D&D 5E [POLL] Best non-combat cantrips

[aco175]

I always liked mending and prestidigitation. My last mage liked to clean and dry his clothes after every fight and could mend his clothes back together. Its great for getting blood out of clothes.

 

[Todd Roybark]

I never understood this mentality.

I say this with no snark, but merely as an inquisitive question to know more about, Merudo;

Have you tried? You truly can not envision a situation where 1 of 5 possible effects can be useful, or is it just the flavoring of food?
(Again no irony or ill intent in these questions)

Prestidigitation is akin to a Swiss Army Pocket knife or other utility tool. It might not always be useful, when useful it may not even the best tool but it gets the job done at minimal expense of resources.

Making your breath reek can help you get waived thru a checkpoint, or stop the guard from checking your covered wagon bed, when you make it smell like Durian fruit.

If you have ever been backpacking, then the value of instantly lighting or extinguishing a fire will be obvious. In real life these take time using only traditional methods like flint and steel, and sometimes conditions would make a fire impossible.

If you have ever been backpacking and eaten a traditional (not modern MRE) Hardtack, or traditional jar preserved foodstuffs, then being able to alter the flavor or those preserved foods is huge! An effect comparable to being proficient with Cooks tools as described in XGE may not be unwarranted.

Beyond the obvious usage of hiding the flavor of poison, one could turn the flavor of Dragonwizz ale into a more palatable and expensive taste. Very useful if you own Trollskull Tavern, keeps expenses low.

See again Descent into Avernus, where you can help keep your sanity from the malaise of the hells, by keeping food flavorful.

Prestidigitation may be subpar in a narrowly conceived, mechanically firm, no room for lateral thinking style campaign. What I call a Dr. No style campaign....and that is not knocking the play style....great for kick in the door style play!

But it is only one style of play out of the multitude possible and there may be more under the 7 heavens and the prime material earths than can be dreamt of in your hegelian philosophy.

 

[Todd Roybark]

Feel free to change your vote if you think Control Flames is among the best

Now here we definitely agree. Alternate between using Control Flames and Minor Illusion ( of fire of course) to cause chaos, and create hidden avenues of escape through what appears to be flames. Take that CBGB.

 

[Burnside]

I say this with no snark, but merely as an inquisitive question to know more about, Merudo;

Have you tried? You truly can not envision a situation where 1 of 5 possible effects can be useful, or is it just the flavoring of food?
(Again no irony or ill intent in these questions)

Prestidigitation is akin to a Swiss Army Pocket knife or other utility tool. It might not always be useful, when useful it may not even the best tool but it gets the job done at minimal expense of resources.

Making your breath reek can help you get waived thru a checkpoint, or stop the guard from checking your covered wagon bed, when you make it smell like Durian fruit.

If you have ever been backpacking, then the value of instantly lighting or extinguishing a fire will be obvious. In real life these take time using only traditional methods like flint and steel, and sometimes conditions would make a fire impossible.

If you have ever been backpacking and eaten a traditional (not modern MRE) Hardtack, or traditional jar preserved foodstuffs, then being able to alter the flavor or those preserved foods is huge! An effect comparable to being proficient with Cooks tools as described in XGE may not be unwarranted.

Beyond the obvious usage of hiding the flavor of poison, one could turn the flavor of Dragonwizz ale into a more palatable and expensive taste. Very useful if you own Trollskull Tavern, keeps expenses low.

See again Descent into Avernus, where you can help keep your sanity from the malaise of the hells, by keeping food flavorful.

Prestidigitation may be subpar in a narrowly conceived, mechanically firm, no room for lateral thinking style campaign. What I call a Dr. No style campaign....and that is not knocking the play style....great for kick in the door style play!

But it is only one style of play out of the multitude possible and there may be more under the 7 heavens and the prime material earths than can be dreamt in your hegelian philosophy.

My bard has prestidigitation in Tomb of Annihilation and it has been a HUGE quality-of-life boost in terms of making jungle rainwater taste like chilled lemonade, instant laundry service, making everything taste like chocolate, and cooling the clothing of party members.

 

[Merudo]

Have you tried? You truly can not envision a situation where 1 of 5 possible effects can be useful, or is it just the flavoring of food?
(Again no irony or ill intent in these questions)

Just the flavoring of food.

Beyond the obvious usage of hiding the flavor of poison

Flavoring poison to make it undetectable would be an amazing. The issue is that there is no mention in the books of poisons having a taste.

Giving the high price of ingested poison (150+ gp per dose), I think it's reasonable to assume poisons do not have a strong taste, and can be mixed with food and drinks without issues.

I agree though, if your DM rules that poisons have a strong taste that needs to be masked, this application of Prestidigitation is excellent.

Beyond the obvious usage of hiding the flavor of poison, one could turn the flavor of Dragonwizz ale into a more palatable and expensive taste. Very useful if you own Trollskull Tavern, keeps expenses low.

This is probably the best use of flavoring I've read. If you own an inn/tavern/restaurant as you do in WDH, Prestidigitation is an impressive cost saver.

 

[Merudo]

My favorite use of Mold Earth is against ranged attackers; you can spend a single action to make a 5 feet pit for an ally to hide in it.

Crouching in the 5 feet pit provides full cover, and prevents all projectiles and most spells from reaching the target. The DM might rule that a particularly large ally such as a Firbolg won't be fully covered by the pit, in which case it still counts as three-quarter cover (+5 to AC and Dexterity saving throws).

Additionally, the ally can take the Hide action in the pit, giving them advantage on their next attack. A Rogue or Goblin can do this as a bonus action, round after around.

The digging bit being restricted to loose earth is the biggest thing. I've seen people try to use it like it was Stone Shape.

Mold Earth doesn't work in dungeons and cave. It's usable in most outdoor environments, though. If the campaign is outdoor a lot (such as Tomb of Annihilation), Mold Earth will be effective more often than not.

The other thing is trying to dig a pit that's deeper than 5'. When you excavate a cube you can only move it along the ground, so if you have a 5' pit you can't make it deeper unless you make it wider first.

Making the pit wider is not much of an issue given how fast Mold Earth is.

I don't think building a ramp works either, unless you're turning a cliff into a ramp from the top. You can't lift the earth with it. And it also doesn't remain a cube once you dig it out; it's loose earth, so it's just a heap of loose dirt.

My understanding is that the soil can be moved up a slope. So all you have to do is pile up earth against a wall until there the heap is big enough to reach the top.

 

[Todd Roybark]

The issue is that there is no mention in the books of poisons having a taste.

Giving the high price of ingested poison (150+ gp per dose), I think it's reasonable to assume poisons do not have a strong taste, and can be mixed with food and drinks without issues.

As much as it pains me, I’m going to give a categorical “No” to the above.

The Books don’t say a lot of things about ‘real world’ experiential facts. The books do not explicitly say that horse dung has an odor, so no stinky stables then?

Imagination in fantasy RPG gameplay requires some degree of extrapolation from ontic reality.

I’m ok with Iocane powder ala Princess Bride being odorless, tasteless and completely undetectable, but not all poison, and it should cost way more than 150 gp a dose due to this.
Being ‘undetectable by normal senses’ is somewhat rare, and thusly more expensive.

Cyanide is much cheaper than Polonium-210.

Fugu and aged scotch are not expensive due to being flavorless, quite the opposite one would hope.

In my lay opinion, smell is what gives most poison away. The Human sense of taste, independent of smell, is not very discerning. Odorless spoiled food or a mushroom with a dangerous level of toxicity will still taste good. It is the sense of smell, independent and in conjunction with taste, that alerts us to poison danger.

Which is why odor is added to commercially refined natural gas.

All poisons being undetectable except by spell, is a cool fantasy theme...I would enjoy a game like that. I just doubt that is RAI or RAW though.

 

[abirdcall]

Just the flavoring of food.



Flavoring poison to make it undetectable would be an amazing. The issue is that there is no mention in the books of poisons having a taste.

The books don't say that a candle needs to be lit to provide light.

The description of candle in the PHB merely says that it does produce light.

 

[Salthorae]

Eating and drinking are activities that are typically ignored or glossed over in D&D. So odds are, you won't even get to say that you are using the Prestidigitation cantrip to flavor your food.

They're not glossed over in games I play, at any of the tables I play with. Prestidigitation is used often for just that purpose.

To most, learning a vain/comfort cantrip like Prestidigitation instead of something that could actually save their life would be an head-scratching decision.

You say "vain/comfort", I say "fundamentals of spellcasting cantrip". I find it odd when there are prepared caster PC's out there who don't have Druidcraft, Prestidigitation, or Thaumaturgy as known cantrips. It's like the basics they'd learn in Cleric/Druid/Wizard school.

Plus it does way more than flavor food. It heats it too, or cools it down.

• 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.

It is used often in games I'm in to light torches that are 10' away on a wall or snuff them out to create lighting advantages for characters vs. opponents to don't have darkvision.

It is used to mark walls in dungeons or a trail for companions to follow

It is used to show people what you're looking for in miniature if you're searching for a person or thing.

I've also seen it used with a flying familiar to show the layout of terrain in a wide area in miniature with opposing troops/forces at the time of casting in planning for combat or exploration .

I can be used in social pillars just to entertain kids and garner goodwill with a town, etc.

It is WAY more than just flavoring food... and can be very useful in combat in the right situation (just like Mold Earth is useful outside to create 5' pit to get cover in, which is the "right situation")

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Glad to see Message gaining a little traction. Always useful when the party is trying to be stealthy.

I chose Mending, too, although I've had to rule firmly when players try to spam it to repair their ship which has been squeezed and bashed by a giant octopus or a main sail torn by dive bombing perytons. Sorry - might help you gain your bosun advantage on making some temporary repairs but you need to bring that mess into port to get ship-shape again.