2023 Advent Calendar Day 7: Flash Freeze (spell)

Flash Freeze

1st level abjuration (ritual), 1 action, Touch, VSM (a piece of dried fruit), 30 days

A Medium or smaller object you touch is instantly frozen and protected by a thick layer of ice. The object gains 30 temporary hit points for the duration. While it has these hit points, it remains inert and physically unchanged, without suffering from any sort of decay, loss of potency, or physical damage whatsoever. When the spell ends, the object has no ill effects from having been frozen. Casting this spell on armor or a shield protects the equipment itself, but does not grant any additional protection to the wearer.

At higher levels, the temporary hit points increase by 10 for each slot level above 1st. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target a Large or smaller object, and the duration is 1 year. When you cast it with a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you can target a Huge or smaller object, and it lasts until dispelled.

A delightfully useless utility spell! Except if you take this spell, you're going to find excuses to use it all the time. Temple crumbling around you? Flash freeze! Rickety rope bridge over lava? Fragile piece of treasure you need to drag out of a dungeon? Friend died and you need to bring him back to civilization for a raise dead? Beefing up fortifications to protect a town? Volatile alchemy you need to transport cross-country? Crumbling scrolls too fragile to handle? Not to mention all manner of pranks, which at higher levels can be permanent...

I think this is my favorite type of spell. Highly specific effects, but powerful, and just begging for new creative uses. Imagine a wizard equipped only with this, floating disk, message, and grease, trying to squeeze every last copper piece from a dungeon like the Grinch stealing Christmas.

Speaking of which, the Christmas theming on this one is a bit of a stretch, but that's alright. It's ice-themed, at least. I have a long list of homebrew ice spells and really wanted to flesh it out with some utility, buffs and debuffs, basically anything other than yet another damage spell. I especially want something that targets a mental saving throw, but haven't come up with something that isn't just a reflavor of hold person or crown of madness.

The spell touches on the rarely-used rules for object hit points, found in the DMG, pp. 246-7. It's actually quite rare for spells to be able to target objects at all, so there's definitely more room in this niche. Another 30 HP is comparable to a Large, resilient object, so this is a significant increase (although I find those HP values a bit low). In many ways, bringing this spell into a game is an invitation to the DM to engage more with destructible environments, item durabilities, and the like. There are a lot of angles that this short-but-sweet section doesn't cover (when you hit a monster, does the sword also take damage?), but to me that's just an opportunity to think more realistically about the game world, instead of being bound to a set of rules.