Cleric Purify Food and Water Vs Seawater question

[Scorponox]

I'm a newbie DM, but if a player wanted to "purify" a person, essentially killing them, I would tell the player, ok then, if you want to do this, then other low level clerics would have this ability as well. Do you want the party (even at high level) to potentially be killed off by low level clerics? i.e. to keep it consistent, anything a player wants to do could potentially be done to them also, so be careful what you wish for.

As for the original question, it's pretty obvious, to me anyhow, that it would apply to salt water as well.

 

[frankthedm]

Range: 10 ft.
Target: 1 cu. ft./level of contaminated food and water
Note: Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon. One cubic foot of water contains roughly 8 gallons and weighs about 60 pounds.

I don't think that's reasonable since seawater is in its natural state

While it is true seawater is the natural state for the D&D concept of Elemental Planes [Plane of water is salt water with random pockets of fresh water and other watery terrain features], I think it is safe to say cleric would receive divine spells as keyed to their own biology barring divine disfavor or serving a VERY capricious deity.

I'm a newbie DM, but if a player wanted to "purify" a person, essentially killing them,

You'd have a player who did not read the spell entry or was trying to cheat by pulling a fast one on you...

...the spell has no effect on creatures of any type nor upon magic potions....

 

[pawsplay]

What is this business of purifying a human? A human is not a drink. Clearly, they are a food.

 

[Jhaelen]

Do you think purify food and drink should be useable to make seawater fresh by removing the bad salt content [...]?

Definitely. Imho, that's probably one of its most common uses!

 

[lordxaviar]

I think the key clause is "food and water pure and suitable for eating and drinking," which is from the perspective of the original spell's creator, not any particular subsequent caster.

IOW, a cleric of a seaborn race like a triton, locathah or sahaugin casting this spell would still get unsalted water.

right track, just a missing key... "the original spell's creator"??? its a divine spell so the spell would work for what ever the casters need is, even per say that the spellcaster drank acid, it would turn it into that substance.

I do agree that it would be water minus anything that would be detrimental to the caster. Now I don't think this would form distilled water, (*which is actually not good for you to drink as water is the universal solvent and will actually cause you to give up some elements from your body before leaving once again.) it would leave any and all minerals in the starting water that are not harmful.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

...its a divine spell so the spell would work for what ever the casters need is, even per say that the spellcaster drank acid, it would turn it into that substance.

By the terms of the spell, it could not create/turn water into acid, but instead would de-acidify a liquid into pure water. (Great way to ruin someone's lemonade stand, FWIW.)

 

[lordxaviar]

true but moot point since there are no creatures that I am aware of that drink acid. I was trying to make the point that the god involved would make it a safe liquid for its follower to imbibe.


(or maybe not... guess I would be sure to make all your required sacrifices on a regular basis)

 

[Sekhmet]

This is an excellent idea.
Use a Wish to ask for the ability to drink only the most dangerous acids (with no ill effect to you, of course). This would prevent you from being able to drink water.

In battle, pop off two level zero spells: Create Water, then PF&D; end battle with even the most dangerous foes (looking at you, 60HD Titans).

GENIUS

 

[Cavall]

Given that the spell states it makes water suitable for drinking, but not just by you, you may need to do some spell research to make your own cantrip.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

...like Acidify Food & Drink.

Which no DM worth his salt would make into a powerful spell. At best, it would be the opposite of PF&D, like how Light opposes Darkness, or Bless and Bane oppose each other.