Prestidigitation can you choose the "soil" and how much "soil" is produced.

[kamap]

If I cast prestidigitation to soil for example a bucket that fits in a cubic foot, can I choose what to soil that bucket with and how much "soil" does it create?

Can I get a bucket load of 1 cubic foot of mud, flour, oil, dust, ...

Also if the object can be compressed or folded to fit in that cubic foot can I soil or clean that or a part of it, like worn clothing is bigger then a cubic foot when worn, but when folded its smaller, so do I have to fold it and then cast or can I just cast it while it is worn as long as the total volume of the thing I want to soil or clean is smaller then 1 cubic foot?

I can't soil the floor cause the "object" "floor" is bigger then 1 cubic foot.
Though if I want to soil part of the floor, I can just get a pebble throw that on the ground and soil the pebble, do I create 1 cubic foot of soil that spills on the floor?

[PhoenixPhyre]

If I cast prestidigitation to soil for example a bucket that fits in a cubic foot, can I choose what to soil that bucket with and how much "soil" does it create?

Can I get a bucket load of 1 cubic foot of mud, flour, oil, dust, ...

Also if the object can be compressed or folded to fit in that cubic foot can I soil or clean that or a part of it, like worn clothing is bigger then a cubic foot when worn, but when folded its smaller, so do I have to fold it and then cast or can I just cast it while it is worn as long as the total volume of the thing I want to soil or clean is smaller then 1 cubic foot?

I can't soil the floor cause the "object" "floor" is bigger then 1 cubic foot.
Though if I want to soil part of the floor, I can just get a pebble throw that on the ground and soil the pebble, do I create 1 cubic foot of soil that spills on the floor?

No. You don't get 1 cubit foot of soil, you soil an object that can be up to 1 cubit foot in volume. Exactly what it means to "soil" something is up to the DM--I'd say that anything from a stain, a layer of mud, or something similar would occur. It's not a creation spell, it's a modification spell. It changes the object from "clean" to "dirty", not "create a cubit foot of <substance>." That's a much higher-level effect.

[kamap]

Most of my questions have been answered now I only need to know if I can choose what the "soil" consists of, I guess that will be a question I'll need to ask my DM.

So the volume matters not the actual size, so worn clothing that fits in a cubic foot can be soiled or cleaned. Good to know and will come in handy. Always clean clothes without needing to strip everytime they get a bit dirty.

I throw my handkerchief on the ground which happens to be a square foot big and I soil that with oil then I have a slippery patch.
the more handkerchiefs I have the bigger the slippery patch gets.
If I can choose that I soil the handkerchiefs with oil that is.

[PhantomSoul]

I throw my handkerchief on the ground which happens to be a square foot big and I soil that with oil then I have a slippery patch.
the more handkerchiefs I have the bigger the slippery patch gets.
If I can choose that I soil the handkerchiefs with oil that is.

An interesting thought, and something I could see maybe working... once. (Soiling it is just making dirty, and saturating it with a specific substance to the point of acting like a first-level spell [Grease] seems a stretch. Making it dirty from oil makes sense, but it being soaking with oil like that definitely goes beyond what I'd think of as soiling and also seems to unambiguously go beyond the intent for the spell.)

[kamap]

Yeah you do have a point there, it might require several castings on the same handkerchief to get it soiled enough with oil to make it slippery, what about soiling the handkerchief with a banana peel :smallsmile: ?

Though with enough time on your hands you can do a whole lot of nice stuff with presitidigitation and even with a single casting prestidigitation is awesome.

Keep soiling something with flour or dust, collect said dust or flour into a pile, throw on illusion over it so it looks like a rock or something similar wait till the mooks are close or around the "rock" and throw a fireball on that pile and watch the fireworks.

Google dust explosion if you want to know more.

[No brains]

I assume prestidigitation is like a local filth transport. When cleaning or soiling an object, the soil is moved either to or from the environment. So one could move dust around inside a house and move mud outside. I suppose if there was some dirty oil nearby, one could use prestidigitation to make an object oily, but then the only real benefit to doing so is moving the oil without getting one's hands dirty.

[JackPhoenix]

Yeah you do have a point there, it might require several castings on the same handkerchief to get it soiled enough with oil to make it slippery, what about soiling the handkerchief with a banana peel :smallsmile: ?

Though with enough time on your hands you can do a whole lot of nice stuff with presitidigitation and even with a single casting prestidigitation is awesome.

Keep soiling something with flour or dust, collect said dust or flour into a pile, throw on illusion over it so it looks like a rock or something similar wait till the mooks are close or around the "rock" and throw a fireball on that pile and watch the fireworks.

Google dust explosion if you want to know more.

Like knowing it doesn't work like that? Dust explosions needs specific circumstances to achieve proper fuel-air mixture. You can try it at home, safely: pour a bag of flour on the floor (well, propably not at home), then throw a match into it. At best, it'll catch fire (don't know flour ignition temperature off-hand, but lit match should be enough), but there will be no explosion.

Trying to set wine or ale on fire, or even make them explode, is another common mistake. At room temperature, you'll need about 100 proof alcohol to ignite it.

Spiderwebs don't burn either, no matter what video games tell you. They just kinda shrivel.

[Unoriginal]

Though with enough time on your hands you can do a whole lot of nice stuff with presitidigitation and even with a single casting prestidigitation is awesome.

Keep soiling something with flour or dust, collect said dust or flour into a pile, throw on illusion over it so it looks like a rock or something similar wait till the mooks are close or around the "rock" and throw a fireball on that pile and watch the fireworks.

Google dust explosion if you want to know more.

No. It's "prestidigitation", not "I can totally abuse a cantrip to increase damages".

You can't collect what's soiling the items.


Also, dust explosions don't work like that.

[Anymage]

Looking at the flour example specifically, for 2cp you could just go and buy a pound of it. A bucket is 5cp, and you can usually find dirt nearby-ish and scoop it up. For some reason a shovel costs 2gp, if you wanted to make scooping faster.

If you're in a locked room scenario, either someone really wants you stuck in that room and will have taken antimagic precautions, or else you're meant to use other abilities (like higher level spells) to escape. If you're in a normal world environment, nothing stops you from carrying around banana peels or oily rags to throw around in combat, except for how ridiculous that sounds and the bit where larger than life heroes tend to be above vaudeville pratfalls.

Especially when talking low level spells, it's often worth asking how well a mundane equivalent would work. If the answer is "not very", I don't see why having magic do the exact same thing would be much different.

[smcmike]

Like knowing it doesn't work like that? Dust explosions needs specific circumstances to achieve proper fuel-air mixture. You can try it at home, safely: pour a bag of flour on the floor (well, propably not at home), then throw a match into it. At best, it'll catch fire (don't know flour ignition temperature off-hand, but lit match should be enough), but there will be no explosion.


You can make a satisfying little fireball by blowing cornstarch out of a funnel over a Bunsen burner, if my memories of high school chemistry are accurate. Not exactly a weapons-grade setup, though.

It’s fun to try to be clever with this stuff, I guess, but this spell isn’t designed to be useful in combat, and pretending that you’ve hacked it to make it so really just means that your DM is letting you do whatever.

[StoicLeaf]

As a general guide, you cannot do something with a spell of level x if there's a spell that does something similar but is of level >x.

In my mind, prestidigitation is a "flavour" spell to allow wizards to do minor mundane things with magic.
"Soiling" an object just makes it dirty or cleans it (slowly). The dirt you mark an object with is in the air/water around you.
I'd say dirt you clean is similarly dispersed into the air/water.

so your oil handkerchief I'd allow, but it's something that's going to take an hour and you're going to have to be casting it in a busy kitchen.
clearly, casting a level 1 grease spell would be far more effective.

Your flour explosion example is exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Flour already dispersed in the air is conducive to a dust explosion; a pile of it on the floor isn't.
Once again, I'd allow you to use prestidigitation to get the flour into the air but it'll take forever;
While the other party members are simply flinging the bags of flour into the air, they'll be giving you unpleasant looks whilst you feebly point your finger at your bag of flour.

[Theodoxus]

No, just no.

If you want a cantrip that boosts damage, take Control Flames.