D&D 5E RAW: Using Purify Food and Drink to cure a party member?

[Oofta]

Er...aren't vampires, being undead, immune to poison anyway?

Not in 5E.

Which does beg the question, if the target's blood alcohol level is high enough does the vampire risk intoxication? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[Incenjucar]

What if I cast it on milk and I'm lactose intolerant and vegan?

 

[tomBitonti]

What if I cast it on milk and I'm lactose intolerant and vegan?

Haha, RAW nothing happens. Lactose isn't a poison if you are lactose intolerant. The bad stuff is a side effect of the lactose fermenting in your gut. And Vegan doesn't make milk "not food", just "not food that I will eat". (Or, if it's not food to you, still, nothing happens, since it is not food!)
TomB

 

[Incenjucar]

Haha, RAW nothing happens. Lactose isn't a poison if you are lactose intolerant. The bad stuff is a side effect of the lactose fermenting in your gut. And Vegan doesn't make milk "not food", just "not food that I will eat". (Or, if it's not food to you, still, nothing happens, since it is not food!)
TomB

My cleric files a lawsuit.

 

[roger semerad]

I like Snarfs answer, but I do feel the need to come up with an in universe answer as well. It's just an interesting abstract problem.

My take on this comes from how I view magic itself. Magic is basically wish fulfillment as a natural process. It's superimposing your will over the existing reality. As such, both the will, definitions, and the intent of the caster decides what the parameters are. This would mean that the Yaun-ti would not only need to see their party member as potentially food but have the full intent to make them such in the immediate future. In the case of the live oysters the caster would have to have the intent to harvest them for food after casting. You can hide your own intentions from others, but not yourself. If you tried to run around this limitation of this magic by casting purify food on the oysters, then deciding to leave them be in their habitat your intentions at the beginning would be false and the spell would fail. This also covers using the spell with people with very different biologies. If you cast this with the intent for the food in question to be consumed by all in the area, the spell will purify the food in a way that will satisfy the biological needs of all that are included in the original intent of the caster. If you cast purify food on something with the intention that only someone of your own biology would comsume it, then it will only be purified according to your own biological needs. If another creature then showed up and tried to eat the food it wouldn't be safe unless it's own biological needs just happened to line up with the original caster.

What if the spellcaster is a "reborn"? The lineage from Ravenloft 5e.

Eating live animals - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Other point is to use low-level magic to help or accelerate ordinary healing/recovery.

In a fantasy world pharmacists could try (low-level) magic to craft better medicines.

Spellcasters illithid could use it at living sentient beings, but then a possibility is the living being isn't healed at all, but the eater will not suffer infection or intoxication.

* If the drunkenness is intoxication due to alcohol... can you be drunk by "purified" alcoholic drinks?

What if I cast it on milk and I'm lactose intolerant and vegan?

Using my answer to these edge cases it would depend on the perception of the caster. Since they are superimposing their will over reality, the resulting reality will reflect the true beliefs of the caster. If the caster truely believes that these are toxins then they will be expunged from the food and drink.

 

[Clint_L]

I find this to be very helpful-

Source: Existential Comics. Author: Corey Mohler.

The definition of "food" is not what the Yuan-Ti believes it to be, but what the player believes it to be- the rules are written for the player, not the character. So, since players don't believe other player characters, while alive, are "food," then since language is use, it follows that Purify Food and Water does not work to cure poison within other player characters.

(You could also do a more advanced reasoning that the more specific rule covers this, and apply canons of construction that would mean that Purify Food and Water would not, but this should suffice. Plus, Wittgenstein!)

Yes, I understand the real world reasons that we don't worry much about this spell.

However, this is a roleplaying game where you can play as a variety of different species and the goal of many players is to try to imagine themselves into the mental space of their characters. The issue is not that the spell doesn't work, since all of us humans with shared references get it, but rather whether it makes sense from the perspective of all of those fantastical characters. Because the effect is that we are picking and choosing which sorts of food it can affect. Pragmatism only gets you so far within imaginary settings.

 

[pemerton]

The issue is not that the spell doesn't work, since all of us humans with shared references get it, but rather whether it makes sense from the perspective of all of those fantastical characters. Because the effect is that we are picking and choosing which sorts of food it can affect. Pragmatism only gets you so far within imaginary settings.

The whole of the spell list reflects the concerns of human players playing an adventure-oriented FRPG! I don't think that Purify Food and Drink/Water is the lightning rod for this.

 

[Clint_L]

The whole of the spell list reflects the concerns of human players playing an adventure-oriented FRPG! I don't think that Purify Food and Drink/Water is the lightning rod for this.

It is unusual because it revolves around concepts, food and drink, that are notably dependent upon frame of reference. RAW that spell should mean something very different to many different species. If we are truly role playing.

For example, the rules tell you what is food to a Dhampir. The rules also tell you that this spell purifies food. People seem to be interpreting it to mean something extra: specific types of food. I’m sure that was the spell designer’s intent. But this is specifically a topic about RAW. I don’t think the designer was considering non-human frames of reference, or anticipating how varied playable species would become.

 

[MerricB]

Not in 5E.

Which does beg the question, if the target's blood alcohol level is high enough does the vampire risk intoxication? Inquiring minds want to know!

I miss the intoxicated condition from the D&D Next playtest.

 

[MerricB]

I’m sure that was the spell designer’s intent. But this is specifically a topic about RAW. I don’t think the designer was considering non-human frames of reference, or anticipating how varied playable species would become.

Given the designer was likely Gygax, and he had a very humaneocentric view of the game, I think this is entirely accurate.