D&D 5E The Limits of Minor Conjuration

[The Crimson Binome]

It seems that there is no gp limit to what you can create with Conjurer's Minor Conjuration feature.

Anything created by Minor Conjuration is inherently worthless, and thus cannot qualify as anything which specifies a GP cost.

I mean, doesn't the item vanish after an hour or something? I know it vanishes if you create anything else. Go visit a jeweler, and ask how much she'll pay for a three-foot-wide flawless diamond that will cease existing in 55 minutes.

It's not worth 300 GP, so you can't use it for the spell.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

An important thing to remember is that these items are clearly magical glowing things. You aren't getting a normal item--you are getting a constructed magical thing with the form and partial material properties.

 

[khyberpunnisher]

That and I don't think you could, for instance, summon alchemist's fire in any useful manner, because as soon as it's lit, it's taking burning damage, and disappears. Similarly, "a pile of gunpowder" is not an object - A compressed ball of gunpowder might be an object, but again, as soon as it's lit, it disappears. It might manage to make a tiny pop as the first grain of gunpowder is activated, but it wouldn't make the big satisfying bang with massive damage because most of it would disappear before it could be lit. There would be nothing wrong with creating a sword (so long as it's 3' or less long), but if anybody attempted to break it, it would simply disappear.

Conjuring a flawless, slightly magical diamond might be easy (and it should be, since a diamond is, like steel, just a cheap substance - carbon in the diamond's case and a mix of carbon and iron in the steel's - arranged in a particular crystal structure), but as it lasts no longer than an hour, and as such it's not particularly useful to sell. You might be able to conjure a cheap spell component, but the magic holding together a conjured diamond might interfere with or interact in unpredictable ways with a resurrection spell which consumed it as a component. It might fail altogether... it might work, but impose a penalty to the resurrectee, or it might bring back an evil outsider in the shape of your fallen friend... the DM can have all sorts of fun with people trying to game the system in this way.

 

[gyor]

Here are some useful things you can use it for, creating an arcane focus like a wand, jewel, ect..., a Holy Symbol, rope, a note, an usual tool for magic lab work, a key for a door lock, a mirror.

 

[jaelis]

Here are some useful things you can use it for, creating an arcane focus like a wand, jewel, ect..., a Holy Symbol, rope, a note, an usual tool for magic lab work, a key for a door lock, a mirror.

Sure, and every once in a blue moon you will need one of those things and not have any other way to get it. In the meantime, diviners get portent, abjurers get a sweet ward, bladesingers get awesome AC, etc. IMO, letting a conjurer bypass expensive components is about what it takes to make the subclass worthwhile.

As for alchemy items, I don't think using one is very often better than simply casting a cantrip. On the rare occasions when it is, why not let conjurers get some use out of their ability?

 

[jaelis]

Anything created by Minor Conjuration is inherently worthless, and thus cannot qualify as anything which specifies a GP cost.

I mean, doesn't the item vanish after an hour or something? I know it vanishes if you create anything else. Go visit a jeweler, and ask how much she'll pay for a three-foot-wide flawless diamond that will cease existing in 55 minutes.

It's not worth 300 GP, so you can't use it for the spell.

Also, just to address this argument: if you accept this reasoning, then what keeps the rogue from offering to buy a tiny diamond chip from the cleric for 1000 gp, thus making the chip worth 1000 gp and therefore usable as a component for resurrection?

 

[Dausuul]

According to the conjurer ability, the conjured object's form is that of a nonmagical object you have seen. It does not say that it is a copy of that object, only that it has the same form. You can cut a chunk of glass into the same form as the Hope Diamond. It's still a chunk of glass.

And the material component rules say that if a component indicates a cost, you have to have "that specific component." So I would say, no, RAW does not support using a Minor Conjuration as a material component.

 

[jaelis]

According to the conjurer ability, the conjured object's form is that of a nonmagical object you have seen. It does not say that it is a copy of that object, only that it has the same form. You can cut a chunk of glass into the same form as the Hope Diamond. It's still a chunk of glass.

And the material component rules say that if a component indicates a cost, you have to have "that specific component." So I would say, no, RAW does not support using a Minor Conjuration as a material component.

So a conjured wand is not really a wand, and thus unusable as a focus? A conjured shield is not really a shield and thus provides no AC benefit?

 

[Dausuul]

So a conjured wand is not really a wand, and thus unusable as a focus? A conjured shield is not really a shield and thus provides no AC benefit?

A chunk of glass is not a diamond, but if what you need is a small round object to drop under somebody's feet, it will work just as well. If the form of the object is what makes it useful, then the conjured object will serve just fine.

Whether a conjured wand is useful as a focus would be up to the DM. A conjured shield would work perfectly well, as long as you're willing to say that a shield doesn't take damage when it blocks a hit.

 

[jaelis]

OK, but it seems you are positing that, along with the form of an item, the conjuration acquires some of its properties. A shield will block a blow, you can stand on a stool, a lens will transmit light? None of those features follow directly from the form of the object, as can be seen by considering cardboard replicas of those items. So how (by RAW alone) can you decide which properties carry over and which do not?