By employing an animate rock spell, the caster causes a stone object of up to the indicated size to move (see the 6th-level animate object spell.). The animated stone object must be separate (not a part of a huge boulder or the like). It follows the desire of the caster--attacking, breaking objects, blocking--while the magic lasts. It has no intelligence or volition of its own, but it follows instructions exactly as spoken. Only one set of instructions for one single action can be given to the animated rock, and the directions must be brief, about a dozen words or so. The rock remains animated for one round per rank. The volume of rock that can be animated is also based on the rank of the caster--2 cubic feet of stone per rank, such as 24 cubic feet, a mass of about man-sized, at rank 12.
While the exact details of the animated rock are decided by the DM, its Protection is no worse than 7, and it has 1d6 hit points per cubic foot of volume. It uses the attack roll of the caster. The maximum damage it can inflict is 1d4 points per rank. Thus, a rank 12 caster's rock might inflict 12 to 48 points of damage. Movement for a man-sized rock is 60 feet per round. A rock generally weighs from 100 to 300 pounds per cubic foot.
The material components for the spell are a stone and drop of the caster's blood. |