Prestidigitation is a way of doing magic by hand and is also known as ‘ Sleight of hand’. It is used by artists performing in different art forms to entertain or manipulate people. It is closely related to card magic, close-up magic, card flourishing, and stealing.So, this article is all about this Prestidigitation 5e magical trick, how you can use it and what it is used for. Let’s get started!
About Prestidigitation 5e
Prestidigitation is one of those spells that focuses on two things- the things that you can do with it and the things that you can probably do with it. It is a minor magical trick that newly handed spellcasters do for practice. It is very flexible and you can create many magical effects within range using this spell.
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Use of Prestidigitation 5e
School: Transmutation
Level: Cantrip
Casting Time: One Action
Range/ Feet : 10 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Up to 1 hour
Using prestidigitation you can do minor magical tricks and effects which are similar to stage shows of real-world magicians.
- You can have up to three noninstantaneous effects at one time if you cast this spell continuously. The following are some of the tricks you can do by using this spell.
- You can create harmless sensory effects like showers of sparks, puffs of wind, faint musical notes, etc.
- You can light or snuff candles, campfires, or torches.
- You can clean or soil a small object.
- You can warm, cool, or flavor nonliving objects.
- You can add colors, marks, and symbols to the objects and surfaces.
- You can create a nonmagical object or illusory image that can fit in your hand and will vanish at the end of your next turn.
Who uses Prestidigitation?
Almost everyone uses this trick as it is pretty easily accessible. Prestidigitation 5 is on the spell list of Artificer, Bard, Wizard, Sorcerer, and Warlock. Eldritch Knights and Arcane Tricksters can also get this trick since it’s on the wizard list.
High elves can select it as their one wizard cantrip and Eberron’s halflings with the mark of hospitality also get prestidigitation as a part of their Innkeeper’s Magic feature.
More about uses of Prestidigitation 5e – Tips and Tricks
Let’s look at some common tips and tricks for using this spell
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Sensory Effects –
Prestidigitation allows you to make a variety of odd effects. There are plenty of uses for this spell and you can also hide the fact that you are casting it:
1. You can play fleeting musical notes to make someone think that the place is haunted.
2. You can create foul smells to make someone think that something is rotten in the room.
3. You can make a room smell like smoke so the crowd leaves the building.
4. You can make someone feel like an arrow just passed their cheek.
5. You can mimic the sound of footsteps or a bell.
6. You can make girls feel like they have been treated in magical itching powder.
Light Or Snuff
This feature lets you light or extinguishes a candle, torch, or small campfire without any use of a flint or any kind of fire-starter.
This spell is used for setting any kind of small fire. For example,
1. You can use it for lighting fuses for explosives.
2. For setting fire to oil traps
3. It can be used for igniting lines or barrels of gunpowder.
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Clean Or Soil
You can do a lot of tricks from this feature and it is very useful when your show is based on intrigue.
Examples of clean include-
1. You can clean blood to hide that you have done something.
2. You can clean your clothes or your friend’s clothes like when you walk out from sewers or muds.
3. You can clean the area to get rid of traces of blood or hair as a part of a scrying spell.
Example of soil includes-
1. You can disguise yourself in the dirt to help you pass from somewhere.
2. You can soil your clothes in blood like you are dead.
3. You can soil someone’s clothes with ketchup or something to make them feel embarrassed.
4. You can soil a floor or place with muddy footsteps to give it a crime scene.
5. You can make someone look like they have spilled ink on themselves.
Warm, Cool, or Flavour
This feature lets you warm, cool, or flavor anything nonliving material. This feature is limited to your imagination only as there are many opportunities to use this spell.
For example –
- You can heat your tea and cool a drink on a hot day.
- You can be able to cool your clothes or warm a bath with a snap of your fingers and a quick word.
- It will allow you to counteract hot or cold climates by cooling or heating your clothes.
- It can also add flavor to food and drink like making broccoli taste like chocolate.
- You can even make water taste like wine.
This spell can be a fun play or you can use it for embarrassing rivals, provoke fights, or just for making your food tastier.
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Add colors, marks, and symbols
This feature allows you to add color, mark, or symbol to an object. There are many interesting uses of this spell but it lasts only for an hour.
For example-
1. You can leave marks to let someone follow you but it will not last more than an hour so after that anyone else can’t follow you.
2. You can also mark objects and locations to tell someone the place.
3. You can also fake any mark on your clothes to enter somewhere.
4. You can mark a symbol on a place to confuse someone or to fake something.
Creating illusions
This feature allows you to use minor tricks and by using sleight of the hand you can make someone believe that by using your fingers magic, you have pulled a coin behind someone’s ear.
For example –
1. Like you can create an illusionary platinum coin to bribe someone and after you pass by making your work done it will be gone before they notice.
2. If you are playing cards you can use this spell to effectively cheat at cards.
3. Like you can create coin after coin and like a shower of coins but it will disappear before anyone can count it.
4. Like you can create an illusionary driver’s license or some kind of Id as a nonmagical trinket to make your work done.
Is Prestidigitation A Good Cantrip?
Prestidigitation is highly useful and underrated Cantrip and as per the 3.5 Player’s Handbook, you can use prestidigitation to perform simple magical effects.
Can You Get Cleaned With Prestidigitation?
As anybody takes up 1.76 to 2.43 cubic feet of space therefore, with two to three castings of prestidigitation, you will be cleaned with anything you are wearing.
Can prestidigitation clean clothes 5e?
With two to three castings of prestidigitation, clean yourself and anything you are wearing.
Can Prestidigitation Do Damage?
It can color or clean items in a 1-foot cube. It cannot deal damage of spell casters. Small objects are created by prestidigitation but they look crude and artificial.
Which is better: Prestidigitation or Thaumaturgy?
Thaumaturgy is not as good as Prestidigitation as it does less diverse and not useful. It only has verbal components opposite to Prestidigitation.
The Final Words
Prestidigitation is an amazing spell technique that is used by magicians to show their creativity on stage or campaigns to impress their audience or to fool them with fun. This spell can be extremely helpful and impressive like changing the food taste, cleaning clothes, lightening a room, making voices, creating illusionary images, and many more things by using creative ideas. But the disadvantage is all this is not real and will vanish after some time as it will last for an hour only.
Prestidigitation 5e is flexible enough and you can make interesting usage of it like you are magic by pretending verbal gestures or by making sleight of hand check