Could Predistigation turn sea water into fresh

[dcollins]

I also would not allow prestidigitation to desalt water. Purify food and drink does seem like a better option.

 

[trentonjoe]

Will it ruin a game? Probably not.

I think this is probably the best answer. (This is taken waaaaaay out of context though).

Unless you want the PC's to constantly have to figure out where their next canteen of water is coming from (which you might) then I would allow prestidigitation to work.

 

[Gez]

I've no problems with prestidigitation allowing to separate salt from water. It's part of the stuff that it can handle. Purify food and drinks do much, much more than merely removing salt.

Beside, the "no mimicking other spells" clause is dumb. Prestidigitation allows to heat or chill a bit something. Then you have a wizard who creates a more powerful heating/chilling cantrip (there's one in Relics & Rituals). Suddenly, prestidigitation can't do it anymore?

The thing with the no-mimicking clause is that presti can't imitate the full effects of another cantrip. But reduced effects, why not?

Look at this spell like a 0-level wish.

By the way, mending is a cantrip, so prestidigitation should not be able to, as they say it can, mend a torn cloth. Ray of frost is a cantrip, so presti should not be able to chill something. Etc.

 

[Storminator]

I'd make Presti separate the salt out, leaving the salt crystals in the bottom of the water. Then you have to pour the fresh water off the top. If you let it sit too long, it dissolves again.

Then you could have special cups and bowls that have salt pockets in the bottom, to ease the pouring.

PS

 

[Emerald]

If the water level was previously much lower, and some sort of cataclysm occured that caused the ice caps to melt or some such, then the ocean will be of much lower salinity than it was before. Just think of the incredible volume of water that has to be added - and all of that water is diluting the salinity of the oceans.

On earth, the salt percentage in sea water is only from 3.3 to 3.7 percent. Double the volume of water, and it drops to 1.6 to 1.8 percent. Triple the volume and it's only 0.8 to 0.9 percent.

Anybody know at what salinity water is safe to drink?

 

[heirodule]

I think prestidigitation could change the taste of salt water, but could not actually turn it into fresh water.

And thus a devious trick for ocean voayges was written!

 

[Azlan]

But, if you decide that prestidigitation can’t do it, just make a new cantrip ‘desalinate water’.

I think that's the simplest and most elegant solution of all. Create a new zero-level spell, Desalinate Water, and leave Prestigitation for the showy tricks that it was originally created for.

 

[Azlan]

I've no problems with prestidigitation allowing to separate salt from water. It's part of the stuff that it can handle. Purify food and drinks do much, much more than merely removing salt.

Beside, the "no mimicking other spells" clause is dumb. Prestidigitation allows to heat or chill a bit something. Then you have a wizard who creates a more powerful heating/chilling cantrip (there's one in Relics & Rituals). Suddenly, prestidigitation can't do it anymore?

The thing with the no-mimicking clause is that presti can't imitate the full effects of another cantrip. But reduced effects, why not?

Heating or chilling water is a simpler process than filtering salt out of it. If you were stranded on a desert isle, you'd find yourself having a more difficult task of getting fresh water than you would getting hot or cold water. Besides, there is more to making sea water safe for drinking than just removing the salt from it.

And remember: What the spell, Prestidigitation, lacks in usefulness or resourcefulness, it gains in versatility and spontaneity.

 

[HeavyG]

I agree that prestidigitation couldn't do the job, but I would expect that a culture on such a world would easily figure out a way to turn sea water into fresh water without magic.

I agree. If not, then everyone will be totally dependent on wizards to survive. Unless you want to base your whole campaign around that, then you need to plan for mundane solutions.

In fact, sea water in a fantasy world does not need to be salty at all. That's what I'd do.

Anybody know at what salinity water is safe to drink?

This website says 1.5%

http://md.essortment.com/survivalskills_rkwj.htm

 

[Gez]

To clean water, you only need four things:
1. A big bowl, filled with the water;
2. A smaller bowl, put inside the bigger, that will get the clean water;
3. A waterproof sheet of cloth and a pebble;
4. Time in the sun, or a heat source.

Put the small bowl inside the big, cover both wiht the cloth, and put the pebble on the cloth, vertically of the small bowl. Expose the whole to the sun, or put it over your heat source.
The dirty water will evaporate, condensate on the cloth, run along it thanks to gravity to the vertical of the small bowl, and fall inside. Once the process is over, you have a big bowl full of dirt and a small bowl full of clean water.

That said, prestidigitation is already able to do things that are about as complicated, notably cleaning stuff, gathering similar stuff in a spot, altering the taste of something...