Prestidigitation: For My Next Trick…
Usable By: Artificer, Bard, Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard
Spell Level: 0 (cantrip)
School: Transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 10 feet
Duration: Up to 1 hour
Components: V, S
This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following magical effects within range:
You create an instantaneous, harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor.
You instantaneously light or snuff out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire.
You instantaneously clean or soil an object no larger than 1 cubic foot.
You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour.
You make a color, a small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for 1 hour.
You create a nonmagical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-‐‑instantaneous effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.
Review by Sam West, @CrierKobold
Prestidigitation is an iconic spell that is wild to pronounce. It is one of the cosmetic cantrips alongside Druidcraft and Thaumaturgy in the PHB; these three are some of the greatest cantrips in the game as far as I’m concerned. None of them are game warping in power (least of all Prestidigitation) but I’ll be damned if at least one of them doesn’t find its way onto my character sheets because they are just good old fashioned make-believe fun.
Prestidigitation is quite literally just sleight of hand stage magic. That’s it. You’re producing coins from behind ears and shooting fire from your sleeves. It has enough open endedness in its language that it easily can produce exactly the feel of magic you’re aiming for on your caster. Are you playing an abjurer with geometrical, clean wards and seals? Prestidigitation can look like that. Are you a necromancer who desires dark mist constantly bubbling at the base of your cloak? Prestidigitation can do that! From warlocks to bards, all of the text here is aimed at giving you a toolbox to build your own custom look.
Outside of just the cosmetics, each of the modes comes with a tiny bit of practical uses. Sensory effects can be used in creative situations to create distractions, alert discreetly, or do any number of other things all based on the situation and kind of sensory effect. Snuffing or lighting at a distance (notably a lower distance than the other cosmetic cantrips) can have some niche applications when you’re looking to illuminate darkness or hide in shadows. Chilling and flavoring food can make for great pranks or otherwise alert a creature to potential poisons. Creating marks on objects can be an easy way to discern validity on something you intend to part with briefly, and illusory or non-magical trinkets can do a whole suite of things that said little trinkets could do. This is a spell that gets better with creativity and DMs who love saying yes.
When all is said and done, Prestidigitation is probably worse than Minor Illusion and the other cosmetic cantrips. That being said, it has a special place in my heart, namely because I have fond memories of doing stupid pranks with it while all my friends and I struggled to figure out how to say it. You won’t get a major power pump from taking it, yet I still can’t recommend it highly enough.
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