D&D 5E Does Prestidigitation Break the Law of Conservation of Energy?

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Simple question, but the consequences are a bit strange.

If you use Prestidigitation to clean an object . . . what happens to the "dirtiness" on it? Is it just magically destroyed? Is it teleported somewhere else? Is it somehow melded into the object you clean?

 

[Umbran]

... who has had more published papers on numerous topics than Volo, Van Richten and Mordenkainen combined.

The "published papers" form found in modern academia, to me, doesn't normally fit with the low-ish tech of D&D pseudo- Medieval fantasy. As in, published papers require a publishing industry, and subscriptions to those publications. The first academic journal in our world was published in the mid-17th century.

 

[Seramus]

More importantly - there's a whole lot of space between "absolutely NO rules" and "can be completely systematized". Shades, nuance, and variations are available to us.

Sure! But the moment you step over that threshold away from absolutely NO rules, you've got stuff that can be analyzed if you have sufficient tools.

 

[Umbran]

Sure! But the moment you step over that threshold away from absolutely NO rules, you've got stuff that can be analyzed if you have sufficient tools.

Yeah, but it requires rather more than "we can analyze this one part of it" to turn a thing into "physics," with any relation to the term as we use it today.

 

[Seramus]

Retracted for getting saucy.

 

[Umbran]

But at this point you're just responding to get the last word.

Yeah, please don't pretend to be able to read minds over the internet. I'm responding because I'm a physicist, and found your take on it rather misleading.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I have over the years used the ffluf that when magic is around there are no natural laws only natural suggestions.... magic makes physics go sit in the corner and cry

 

[Parmandur]

The "published papers" form found in modern academia, to me, doesn't normally fit with the low-ish tech of D&D pseudo- Medieval fantasy. As in, published papers require a publishing industry, and subscriptions to those publications. The first academic journal in our world was published in the mid-17th century.

But it does derive from a much older form of writing an authoritative text and disseminating it, which goes waaaaaaay back. Before publishing, the ultimate form of peer review was "is this thing worth making a copy of?" And that worked better than one might think at first.

Pretty different, obviously, but close enough for D&D work, probably.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

But it does derive from a much older form of writing an authoritative text and disseminating it, which goes waaaaaaay back. Before publishing, the ultimate form of peer review was "is this thing worth making a copy of?" And that worked better than one might think at first.

Pretty different, obviously, but close enough for D&D work, probably.

I also assume wizards have SOMETHING like a peer review

 

[AnotherGuy]

The "published papers" form found in modern academia, to me, doesn't normally fit with the low-ish tech of D&D pseudo- Medieval fantasy. As in, published papers require a publishing industry, and subscriptions to those publications. The first academic journal in our world was published in the mid-17th century.

Well, I suppose I've allowed some level of modernity to have swept into Faerun with this player's character prose.
I'm not averse to what has now become canon in the setting. The printing press and academies are around. Unbeknownst to him - what helps is that I acquired Arcana of the Ancients some time back and have wanted a way to incorporate it. His character is perfect for this Numenera addition.

 

[Horwath]

Teleport still breaks it. You can teleport in "less time than you can notice or measure" to a planet in a different solar system. Say from Toril to Oerth. Of course, just because you an break or perhaps bend one law of physics with magic, doesn't mean that you can break or bend all of them. The PHB still says that casters access magical energy through the Weave to create a spell effect, so conservation of energy could apply to all magic.

Teleport provides wormhole so it works.