
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    @Randomorph Canon is books and lore while cannon is artillery – KorvinStarmast Jan 12 '17 at 04:23
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    @KorvinStarmast then I will make it canon that I have Immovable Rod Cannons as well. – Randomorph Jan 12 '17 at 04:27
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    @J.A.Streich Before the fall of Netheril the laws of magic in that setting were substantially different. The limit to 9th level spells in third edition, for example, was described as a consequence of the fall: the new Mystra decided that letting people have access to higher level spells was a bad idea, since that led to the Fall, and simply adjusted the Weave to prohibit such powerful magics (though in principle her Chosen or anyone she gave the nod of approval to could bypass them; and then there's the Shadow Weave...). Somewhere the floating city spell was described as a 10th lvl ritual. – zibadawa timmy Jan 12 '17 at 06:12
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    As with many of the best answers, all of the options in your second set of options could be brilliant plot hooks. If you run Storm King's Thunder there may be opportunities to acquire a Solid Cloud, while it could be entertaining to track down and steal every Immovable Rod in the land. Personally, I'd like to see how a party goes about capturing a dragon turtle, fitting horseshoes to it, and convincing it to sit still while you build a castle on it (rather than it laying waste to whole villages in some kind of absurd slow-motion aerial assault). – anaximander Jan 12 '17 at 10:46
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    @anaximander I think there's also some great opportunity in the first set, too. Imagine a conversation starting this way: "Yo, Kord, buddy. I've been thinking. You're pretty strong, but I bet you couldn't hold this castle up in the air for, like a thousand years." – Joel Harmon Jan 12 '17 at 12:43
  • Silver Dragons can craft solid clouds iirc, bartering with them might be easier than some of your options, depending on campaign world obviously. "downside" is that the dragon is sort of a roommate and if he/she dies so does your stronghold. – Slagmoth Jan 12 '17 at 13:38
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There's an epic spell from 3.5e that you could use as a template when researching your own 5e epic spell:

Raise Island

Conjuration (Creation)
Spellcraft DC: 38
Components: V, S, XP, Ritual
Casting Time: 65 days, 11 minutes
Range: 0 ft.
Area: 100-ft.-radius hemispherical island
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
To Develop: 360,000 gp; 8 days; 14,400 XP. Seed: conjure (DC 21). Factors: change area to 10-ft. radius, 30-ft. high cylinder (+2 DC), change radius to 100 ft. (+40 DC), change height to 1,000 feet (+133 DC), permanent (×5 DC). Mitigating factors: increase casting time by 10 minutes (-20 DC), increase casting time by 65 days (-130 DC), nineteen additional casters contributing epic spell slots (-361 DC), one additional caster contributing one 6th-level spell slot (-11 DC), burn 2,000 XP per epic caster (-400 DC), spell only works on liquid (ad hoc -20 DC).
The character can literally raise a new island from out of the sea, bringing to the surface a sandy or rocky but otherwise barren protrusion that is solid, stable, and permanently established. The island is roughly circular and about 200 feet in diameter. Raise island only works if the ocean is less than 1,000 feet deep where the spell is cast.

XP Cost

2,000 XP.

If you want it to float elsewhere, there's a 9th level spell for creating one's own personal demiplane including whatever climate one desires, etc.

Michael
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    Why the 11 minutes at the end of 65 days? That seems kind of oddly specific. – Michael Shopsin May 01 '23 at 17:07
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    @MichaelShopsin: Mitigating factors: increase casting time by 10 minutes (-20 DC), increase casting time by 65 days (-130 DC). So I assume the base casting time was 1 minute. – Peter Cordes May 03 '23 at 04:14
  • @PeterCordes I'm unfamiliar with the 3.5e up-casting and DC rules so the casting time stood out for me, thanks for filling me in. – Michael Shopsin May 03 '23 at 13:52
  • @MichaelShopsin: I'm also unfamiliar with them, I just copy/pasted that from the quote block and guessed at an interpretation. – Peter Cordes May 03 '23 at 14:04
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    @PeterCordes these costs are specific to 3.5e epic spell creation–there is a spell DC decrease as the casting time approaches 10 minutes, and a linear decrease for any additional time beyond that. The base casting time is indeed 1 minute, as you suspected. – Michael May 04 '23 at 18:53