The spell Shape Water lets a caster animate some water. While the effect is limited to 'simple shapes', lasts an hour, and acts according to your direction, nearly nothing else about the effect is specified. I want to know how the animated water option of Shape Water works and what it is capable of, for example:
Anna the Wizard casts Shape Water animating the water in a 5' hole excavated via Mold Earth. She forms the water into the crude shape of a miniature horse, and attempts to put a miniature saddle on it. What happens? Her weasel familiar attempts to mount the water-horse. What happens? She casts Find Familiar and changes her weasel familiar into a fish, which attempts to swim in the 'horse'. What happens? The 'horse' gallops away. How fast can it go? Does the fish go with it?
Anna casts Shape Water a second time on a second hole, this time animating the water into a 20' radius hollow sphere a quarter-inch thick (the volume works out). What happens? Anna climbs to the top of a 20' tall A-frame ladder and mentally directs the sphere to roll over her so that she is at the center. What happens? Her buddy Bartholemew wants to throw an overripe tomato at her from outside of the sphere (Don't worry, Anna prepared featherfall today). Does she have cover? If so how much? If it is total cover, does that stop Bob from trying to throw the tomato?
Anna then tells the sphere to go knock on the door of Cardamon the Cultist, who lives next door to her in a town 2.5 miles away, and then to find and roll over the unprotected flames she expects Cardamon's kids will have left somewhere in their back yard, and then to track down a copy of the Book of Exalted Deeds and bring it back to her. How much of this can the sphere do?
Anna dismisses her familiar and then the galloping water-horse before casting Shape Water yet another time, on a third hole, this time forming the water into a comically large mallet. She has the mallet spin up into the air and then fall down on practice dummy. Does the practice dummy take any damage? Is it moved? Is it wet? Later, she has the mallet fly around bonking some enemies on the head. What happens?
In general, this spell (and to a lesser extent Control Flames) is often extremely problematic in games I run or play in, essentially requiring the GM to come up with mountains of rulings as to how the nearly endless uses of animated water constructs work, and what they can and can't do. The spell clearly lets you make stuff with the water and have it do stuff, but it feels like there must be a whole bunch of rules somewhere I'm missing or something.
