Purify Food and Drink

[Tanarii]

Has anyone, in a somewhat normal dungeons and wilderness adventures D&D game, ever seen a PC prepare Purify Food and Drink?

Just curious. I was using a treasure generator and a scroll of it came up, and it occurred to me I don't think I've ever seen it prepared by a PC.

Obviously it'd be incredibly helpful in an Intrigue game where you'd expect to worry about Poisoned food. Certainly I'd expect powerful Nobles to have an NPC cast the spell fairly regularly, assuming casters are ubiquitous enough.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Has anyone, in a somewhat normal dungeons and wilderness adventures D&D game, ever seen a PC prepare Purify Food and Drink?

Just curious. I was using a treasure generator and a scroll of it came up, and it occurred to me I don't think I've ever seen it prepared by a PC.

Obviously it'd be incredibly helpful in an Intrigue game where you'd expect to worry about Poisoned food. Certainly I'd expect powerful Nobles to have an NPC cast the spell fairly regularly, assuming casters are ubiquitous enough.

I prepared it. Once. We were in an area where I had been led to believe there were lots of poisons and diseases. It didn't come up. I didn't prepare it the next day.

[Tanarii]

I prepared it. Once. We were in an area where I had been led to believe there were lots of poisons and diseases. It didn't come up. I didn't prepare it the next day.
Were you also led to believe it might get in your own food supply?

I can also see it being useful if you don't have enough food and need to forage, if it's allowed to work on otherwise inedible food (carrion or poisonous in nature). For example in oota.

Edit: Now I'm starting to get adventure ideas. But proper telegraphing would be needed.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Were you also led to believe it might get in your own food supply?

I can also see it being useful if you don't have enough food and need to forage, if it's allowed to work on otherwise inedible food (carrion or poisonous in nature). For example in oota.

Edit: Now I'm starting to get adventure ideas. But proper telegraphing would be needed.

I honestly don't remember. That was the same set of sessions I prepared protection from poison and/or detect poison.

I can see it mainly being useful for the following:

* Convincing a village you're friendlies (food spoilage in the winter's a big problem)
* Sieges
* Intrigue
* Adding recovered but questionable supplies to the party's stockpile
* Games where food spoilage is tracked (houserules?)
* Long sea voyages

Mostly it's a RP spell, IMO. I'm sure it had more weight mechanically in previous editions, where things like that were tracked more religiously.

[Dimcair]

I honestly don't remember. That was the same set of sessions I prepared protection from poison and/or detect poison.

I can see it mainly being useful for the following:

* Convincing a village you're friendlies (food spoilage in the winter's a big problem)
* Sieges
* Intrigue
* Adding recovered but questionable supplies to the party's stockpile
* Games where food spoilage is tracked (houserules?)
* Long sea voyages

Mostly it's a RP spell, IMO. I'm sure it had more weight mechanically in previous editions, where things like that were tracked more religiously.

You forgot the most useful one:

Use it as a cure poison spell.
Step 1: Take bite out of player affected by poison, therefore declaring him food
Step 2: Cast purify food
Step 3: Profit?

[Tanarii]

I honestly don't remember. That was the same set of sessions I prepared protection from poison and/or detect poison.Detect Poison & Disease is a whole different beast. It's extremely useful as trap detector, even with its limitations of being blocked by solid material.

I guess the problem is I don't have a house-rule and/or never ad-hoc'd rulings for spoilage, so it's never been a needed spell.

Now that I think about it, it seems like that'd be a useful house rule for Tomb of Annihilation.

[DrKerosene]

I've been playing an "Orc Chef" for a few levels. Picked druid for all the food related spells.

I've used a few Ritual Castings of "Detect Poison and Disease" during a long RP dungeon where we were all trapped in an ongoing dinner party with guests beings assassinated every day. Establishing the victims were all killed with Purple Worm Poison. I've only cast "Purify Food and Drink" once, during down-time and as a Ritual, to specifically eat a giant poisonous mushroom.

I don't think they're priority spells for a TomeLock or such, but being able to cast them on the rare occassion may be worth keeping a scroll.

[Cespenar]

I prepared and used it once, in Out of the Abyss, to purify some food for a troop since they were getting sick from eating the nearby mushrooms.

It's the age old D&D issue of preparing a niche exploration spell vs. a more combat oriented spell.

It'd be nice if other classes than Wizard also had the ability to cast ritual spells without preparing them.

[JoeJ]

I prepared and used it once, in Out of the Abyss, to purify some food for a troop since they were getting sick from eating the nearby mushrooms.

It's the age old D&D issue of preparing a niche exploration spell vs. a more combat oriented spell.

It'd be nice if other classes than Wizard also had the ability to cast ritual spells without preparing them.

If you use feats, anybody who wants that ability can have it.