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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8812409" data-attributes="member: 4937">Prestidigitation has an interesting history.  Originally, when cantrips were introduced in 1e, the were spells that had the defining feature they couldn't do anything of consequence.  They weren't allowed to do anything meaningful.  They were essentially spells that were 99% color, or at least were intended to be 99% color. When the 3e writers looked at the concept of cantrips, they wanted to use cantrips as a means of giving low level spellcasters more meaningful things to do and so created cantrips that could do minor meaningful things.  All the meaningless things that cantrips could do in 1e were bundled together in a single spell, Prestidigitation that let the caster do as many meaningless things as they wanted for an hour or so.  But again, while these things were intended to be meaningless, sometimes they are actually meaningful and mostly those cases are annoying.  So what Prestidigitation could do was left up to "Rulings not Rules" even in 3e, with the expectation that the DM would be able to manage questions like this when they came up.Of course, that's just setting the stage for table arguments and headaches.I can't really answer the question for 5e, but I did try to address this question explicitly in my rewrite of the 3e version of the spell which you may find helpful.Here that is:[SPOILER]PrestidigitationUniversalLevel: Brd 0, Sha 0, Sor/Wiz 0Components: V, SCasting Time: 1 standard actionRange: 10 ft.Target, Effect, or Area: See textDuration: 1 hourSaving Throw: See textSpell Resistance: NoPrestidigitation is actually a collection of very simple and basic spells, which can be cast repeatedly, quickly and without strain, and used in combination by a creative magician to create an almost endless variety of effects.Although you cannot use prestidigitation to change an item’s actual properties, you can use prestidigitation to slightly alter how something appears and is perceived.  You can alter the color, taste, odor, and feel of an object as long as it remains in range.  These changes are superficial and obvious to a trained eye, but can fool casual inspection or less keen observers.  The effect of this is to give up to a -5 penalty on attempts on skill checks to appraise, detect or analyze an object, depending on the suitability of the change.  For example, making a bit of clear glass appear to be a diamond, or making a bit of bad wine taste like good wine are very suitable changes.Prestidigitation can be used to move items weighing up to a pound slowly, at the rate of 5’ per round.  Light weight ropes can be ordered to knot or unknot themselves, allowing certain use rope checks to be made at a distance.  It can also be used in this way to move dust or dirt off or on to objects or separate and sweep light objects into piles.  Items occupying up to 1 cubic foot can be cleaned, soiled, or gathered in this way per round.  Alternately, very light weight objects such as raindrops can be held at bay, as an umbrella of force.  This screen is however insufficient to seriously impede actual missiles or even hurled stones.  Prestidigitation can be used to move the air and create slight drafts or breezes similar to that created by a hand fan.  It may also be used to slightly chill or warm a small object, but never enough to create pain or injury.  By creating cooling or warming breezes and other minor alteration of the environment the spell caster may grant up to a +2 circumstance bonus on any endurance checks provoked during the duration of the spell as a result of the elements.  Because of the weakness of the spell, this bonus can be extended to at most the caster and one other person.Prestidigitation can be used to teleport fine sized objects about ones person, for example, from one hand to another, from a hand to a pouch or back again, and so forth.  It is commonly used for retrieving pinches of spell components from their hiding places.Additionally, prestidigitation can be used to create small objects – usually no bigger than what can be held in a palm - out of thin air.  These objects may appear like anything, but are easily recognized as artificial if held and inspected.  They have no significant weight, cannot bear more than a pound of force, have no hardness, no hit points, and automatically fail any break checks.  They may however be used to engage in any action that doesn’t require significant force, so for example largely functional needles, magnifying or reading glasses, cups, toothpicks, sponges, hats, quill pens, paper for temporary notes, spoons, and other small tools that are not used with great force can be created.  At the end of the spell or whenever they leave range, the objects vanish. When using prestidigitation to create an appropriate effect, the spell caster may gain a bonus of between +1 and +3 to various skill checks - most obviously bluff, craft, disguise, hide, open lock, perform, sleight of hand, and use rope.  The spell caster must explain how the effect he is creating helps in this particular situation, with highly appropriate explanations receiving higher bonuses at the DM’s discretion. [/SPOILER]From the above, the answer to your questions are:1) Per my wording, the object must occupy a 1 cubic foot space.  The actual displaced volume of it doesn't matter.  It has to still fit inside that hypothetical box.2) Per my wording, you are essentially given a minor circumstance bonus to your saves or skill checks pertaining to environmental effects during the spells duration.  In other words, it helps a little if you are using prestidigitation to keep yourself warm or cool, but by no means gives you immunity.  That's easy to translate into 3e, but in 5e it gets a bit trickier.  The intended effect is less than the effect of gaining advantage, and certainly shouldn't be larger than gaining advantage. Of course, while I think my rulings are reasonable, if you aren't the GM asking these questions, you can really only go to your GM and ask what his rulings are.  My rulings by no means bind anyone in any edition.  They are just clarity for me and my table so that these sort of headaches come up less frequently.</blockquote>

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