# Prestidigitation: What is it good for?



## dreaded_beast (Apr 11, 2003)

anyone remember an article from dragon mag during 2nd ed which expanded on the usefulness of the cantrip spell?

i believe that prestidigitation is the 3rd equivalent of cantrip, so has anyone found any useful uses for it?

i'm thinking that it lasts for 1 hour, so imagine the kind of interesting things you could do during a dungeon crawl, tavern encounter, etc. thing is, i haven't really thought or seen any interesting uses for this spell. the irony is that i believe this is one of the more useful 0-level spells since it has such a "general" application.


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## Hygric (Apr 11, 2003)

A great little spell.  The only better 0th is good old detect magic.   

I'm going to badger my DM tomorrow to let my wizard permanency it on himself.  Somehow, the idea of a 12th level wizard that can only do minor cantrips for 4 hours each day just doesn't feel right.


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## Bauglir (Apr 11, 2003)

The key to prestidigitation's power is in it's application on non-spellcasting opponents.

Anyone with no spellcraft skill won't be able to tell a prestidigitation from a Power Word: Kill.

I played in a game once where a necromancer kept his (non magic-using) underlings in line via a 'dread curse' that would strike them dead instantly were they disloyal.  Prestidigitation ofc, not that they knew that.


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## Darklone (Apr 11, 2003)

Check out Tome&Blood, they have a list of uses for this spell.


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## Fenes 2 (Apr 11, 2003)

In my campaigns prestidigitation is most often used to clean clothes etc. after the party got dirty in an adventure.


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## GuardianLurker (Apr 12, 2003)

How to use Prestidigitation:

1) Buy/Find a copy of the old Unearther Arcana from the days of 1.5e, read the cantrips.
2) Anything that isn't covered by the current 0-level spells is now under Prestidigitation (like Clean, Untie, Bee)
3) Practice how to say "Prestidigitation" so your tongue doesn't trip over itself.

Option: Use Presti-digit-ation to Bluff your GM into allowing wild in game effects.


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## bret (Apr 12, 2003)

Most useful thing I've done with it: Use the 'Dry' ability on someone who was fighting a Delver. Acid is a liquid, I just dried all the acid off them.

Normal uses: Cleaning clothes, drying off, quickly removing signs of a battle (such as blood stains).

It can be a very useful spell.


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## Victim (Apr 12, 2003)

In general, most of the time you see new cantrips printed, the effects could be done with prestidigitation.  My bard uses it to keep clean herself up after fighting or marching, repel non-threatening bugs, and stay dry in the rain.


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## rexartur (Apr 12, 2003)

Absolutely nuthin

Uhhhh

Say it again!


(Sorry, actually it gets used a lot in my games...I just couldn't resist)


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## Celtavian (Apr 12, 2003)

*Re*

My arcane casters usually use _Prestidigitation_ to clean clothes, mend clothes, groom myself, clean my room, turn pages, and any other small mundane task not covered by other spells.


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## Ziggy (Apr 12, 2003)

IMC the sorceror used it to nullify the scent of some creatures inside a room. 

.Ziggy


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## ThorneMD (Apr 12, 2003)

There are many great uses, but in the campain I play in it is house ruled.  We ruled it so that any magic user with it on their spell list can cast it spontanisly(sp?).  This way a 11th level wizard can cast does 3 fireballs and still be able to dry himself quickly when wet.  

Uses
1. Dry the wizard after falling into a lake.
2. Clean oneself after getting something dirty.
3. Create a small light(candle)

Well these are my main uses, but there are tons of others that escape me at the moment.


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## Al (Apr 12, 2003)

From Tome & Blood's article 'Fun with Prestidigitation':

Change - Transform an object of Fine size into another one.
e.g. Change a piece of paper into a rose.

Chill - Reduce an object's temperature by 40F (but not below freezing)

Clean - Self-explanatory

Color - Self-explanatory

Dampen - Self-explanatory

Dirty - Self-explanatory

Dry - Self-explanatory

Firefinger - Ignite combustile materials, can light a torch as a standard action (rather than a full-round), light campfires etc.

Flavor - Self-explanatory

Gather - Pick up e.g. coins from a selected area

Polish - Self-explanatory

Sketch - Self-explanatory.  Very useful when trying to make artistic impressions of people when you have no ranks in Craft (painting)!

Stitch - Self-explanatory

Tie - Self-explanatory.  Counts as taking 10 on Use Rope, but far quicker and can be done at distance.  

Warm - Increase temperature of object by 40F, but not above 140F.

Presumably the reverse of these are also possible (e.g. Untie). 

They are remarkably handy at low-levels.  I remember once we had to infiltrate a bar which we thought was a front for a thieves' guild, so the party wizard got a job 'flavouring' the food (using Prestidigitation) for the customers.  It enabled him to talk to the owners, and get plenty of gossip.  Handy spell, if used intelligently.


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## Oni (Apr 12, 2003)

Not sure how useful but the most memorable use I've gotten out of prestidigitation was when one party member tricked another one into eating an extremely hot pepper.  The one who was tricked lost his temper and not knowing who did it tried to force feed the thing to the tavern manager.  Using a stilled, silenced prestidigitation my sorcerer made the pepper taste bland.  


Well I guess thats not all that useful in a dungeon, I think in that kind of environment the only really helpful thing I've done with it was clearing a path up some treacherously slick, blood covered steps (they where edged on one side by quite a drop).


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## dreaded_beast (Apr 12, 2003)

interesting uses. does anyone think it loses it flavor at higher level campaigns?


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## Ferret (Apr 12, 2003)

"My god that dragon exploded!"
Casts Presti-gather
"Coins, scales the lot!"

High level appeal!


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## jerichothebard (Apr 14, 2003)

Prestidigitation actually saved my character's life once.  We were in a large dwarvin underground city, and (to make a long story short) I wound up seperated from the party.  I used prestidigitation's 'color' application to leave (bright purple) directions for my party on where to come rescue me. 

Rescue is, by the way, the correct word to use for that particular situation.

*sigh*

my gnome is reckless enough to qualify as an honorary halfling.


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## Olive (Apr 14, 2003)

we always used it to clean up the blood. But then again, Olive the Wizard had poor morals...


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## Henry (Apr 14, 2003)

Hygric said:
			
		

> *I'm going to badger my DM tomorrow to let my wizard permanency it on himself.  Somehow, the idea of a 12th level wizard that can only do minor cantrips for 4 hours each day just doesn't feel right. *




You know, if you REALLY wanted it for longer, you could spend some of your other spell slots on preparing it...


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## MarauderX (Apr 14, 2003)

For my bard, it's gonna have some uses in entertaining his way out of some situations soon.  I think of it also as the 'pull the rabbit from the hat trick' to "teleport" an item out of sight, ie Willow.  

It also makes you look super-cool when you can light your finger on fire to ignite something and then blow it out western-style while winking at the ladies... 

I think it could also easily lend to a +2 circumstance bonus to diplomancy (that guy with the cool magic, I wish I was his friend!) or bluff ("I know you can't read the language, but this signature at the bottom is from the high elf Lotisymal")

The disappearing coin trick didn't work too well in stopping an inter-party fight (confusion) with the party fighter & cleric yesterday, but at least they both had a common dislike that brought them together - the new bard.


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## MerakSpielman (Apr 14, 2003)

Hmmm....

Could you use it to make _yourself_ taste awful? Could be useful against swallowing creatures...


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## Murrdox (Apr 14, 2003)

You could use it to cover your skin in purple polka dots, and try to convince the Troll that if he eats you, he'll get a nasty disease.


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## Taloras (Apr 14, 2003)

Lessee....i like all the ideas presented so far....we mainly use it to clean off.  Every spellcaster i play takes the spell.  Hows this?  a wizard w/ a low con (and therefore, cant drink much alcohol) wants to impress the fighter.  does prestidigitation b4 going into the bar.  uses prestidigitation to make every drink that passes his lips turn to water.  easy enuf. especially when you order the strongest alcohol.


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## Thimble the Squit (Apr 14, 2003)

Taloras said:
			
		

> *Lessee....i like all the ideas presented so far....we mainly use it to clean off.  Every spellcaster i play takes the spell.  Hows this?  a wizard w/ a low con (and therefore, cant drink much alcohol) wants to impress the fighter.  does prestidigitation b4 going into the bar.  uses prestidigitation to make every drink that passes his lips turn to water.  easy enuf. especially when you order the strongest alcohol. *




I wouldn't actually allow that, since _purify food and drink_ is a 1st-level spell.  I might allow it to not taste 'hot' so your wizard doesn't grimace when knocking back the shots (which could be worth a Bluff bonus or something).  It shouldn't prevent him from getting drunk, however.  Nice idea though.

My standard use for _prestidigitation_ is to shave in the morning, clean and press my robes, polish my shoes and straighten out all those annoying cricks in my back from sleeping on hard ground.  Of course, the night before, if I'd had another cantrip prepared, I'd have made that hard ground nice and comfy...

This spell gives wizards and bards personality.  While your fighter is grumbling and miserable in the morning, with bad helmet hair and knots in his shoulders from the third night in a row sleeping in chanmail, your bard is groomed and clean and presentable.  Now, if that isn't the definition of a high Charisma, I don't know what is!


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## frankthedm (Apr 14, 2003)

I would let the prestidigitation work like that for the hour, but then the substance reverts back and wizard will be in BIG trouble.


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## Storminator (Apr 15, 2003)

IMC the bard went over the battle field sorting dead from merely wounded. The wounded got a tiny flame over them, so the cleric could quickly run from wounded to wounded, healing until his spells ran out. 

PS


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## Rel (Apr 15, 2003)

This spell may not have the sort of "bang" of an attack spell.  But I'd take it over Ray of Frost any day.

I was playing a Wizard in a previous campaign and when the party got ready to camp in the evening, I said, "I'm casting Prestidigitation."  The DM said, "And doing what with it?"

"Well, first I'll clean all our clothes and give us a nice, slightly minty fresh smell.  Then I'll Gather up all the sticks out of the area where we want to pitch our tent so we won't have to sleep on them.  I'll use Firefinger to set the sticks on fire.  When the fighter gets back from gathering other firewood, he'll find that his ale is nicely Chilled.  Then I'll put the stew pot on the fire and give it a head start to boiling by Warming it up (to 140 F).  After that I'll prepare the stew ingredients, making liberal use of my spell to keep them Clean (nobody likes gritty stew) and to add Flavor to them.  If there's time left over after that, I'll Sew any minor rips and tears in the party's clothing and Warm myself up a nice, after-dinner cup of tea."

Great spell.


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## delkain (Apr 15, 2003)

I actually use the spell quite often. (Mostly  cleaning my robes) But one of the more useful applications is the sweep as I was able to sweep away a dangerous mold that the party encountered. 

Delkain


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## Taloras (Apr 15, 2003)

Thimble the Squit said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I wouldn't actually allow that, since purify food and drink is a 1st-level spell.  I might allow it to not taste 'hot' so your wizard doesn't grimace when knocking back the shots (which could be worth a Bluff bonus or something).  It shouldn't prevent him from getting drunk, however.  Nice idea though.
> *




Well, it does say it can change stuff, as long as it stays in the same category.  And as long as you leave before the hour is over.....and get a remove poison....lol.


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## dreaded_beast (Apr 16, 2003)

think it could be used to make another NPC's clothes smell bad? like at a party and make it appear that the local lord has stepped in something he wasn't supposed to?


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## Keith Laine Burns (Oct 15, 2017)

*Prestidigitation and the rogue.*

Ok so I have had a few excellent uses of prestidigitation with IRL games. Rogue sneaking up on camp of sodliers. Wizard not far off, cantrips the fires out and wets (soils) each torch.  Presti a small drag figure and puts a light behind it to cast on the wall a dragon. Soldiers freak and begin to corral around the areas furthest from the shadow. They now are surprised with a knife in the back and rolling to see if he gets caught after each sneak kill. 

Also phantom pyre. Make a guards torch extinguish and light yours at the same time off to the side. A ghost whisper floats about. Then The fires switch again. 

In battle I've used personally the cantrip to distract guards in the strike of thing. "I use presti to make glittering balls that glow. I want to the hit the goblins eyes when he lifts his sword."  Fine, goblins successfully hits, but as he swings his sword light hit his eyes all sparkly, goblin drobs the sword to rub his face, use a bonus action?  
Combat2: it's your turn what do you want to do. There's three men approaching with daggers. "I heat their handles to burn their hands, and say I am the Lord, your hands shall feel the scorn of attacking me and not worshipping me" 

Also. I've used it as a rogue sorcerer, throw my voice and create a body odor in a different opposite facing direction. Knife their back. 

Presti a trap to look normal and they fall in. 

Survive a blizzard. Protect against ice attacks. Heat yourself up or your armor a bit. 

Protect from fire by dampening and cooling off. In a Forrest fire set by a mad necromancer like I once was, youd be cooling off and dampening everything too. 

It's been used to create a beacon or a lighthouse on a cliff. My dm was saddened by the ease we had. We where supposed to build a light house. took a broken sheild from a guard. Got drift wood. Cantriped mold earth to make a circular slab put that on a rolling ball bearing made out of earth. Dried drift wood and set ablaze created two small figures to hold shield. Presti and mold earth. Done. 

I never get disguise self. If I can change the colors and smell. Nobody would recognize me for the most part.


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## Richards (Oct 15, 2017)

My son's gnome fighter used _prestidigitation_ to randomly change a different party member's hair color for an hour each day - usually something obnoxious, like light green or neon pink.  (And he was sure to occasionally use it on himself as well, so nobody'd wonder why he was being avoided.)  Sometimes he'd then use _ghost sound_ to make the sound of fluttering wings and stifled giggles in the area.  He had the whole party convinced they were being stalked by mischievous, invisible fairies.

Johnathan


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## Greenfield (Oct 20, 2017)

Keith Laine Burns said:


> Ok so I have had a few excellent uses of prestidigitation with IRL games. Rogue sneaking up on camp of sodliers. Wizard not far off, cantrips the fires out and wets (soils) each torch.  Presti a small drag figure and puts a light behind it to cast on the wall a dragon. Soldiers freak and begin to corral around the areas furthest from the shadow. They now are surprised with a knife in the back and rolling to see if he gets caught after each sneak kill.
> 
> Also phantom pyre. Make a guards torch extinguish and light yours at the same time off to the side. A ghost whisper floats about. Then The fires switch again.
> 
> ...




Several of the uses you mention are borderline illegal, and a couple flat out don't work.

You can warm, cool, clean or soil up to one cubic foot of non-living per round.

So cooling and dampening your surroundings or yourself in a fire?  A cubic foot of surroundings maybe, but not yourself.  And "soil" doesn't usually equal dampen.  

It can't duplicate other spell effects, so voices and sounds are out.  Use Ventriloquism or Ghost Sound for those.

Similarly you can't "presti' a trap to look normal".  That would take an actual illusion spell like Silent Image.

Not sure how you mold earth with it either.  You can lift up to a pound of something, slowly, and I suppose you could shape a one pound ball of mud into a ball or disk in the same way, but you could do it faster by hand.

The spell description says it can't do damage, so the idea of using it in place of Heat Metal to burn people's hands by warming their weapons?  I don't see it.  Also, "Warm" isn't "heat to painful temperature".  

The spell says it can't break a spell caster's concentration.  Distracting Goblins with sparkly balls?  Sure.  Blinding them, even for a moment, by aiming those sparkly balls at their eyes?  A real stretch, at best. 

Don't get me wrong, it's a bloody useful spell, one of my favorites, but what you're describing really isn't supported by the spell description.

But hey, if the DM says it's okay and everyon'e having fun...


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## Greenfield (Oct 20, 2017)

I may have been a bit hasty.  Apparently the Mold Earth you mentioned was a cantrip in its own right, not a use of Prestidigitation.

Can't find a reliable source for it though, outside of 5e, which isn't what we're talking about.


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## Savnock (Nov 5, 2017)

Mechanically, i found the cleaning-up-oneself utility the most helpful. If your characters have been through a nasty battle etc., they should be utterly filthy. Going straight to the Baron's Hall to get their reward, reporting evildoers at large to the authorities, etc. requires a certain level of respectability. If they're stinky and covered in kuo-toa ichor, trog stench, or whatever, they should at very least take a -2 circumstance penalty on that. Voila, prestidigitation to the rescue!


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## Greenfield (Nov 6, 2017)

Originally that feature was described as a "small whirlwind" that dusted.  It wasn't a shower, shampoo, dry-clean and armor polish" all in one.

The list of things it does has changed from publication to publication, and the interpretations and house rule additions have done nothing but expand with time.


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## Savnock (Nov 6, 2017)

Haha, a clear example of edition-bloat, [MENTION=6669384]Greenfield[/MENTION]!

I do like that a lot of the minor 2nd-ed cantrips got rolled into prestidigitation. Simplicity is nice. As long as it's not creeping into actual-1st-level-spell territory, i have zero problem with it doing a wide range of things... just not deep ones.


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## Greenfield (Nov 6, 2017)

For a while there was the generic spell "Cantrip", which covered pretty much all of them.

I think Change was my favorite though.  Why use Knock?  "Change Locks to Bagels" did the job nine times out of ten.

The big thing on all versions though is the caveat, "Can't duplicate the effects of any other spell.".  Since there are spells to cover pretty much everything (limited Wish, Miracle and Wish included), technically no version of Prestidigitation should ever work.  Everything it can do can be accomplished with another spell.

It even lists some:  You can, slowly, raise a weight of up to a pound, it says.  Duplicating the effects of Mage Hand, another Cantrip, and Telekinesis.  

I like to think of it as the general purpose "I'm a Mage" spell, handling all sorts of minor functions, a convenience.

In one game I had a low level caster who needed money.  (Don't they all?)  He cast Prestidigitation (which lasts an hour), then went into a bar and ordered a jug of the absolute worst rot-gut the man had.  He then made a show of popping the cork, humming a tune, and blowing a note in the open jug.  

Meanwhile he was using the Prestidigitation to change the color, taste and aroma of the contents.  When the bartender saw him pour out a beautiful amber liquid that smelled like top shelf stuff, my character answered the unasked question, "It's a gift of the Fey, that we can make foul things fair, and a meager meal into a feast.", after which he poured a second shot for the man.

We ended up with a deal:  I'd "enchant" a jug of the bad stuff, he'd sell it at top shelf prices, and we'd split the excess profit.

And as long as the customers drank it down within that first hour, it went down smooth and sweet.  It wasn't until the next morning, when hangover time came, that they even had a clue what had happened.

The other players in the game were wondering how I'd done that.  I told them that the Spellcraft DC was 25 or so.  They hadn't seen the spell cast, so they never observed any verbal, somatic or material components.  Each missing component adds 5 to the DC, so if the base is 10 plus spell level ...

They thought my character had these weird Fey powers, and wondered how the DM had let me get away with that.

I worked to maintain that illusion for a long time.  Good fun.


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