Can you Mending food?

[SangoProduction]

If you char a door, you can cast mending (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/m/mending/)on it, so long as all of the pieces are still there, to restore the hit point damage caused by a firebolt. Same for the door being stabbed by a knife.

So the question is... what is considered "the object"? If you try take a prime cut out of a dead cow, but were sloppy with your cut, you can clearly mending the corpse and the cut returns to its place and try again. But if you chop up the steak, can you mending the steak itself, to return it to its pre-chopped state, without returning to the corpse state? Seems reasonable.

If you mash a potato... Well, even if it's destroyed, and even if it was magical, it can still repair the item. So long as it's not "warped or otherwise transmuted." One can make a reasonable statement that acid does transmute items, in all (non-magical) senses of the term. As does fire. But if it did, then that means you can't get any results out of Mending a burned or melted door.
That is not, in any way to imply that digested food can be Mending, because... well, first off, not all of the parts are there. But second off, ew. (Just needed to make that distinction since I was getting hints from the previous statement that that was the implication. It was not.)

But... let's say that you are at a magical restaurant. You make your order, and they basically burn it. Despite being magical. Don't think about it.
You like it basically raw.
Do you think they can Mending that cooking, and chewing away, and basically start over from the original dish?

[Ashtagon]

I'd say, by strict RAW, generally no.

The wording suggests that the spell changes something from being a "damaged/burned/broken thing" to an "intact thing". Cooking in most cases transforms the object from a state of being one distinct "thing" not to being a "damaged/burned/broken thing", but to being a distinctly different "thing". It's transformative, not destructive. Cooked food isn't normally considered to be "damaged" in any way, unless the chef got it really wrong. (Plus, cooking has measurable effects both on food safety and shelf life, which again demonstrates that it is transformative and not destructive.)

That said, you could use the spell to change a burned steak into a medium-rare steak, but not into a raw steak. Mashed potato? That's a distinct thing in its own right, not merely a "damaged potato", so no reverting that back into whole potatoes.

I can't see much potential for abuse in this manner, were it to be allowed anyway. At ten minutes a casting, it's not like magical restaurants would want to do this on a routine basis.

[Lorddenorstrus]

My first thought. "Cooking is transmutation now. I must make a joke somehow to my table about this."

[Telonius]

Mending is a level-zero spell. A higher-level spell, Make Whole (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/makeWhole.htm), references it:


This spell functions like mending, except that make whole completely repairs an object made of any substance, even one with multiple breaks, to be as strong as new. The spell does not restore the magical abilities of a broken magic item made whole, and it cannot mend broken magic rods, staffs, or wands. The spell does not repair items that have been warped, burned, disintegrated, ground to powder, melted, or vaporized, nor does it affect creatures (including constructs).

Since the higher-level version doesn't fix things that have been burned (and so on), I'd say that no, you can't Mending your way out of a bad meal. (You'd need Prestidigitation for that). The spells as written are for things that have broken - things that were in one piece that are now in more than one piece; or that have minor rips or tears in them.

[OracleofWuffing]

Is this a difference between Pathfinder and 3.5e? The 3.5e SRD version doesn't restore an object's hit points, just repairs small breaks or tears and weld metallic objects with only one break. So, if you break, not cut a steak, it can be mended but only if it's a small break. So, yes to a filet mignon, no to a porterhouse. :smallbiggrin: Unfortunately, cooking is a no-go there, heat isn't a tear. Okay, fine, it's totally possible to define your way into a situation were heating is a form of tearing, but you know what I mean.

Flipping back to Pathfinder text, it needs to be a damaged object, so however you chopped the steak should involve an attack and damage roll. I think it should be easy for anyone to succeed in cutting a steak compared to the values presented with a rope (which is either tougher or weaker than steak, but I think we'll all agree that steak shouldn't be tougher than a door), just that I imagine rolling for damage just to eat food is usually ignored.

I'm not entirely convinced that a charred door could be Mended, because objects usually warp when they are charred. Luckily, fire bolt doesn't char objects, so you can still mend a door that was damaged by fire bolt. I also think mashing potatoes should count as warping them, so no mending there. I'm scared of that last statement, because it kind of relies on a dictionary definition of warping... Which is usually a sign that the premise doesn't belong in an RPG, so let's try to back that up with something else.

Looking up how Warp Metal (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/w/warp-metal/) works, that spell implies that warping permanently destroys straightness, form, and strength. Please note the word "implies" there, that was a deliberate choice because I don't think this constitutes a strict RAW reading- just the closest I think I'll find for the time being. Running with that implication, you can't mend bacon after it's cooked because bacon becomes less straight, shrinks up, and becomes brittle when it's cooked. Likewise, mashed potatoes are softer, runnier, and generally not as solid as unmashed potatoes. So, does a steak's straightness, form, and strength change when it is cooked? Eeeeeh... I feel that depends on how you cook it, and I suck at cooking.

That said, I'd totally allow it just to see where the shenanigans go. That said, I'd also offer a caveat that things which have been transported by Teleport or similar means cannot be Mended, because they have been warped.

[Hua]

Is this a difference between Pathfinder and 3.5e?

Yes. They are significantly different. A 10-minute vs 1 round spell for example.
And cutting is a physical change, but cooking is a chemical change. The exclusion on transmuted, such as warped wood, seems to correspond better to a chemical change.
Thus, I would say you could put chopped meat back together, but not cooked meat.



3.5 definition:

Mending
Transmutation
Level: Brd 0, Clr 0, Drd 0, Sor/Wiz 0
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: 10 ft.
Target: One object of up to 1 lb.
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless,
object)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless, object)
Mending repairs small breaks or tears in
objects (but not warps, such as might be
caused by a warp wood spell). It will weld
broken metallic objects such as a ring, a
chain link, a medallion, or a slender
dagger, providing but one break exists.
Ceramic or wooden objects with multiple
breaks can be invisibly rejoined to be as
strong as new. A hole in a leather sack or a
wineskin is completely healed over by
mending. The spell can repair a magic item,
but the item’s magical abilities are not
restored. (For restoring a broken magic
item’s abilities, see the item creation feats
in Chapter 5: Feats.) The spell cannot
mend broken magic rods, staffs, or wands,
nor does it affect creatures (including
constructs).

[Chronos]

You certainly can't Mending a hamburger back into a steak. Mending fixes one cut, break, or tear. Ground beef has hundreds of cuts.

[Hua]

You certainly can't Mending a hamburger back into a steak. Mending fixes one cut, break, or tear. Ground beef has hundreds of cuts.

(3.5 version)
Mending repairs small breaks or tears in objects
Ceramic or wooden objects with multiple breaks can be invisibly rejoined to be as strong as new.


It only does 1 cut, break, or tear with tougher things, like metal or stone, multiple with ceramic or wood, so why not more with something even softer, like meat?

I agree it is ridiculous, but not against the rules. Such use would be within the letter of the law, but probably violate the spirit. I suspect in most games it would be DM call of 'it doesn't work like that', which I would be fine with.

[RSGA]

The first rebuttal that comes to mind is that magic is not physics. We can do lots of maths with the magic given, but achieve no theories of good predictive power or relationships between variables. The more helpful possible rebuttal is that the two might not have anything to do with hardness and instead have something to do with structure. Both have rather regular structures, though the greater fuzzyness on what is or isn't a ceramic means that there's plenty of space there.

[SangoProduction]

Very random thought. But, aside from the relatively light chemical processing that happens through saliva, chewing is a purely physical damage thing.
Can you spit out a steak, mending it, and then enjoy it again?
(Seriously. Screw that meme post on reddit for making me even consider this topic.)