Prestidigitate this :)

[Kelb_Panthera]

This's been done before, but i don't want a violation for thread necromancy. Let's have a discussion on the awesomesauce that is everyone's favorite cantrip, prestidigitation.

[Urpriest]

Best target for Persistent Spell in the game? I think so.

[Jolee]

I don't use it very much, I tend to prefer mage hand, ghost sound, and dancing lights when performing low-level mischief. Although, I can imagine having a lot of fun with the homebrewed Greater Prestidigitation (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132097) if I ever played a bard.

[Snake-Aes]

Best target for Persistent Spell in the game? I think so.

I always weasel a way to get a permanent prestidigitation on my characters if they have any sense of
1) Drama
2) Elegance
3) Hygiene
4) Pranks
5) Nabbing Money (you know those keys? Yeah...)

[Kelb_Panthera]

Best target for Persistent Spell in the game? I think so.

nah, that's a waste of a 6th level slot or 6 turning attempts. Now a 900gp item of prestidigitation at-will....

[Kelb_Panthera]

okay...... c'mon people. Prestidigitation is made of awesome*and win, anybody got some good stories about its use?

[Randel]

I like how in 4th edition that wizards get it as an at-will ability.

Though, considering that prestidigitation can move stuff around, I'm surprised there's not a way for you to use it to mess with locks. Maybe not necessarily to be used instead of Knock, but give a little bonus to lockpicking checks. Use the prestidigitation to jiggle the mechanisms around so its easier to turn the knob or use lock picks on it.

[Yuki Akuma]

okay...... c'mon people. Prestidigitation is made of awesome*and win, anybody got some good stories about its use?

What about you?

[FelixG]

turn the blackguards armor pink just before battle to fluster em

[Snake-Aes]

I like how in 4th edition that wizards get it as an at-will ability.

Though, considering that prestidigitation can move stuff around, I'm surprised there's not a way for you to use it to mess with locks. Maybe not necessarily to be used instead of Knock, but give a little bonus to lockpicking checks. Use the prestidigitation to jiggle the mechanisms around so its easier to turn the knob or use lock picks on it. Well, it isn't able of very fine movement...but there's always place for that +1 competence bonus. It's holding one of the picks or whatever.

[Esser-Z]

Remember that flavor something usage?

Try it next time you're fighting nonsapient predators. Make their allies taste delicious, and the party taste awful!

[Lysander]

My favorite use is having access to Hammerspace in that you can pull objects out of thin air for emphasis. It's like a limited form of being the genie in Aladdin.

[Esser-Z]

I like how in 4th edition that wizards get it as an at-will ability.

PF does this, to, though with all cantrips--and without the limiting to wizards*.


*Wizards and people willing to sacrifice a couple hundred GP and their hands slot.

[Kelb_Panthera]

What about you?

unfortunately, I don't have much in the way of good stories involving prestidigitation. I absolutely love the spell, though.

[Esser-Z]

A sorcerer in one party once used it, combined with a ludicrous bluff check, to trick a guard into thinking she had proper ID.

[tcrudisi]

I had a party use it to make a normal cup look like an artifact they were supposed to be carrying (an artifact cup). It wasn't an up-close inspection, they knew that anyone who saw it would see it from a distance, so the illusion was good enough. This allowed them to trick the bad guys into thinking they were carrying the artifact when they really weren't.

[DaMullet]

In the last game I played, my Knight wore a cloak made out of a Cloaker (actually, it just WAS a Cloaker, we'd finished fighting two of them and this one collected a good 10 different status effects over the course of the battle, 5 inflicted by me, so I kept it), so we used Prestidigitation to make it smell like Ex-President Taft (it wasn't a very serious campaign). That gave it 11 status effects, and I carried it with me until the day of my death. It's become something of a running gag since then.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I made a spell once that if cast on a corpse caused blood to appear on the hands of the murderer. Had no other in game drawback to it, your hands just oozed blood.

Several folks thought it was way too overpowered... for blood to ooze from his hands, because of the societal impacts of a game labeled as a murder.

I had to mention that a nice persisted prestidigitation could make the same affect, and in fact could imagine someone doing just that so as to implicate others.


As for a use in game, I once made a section of wall transparent so as to see inside. DM allowed it.

[Cuaqchi]

Killing vampires. Seriously, use Prestidigitation to polish something to a mirror shine and redirect a natural light source through the vampire's lair to his casket.

[Sindri]

Killing vampires. Seriously, use Prestidigitation to polish something to a mirror shine and redirect a natural light source through the vampire's lair to his casket.

Won't work. The vampire's sunlight vulnerability specifies direct sunlight, IIRC. Otherwise the moon would reflect enough to make vampires extinct.

It would let you make a mirror to repel them with...

[Cuaqchi]

Won't work. The vampire's sunlight vulnerability specifies direct sunlight, IIRC. Otherwise the moon would reflect enough to make vampires extinct.

It would let you make a mirror to repel them with...

This assumes that the cosmology and physics are identical to this world. Without some other mystical effect treating moonlight as reflected sunlight also results in lycanthropy being triggered by mirrors as a fully revealed mirror would be akin to the full moon reflecting the sun's light across its entire surface. Even using your weakened approach to only repeling vampires it can fry them easily as you need only direct the sunlight into his casket and he is nullified; unable to rest during the day, so he is forced to sleep during the night when he would otherwise be out causing havoc.

In the end a level 0 spell ends the threat of a high level undead bad guy. The other deadly cantrip is Create Water, as you only need to hold him down as you use Create Water on a slope above him. The water will flow down hill and activate the clause of vampires in running water. :smallbiggrin:

[Greenish]

Prestidigitation has a range of uses (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20010707) not listed in SRD.

Firefinger is a particular favourite. A mighty mage who can toss around fireballs ought to be capable of lighting her own pipe.

[Ajadea]

I combined dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation, and insane Bluff checks to convince a tavern owner I was like a 15th level sorcerer and/or he was hallucinating/insane. Later, as a bit of a continuity nod, we went to the tavern in the down down the way, and a guy told me his friend, a barkeep from a town 'that-a-way' was terrified of magic ever since he met a scary witch.

[crizh]

We were playing through Heart of Nightfang Spire. The Vampire BBEG was using sigils carved in the walls to scry on us and drop Acid Substituted Lightning Bolts on us.

My Gnome started using Prestidigitation to cover the Sigils with dirt. No line of effect = no effect. The Vampire was a level 13+ IotSV (I think) and I was able to defeat his annoying scry and die crap with a Cantrip. A Cantrip that was a racial Sp no less. Smug mode activated.

[Randel]

Wait... according to that wizards article about prestidigitacion it can dampen objects to give them slight resistance to fire.

Could you cast prestidigitation on the inside of a glass bottle or canteen to have it slowly fill with water?

[Greenish]

Wait... according to that wizards article about prestidigitacion it can dampen objects to give them slight resistance to fire.

Could you cast prestidigitation on the inside of a glass bottle or canteen to have it slowly fill with water?I'm afraid the "can't duplicate existing spell" clause kicks in.

[Snake-Aes]

Wait... according to that wizards article about prestidigitacion it can dampen objects to give them slight resistance to fire.

Could you cast prestidigitation on the inside of a glass bottle or canteen to have it slowly fill with water?

objects created by prestidigitation are gone quickly. It'd just disappear after a while. The general idea is that it shouldn't give a direct mechanical benefit.
Making poison taste like sugar? Go ahead.
Deterring starvation? No deal.

[Dirty n Evil]

Currently playing in an Eberron game in which the artificer has a wand of prestidigitation. The running game is that it's like Doctor Who's sonic screwdriver... is has so many varied uses. One of us invariably trills a whistle while it's being used to the effect. But the game master doesn't complain because it's never used as a skeleton key solution for most of the bigger problems in the campaign. That, and it's handing having something that magically cleans off the characters when they get covered in ash / sewage / mud, like always seem to happen when adventuring.

[Darklord Xavez]

I think an epic spell version of Prestidigitation would be fun.


"Your village is gone! You village is in my pocket! There is an elephant under my hat! It stinks of cheese!"

Yeah.
-Xavez

[The Rabbler]

I think an epic spell version of Prestidigitation would be fun.


"Your village is gone! You village is in my pocket! There is an elephant under my hat! It stinks of cheese!"

Yeah.
-Xavez

You could do that anyway. lots of reduce objects with a really high caster level; summon an elephant; cast protection: TO.

[Darklord Xavez]

You could do that anyway. lots of reduce objects with a really high caster level; summon an elephant; cast protection: TO.

Actually, the village just seems to be in my pocket. It's actually still where it normally is, but it's invisible.
-Xavez

[Volos]

A guy at my college was running some random one-shot D&D games, and for some reason his DMPC was able to use Prestidigitation for everything. Everything. The guy had this cantrip making 'save or die' type of effects. He was doing everything from summoning the god of death to turning entire towns into cheese. He obviously didn't read the whole "can't duplicate existing spell" clause. (Perhaps we should add a "No retards" clause?) After two games and four different groups, he became excommunicated from the local social network of gamers. Now he sits in the corner wondering why no-one will play with him.

[RandomNPC]

If you can prestidigitate a save or die, the DM needs to look up the rules on DM says what goes, and the definition of the word No.

I had a group of characters not want to risk falling off a slick area, so while one person ripped up a sleeping bag to use as rags to wipe up an area the caster just started cleaning it all up, and fighter guy was left without a sleeping bag.

that's about all I've got.

[Yuki Akuma]

If you can prestidigitate a save or die, the DM needs to look up the rules on DM says what goes, and the definition of the word No.

He said "DMPC". Do you know what a "DMPC" is?

Hint: it's the DM's PC.

[Morquard]

Ok, so far I thought you cast Prestidigitation - who ever thought this was a cool name? I always have to check how its spelled. And probably made a mistake still.
Anyway, I always thought you cast it once for a specific task like "clean my clothes" and then again for "float my toothbrush over here" and once more for "spoil the mean barbarian's food, because he bullied me all day", but now I read it again and now I'm not so sure. It seems you cast it once on yourself and then for 1 hour you can do all those things basicly at will?
How does it really work?

Someone mentioned an 900 gp item of pre-whatever at will. Is that really the price for it? I know the spell is mostly fun and gives no real ingame advantage, but it still seems a tiny bit low.

[Snake-Aes]

Yes, during the hour you can do those tricks at will.

[Morquard]

Ah now I start to see why people like that spell.
I definitely need to get a wand of it for my rogue, to annoy my fellow partymembers ;)

[Smeggedoff]

Someone mentioned an 900 gp item of pre-whatever at will. Is that really the price for it? I know the spell is mostly fun and gives no real ingame advantage, but it still seems a tiny bit low.

Lessee, My 3.5 calculations according to the DMG (I'm sure people will be along presently to correct me if I'm wrong)

A wondrous item that allows a use activated or continuous spell costs (spell level x caster level x 2000) with a variable modifier depending on the duration of the spell, Prestidigitation being an hour I believe comes between 10min/level (x1.5) and 24hr (x0.5) so I take it as 1.

Similarly, The spell level of 0 causes problems. A maths boffin could argue that the presence of the 0 makes the entire equation = 0 (might be wrong there but I'm a tad maths rusty), should they do this, hit them. I assume the spell level to be 0.5, cheaper than a first level spell but fits into the equation.

Being 0.5 x 1 x 2000 x 1 = 1000gp

Not sure where 910 came form, perhaps from an artificer with the correct feat.

This is the base price however so the market proce would be 2000

(or 2000 base price and 4000 market price if you didn't use 1/2 as the spell level)

hope this helps

[Zeful]

I assume the spell level to be 0.5

This is the actual rule. Whenever spell level for 0-level abilities shows up (arcane, divine, psionics (3.0 psionics had "talents" 0-level psionic powers)) and isn't for Save DCs it's 1/2 a spell level. It should be in the Magic Overview section on Spell levels in the PHb.

[Greenish]

Similarly, The spell level of 0 causes problems. A maths boffin could argue that the presence of the 0 makes the entire equation = 0 (might be wrong there but I'm a tad maths rusty), should they do this, hit them. I assume the spell level to be 0.5, cheaper than a first level spell but fits into the equation.

Being 0.5 x 1 x 2000 x 1 = 1000gp

Not sure where 910 came form, perhaps from an artificer with the correct feat.0.5 (spell level, as per the guidelines 0 -> 0.5) x 1 (CL) x 1800 (for Command word item) = 900gp.

Note that those are from the guidelines for pricing magical items if the standard model doesn't apply.

[Jaidu]

In a 4e game, we were all aboard a ship and everyone's clothes had gotten soaked in a storm. I started using prestidigitation to clean and dry clothing. The party rogue, who went by "the Filthmonger," complained loudly about this, so I re-dirtied his clothing. Not exactly the best story ever, but it was fun at the time. Generally, prestidigitation was fun to mess with the Filthmonger. He hated sudden, unexpected washings. Really, washings of any kind.

[Kelb_Panthera]

0.5 (spell level, as per the guidelines 0 -> 0.5) x 1 (CL) x 1800 (for Command word item) = 900gp.

Note that those are from the guidelines for pricing magical items if the standard model doesn't apply.

That's how I got the figure. Honestly seems a bit pricey to me, given how limited the uses for prestidigitation are, but I still gladly pay it.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Y'know, according to that link you can dampen something for an hour.

Does this not mean you can dampen a cloth and keep squeezing it into your mouth and thus never become thirsty?

[Daremonai]

You could probably do that (depending on the interpretation of "damp"), but the water would only last for an hour, so you'd still dehydrate.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

You could probably do that (depending on the interpretation of "damp"), but the water would only last for an hour, so you'd still dehydrate.
Yeah, but if you can keep squeezing for an hour you could get a day's worth of water from a cantrip.

[Snake-Aes]

Yeah, but if you can keep squeezing for an hour you could get a day's worth of water from a cantrip.


Prestidigitations are minor tricks that novice spellcasters use for practice. Once cast, a prestidigitation spell enables you to perform simple magical effects for 1 hour. The effects are minor and have severe limitations. A prestidigitation can slowly lift 1 pound of material. It can color, clean, or soil items in a 1-foot cube each round. It can chill, warm, or flavor 1 pound of nonliving material. It cannot deal damage or affect the concentration of spellcasters. Prestidigitation can create small objects, but they look crude and artificial. The materials created by a prestidigitation spell are extremely fragile, and they cannot be used as tools, weapons, or spell components. Finally, a prestidigitation lacks the power to duplicate any other spell effects. Any actual change to an object (beyond just moving, cleaning, or soiling it) persists only 1 hour.

You can use it to damp an object. You can't use it to ward off thirst, because it'd go against the "can't duplicate any other spell effects" (create water) and against the spirit of the cantrip (pulling minor stunts).

[Xyk]

As a DM, I encourage creative uses of spells and pointed out prestidigitation to my new players. The sorcerer cast it on the halfling rogue with bluff ranks to bruise him up. He then plated a child that was beaten for sympathy money. Of course, when his line came up he said "give me money." very bluntly. The lady he was trying to con hit him and ran away. He followed her and just took money from her purse with a high sleight of hand roll.

[Snake-Aes]

As a DM, I encourage creative uses of spells and pointed out prestidigitation to my new players. The sorcerer cast it on the halfling rogue with bluff ranks to bruise him up. He then plated a child that was beaten for sympathy money. Of course, when his line came up he said "give me money." very bluntly. The lady he was trying to con hit him and ran away. He followed her and just took money from her purse with a high sleight of hand roll.

Ouch :/ when I'm not feeling creative I just say "I'll roll bluff/diplomacy to beg for some money". Usually the dm doesn't make up a bluff for my character that involves turnips and questionable sexualities.

[Xyk]

Ouch :/ when I'm not feeling creative I just say "I'll roll bluff/diplomacy to beg for some money". Usually the dm doesn't make up a bluff for my character that involves turnips and questionable sexualities.

No, I still have them roleplay bluffs. Their roll determines how easily duped their opponents are. He fell out of the alley after a high roll and said "I was just beaten and mugged by those nasty thugs! I don't know what to do!"

Then she said "What can i do for you, poor little boy!"

"Give me your money."

[FelixG]

No, I still have them roleplay bluffs. Their roll determines how easily duped their opponents are. He fell out of the alley after a high roll and said "I was just beaten and mugged by those nasty thugs! I don't know what to do!"

Then she said "What can i do for you, poor little boy!"

"Give me your money."

the roleplay out the rolls always made me laugh a bit

I generally make my players give a decent idea of what they are saying with their bluff or diplomacy but i know that none of my characters are going to live up to their 20 charisma bards when it comes to making an argument or lieing to someone with glibness applied to their character.

[Snake-Aes]

the roleplay out the rolls always made me laugh a bit

I generally make my players give a decent idea of what they are saying with their bluff or diplomacy but i know that none of my characters are going to live up to their 20 charisma bards when it comes to making an argument or lieing to someone with glibness applied to their character.

Pretty much. No player ever lives up to the levels of their characters, so there's no point requiring them to do it anyway.You still guide the character's actions...but you don't have to justify the rolls. Double standards are not fair.