Prestidigitation

[bartman]

I keep seeing that Prestidigitation is one of the ultimate spells, but I just do not see how. I have heard it refered to as a mini wish spell even. How is it such a powerful spell, and what have you done with it?

[Dracons]

I keep seeing that Prestidigitation is one of the ultimate spells, but I just do not see how. I have heard it refered to as a mini wish spell even. How is it such a powerful spell, and what have you done with it?

Its powerful in the sense that it can do so much minor crap. Don't like how your soup taste? BOOM, your soup now tastes like the best damn chickenfried steak you ever had. Feel like having your own theme music? BOOM, your walking with your own one/two note them music. Want to have a deadly wizard trap? Have several swinging blades crisscrossing a door. There is just no way to get your hand through there with out slicing it to death. On one of the swinging blades there is a key on the other side of the blade, so no-one who doesnt work there won't know. Use prestidigitation to take key off blade, (its an admanantie key after all) to stop swinging blades. Its a crude trap, but effective if you know how. In one of the games I DMed, a wizard/cleric/mystic thurge of Velsheroon, who was a clean freak, used prestidigitaon to forcefully clean the sewers of the orc and ogre stronghold they were forced to go through. It was the cleanest smelling sewer in the world. Want to make a charismatic leader look bad during a meeting? Use prestidigation to make his wine the best flavored wine he ever had, while all the other leaders there get slime feces flavored wine. That make heads spin.

[snoopy13a]

It depends on how broadly or narrowly one interprets the language of the spell:

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.

For example, take the "chill, warm, or flavor... nonliving material" clause. Some interpret that to mean that a level 1 wizard can create a gourmet meal thus rendering the Profession: Cook skill redundant. Another interpretation would be that the "minor and ha[s] severe limitations" clause would limit the flavoring to very basic tastes.

Essentially, the power of the spell is dependant on the DM's interpretation.

[flabort]

you can make anything taste/smell like anything else, recolor anything, clean/unclean clothes (or anthing), create smells and illusions out of almost anything...

really, an illusion mage without this is sevearly suffering.

[gorfnab]

This thread has some more examples of creative uses for prestidigitation: Why is prestidigitation considered so good?

Edit: Ninja'd

[theMycon]

Loose DMs, and getting them by surprise, essentially.

The literal meaning of "Prestidigitation" is "sleight of hand." Its clear Rules As Intended meaning is "stage magic & parlor tricks." It's direct RAWritten meaning is "anything with no mechanical effect on the game, which does not mimic another spell."

However, because "no mechanical effect" is so vague, DMs its free reign to fast-talk a DM into "mimic a poltergeist, and make that lamp across the room go flying, pipes burst, and OH HEY ELECTRICAL WIRES IN A POOL OF WATER!" If you keep it small and don't give 'em time to think about the consequences of what all those things do together, the spell turns "a handful of unlikely coincidences with no effect" into "but you let me do the same thing on a bigger scale a minute ago" into "BUT IT'S JUST SCIENCE THAT THEY'RE ALL DEAD NOW!"

A truly dumb DM, (also one who thinks you've done something stupid and letting you get away with this is the only way to survive), lets you get away with all of that, and more, in one casting. For example "I reflavor/rescent/recolor this poison so it tastes, looks, and smells like honeybutter." "I clean the enemy wizard's spell component pouch; no more icky stuff like bat guano, no more fireballs." "I slowly warm/cool the opponent's brain a few degrees."

[graeylin]

many DM's also forget that "can't replicate the effects of any other spell". Taken very broadly, that limits it greatly... you can't create food or water, (spell for that), just make it taste better. You can't clean food of poisons (spell for that), or create illusions (spell for that), or mimic sounds (spell for that), etc. etc.

I am nice enough to have a DM who lets me make little square balls of plain glowing light that don't dance (ie, NOT dancing lights), but even that could be argued as a type of create light or permanent torch spell.

[deuxhero]

Remember that if you get an infinite use item (rather cheep at 1*.5*2000=1000) the effects last untill you remove it/get dispelled/enter an AMF.

[CheshireCatAW]

So I suppose this spell actually gets stronger in Core-Only games where you have less "The Spell Already Exists" limitations.

[Optimystik]

So I suppose this spell actually gets stronger in Core-Only games where you have less "The Spell Already Exists" limitations.

Just because the game is core only, doesn't mean the DM can't invoke the limitation if the player is blatantly trying to mimic a splat spell. In fact, the DM is obliged to stop this, as that would be an example of the player trying to fudge a splat spell into a core-only game via a cantrip.