Hiro Quester
2016-02-11, 02:48 PM
After standard action casting of prestidigitation, you have an hour during which the spell can be used to do many useful things.
But the spell text is kinda unspecific about how much concentration or time it takes to use to achieve a particular effect. And how visible is it to others that one is using an already-active prestidigitation during that time?
Much of the answers to these questions are going to be "up to your DM". So how would you rule that it works?
For example, I'm playing a Forest gnome druid, who gets 1/day prestidigitation as SLA. I often have it active when we are doing stuff (use it to clean dust of a map, or dry a party member after a wetting, or clean the blood off the walls after the barbarian just killed someone the wizard wants to impersonate). Now it's active, I can keep using it for an hour to do other things. so I often use it fairly liberally during that time.
I just realized that prestidigitation can be used to move things less than a pound. So, for example, I can use prestidigitation to apply some light gear (necklace, rings, bracers) after wildshaping. Usually I usually have a party member help me put this stuff back on after wildshaping. But often other party members are busy with their own tasks (e.g. we are about to launch a surprise attack). Or I'm off solo scouting in wildshape, and need to change wildshape form. In such cases I could use prestidigitation to put the gear on.
How would this work? How much of my concentration and time does it require to use prestidigitation to, say, "slowly move less than a pound of material", like picking up a necklace and attaching it around my neck?
Time:
Would using it to perform an effect like this in a situation in which I also want to do other things (instruct Animal Companion, cast a buff spell, etc), be
A free action (that might take time, but can be done while doing other things, as you can with speaking)
A swift action (consumes some small part of what you can do this turn),
A whole standard action (like the original casting time of the spell)?
Effort:
Does it require concentration, such that one cannot cast spells in the same round as using a prestidigitation effect?
Or is it such a small mental effort that (like speaking) doesn't really distract you from other tasks during your turn?
If you need to concentrate briefly on this spell while casting a different spell, how high would the DC of the concentration check be:
That of the prestidigitation spell (15+0), to be able to concentrate on it while distracted buy the other spell?
That of the prestidigitation spell were it to have a saving throw (per the rules for concentrating on a spell while another spell affects you)?
Or of the level spell you are trying to cast (15+level) while using a small but distracting mental effort to prestidigitate something.
Visibility
Sometimes the time and concentration doesn't particularly matter (not doing anything else particularly time consuming or cognitively demanding. For example: if, while we are eating dinner, I want to play a trick and make the party Sorcerer's portion of our stew really spicy, it doesn't really matter how long it takes.
But it might matter to getting away with the trick whether the sorcerer (or anyone else) can tell who did that.
Can a spellcraft check reveal that one used an already-active prestidigitation spell to make an effect happen?
Can someone without ranks in spell craft still see that I did something weird?
Would that observer have to be looking very closely at the spellcaster to tell this, or does one have to gesture or speak or make a facial expression ("you have to hold your tongue just so") in some very obvious way when using it, like casting a regular spell?
But the spell text is kinda unspecific about how much concentration or time it takes to use to achieve a particular effect. And how visible is it to others that one is using an already-active prestidigitation during that time?
Much of the answers to these questions are going to be "up to your DM". So how would you rule that it works?
For example, I'm playing a Forest gnome druid, who gets 1/day prestidigitation as SLA. I often have it active when we are doing stuff (use it to clean dust of a map, or dry a party member after a wetting, or clean the blood off the walls after the barbarian just killed someone the wizard wants to impersonate). Now it's active, I can keep using it for an hour to do other things. so I often use it fairly liberally during that time.
I just realized that prestidigitation can be used to move things less than a pound. So, for example, I can use prestidigitation to apply some light gear (necklace, rings, bracers) after wildshaping. Usually I usually have a party member help me put this stuff back on after wildshaping. But often other party members are busy with their own tasks (e.g. we are about to launch a surprise attack). Or I'm off solo scouting in wildshape, and need to change wildshape form. In such cases I could use prestidigitation to put the gear on.
How would this work? How much of my concentration and time does it require to use prestidigitation to, say, "slowly move less than a pound of material", like picking up a necklace and attaching it around my neck?
Time:
Would using it to perform an effect like this in a situation in which I also want to do other things (instruct Animal Companion, cast a buff spell, etc), be
A free action (that might take time, but can be done while doing other things, as you can with speaking)
A swift action (consumes some small part of what you can do this turn),
A whole standard action (like the original casting time of the spell)?
Effort:
Does it require concentration, such that one cannot cast spells in the same round as using a prestidigitation effect?
Or is it such a small mental effort that (like speaking) doesn't really distract you from other tasks during your turn?
If you need to concentrate briefly on this spell while casting a different spell, how high would the DC of the concentration check be:
That of the prestidigitation spell (15+0), to be able to concentrate on it while distracted buy the other spell?
That of the prestidigitation spell were it to have a saving throw (per the rules for concentrating on a spell while another spell affects you)?
Or of the level spell you are trying to cast (15+level) while using a small but distracting mental effort to prestidigitate something.
Visibility
Sometimes the time and concentration doesn't particularly matter (not doing anything else particularly time consuming or cognitively demanding. For example: if, while we are eating dinner, I want to play a trick and make the party Sorcerer's portion of our stew really spicy, it doesn't really matter how long it takes.
But it might matter to getting away with the trick whether the sorcerer (or anyone else) can tell who did that.
Can a spellcraft check reveal that one used an already-active prestidigitation spell to make an effect happen?
Can someone without ranks in spell craft still see that I did something weird?
Would that observer have to be looking very closely at the spellcaster to tell this, or does one have to gesture or speak or make a facial expression ("you have to hold your tongue just so") in some very obvious way when using it, like casting a regular spell?