Mage Hand Uses: 1. Have it carry your light source ahead of you. 2. Flip off enemies. Wave at friends. Flip off friends. Wave at enemies. 3. Pass items over a long distance (60ft if someone else has Mage Hand). 4. Open doors or chests from far away. Was it trapped? Great! It's not going to hit you, because you're 30ft away. 5. Illusion detector. Is that thing real? Poke it with Mage Hand! 6. Archer? Have it hold a fire source so you can light flaming arrows without having to stop drawing/knocking arrows. 7. Throw a blanket/cloak over it and pretend it is a spooky ghost. 8. Double Mage Hand high five!
But is "poking" an attack? CAN you "attack" an illusion? I would say that throwing sand in the face would be an attack. I go by what I would ask a player to do if they were doing it. Either a ranged thrown attack (like throwing a rock) or a DEX save. Both are attacks. No dice. Now... sprinkling sand from above? No problem.
One of my favourite Prestidigitation moments was when my players were invited to the Grand Duke's castle for a feast as thanks for their latest heroic quest. The party Bard was obsessed with cooking. He had expertise in Cook's Utensils and had a dream to be the "Adamantine Chef" (typical quirky backstory, etc.). He asks the grand duke if he can see the royal kitchen and is allowed to do so. While no one is looking, he uses Prestidigitation to make all of the food taste terrible. The duke is (naturally) displeased with the "awful cooking" and asks (somewhat sarcastically) if anyone can cook a decent meal. The Bard jumps out of his seat and offers his services. He rolls a few high cooking checks (and tops off the rest with Prestidigitation). The duke is so taken by his cooking that he hires him on as the new royal chef. The player retires the character since his dream has basically been realised. Legend has it his character still works there to this day. And people still say fluff cantrips are useless...
Eh, even though it takes up a cantrip slot, I just use it for fun social gags, making temple guards piss themselves, something similar to the food thing you mentioned above, making a poison undetectable by taste, and my personal favourite, using it to clean rusty swords from bandits or kobolds, and sell the shiny swords for a profit.
@@ericsaxon5736 I'm pretty sure prestidigitation. For one, mending is basically fusing broken parts back together, would work for broken shafts and such. With prestidigitation, you could simply clean off the rust, and there you have a shiny sword, sharpen it a bit, and boom, full price.
@@patrickduffin7912 I'm not sure rust = dirt. Damaged/cracked leather handles, might also need more than just a polish or oiling. I believe rust is water/oxygen corrosion, similar to acid, except it takes much longer to do the damage Would polishing/cleaning restore these? www.wikiwand.com/en/Viking_sword
@@ericsaxon5736 To be fair, you could interpret it that way, however it says: you instantly clean or soil an object that is no bigger than one cubic foot. With the damaged handles, yeah, you'd use mending for that. And even though rust is just corrosion if metal due to said oxygen and moisture, my DM let's it's slide, as it's a cool use of it. Magic doesn't really apply with the laws of physics, unless you really wanted to. Feel free to say it doesn't though, difference of opinion on what works really.
A Freind playing a Cleric who's character was a germaphobe would constantly cast prestidigitation on themselves to keep themselves clean, the DM ruled that the effect had become permanent around her causing this kind of Slug like trail of cleanliness around the character wherever they went. & that there's a dimension of dust and dirt where all magically swept away debris is taken via the use of spells like prestidigitation
ehhh.... this is actually canon. there's a layer of the abyss where all dirt, grime, and filth eventually goes. it's the home plane of the demon ooze prince.
@@RobertBarry1969 Actually, if you think about the Last Sentence of the OP, Pigpen Could be the repository of the "magically swept away debris is taken via the use of spells like prestidigitation"
You missed the highest utility use of minor illusion: magical powerpoint. You can quickly share visual information. Need to describe a villain you're looking for? Sharing results of a scouting foray or planning pre-attack tactics? Never underestimate the value of quick, accurate visual display in a world without TVs or cameras!
This is an amazing use of the spell with a bit of basically creating a general image not a specific pinpoint detail picture, you can get the gist but not "Ah there's a mole that's barely poking above the collar" I tend to run it as a quick "Sketch" Illusion
That's what I did with my Raven Queen Warlock, with the level 1 raven familiar and level 2 invocation Misty Vision (silent image at will). I sent the raven as far as I could keep contact with him and showed the map of the dungeon to the group with the illusion. The GM only answer to that was to try to kill my raven lol. She ultimately showed us the entire map of the level, there was nothing else to do ;)
@@maxsquatch because it takes time to talk _about_ something rather than just list the names... I mean it's one thing to say "donald trump", it's another to explain who he is, where he came from, what he's doing, how people react to him etc.
You know how displacer beasts look like cats??? I used minor illusion to create a red laser dot and distract one with it. DM allowed it, it was hilarious.
Technically, you moved the red dot around (I assume, to distract the "big kitty"), which breaks the "you can't move the illusion" restriction on the cantrip. Right?
I recently ran my second session of Dragon's of Icespire Peak with three new players and another that has a fair bit of experience. They were doing the quest where you have to find the midwife for Phandalin and bring her back to town so she's safe, but when the party arrives, they see that she's being harassed by a manticore. Our party's druid cast fog cloud centered on the manticore. The tiefling rogue used thaumaturgy to create whispers in the fog. The wizard then used prestidigitation to amplify the barbarian's voice, who then began shouting that he was an evil spirit, come to harvest the manticore's soul. I loved this idea so much that I was a hair away from just letting them have it, but my buddy Nate, playing the barbarian, picked up his die and said "So, I'm rolling intimidation, right?" I figured what the hey, why not? Manticores have poor wisdom anyway, so they're probably going to succeed. So I have him go ahead and roll, and with all of the extra effects, plus the fact that it was a table mostly of inexperienced players, I gave advantage. Nate winds up rolling a 17 and 18, against the manticore's double 1's, I had it fly off screaming. So with two cantrips, a fog cloud, and a barbarian who assigned a 14 to charisma, they improvised a plan to scare away what could have been a nasty encounter. That was a very beautiful moment as DM, and I've never been more proud to be one.
Random and pointless bit of trivia: Grog isn't a kind of beer; it's a drink made of water and rum. Sailors were traditionally given a daily ration of rum as a means of keeping them a bit more relaxed during long voyages. Water was added, generally, for one of two reasons... First, the men themselves would water their rum to make it seem like it would go further; second, the quartermaster watered it- either on the captain's orders aboard private vessels, or as a standard procedure on most naval military ships- to keep the men from getting too drunk at any one time. The proportion of water to rum in the recipe varies widely depending on the time period in question, as well as country of origin. In many of the more tightly regulated situations (mainly military, but some strict commercial and private ventures as well) the grog was premixed and stored in barrels, often with the addition of dried fruit such as raisins and apples to improve taste and help prevent scurvy (a form of vitamin c deficiency.) Things you can learn when a lot of your friends are *really* into their jobs as bartenders can boggle the mind, lol.
@@Draeckon Little odds and ends of trivia like that can be surprisingly helpful for adding flavor to a game. You wouldn't *believe* how many random bits learned from the game show Jeopardy have made it into my games over the two decades I've been playing, lol!
To add the point about scurvy prevention - at one point, French or British navy (can't remember which one) issued an order to substitute rum with wine (since rum was considerably stronger) and as a result, their people started getting afflicted with scurvy while the crews still holding on to their grog were fine.
@@KubinWielki That most likely happened at one time or another in most of the nations on the northern side of the Mediterranean; those lands have been particularly well-known for wine production for longer than most of the countries currently there have existed. The French, Italians, and Spaniards are highly likely candidates, to my mind, as they were historically quite heavily involved in both seafaring activities and wine production.
To add to this: aboard ships where the men were simply given a rum ration and told to water it themselves, they'd often hoard their rations so they could go on a bender.
@@yanjanjon9090, the video *was* the casting of Guidance in ritual form. It’s a rare thing to cast it in such a manner, but doing so allows the caster(s) to provide the bonus to individuals in different realities. (Which explains why it’s so rarely done.)
Mending in one campaign was critical in maintaining a ship. repairing sails, rigging and damaged timber. Mage Hand hauled lines and tools up to sailors and Prestidigitation was used to shout commands from the helm and lite a torch for pitch-dipped arrow heads before they're fired into enemy sails. The cantrip solidified the concept of every ship of worth having a "sea mage", certainly the ships of wealthy or powerful NPCs. Good times.
My favorite hacky way to use Mage Hand was when we discovered (and accepted into our party) a pseudodragon that had a shredded wing and could not fly. Later, the tiny dragon was found to have minimal arcane magical abilities -- she was allowed two cantrips, each of which could be used once per long rest. Weighing less than 10 pounds, she could cast Mage Hand and use it to carry _herself_ around, and go anywhere or to any height because anywhere the hand went, it was within 30 feet of the caster. _Ray of Frost_ was her other option, as it enabled her to slow down any potential prey she wanted to take, if it didn't die outright.
Once you reach lvl 13 if you have a Cleric there is regenerate. It is a bit dark but cut the wing off and cast regenerate it will grow back and should be fully functional.
I'd probably ask for a high dc medicine check to mend the druid ripped in half, all those bones, organs, blood vessels, gotta go back together in just the right way
Bow users can recover only half of the arrows used after a fight, as the others are considered broken. Mending potentially returns all of your arrows/bolts.
@@CrimsenOverlordVideos , PHB, 146/147 ish. under "Weapon Properties", "At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammunition by taking a minute to search the battlefield."
In my game just now, our wizard made a good use of Mage Hand twice. The rogue jumped on a bridge above us to tie a rope so we could all climb, but he got spotted by an enemy at that level so we all rolled initiative, and he rolled the lowest initiative score so he couldn't tie the rope so he would've been attacked by all the enemies before we could climb to help him, but the wizard was going first so he used Mage Hands to tie the rope. Then after the encounter we found a chest, the greedy rogue dashed to open it but the wizard cast Mage Hands to open the chest first, and it saved the rogue from triggering a spike trap. Mage Hands save rash, unwise rogues.
Fighter: Damn! My spear is broken! Druid: I gotcha! *Casts Mending on it to fix it* Fighter: Thanks, Druid! Druid: Wait, one more thing! Fighter: What? Druid: *Uses Druidcraft and adds some neat designs on the spear's shaft* Fighter: NOICE!
My bard once used Prestidigitation to completely solve an encounter with an assassin during a huge party. First I cast it to cause the spies dress to be completely soiled, as if she had just not made it to the little spies room. Then with all of the fancy people looking at her, I cast it to put the spies faction logo on her forehead. She started panicking and started to leave. With everyone watching while she left, I cast it one last time, as you can have 3 effects active at once, and caused a bit of ice on the floor under her foot. She failed a save and slipped. Everyone was watching her as she had a bowel accident, had the logo of a known enemy appear on her forehead, then slip on her butt on the way out. Guards were on her so fast she didn't have a chance to do anything.
None of those effects are legal for prestidigitation. The soiled lends itself to Thaumaturgy or minor illusion. The mark would maybe be doable via minor illusion but should grant a save at the very least. The patch of ice requiring a save or fall, well beyond the ability of the context of any of the varied special effects cantrips. Prestidigitation only allows you to cool or heat some food or such, not freeze it or cook food completely. .
@@toddwardle4395 This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following magical Effects within range. • 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. If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous Effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action. the ice is the only effect it couldnt really do but its up to the dm to allow it
Minor Illusion: 1. Lets your Kenku Talk. 2. Mock the BBEG as he Monolouges with his own Voice 3. Gather peoples attention by creating a scream 4. Create cover over yourself 5. Create a Cardboard Cut Out for low intelligent creatures. 6. Whisper a warning to an Allie about someone that they are talking to. 7. Threaten Someone with a Whisper that you don't like 8. Make someone think that they're going insane By whispering things to them 9. For Warlocks with Misty Visions Invocation You can combined them to make unlimited illusions of your choosing.
I mean, Kenku have Mimicry, and can string together different sets of words to make separate sentences and explain ideas, so they dont need minor illusion to talk. Also, dont think they could be creative enough to do a few of these. Edit: Just realized these dont all apply to a Kenku, lmao.
Me: I cast Minor Illusion to make a cat sat down. DM: sorry you can only create objects not creatures. Me: I cast Minor Illusion to make a taxidermy cat sat down.
I think the distinction is probably intended to be ‘the thing you create can’t move’. That it has to be a static image. But, yes, a statue or taxidermy of an animal that fits the size requirements would certainly meet the restrictions. (Which, of course, further solidifies my interpretation of the intended restriction.)
@@talongreenlee7704 If you're trying to do that, then you need do have Guidance cast on you preemptively, like at the start of the fight or something, and hope that Counterspell will be useful. Guidance still requires an action to cast (and concentration), so it's rarely worth it for the cleric to use in combat.
Once my wizard had to hike through a blizzard and I used prestidigitation to warm his coat to stave off the cold. You can warm or chill up to one cubic foot of non living material. Clothes and armor pieces are non living. Most clothes can be folded to meet the one cubic foot requirement. That volcano have you roasting in your armor? Cast prestidigitation and you can have up to three cubic feet of clothes or armor cooled for an hour. Cold night but can't have a fire for safety reasons? Prestidigitation can heat your coats and blankets.
I like using the sleeves of many garments in Pathfinder for the same purpose, because it can become any non-magical clothing. I don't know if they have a similar item in 5e, but if they do it would be great for stuff like this.
Does the temperature increase last as long as the spell duration, or is it consistent with the natural tendency of heat transference to attain equilibrium?
Best way to decide if a twist on a spell's abilities should be allowed is to ask your players one simple question: Would you be okay with your enemies being able to do this? Even the most rules-abusive player should take pause at the idea that their characters' nemesis might use that same twist of power against them.
I'm going to start by saying that I agree with this list. My Pact of the Tome Sorlock has all of these cantrips (only Prestidigitation out of your three way tie) and uses them to great effect. That being said, I've got to say I've gotten WAY more impactful use out of Shape Water. I've used it to create cover, bust open locks, create an ice bridge, distract an enemy, and I think it's important to note that a five foot cube of ice weighs three and a half tons. So far, my favorite use of the spell was to eject a Merrow from combat. Ice floats, so if you cast the spell under water, physics should do what it does. I'm still waiting for an opportunity to freeze a chunk of cloud, but we'll get there.
"I cast minor illusion to create an image of a rat!" "... you can't, a rat is a creature." "Uh... I cast minor illusion to create a realistic lifelike statue of a rat!"
conjuring up a life-like version of a creature seems like it'd reasonably be in play casting illusion. I think D&D DMs can reasonably handle a version of Bigmouth Billy Bass
@@EmptyKingdoms I was in the same boat. had it playing while taking care of some things and lost track too. Had the same happen in the past when they go off on a tangent or something since I typically listen to them in the background
@@o0Noctuabundus0o Me too! On a sidenote, I listened (I really let them in the background while householding and all that jazz) to an earlier video of them, from around 2017, and they let the text onscreen during the whole topic discussion! Surprises me they dropped such a good design over the good-looking fadeout which has no actual practicity/usefulness to it besides looking good.
I love using Mage Hand in role playing moments. Just give an enemy 3 middle fingers or to hold my staff while my character is using my other hands for something. I feel like it’s one of those spells that lets you add a little bit of flair to your character
I have used Prestidigitation to cause more destruction than any fireball. Yes, it starts a small fire... that I ensure becomes a raging inferno and causes utter chaos. My bard carried tinder bundles for this kind of thing. I also used it to get a Giant Badger to spit me out by flavoring my pants to taste like skunk arse. Hands down it's the best spell in the game.
Oh, good idea. I have 5 flasks of oil already, but I did need more things to spend this useless gp on. By the way, chickens cost 2 cp. *2 cp*. Alright I have 10 spare gold... what to spend it on? How about *500 chickens*?
I love that prestigitation says that you can make a harmless sensory effect, I'm going to use it for my next char to make someone feel a chill up their spine as I try to intimidate them
In my campaign I let casters get druidcraft, thaumaturgy, or prestidigitation (depending on your class) as a bonus cantrip. I just figure casters are already restricted enough in cantrips and I see these as the first version of spell casting the casters learned. 😊
I would recommend not doing this, as all you are really doing is increasing the number of cantrips a caster has by +1. However, it may be neat early in a campaign for a caster without such a spell to find a little stuffed toy that grants such a cantrip to an attuned caster. You'll notice them being fond of a little trinket and it will have more interaction than just another spell on a list. This way, they can feel like they earned something neat, can't just pass it around to their friends, and at higher levels, if they want to attune other objects, they can pick up the cantrip legally.
@@FlatOnHisFace While I'm inclined to agree. The mechanical impact would be fairly minimal. All this does is gives people who ignore less combat oriented cantrips a role play/utility cantrip and gives people who pick it anyway the ability to also pick up another utility or damage cantrips. Neither of which really changes the game too much. The only downside is martial characters might be wanting some little perk as well. Which, as long as it was role play oriented, I would be inclined to provide them. Espexially since combat oriented martial characters can often be the most limited when it comes to this stuff.
@@piranhaplantX Okay, but that choice they made to pick all combat cantrips now wasn't a choice at all, because whatever else was just given to them. Why remove a choice from the game when the work-around that I proposed above will have the same mechanical effect and bring about something more that can't be expressed in pure mechanics? I think that people who ignore prestidigitation just never saw a value in it (as it isn't directly related to combat) so never pick it, so never learn its value. By granting it for free, as the OP states, they won't learn its value because you don't learn a lesson when you don't strive for it. If you want them to learn its value, give it to them in the form a plush toy, let them enjoy it awhile, then have some dog rip apart their stuffed teddy bear several sessions later. These spells aren't purely role-play spells; they impact the narrative. Ever need to light a fire with no gear? Need a show someone you have a coin, for just a moment, when you don't? Did your character ever come back from a journey in torn, tattered, blood-soaked clothes and immediately need an audience with a noble?
@@piranhaplantX Fighters do get their fighting style, so they do get their 'bonus cantrip' in a way. Though perhaps, if that isn't considered enough, the martial classes (Rogues, Rangers, Paladins, Fighters, Barbarians) could get a free Battlemaster feat? Fighters could get "Martial Adept" for free (2 Battlemaster maneuvers & 1 d6 superiority die) while the rest get a free "Fighting Initiate: Superior Technique" (1 Battlemaster maneuver & 1 d6 superiority die). Though part of the issue with those is that cantrips are unlimited, while basically any option that would be comparably unique to non-casters has strong limits on how often it can be used.
I personally feel that message is an often underrated cantrip. When you are trying to be sneaky and maintain group communication and coordination it can be invaluable. One great example is trying to ambush an enemy and your group splits up to approach them from multiple sides in order to flank them. You are going to want to coordinate the attack and shouting is obviously out of the question if you want to remain hidden, relying on physical gestures is questionable at best and makes you more likely to be seen. Use message and you can basically whisper back and forth from up to 120' away. Problem solved. If you have a group that is big into tactical gameplay or loves being sneaky, message could end up being one of the most important tools in your caster's bag of tricks.
Also it has public uses too as noone else can hear your message or the reply. Unlike sending which does not actually have that annotation as i remember.
One thing that gets overlooked often is the non-damaging part of Firebolt. Setting any flammable (non-worn/carried) item on fire from 120' away? There are tons of creative uses for that, especially if you prepare ahead of time. Most places have a lot of flammable things around, and 120' is a significant range. (More if you have spell sniper.)
Wizard: “I cast Minor Illusion to cast the image of a kobold.” DM: “You can’t use Minor Illusion to create creatures.” Wizard: “I cast Minor Illusion to create a statue of a Kobold.” DM: *:0*
Weather: Choose a location on Earth that represents the appropriate climate. Pick a "zero date" in the appropriate season 3 or 4 years ago. look up the weather. Now you can predict the weather for months
“It’s going to be difficult for a single character to have all of the cantrips we list...” *Looks down at my Tome Pact Warlock sheet* “...unless your a Pact of the Tome Warlock.”
Souds like my "Captain Cantrip" Variant Human (magic initiate) 1 shadow Sorcerer/4 tome celestial with Spell Sniper. 12 Cantrips all Charisma based at lvl 5. I think 1-16 divine sorcerer/3 Hexblade/ 1 bard would make the most viable character. Medium Armor, all weapons, 6 sorcerer/cleric cantrips, 2 Warlock, 2 bard, 3 any, add devils sight and improved tome for ALL ritual casting. With 4 ASIs you can max Charisma and use 2 for feats like Magic Initiate, spell sniper, and if you use variant human somthing like tough might be another to consider. Now I'm gonna have to do a lvl 20 build for this.
I love the mending cantrip. One of the ways that I use it a lot are to restore trash loot found on monsters. It doesn't make it magical, but clearing away rust and cracks in a goblin sword turns trash into treasure that could reasonably be sold in a town. Or to repair a snapped bow string (or a lute for a bard).
@@royherb3842 Depending on location and business when you first move there, plus additional gold, you could probably do better than common. At least in Faerun
@@skelyjack3899 The gracious Bard that repaired the whole world's shoes, on every plane of exisistence and in every multiverse. All are grateful, noble one. Sorry for all the stinky ones.
The way I rule mending is this: you can use it exactly as written and it works on living things. I always tell my players to be careful with how they use it though. If they attempt to use it to close a severe wound, I make them roll a medicine check. If they fail it, the person they attempted to heal now has internal bleeding and needa a healer. If they succeed it, the wound closes but no HP is regained. Context is king when I dm
Mending says it has to be an object. I believe a humanoid PC or NPC would qualify as a creature rather than an object. But you're the DM, so you get to rule it any way you see fit. Just my uninvited opinion.
@@imofage3947 I always like to reward player creativity where I can, and most of the time players who attempt to use mending on another creature have something relatively creative in mind. The only other way to appease people would be to come up with a new spell that's worded exactly the same way as mending, but for creatures.
@@ProSharpshooter I'm not judging, just pointing out the technicality. Like I already said, as the DM you get to run your table any way you like. Furthermore, I'm not even a player yet. I've only recently started watching some of the YT vids on the subject. And honestly, I'd probably be a terror for any DM, even more so than your typical player because so much of the rules are left to the DM's discretion. I'd end up asking a lot of questions and abusing some corner cases.
I've also found message to be so fucking useful and honestly ive actually forgone mage hand for it. say someone is scouting ahead and you need to know what's going on, and you have no idea where they went. cast message! it's like a short range sending spell that costs nothing
My group has 2 casters with message, and it's been insanely useful to be able to send in the more "sneaky" characters to scout ahead, and then have the Bard alert the rest of us with message. Or to spread out and coordinate an investigation together by messaging information around. And that's just on the second arc of the campaign!
That's not how message works. You have to point your finger at the target, i.e. know where the target is. And while it doesn't require a direct line of sight (if you're familiar with the target), any non-trivial amount of matter will block it, so if your scout is behind a few big trees or something, it won't work even if you know the direction.
@@hellterminator "The spell doesn’t have to follow a straight line and can travel freely around corners or through openings." So no, trees won't block the message. Even indoors, as long as the scout leaves any doors ajar as they go ahead, the message will get through.
Interesting use of Mending I recently employed: We encountered some arcane carvings that seemed to be focusing some energy and animating some mindless mooks every so often; I used Mending to 'repair' the carvings out of the wall, disrupting the energy focusing component and ending the animation cycles.
Reminds me of a friend who during a one-shot used prestidigitation to gradually "clean" a circle drawn on the ground as part of the bbg's spell off of the floor, gradually getting rid of enough to break the effect while the other players dealt with the bbg and enemies that then tried to stop her as soon as they noticed what was happening
We found a ruined letter on a corpse that we mended. DM played along for laughs because it wasn't important. Later a book with viral info got burned. We tried mending. DM had to take back his rule of allowing it to restore text. Be careful what you allow DMs.
so dispel magic for a cantrip? :( this is like a fighter throwing a stone and saying "it goes into the cyclops eye and since he can't see he trips and falls off the cliff"
@@hawkthetraveler6344 no, not dispel magic. Destroy magical component. It is like: Hey bbeg, you should be watchful of your magical stuff, because we have magical stuff too. The "oh you can't do that because you need arbitrary stats instead of being a clever and creative player" is a bad DMing style.
I totally understand your experience having players who check the weather all the time. I don't have any one with druidcraft in my group, but on the first big looting of our campaign my party rolled really well and managed to get a "wind fan" I like to go though and customize magic items my players get so they will have a little something extra for flavor or a minor effect just to make them special, and what I did with the wind fan is I decided that when it was unfolded it would display the sky and reveal the weather conditions 24 hours into the future. Once the warlock in the party who had the fan figured that out that he had the weather channel in his pocket, he took to asking me frequently about what the weather would be like the next day. As such, weather has become a more significant part of our campaign. I've quickly memorized the page number in the dmg that has random weather tables (pg 109) and my session notes always include "today's weather" and "tomorrow's weather" So far my players haven't really tried to plan or strategize around it, but there have been cases where he checked the weather one day, but the next day it wasn't what he expected because the weather had been magically manipulated or because they had changed locations.
My favorite use of Mage Hand + Find Familiar, which I call the Scout 1. Choose one of the forms for your familiar that can fit in the palm of your hand (personally I like spider for this) 2. Dismiss your familiar to its pocket dimension 3. Conjure mage hand inside a room you plan to go into. (get it as high up as you can if you're worried about it being noticed.) 4. Summon your familiar on the palm/top of your mage hand 5. Look through your familiar's eyes. Congrats! Now you can see inside the room (darkvision with the spider), the mage hand can move around, activate things, unlock doors, prematurely trigger traps, all while keeping your familiar up and out of harm's way. If the trap you want to trigger has the potential to kill your familiar, just get the hand into position, dismiss the familiar again, and then trigger it. Mage hand gets nuked, but your familiar is still alive and well. You can throw in prestidigitation to color your mage hand to match the ceiling too, for camouflage. Spectral hands can be a bit easy to spot, after all.
Oh my gosh I did something similar as a arcane trickster! There was a man passed out in the bar, my DM wad trying to tempt me to steal his money but instead I put little music notes floating around his head making little twittering noises, it was hilarious
I used shape water to augment my College of Swords bard's sword dance performance. Kubo was the inspiration for the character so I started the performance with his Kubo's monologue. I couldn't resist.
One of my favorite uses of minor illusion is hiding traps, such as covering a spike pit with an illusion of undisturbed ground or making an illusory sack of beans to hide a spring-loaded crossbow. Another is for use in performance checks; create the sound of a sick beat to accompany you while you shred on your lute!
Neat things I used Prestidigatation for -I covered my party's tracks on a dusty floor -I created a beatiful light show for a town mayor's bday -While my party hid in a tree from an owlbear I made it sound like our footsteps were behind him so we got a surprise attack -I cast it constantly to clean my character's clothes before an event
One of my favorite uses I've done with Druidcraft as a Ranger (magic initiate/variant ranger from Tasha's), is when navigating a catacomb, I looked for roots or other plants near various intersections as we explored and used Druidcraft to twist the roots in just a way of making an arrow showing which way towards the exit was. A small detail a lot of people would overlook, but it helped the party guarantee we would at the least know the way out even if we didn't know the way forward!
I once used Minor Illusion to generate a wall between my PC and some archers: no line of sight=no arrows (or disadvantage if they thought it was an illusion, which they did). Another time, a Wizard in the party I was DMing for used Mending to repair the traces an old library left whenever the secret passage behind it was opened, stopping the guards from finding it.
That would be a very small wall, but I guess that would work if the archers were already shooting through a restricted vector like into a small tunnel or through a window. I like your application of Mending.
Guidance can be used to boost initiative too. Minor Illusion, since it doesn't require concentration, can be used to augment the Silent Image that the WL can cast at will. Mage Hand can deliver oil pouches. The oil can be ignited w/o considering an attack. I'd make a case for Mold Earth (and his little cousin, Shape Water), over the Prestiditation/Thaumaturgy/Druidcraft. Like Mending, Mold Earth and Shape Water has immense practical usage.
Excellent use of the Mending spell in our recent campaign: One of our party members used it to repair damage to our small fishing boat during combat with a large aquatic creature who was trying to kill us.
Mending is one of my favorite cantrip spell. In a recent game, I used Mending for "repairing really slowly" a statue of my deity on a ruined temple while I waited my group to return. It was a completely "uneventful", it was literally "flavor reasons" but it was really cute to do :v
Shape Water is my favourite, it can used to make shields by freezing water in sheets in front of allies, and the water/ice servants can be extremely useful. It's like a shield cantrip with the utility of mage hand, but better.
Mending on a corpse... could you stab someone in the throat, let them die... then you use mending to get rid of the stab wound??? clean and put away the blade then say "I don't know what happen, he startted spitting up blood and fell over" and roll bluff???
Technically no. The wound was there when the object was created. By the RAW if you sealed the wound some other way, a mending spell would in fact work to restore the item to it's original, like new, condition. With an open wound.
Minor illusion to hide the wound then prestidigitation to clean the blade and surrounding area maybe? You could maybe stab them in the heart, use mending to repair the clothes you stabbed them through then prestidigitation to clean the blood up.
@@PolarBailey Mending can absolutely be used on organic material. Two of the examples are a cloak (organic), and a wine skin (made out of skin, hence the name).
It's nice that minor illusion doesn't have a verbal component, allowing it to be used sneakily like you mentioned in the video. But other, higher level illusion spells DO have a verbal component, so minor illusion has a unique niche the others can't do better.
True, granted outside of AL im about 1:1 on DM's who follow every little detail strictly, for every DM who will apply the tiniest rule, I also have had a DM that merely requires you have a spell on your spell list, no mats for spells or giving yourself away with a verbal incantation either so situationally that's a bit of a nonissue.
@@kylebeach6799 a lot of DM's note that casting a spell will attract attention especially in diplomatic encounters. I think I remember that the message spell had a verbal component, but could be whispered so it wasn't too much of a problem still had some risk in a stealth situation. Certainly, I could see situations were having no verbal component for minor illusion could be relevant, especially when using it for ventriloquism, which is a valid use of the spell.
There is no verbal component to Minor Illusion, but you do need a free hand. That can be an issue for all those Gnomish Fighters and Rogues who get this cantrip as part of their Forrest Gnome racial package. I don't see many fighters with a free hand. This isn't a deal-breaker, just something to keep in mind.
I like doing a variation on the metal gear box. I minor illusion an extension of a wall for me to hide behind. Now I can either drop an AOE ambush spell with little chance of detection or since I'm the caster I know it is an illusion (so I can see through it) now I pick creatures off from a hidden position. So now I have advantage to attacks and they have disadvantage unless they are in my square. I also used the box trick over a floor hatch to allow us to avoid being sniped as we try to climb up. It gave us a chance to get someone on the level before the fight started.
I’m legit sewing a blanket for one of my DnD players, and I have smiled through THIS ENTIRE VIDEO. Thank you for sharing these cantrips. Mending is one of my all time favourite ones, and it makes me delighted to hear the unique ways you two have used these so creatively.
to mend a cloak that has been ripped in two is easy : roll the two halves of the cloak into rolls and hold the ends together it now easily fits in a 1 foot cube
The cleaning and soiling effect, and the reflavouring effect, are my favourite parts of prestidigitation. My noblewoman has prestidigitation almost entirely to make sure she isn't caught covered in mud and blood, but she is mischievous enough to occasionally soil the clothes of others or make the food they're eating taste like a million Scoville units of spice. The minor illusion box sounds really fun.
You can get around Minor Illusion 'object only' is to create a statue of a creature, or even yourself - it doesn't move, it's a perfect duplicate, also, since you can recaste it every turn, you can 'move' it by just recasting it in a new location. An example would be - creating a perfect replica of the wall you are standing next to, and recast it as you move along the wall, with a stealthy PC, this works really well as you move the illusion and move behind the new casting, especially if your short and overlap the illusions.
mending always seems like something that you really want when you dont have it, but when you do have it and you try and use it... ive never seen it work how people want it to. its the kind of spell that a DM will always nerf because its potentially so game breaking.
Dungeon Dudes: "There is one distinct question that comes up very often with mage hand." Me: "Can you block with it?" Dungeon Dudes: "Can you do damage with mage hand?" Me: "Don't people know how to read?!?!?"
@@Jack-The-Gamer- I'd rule in one of my games that you'd have to have already moved it into position using your action, and then it could resist 10 lbs of physical force... which isn't going to block much.
You can't "Attack" with it. As in fire a spell or throw a dart, or swing a sword. But you can carry things, so it logically follows you can also _drop_ things, and dropped items can deal damage.
@@theuncalledfor yes, in the few cases where a 10lb item might make a booboo, when you drop it on someone, you might want to search for "falling objects" for damage.
@@diamondflaw lol what you used to block with now is broken hurtling a shard of wood about the size of a stake sending it directly to your heart hope your character is not a vampire make a dex saving throw, sorry just had to say that or was just thinking of that
Yea, if I could bring a few DnD spells into reality, I would definitely put Mending and Guidance at the top of my list, along with Prestidigitation and maybe Mage Hand if I had enough cantrip slots or could take the Telekinetic feat froM Tasha's. Never need to replace comfy shoes, never need to do laundry, never need to carry a lighter. Mending would save me lots of money at the mechanic shop. Guidance would make a person an excellent tutor, or improve skills at any craft. Prestidigitation cleans soiled objects, so no more doing dishes or scraping and scrubbing the pet litter boxes. And Mage Hand would get lots of use picking up dropped screws, sweeping out deep under cabinets, and holding a flashlight. Add to that some low level rituals like Unseen Servant, Speak with Animals, and Leomund's Tiny Hut... Apparently if I had DnD magic I'd just become a hermit.
I have a reoccurring necromaner villain in my campaign that uses mending on his skeletons after the party keeps destroying them. I also have a displaced lizardfolk druid NPC that, having been left alone for several years, took a temperate forest piece of land and basically turned it into a temperate jungle with constant uses of Druidcraft and his skills.
Colobrinus With a side of cube Mathematically speaking, mending the rope back onto itself is actually the only way to make a “mathematical knot” look it up.
While Mage Hand visible to most, the Arcane Trickster sub-class can make it invisible and use Sleight of hand so you can try to deactivate traps from a distance.
Mage hand is just a useful spell that suggests lots of cool ideas for how to use it, but also a ton of ways you probably can't. In the one game I've actually DM'd the players wanted to use mage hand to hold a door shut on a silenced wizard, but I was like if the level 1 spell _Unseen Servant_ only has 2 strength, there's no way I can give your hand more than that, haha.
I actually used Mage hand recently on a ship to help me with loading and firing a Balista from the side of the ship. it worked, also had a Unseen Servant on the ship as well doing minor things(Cast as a ritual) it worked rather well to be honest.
For those fans of D&D's new movie, prestidigitation is what Simon is using for his magic show. It actually shows he's a better Sorcerer than even he thinks as he is casting two spells at once. One top of his cantrip he's using telekinesis to kick the bits and bobs as the commoner said.
One thing I love to do with Prestidigitation with my bard characters is I'll cast three of them in a tavern in different areas (since three is the max number you can have active at one time). And when my bard plays on the stage for the guests to get gold, the three castings will act like speakers, letting the music play throughout the full tavern. My bard comes with surround sound! XD
A personal favorite prestidigitation use my players used was when they came up against a Catoplebas that had the awful stench aura, they covered their mouths with clean cloth then cast prestidigitation on the cloths to give them a pleasant smell.
oh yeah, the ability to shit down a 5 ft space as a cantrips is amazing. Cloud of daggers might do more damage, but why do I care? I can cast bonfire wherever I want and it takes an action to move it somewhere else
My favorite use of Thaumaturgy is when me and a little tiefling girl just walked up to 20 kobolds and just walked towards them menacingly while the ground shook and they all scattered as fast as they could
Great list and examples. I love seeing players use spells like this in creative ways, and am happy as DM to reward that creativity or help it along a little. My #6 useful cantrip might be Mold Earth. I've seen players use it in battle to create barriers or cover, as well as to slow down pursuers in a tight passage. And of course, it's great for quickly burying bodies when your murder hobos need to hide their handiwork.
What up my dudes. Looks like we have another fantastic topic! I love cantrips. Guising yourself then using Friends to make someone mad at whoever you guised as. Minor Illusion and Thaumaturgy for deceit. Eldritch Blast, duh. Lightning Lure on a Sorcerer with Twinned Spell. Guidance is stupidly useful, especially with Help Action. Edit: Twinned Lightning Lure while multiclassed into Tempest Cleric. Pull two enemies closer, shock them, thus push them 10ft away. Helps reposition enemies. Damn, I forgot about Mage Hand. Good for triggering traps
Something interesting for the mending cantrip, we went to a tailor in Greenest, and my warlock (who could never cast magic before his deal) saw the tailor casting it when he fixed his torn coat (damaged during combat). After coming to him several times, and the tailor making good money to fix these clothes, the tailor offered to make a coat similar to/better than the coat my character wore out of a self Mending fabric. Also used prestidigitation to start setting fire to the tents in the Cult of the Dragon’s war camp. Or I used it to light a bottle of oil before throwing it as a makeshift Molotov. Warlock now has a bit of a dark obsession with fires and setting them.
In some situations, Guidance can also be added to Initiative rolls (if you can manage to cast it before initiative is called) since initiative rolls are just dexterity checks.
A shield only weighs 6 lbs... So conceivably mage hand could hold your shield, even if it only gave you 1/2 cover because it couldn't move, that's still 2 AC. Food for thought. If Animate objects wouldn't work because it's a corpse, mending shouldn't work either. I feel like allowing a corpse to be an "Object" is dangerous territory.
Ay first time player here and first like to say- thank yall so much, you guys help me set up the character sheet but this is my second video of yours and i chose two of the five cantrips x3
My friend was running the Rime of the Frost Maiden module and I was playing a Forest Gnome Order of Scribes Wizard named Alstion Snickerwick. When attempting to escape a giant’s lair in a small little nook, we had reason to believe there were wolves in a cave. I, in my brilliance in remembering this video, rubbed dirt and rubble on myself and my adventuring partner. Then, I used Minor Illusion to squeeze us into a 5 ft cube, made a box, and sent my familiar to goad the wolves to follow the path that led to the giant, to ensure I could command things smoothly, I saw through the familiars eyes. Only to learn it was a very, very large bear. And then after about fifteen minutes, we explored that path to the giant a *teensy* bit, and learned there was an unguarded door the whole time. Excellent idea, Kelly, I just didn’t use it the best.
I threw a small bag of flour into a room, and cast prestidigitation. The aerosolized flour caught fire, and caused a small explosion... I am a fairly new player and may have gotten away with more than I should have.
Ray of Frost. Being able to slow your enemies movement is always helpful. Also, Mold Earth is AMAZING! You can completely take out a foe with two castings and a means to knock someone back. Also it can create partial cover, blocking off or making movement difficult by excavating a 5ft cube of dirt
In regards to mending several time for a larger object there’s actually a point in the dragon queen campaign where it’ll say how many mends it takes to fix this so wotc has thought of this and thinks it’s ok at the very least I think it’s really early in the first chapter even
Fully agree on each and every one of these. Guidance was the first cantrip I picked for my cleric, and I use it pretty much every session. One of my favourite uses I’ve seen for prestidigitation was when a party member dirtied an enemy’s sword, he specified that their weapon would be covered in feces. It’s a nice way to get them to drop their weapon
My first game ever, I was DMing a party of 3 players, and one of them was a wizard who planned on specializing in illusion. First combat encounter, this player was brand-new to the game, and was still learning. It was a small pack of wolves, and he asked if he could cast Minor Illusion. I told him, "Absolutely, please describe the effect you'd like the spell to have." He tells me he wants to create a sound like the roar of a ferocious beast to scare the wolves. I had to think on my feet and had the wolves make an intelligence check to see if they could discern whether the sound was an indication of an imminent danger. Most of them failed, and they become startled, running away from the party to a distance equal to their movement, on the first turn after being frightened. I'd like some experienced opinions on whether I allowed this spell to be too powerful for what it's meant to do.
Int SAVE not Check. 1 round only as wolves use Scent to Hunt. As nothing was smelled, they could ignore the sound. [I started playing in 1976, DM since 1980]
Power is relative. Never shy away from player creativity. There is the kind which is unfun and straight up rules abuse, but that is apparent when it happens. If it turns out your party can scare wolves away, then they are no match for your party. It is the same as pitting an intellect eating monster against a party of low INT guys. The monster will be powerful. Pit the same monster against a party of wizards, artificers and rogues with good or outstanding INT saves. The monster stands no chance. Power is always relative. Let your players have agency and freedom. You did not sit down to play a crpg, where there are only scripted events and scripted abilities. Lets say your bbeg summons a fire elemental and it should be destroying the party CR-wise. What makes for a better story? They either run or die, or if they cleverly trick the elemental into a lake they disguise with a spell? Why hate them being powerful/clever? On the other hand... If a player wants to do things with spells that are narratively wrong, that is bad playstyle. For example a player wants to "outwit" the elemental with a charm spell. This IS not creative, just begging the DM to extend the capacity of a spell for more raw power. Does the roar a thing the spell can make? Yes. Did it help the party? Yes. Will it work on every encounter? Hell no.
"May the Force be with you" *Casts Guidance* "Lets turn this Bard's performance into a TV show!" *Begins casting a series of Minor Illusions* "... This sounds like a hands job!" *Listens to your friends grown as you cast Mage hands* "Blacksmith? Why?" *Casts Mending to repair a dent in your armor* "Man, paper/parchment is expensive! And the ink!" *Casts Prestidigitation to soil or unsoil the a pattern of ink on a single bit of paper* I have literally used Prestidigitation as a kind of etch-a-sketch, it is so freaking great! My GM was amazed at this use, they never thought of ink on a clean sheet of parchment as the ink soiling the paper. I have used it to clean dyes off banners, remove rust from armor, is it just so freaking good! Then again i have done what i can to be make spell casters with ONLY RP related spells. imagine a clan of Sorcerers who are blacksmiths and all their magics relate to forging. Gust of wind to supercharge the forge! Heck, the spell "Creation" can be used by a Smith to make folded metal, once the spell ends the metal poofs out and you are left with a now perfectly formed metal sword out of folded metal that is has very low mass but is just as strong because the folding is so extreme that it is kind of honeycombed internally. The voids are a vacuum so you can use this to create vacuums inside seamless glass globes because you dipped a created Iron ball into molten glass over and over again until it is solid and cooled. The iron ball then vanishes and a vacuum is inside. Imagine the fun you can have with a vacuum in a glass ball... Now combine Creation and Fabricate use both real and created materials. ... So nice :)
in The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion the Sorcerer class is portrayed as wearing heavy armor in the game artwork; a heavy shield in his left hand and a metal bracer, shoulder guard and neck guard
Mage Hand Uses:
1. Have it carry your light source ahead of you.
2. Flip off enemies. Wave at friends. Flip off friends. Wave at enemies.
3. Pass items over a long distance (60ft if someone else has Mage Hand).
4. Open doors or chests from far away. Was it trapped? Great! It's not going to hit you, because you're 30ft away.
5. Illusion detector. Is that thing real? Poke it with Mage Hand!
6. Archer? Have it hold a fire source so you can light flaming arrows without having to stop drawing/knocking arrows.
7. Throw a blanket/cloak over it and pretend it is a spooky ghost.
8. Double Mage Hand high five!
If you're a small creature, you can cast Enlarge/Reduce and let the hand carry you
Extreme pattycake
But is "poking" an attack? CAN you "attack" an illusion?
I would say that throwing sand in the face would be an attack. I go by what I would ask a player to do if they were doing it. Either a ranged thrown attack (like throwing a rock) or a DEX save. Both are attacks. No dice. Now... sprinkling sand from above? No problem.
Can't forget using Mage Hand to cover someone's mouth to stop them from saying something stupid.
Also pick pocket, especially if your an arcane trickster.
One of my favourite Prestidigitation moments was when my players were invited to the Grand Duke's castle for a feast as thanks for their latest heroic quest. The party Bard was obsessed with cooking. He had expertise in Cook's Utensils and had a dream to be the "Adamantine Chef" (typical quirky backstory, etc.). He asks the grand duke if he can see the royal kitchen and is allowed to do so. While no one is looking, he uses Prestidigitation to make all of the food taste terrible.
The duke is (naturally) displeased with the "awful cooking" and asks (somewhat sarcastically) if anyone can cook a decent meal. The Bard jumps out of his seat and offers his services. He rolls a few high cooking checks (and tops off the rest with Prestidigitation). The duke is so taken by his cooking that he hires him on as the new royal chef. The player retires the character since his dream has basically been realised. Legend has it his character still works there to this day. And people still say fluff cantrips are useless...
Eh, even though it takes up a cantrip slot, I just use it for fun social gags, making temple guards piss themselves, something similar to the food thing you mentioned above, making a poison undetectable by taste, and my personal favourite, using it to clean rusty swords from bandits or kobolds, and sell the shiny swords for a profit.
@@patrickduffin7912 Would cleaning rusty swords be a Prestidigitation or a Mend?
@@ericsaxon5736 I'm pretty sure prestidigitation. For one, mending is basically fusing broken parts back together, would work for broken shafts and such. With prestidigitation, you could simply clean off the rust, and there you have a shiny sword, sharpen it a bit, and boom, full price.
@@patrickduffin7912 I'm not sure rust = dirt. Damaged/cracked leather handles, might also need more than just a polish or oiling. I believe rust is water/oxygen corrosion, similar to acid, except it takes much longer to do the damage
Would polishing/cleaning restore these? www.wikiwand.com/en/Viking_sword
@@ericsaxon5736 To be fair, you could interpret it that way, however it says: you instantly clean or soil an object that is no bigger than one cubic foot. With the damaged handles, yeah, you'd use mending for that. And even though rust is just corrosion if metal due to said oxygen and moisture, my DM let's it's slide, as it's a cool use of it. Magic doesn't really apply with the laws of physics, unless you really wanted to. Feel free to say it doesn't though, difference of opinion on what works really.
A Freind playing a Cleric who's character was a germaphobe would constantly cast prestidigitation on themselves to keep themselves clean, the DM ruled that the effect had become permanent around her causing this kind of Slug like trail of cleanliness around the character wherever they went.
& that there's a dimension of dust and dirt where all magically swept away debris is taken via the use of spells like prestidigitation
someone else is using prestidigitation to soil anything they feel like, drawing on the dust and dirt dimension, and so the cycle of life continues
And also it said the spell can make trinkets untill your " next turn
ehhh.... this is actually canon. there's a layer of the abyss where all dirt, grime, and filth eventually goes. it's the home plane of the demon ooze prince.
Sort of like Pig Pen, but inverted.
@@RobertBarry1969 Actually, if you think about the Last Sentence of the OP, Pigpen Could be the repository of the "magically swept away debris is taken via the use of spells like prestidigitation"
You missed the highest utility use of minor illusion: magical powerpoint. You can quickly share visual information. Need to describe a villain you're looking for? Sharing results of a scouting foray or planning pre-attack tactics? Never underestimate the value of quick, accurate visual display in a world without TVs or cameras!
Holy shit you can do that?
This is an amazing use of the spell with a bit of basically creating a general image not a specific pinpoint detail picture, you can get the gist but not "Ah there's a mole that's barely poking above the collar" I tend to run it as a quick "Sketch" Illusion
Oh shit, you changed my life bro
That's what I did with my Raven Queen Warlock, with the level 1 raven familiar and level 2 invocation Misty Vision (silent image at will). I sent the raven as far as I could keep contact with him and showed the map of the dungeon to the group with the illusion. The GM only answer to that was to try to kill my raven lol. She ultimately showed us the entire map of the level, there was nothing else to do ;)
I for one really hate you for this idea, yet entirely on board... but damn power point is hunting me into my gaming
For a quick run down here they are.
1) Guidance
2) Minor Illusion
3) Mage Hand
4) Mending
5) Thaumaturgy / Prestidigitation / Druid craft
Sounds like I need to make a jack of all trades bard and have all 5 of these.
Thanks for this. I have no idea why it took 27 minutes to talk about 5 cantrips, jfc
@@maxsquatch because it takes time to talk _about_ something rather than just list the names... I mean it's one thing to say "donald trump", it's another to explain who he is, where he came from, what he's doing, how people react to him etc.
Thanks! I was hoping someone would list them so I would need to watch the whole thing lol
Gods work
1. Guidance (2:14)
2. Minor Illusion (5:09)
3. Mage Hand (10:05)
4. Mending (14:22)
5. Prestidigitation, Druidcraft, Thaumaturgy (19:17)
Took a bit of scrolling to find, but thank you
Thank you! I watched this twice and still missed the spells.
@@sickmindedteenagerIf you click on the time stamps, you go right to that point in the video.
Prestidigitation -> change flavor.
Wizard "The fighter now tastes like ghost peppers."
Creature with bite attack "Oww my face!"
Hahahaha
Well, you can't use it on something living for that. So maybe change the flavor of the clothing he is wearing?
@@lordskyline9766 Change the flavor of someone's brassiere to menthol as a subtle way of saying "Cool your tits".
that's why you grease the fighter/barbarian.
This is a fun idea, but the flavour is not what makes ghostpeppers hot. Hot food is not a flavour.
You know how displacer beasts look like cats??? I used minor illusion to create a red laser dot and distract one with it. DM allowed it, it was hilarious.
I love that idea ^^
So creative!😂😂😅
Hope you put it on the barbarians crotch at least once...
Technically, you moved the red dot around (I assume, to distract the "big kitty"), which breaks the "you can't move the illusion" restriction on the cantrip. Right?
@@frederickcoen7862 keep casting it again? Or just gm rolling with rule of cool vs raw
I recently ran my second session of Dragon's of Icespire Peak with three new players and another that has a fair bit of experience. They were doing the quest where you have to find the midwife for Phandalin and bring her back to town so she's safe, but when the party arrives, they see that she's being harassed by a manticore.
Our party's druid cast fog cloud centered on the manticore. The tiefling rogue used thaumaturgy to create whispers in the fog. The wizard then used prestidigitation to amplify the barbarian's voice, who then began shouting that he was an evil spirit, come to harvest the manticore's soul. I loved this idea so much that I was a hair away from just letting them have it, but my buddy Nate, playing the barbarian, picked up his die and said "So, I'm rolling intimidation, right?" I figured what the hey, why not? Manticores have poor wisdom anyway, so they're probably going to succeed. So I have him go ahead and roll, and with all of the extra effects, plus the fact that it was a table mostly of inexperienced players, I gave advantage. Nate winds up rolling a 17 and 18, against the manticore's double 1's, I had it fly off screaming.
So with two cantrips, a fog cloud, and a barbarian who assigned a 14 to charisma, they improvised a plan to scare away what could have been a nasty encounter.
That was a very beautiful moment as DM, and I've never been more proud to be one.
Random and pointless bit of trivia:
Grog isn't a kind of beer; it's a drink made of water and rum. Sailors were traditionally given a daily ration of rum as a means of keeping them a bit more relaxed during long voyages. Water was added, generally, for one of two reasons... First, the men themselves would water their rum to make it seem like it would go further; second, the quartermaster watered it- either on the captain's orders aboard private vessels, or as a standard procedure on most naval military ships- to keep the men from getting too drunk at any one time.
The proportion of water to rum in the recipe varies widely depending on the time period in question, as well as country of origin. In many of the more tightly regulated situations (mainly military, but some strict commercial and private ventures as well) the grog was premixed and stored in barrels, often with the addition of dried fruit such as raisins and apples to improve taste and help prevent scurvy (a form of vitamin c deficiency.)
Things you can learn when a lot of your friends are *really* into their jobs as bartenders can boggle the mind, lol.
I'm noting down all of this, thank you!
@@Draeckon Little odds and ends of trivia like that can be surprisingly helpful for adding flavor to a game. You wouldn't *believe* how many random bits learned from the game show Jeopardy have made it into my games over the two decades I've been playing, lol!
To add the point about scurvy prevention - at one point, French or British navy (can't remember which one) issued an order to substitute rum with wine (since rum was considerably stronger) and as a result, their people started getting afflicted with scurvy while the crews still holding on to their grog were fine.
@@KubinWielki That most likely happened at one time or another in most of the nations on the northern side of the Mediterranean; those lands have been particularly well-known for wine production for longer than most of the countries currently there have existed. The French, Italians, and Spaniards are highly likely candidates, to my mind, as they were historically quite heavily involved in both seafaring activities and wine production.
To add to this: aboard ships where the men were simply given a rum ration and told to water it themselves, they'd often hoard their rations so they could go on a bender.
Feeling 1d4 better for having watched this episode, thanks guys
You can't use the 1d4 because you didn't ask to use guidance before you started watching the video.
I give yOoOOOOouuuu bardic inspiration. Change that to 1d6 ;)
Yeah I just rolled a 1d6...you won't like the 1 I rolled
Here. Have a +1 modifier from me.
@@yanjanjon9090, the video *was* the casting of Guidance in ritual form. It’s a rare thing to cast it in such a manner, but doing so allows the caster(s) to provide the bonus to individuals in different realities. (Which explains why it’s so rarely done.)
Honestly when someone casts guidance, all I hear is when our cleric slaps someone and says “do better!”
Or the barbarian glares and mumbles incoherently at the aided character
Mending in one campaign was critical in maintaining a ship. repairing sails, rigging and damaged timber.
Mage Hand hauled lines and tools up to sailors and Prestidigitation was used to shout commands from the helm and lite a torch for pitch-dipped arrow heads before they're fired into enemy sails. The cantrip solidified the concept of every ship of worth having a "sea mage", certainly the ships of wealthy or powerful NPCs. Good times.
Very true!
Mage hand couldn't haul lines on most ships, it's strength isn't enough. It could definitely carry tools and things
@@Aedi I think he meant take the end of a line up to a sailor on the mast. But yes, it definitely takes more than 10lb pull to haul a sail into place.
My favorite hacky way to use Mage Hand was when we discovered (and accepted into our party) a pseudodragon that had a shredded wing and could not fly. Later, the tiny dragon was found to have minimal arcane magical abilities -- she was allowed two cantrips, each of which could be used once per long rest. Weighing less than 10 pounds, she could cast Mage Hand and use it to carry _herself_ around, and go anywhere or to any height because anywhere the hand went, it was within 30 feet of the caster. _Ray of Frost_ was her other option, as it enabled her to slow down any potential prey she wanted to take, if it didn't die outright.
too bad Mend doesn't work on the living, else you coulda repaired her wing
Once you reach lvl 13 if you have a Cleric there is regenerate. It is a bit dark but cut the wing off and cast regenerate it will grow back and should be fully functional.
@@nickm9102 That was the plan all along, but the household got disbanded when the town was invaded and burned. They were only 8th level at the time.
"Is a corpse an object?" Getting into philosophical territory now
Can the object be a bwah?
@@Zombiewithabowtie like the sound Hank Hill makes?
@@Zombiewithabowtie hah. I understood that reference.
Technically, everything made of Atoms or other particles (like light) is an object :)
I'd probably ask for a high dc medicine check to mend the druid ripped in half, all those bones, organs, blood vessels, gotta go back together in just the right way
Bow users can recover only half of the arrows used after a fight, as the others are considered broken. Mending potentially returns all of your arrows/bolts.
Can you tell me what page of which book this is in? I've never seen any rules about ammunition before, and I like learning new things.
@@CrimsenOverlordVideos , PHB, 146/147 ish. under "Weapon Properties", "At the end of the battle, you can recover half your expended ammunition by taking a minute to search the battlefield."
@@Tzunamii777 Thanks a bunch. You have been a big help. :)
@@CrimsenOverlordVideos , my pleasure m8!
@@Tzunamii777 what a bro!
In my game just now, our wizard made a good use of Mage Hand twice.
The rogue jumped on a bridge above us to tie a rope so we could all climb, but he got spotted by an enemy at that level so we all rolled initiative, and he rolled the lowest initiative score so he couldn't tie the rope so he would've been attacked by all the enemies before we could climb to help him, but the wizard was going first so he used Mage Hands to tie the rope.
Then after the encounter we found a chest, the greedy rogue dashed to open it but the wizard cast Mage Hands to open the chest first, and it saved the rogue from triggering a spike trap.
Mage Hands save rash, unwise rogues.
Your rogue was not being played right. Rash and rogue shouldn’t go in the same sentence.
@@annaschulmeyer9356 hey, if it's appropriate to the character, a rash rogue actually sounds like it could be really fun!
Nah, let the greedy rogue get punished lol
I usually let rash, unwise rogues die.... and next rogue is usually wise and not a greedy dumbass hehehe
Fighter: Damn! My spear is broken!
Druid: I gotcha! *Casts Mending on it to fix it*
Fighter: Thanks, Druid!
Druid: Wait, one more thing!
Fighter: What?
Druid: *Uses Druidcraft and adds some neat designs on the spear's shaft*
Fighter: NOICE!
Rogue: "The Engraving Gives You No Tactical Advantage Whatsoever"
@@arcuslux516 Fighter: "I know. But it looks cool."
@@arcuslux516 I disagree, it says right here on the item card "+2 Hype"
@@ClasticOne found the Bard
Although I imagine if you added flame decals, or hell, just turned it red, it would go faster.
My bard once used Prestidigitation to completely solve an encounter with an assassin during a huge party. First I cast it to cause the spies dress to be completely soiled, as if she had just not made it to the little spies room. Then with all of the fancy people looking at her, I cast it to put the spies faction logo on her forehead. She started panicking and started to leave. With everyone watching while she left, I cast it one last time, as you can have 3 effects active at once, and caused a bit of ice on the floor under her foot. She failed a save and slipped. Everyone was watching her as she had a bowel accident, had the logo of a known enemy appear on her forehead, then slip on her butt on the way out. Guards were on her so fast she didn't have a chance to do anything.
That is genius!
Prestidigitation at its finest
I assume your mission was to stop an assassination while knowing who the assassin was ?
None of those effects are legal for prestidigitation. The soiled lends itself to Thaumaturgy or minor illusion. The mark would maybe be doable via minor illusion but should grant a save at the very least. The patch of ice requiring a save or fall, well beyond the ability of the context of any of the varied special effects cantrips. Prestidigitation only allows you to cool or heat some food or such, not freeze it or cook food completely. .
@@toddwardle4395 This spell is a minor magical trick that novice spellcasters use for practice. You create one of the following magical Effects within range.
• 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.
If you cast this spell multiple times, you can have up to three of its non-instantaneous Effects active at a time, and you can dismiss such an effect as an action.
the ice is the only effect it couldnt really do but its up to the dm to allow it
Minor Illusion:
1. Lets your Kenku Talk.
2. Mock the BBEG as he Monolouges with his own Voice
3. Gather peoples attention by creating a scream
4. Create cover over yourself
5. Create a Cardboard Cut Out for low intelligent creatures.
6. Whisper a warning to an Allie about someone that they are talking to.
7. Threaten Someone with a Whisper that you don't like
8. Make someone think that they're going insane By whispering things to them
9. For Warlocks with Misty Visions Invocation You can combined them to make unlimited illusions of your choosing.
I mean, Kenku have Mimicry, and can string together different sets of words to make separate sentences and explain ideas, so they dont need minor illusion to talk.
Also, dont think they could be creative enough to do a few of these.
Edit: Just realized these dont all apply to a Kenku, lmao.
@@lockskelington314 Yeah, but that, frankly, would be Fail RP, imo.
@@lockskelington314 Just like how my kobold not obeying a dragon would be fail rp.
Me: I cast Minor Illusion to make a cat sat down.
DM: sorry you can only create objects not creatures.
Me: I cast Minor Illusion to make a taxidermy cat sat down.
I thought the same thing as a loop hole for animal minor illusions. Want a cat, rat or whatever?
Taxidermy
That DM is a bit of a ssssstickler, isn't it?
I think the distinction is probably intended to be ‘the thing you create can’t move’. That it has to be a static image.
But, yes, a statue or taxidermy of an animal that fits the size requirements would certainly meet the restrictions. (Which, of course, further solidifies my interpretation of the intended restriction.)
I would rule that the taxidermy cat illusion is sitting curled up with eyes closed, immobile.
Taxidermy hasnt been invented yet
'I feel 1d4 better already'. Gold.
@@MsDoIIy that's... A good idea actually :)
My favorite use for guidance is boosting counterspell’s ability check to counter higher level spells
@@talongreenlee7704 If you're trying to do that, then you need do have Guidance cast on you preemptively, like at the start of the fight or something, and hope that Counterspell will be useful. Guidance still requires an action to cast (and concentration), so it's rarely worth it for the cleric to use in combat.
Once my wizard had to hike through a blizzard and I used prestidigitation to warm his coat to stave off the cold. You can warm or chill up to one cubic foot of non living material. Clothes and armor pieces are non living. Most clothes can be folded to meet the one cubic foot requirement. That volcano have you roasting in your armor? Cast prestidigitation and you can have up to three cubic feet of clothes or armor cooled for an hour. Cold night but can't have a fire for safety reasons? Prestidigitation can heat your coats and blankets.
I like using the sleeves of many garments in Pathfinder for the same purpose, because it can become any non-magical clothing. I don't know if they have a similar item in 5e, but if they do it would be great for stuff like this.
We're you a lizardfolk? A Lizard Wizard in a Blizzard?
Does the temperature increase last as long as the spell duration, or is it consistent with the natural tendency of heat transference to attain equilibrium?
I looked it up. It lasts one hour.
Just use heat metal
Best way to decide if a twist on a spell's abilities should be allowed is to ask your players one simple question:
Would you be okay with your enemies being able to do this?
Even the most rules-abusive player should take pause at the idea that their characters' nemesis might use that same twist of power against them.
otherwise known as "giving the DM ideas"
@@handlebarfox2366 yup
Player: "No way any creature could come up with something this creative!"
Flayer: "Hold my Beer"
"This means the baddies can do it too" most famously used when asking if players want to use Flanking rules.
Force the DM to decide on the weather. Once they're decided on a storm, use call lightning for extra damage.
As a Tempest cleric, I am now very sad we don't have a druid
I'm going to start by saying that I agree with this list. My Pact of the Tome Sorlock has all of these cantrips (only Prestidigitation out of your three way tie) and uses them to great effect.
That being said, I've got to say I've gotten WAY more impactful use out of Shape Water. I've used it to create cover, bust open locks, create an ice bridge, distract an enemy, and I think it's important to note that a five foot cube of ice weighs three and a half tons. So far, my favorite use of the spell was to eject a Merrow from combat. Ice floats, so if you cast the spell under water, physics should do what it does.
I'm still waiting for an opportunity to freeze a chunk of cloud, but we'll get there.
"I cast minor illusion to create an image of a rat!"
"... you can't, a rat is a creature."
"Uh... I cast minor illusion to create a realistic lifelike statue of a rat!"
DM: *LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE SHIT*
Create a stuffed animal...
I cast minor illusion to create an image of a stuffed rat
conjuring up a life-like version of a creature seems like it'd reasonably be in play casting illusion. I think D&D DMs can reasonably handle a version of Bigmouth Billy Bass
I had the idea to create "An extremely realistic paper-mache rat that is totally indistinguishable from a normal rat."
#Suggestion: keep the subject you're speaking about on the lower part of the screen while you are speaking about it (like the Cantrip's name).
That would be a super nice suggest. Occasionally I find myself rewinding to remember exactly what it is they're talking about.
@@thatmasochist6318 I did that three times in this video, 'cuz I was multitasking pretty badly at the time.
@@EmptyKingdoms I was in the same boat. had it playing while taking care of some things and lost track too. Had the same happen in the past when they go off on a tangent or something since I typically listen to them in the background
@@o0Noctuabundus0o Me too!
On a sidenote, I listened (I really let them in the background while householding and all that jazz) to an earlier video of them, from around 2017, and they let the text onscreen during the whole topic discussion! Surprises me they dropped such a good design over the good-looking fadeout which has no actual practicity/usefulness to it besides looking good.
Unfortunately, they succeeded on that saving roll.
I love using Mage Hand in role playing moments. Just give an enemy 3 middle fingers or to hold my staff while my character is using my other hands for something. I feel like it’s one of those spells that lets you add a little bit of flair to your character
I have used Prestidigitation to cause more destruction than any fireball. Yes, it starts a small fire... that I ensure becomes a raging inferno and causes utter chaos. My bard carried tinder bundles for this kind of thing.
I also used it to get a Giant Badger to spit me out by flavoring my pants to taste like skunk arse.
Hands down it's the best spell in the game.
Oh, good idea. I have 5 flasks of oil already, but I did need more things to spend this useless gp on.
By the way, chickens cost 2 cp. *2 cp*. Alright I have 10 spare gold... what to spend it on? How about *500 chickens*?
@@nomdeplume9590 and then sic them on people like it's the legend of Zelda
@@grapefruittango4707 Yeah that's the plan... 200 chickens making attack rolls.
@@nomdeplume9590 When does the fire happen?
put all of your chickens in a bag of holding, then just turn it inside out with Mage hand on top of the enemy?
I love that prestigitation says that you can make a harmless sensory effect, I'm going to use it for my next char to make someone feel a chill up their spine as I try to intimidate them
In my campaign I let casters get druidcraft, thaumaturgy, or prestidigitation (depending on your class) as a bonus cantrip. I just figure casters are already restricted enough in cantrips and I see these as the first version of spell casting the casters learned. 😊
I would recommend not doing this, as all you are really doing is increasing the number of cantrips a caster has by +1. However, it may be neat early in a campaign for a caster without such a spell to find a little stuffed toy that grants such a cantrip to an attuned caster. You'll notice them being fond of a little trinket and it will have more interaction than just another spell on a list. This way, they can feel like they earned something neat, can't just pass it around to their friends, and at higher levels, if they want to attune other objects, they can pick up the cantrip legally.
This is cute.
@@FlatOnHisFace While I'm inclined to agree. The mechanical impact would be fairly minimal. All this does is gives people who ignore less combat oriented cantrips a role play/utility cantrip and gives people who pick it anyway the ability to also pick up another utility or damage cantrips. Neither of which really changes the game too much.
The only downside is martial characters might be wanting some little perk as well. Which, as long as it was role play oriented, I would be inclined to provide them. Espexially since combat oriented martial characters can often be the most limited when it comes to this stuff.
@@piranhaplantX Okay, but that choice they made to pick all combat cantrips now wasn't a choice at all, because whatever else was just given to them. Why remove a choice from the game when the work-around that I proposed above will have the same mechanical effect and bring about something more that can't be expressed in pure mechanics?
I think that people who ignore prestidigitation just never saw a value in it (as it isn't directly related to combat) so never pick it, so never learn its value. By granting it for free, as the OP states, they won't learn its value because you don't learn a lesson when you don't strive for it. If you want them to learn its value, give it to them in the form a plush toy, let them enjoy it awhile, then have some dog rip apart their stuffed teddy bear several sessions later.
These spells aren't purely role-play spells; they impact the narrative. Ever need to light a fire with no gear? Need a show someone you have a coin, for just a moment, when you don't? Did your character ever come back from a journey in torn, tattered, blood-soaked clothes and immediately need an audience with a noble?
@@piranhaplantX
Fighters do get their fighting style, so they do get their 'bonus cantrip' in a way.
Though perhaps, if that isn't considered enough, the martial classes (Rogues, Rangers, Paladins, Fighters, Barbarians) could get a free Battlemaster feat? Fighters could get "Martial Adept" for free (2 Battlemaster maneuvers & 1 d6 superiority die) while the rest get a free "Fighting Initiate: Superior Technique" (1 Battlemaster maneuver & 1 d6 superiority die).
Though part of the issue with those is that cantrips are unlimited, while basically any option that would be comparably unique to non-casters has strong limits on how often it can be used.
I personally feel that message is an often underrated cantrip. When you are trying to be sneaky and maintain group communication and coordination it can be invaluable.
One great example is trying to ambush an enemy and your group splits up to approach them from multiple sides in order to flank them. You are going to want to coordinate the attack and shouting is obviously out of the question if you want to remain hidden, relying on physical gestures is questionable at best and makes you more likely to be seen. Use message and you can basically whisper back and forth from up to 120' away. Problem solved.
If you have a group that is big into tactical gameplay or loves being sneaky, message could end up being one of the most important tools in your caster's bag of tricks.
TouchandFeel Yes! This saved my party’s butts constantly in a campaign I was in.
I count the 4 "m's"- Mage Hand, Mending, Message, Minor Illusion... absolutely amazing spells
Also it has public uses too as noone else can hear your message or the reply. Unlike sending which does not actually have that annotation as i remember.
I have a drow rogue and I took the time to teach my party the drow sign language to help exactly this
I was playing a superhero themed campaign, and everyone had message and we just used it as a comms system
One thing that gets overlooked often is the non-damaging part of Firebolt. Setting any flammable (non-worn/carried) item on fire from 120' away? There are tons of creative uses for that, especially if you prepare ahead of time. Most places have a lot of flammable things around, and 120' is a significant range. (More if you have spell sniper.)
Ships are mostly just big tinderboxes, waiting for an open flame. Canvas sails, wooden everything, lacquer and oil, maybe even barrels of gunpowder.
Wizard: “I cast Minor Illusion to cast the image of a kobold.”
DM: “You can’t use Minor Illusion to create creatures.”
Wizard: “I cast Minor Illusion to create a statue of a Kobold.”
DM: *:0*
Or a clay sculpture of a Kobold works too
Weather: Choose a location on Earth that represents the appropriate climate.
Pick a "zero date" in the appropriate season 3 or 4 years ago. look up the weather. Now you can predict the weather for months
This is brilliant. Have to steal this.
I don’t get it...must be missing something?
@@kevinlewis675 Pick a real place and a time 4 years back, look up weather at that place and during that time.
WHO ARE YOU WHO ARE SO WISE IN THE WAYS OF SCIENCE?!
“It’s going to be difficult for a single character to have all of the cantrips we list...”
*Looks down at my Tome Pact Warlock sheet*
“...unless your a Pact of the Tome Warlock.”
Toss in 1 level of sorc for an extra 4 cantrips (with other perks)
Souds like my "Captain Cantrip" Variant Human (magic initiate) 1 shadow Sorcerer/4 tome celestial with Spell Sniper. 12 Cantrips all Charisma based at lvl 5. I think 1-16 divine sorcerer/3 Hexblade/ 1 bard would make the most viable character. Medium Armor, all weapons, 6 sorcerer/cleric cantrips, 2 Warlock, 2 bard, 3 any, add devils sight and improved tome for ALL ritual casting. With 4 ASIs you can max Charisma and use 2 for feats like Magic Initiate, spell sniper, and if you use variant human somthing like tough might be another to consider. Now I'm gonna have to do a lvl 20 build for this.
I mean, I wasn't even really trying, and I have 3 of the 5 at level 4. As a note, if it matters to you, this is literally my first character ever.
It can also work with a divine soul sorcerer with the Magic Initiate feat for druid
You could also put magic initiate on top of that for more cantrips
I love the mending cantrip. One of the ways that I use it a lot are to restore trash loot found on monsters. It doesn't make it magical, but clearing away rust and cracks in a goblin sword turns trash into treasure that could reasonably be sold in a town. Or to repair a snapped bow string (or a lute for a bard).
Omg. Mending and Prestidigitation for cleaning and fixing shoes! Every skateboarders dreams!
Sounds like a guild might be able to use these two together to negate living expenses at a common level...
@@royherb3842 Depending on location and business when you first move there, plus additional gold, you could probably do better than common. At least in Faerun
This & performance is how my bard uses his down time to earn money. Also, since he travels, this is useful combo EVERYWHERE.
@@skelyjack3899 The gracious Bard that repaired the whole world's shoes, on every plane of exisistence and in every multiverse. All are grateful, noble one. Sorry for all the stinky ones.
Just open up a shop that is a combination cleaners & repair shop in a large town or bigger and rake it in!!!
The way I rule mending is this: you can use it exactly as written and it works on living things.
I always tell my players to be careful with how they use it though. If they attempt to use it to close a severe wound, I make them roll a medicine check. If they fail it, the person they attempted to heal now has internal bleeding and needa a healer. If they succeed it, the wound closes but no HP is regained.
Context is king when I dm
so basically medically you treat it as sutures? interesting
Mending says it has to be an object. I believe a humanoid PC or NPC would qualify as a creature rather than an object. But you're the DM, so you get to rule it any way you see fit. Just my uninvited opinion.
@@imofage3947 I always like to reward player creativity where I can, and most of the time players who attempt to use mending on another creature have something relatively creative in mind.
The only other way to appease people would be to come up with a new spell that's worded exactly the same way as mending, but for creatures.
@@ProSharpshooter I'm not judging, just pointing out the technicality. Like I already said, as the DM you get to run your table any way you like.
Furthermore, I'm not even a player yet. I've only recently started watching some of the YT vids on the subject. And honestly, I'd probably be a terror for any DM, even more so than your typical player because so much of the rules are left to the DM's discretion. I'd end up asking a lot of questions and abusing some corner cases.
I've also found message to be so fucking useful and honestly ive actually forgone mage hand for it. say someone is scouting ahead and you need to know what's going on, and you have no idea where they went. cast message! it's like a short range sending spell that costs nothing
My group has 2 casters with message, and it's been insanely useful to be able to send in the more "sneaky" characters to scout ahead, and then have the Bard alert the rest of us with message. Or to spread out and coordinate an investigation together by messaging information around. And that's just on the second arc of the campaign!
That's not how message works. You have to point your finger at the target, i.e. know where the target is.
And while it doesn't require a direct line of sight (if you're familiar with the target), any non-trivial amount of matter will block it, so if your scout is behind a few big trees or something, it won't work even if you know the direction.
@@hellterminator "The spell doesn’t have to follow a straight line and can travel freely around corners or through openings." So no, trees won't block the message. Even indoors, as long as the scout leaves any doors ajar as they go ahead, the message will get through.
With Druidcraft, Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion, and Mage Hand you can become the David Copperfield of D&D.
Interesting use of Mending I recently employed:
We encountered some arcane carvings that seemed to be focusing some energy and animating some mindless mooks every so often; I used Mending to 'repair' the carvings out of the wall, disrupting the energy focusing component and ending the animation cycles.
Reminds me of a friend who during a one-shot used prestidigitation to gradually "clean" a circle drawn on the ground as part of the bbg's spell off of the floor, gradually getting rid of enough to break the effect while the other players dealt with the bbg and enemies that then tried to stop her as soon as they noticed what was happening
We found a ruined letter on a corpse that we mended. DM played along for laughs because it wasn't important. Later a book with viral info got burned. We tried mending. DM had to take back his rule of allowing it to restore text. Be careful what you allow DMs.
so dispel magic for a cantrip? :( this is like a fighter throwing a stone and saying "it goes into the cyclops eye and since he can't see he trips and falls off the cliff"
@@hawkthetraveler6344 no, not dispel magic. Destroy magical component. It is like:
Hey bbeg, you should be watchful of your magical stuff, because we have magical stuff too.
The "oh you can't do that because you need arbitrary stats instead of being a clever and creative player" is a bad DMing style.
I totally understand your experience having players who check the weather all the time.
I don't have any one with druidcraft in my group, but on the first big looting of our campaign my party rolled really well and managed to get a "wind fan"
I like to go though and customize magic items my players get so they will have a little something extra for flavor or a minor effect just to make them special, and what I did with the wind fan is I decided that when it was unfolded it would display the sky and reveal the weather conditions 24 hours into the future. Once the warlock in the party who had the fan figured that out that he had the weather channel in his pocket, he took to asking me frequently about what the weather would be like the next day. As such, weather has become a more significant part of our campaign.
I've quickly memorized the page number in the dmg that has random weather tables (pg 109) and my session notes always include "today's weather" and "tomorrow's weather"
So far my players haven't really tried to plan or strategize around it, but there have been cases where he checked the weather one day, but the next day it wasn't what he expected because the weather had been magically manipulated or because they had changed locations.
My favorite use of Mage Hand + Find Familiar, which I call the Scout
1. Choose one of the forms for your familiar that can fit in the palm of your hand (personally I like spider for this)
2. Dismiss your familiar to its pocket dimension
3. Conjure mage hand inside a room you plan to go into. (get it as high up as you can if you're worried about it being noticed.)
4. Summon your familiar on the palm/top of your mage hand
5. Look through your familiar's eyes.
Congrats! Now you can see inside the room (darkvision with the spider), the mage hand can move around, activate things, unlock doors, prematurely trigger traps, all while keeping your familiar up and out of harm's way. If the trap you want to trigger has the potential to kill your familiar, just get the hand into position, dismiss the familiar again, and then trigger it. Mage hand gets nuked, but your familiar is still alive and well. You can throw in prestidigitation to color your mage hand to match the ceiling too, for camouflage. Spectral hands can be a bit easy to spot, after all.
I always used Prestidigitation with my Bard to make little illusionary music notes appear as she played her lute.
Its like being at a concert on hallucinogens.
I'm stealing this
Oh my gosh I did something similar as a arcane trickster! There was a man passed out in the bar, my DM wad trying to tempt me to steal his money but instead I put little music notes floating around his head making little twittering noises, it was hilarious
I used shape water to augment my College of Swords bard's sword dance performance. Kubo was the inspiration for the character so I started the performance with his Kubo's monologue. I couldn't resist.
One of my favorite uses of minor illusion is hiding traps, such as covering a spike pit with an illusion of undisturbed ground or making an illusory sack of beans to hide a spring-loaded crossbow. Another is for use in performance checks; create the sound of a sick beat to accompany you while you shred on your lute!
Minor Illusion + Spider Climb + Ranged Character + Skulker feat
Make your little sniper nest & no one will know where your shots are coming from.
Neat things I used Prestidigatation for
-I covered my party's tracks on a dusty floor
-I created a beatiful light show for a town mayor's bday
-While my party hid in a tree from an owlbear I made it sound like our footsteps were behind him so we got a surprise attack
-I cast it constantly to clean my character's clothes before an event
One of my favorite uses I've done with Druidcraft as a Ranger (magic initiate/variant ranger from Tasha's), is when navigating a catacomb, I looked for roots or other plants near various intersections as we explored and used Druidcraft to twist the roots in just a way of making an arrow showing which way towards the exit was. A small detail a lot of people would overlook, but it helped the party guarantee we would at the least know the way out even if we didn't know the way forward!
I once used Minor Illusion to generate a wall between my PC and some archers: no line of sight=no arrows (or disadvantage if they thought it was an illusion, which they did). Another time, a Wizard in the party I was DMing for used Mending to repair the traces an old library left whenever the secret passage behind it was opened, stopping the guards from finding it.
That would be a very small wall, but I guess that would work if the archers were already shooting through a restricted vector like into a small tunnel or through a window. I like your application of Mending.
Guidance can be used to boost initiative too.
Minor Illusion, since it doesn't require concentration, can be used to augment the Silent Image that the WL can cast at will.
Mage Hand can deliver oil pouches. The oil can be ignited w/o considering an attack.
I'd make a case for Mold Earth (and his little cousin, Shape Water), over the Prestiditation/Thaumaturgy/Druidcraft. Like Mending, Mold Earth and Shape Water has immense practical usage.
Excellent use of the Mending spell in our recent campaign: One of our party members used it to repair damage to our small fishing boat during combat with a large aquatic creature who was trying to kill us.
"I cast Mage Hand and tickle the Warlock!"
"Uhh… ok. He'll roll a Concentration check."
Mending is one of my favorite cantrip spell. In a recent game, I used Mending for "repairing really slowly" a statue of my deity on a ruined temple while I waited my group to return. It was a completely "uneventful", it was literally "flavor reasons" but it was really cute to do :v
Shape Water is my favourite, it can used to make shields by freezing water in sheets in front of allies, and the water/ice servants can be extremely useful. It's like a shield cantrip with the utility of mage hand, but better.
Mending on a corpse... could you stab someone in the throat, let them die... then you use mending to get rid of the stab wound???
clean and put away the blade then say "I don't know what happen, he startted spitting up blood and fell over" and roll bluff???
Technically no. The wound was there when the object was created. By the RAW if you sealed the wound some other way, a mending spell would in fact work to restore the item to it's original, like new, condition. With an open wound.
Minor illusion to hide the wound then prestidigitation to clean the blade and surrounding area maybe? You could maybe stab them in the heart, use mending to repair the clothes you stabbed them through then prestidigitation to clean the blood up.
No mending cannot be used on organic material
@@PolarBailey Mending can absolutely be used on organic material. Two of the examples are a cloak (organic), and a wine skin (made out of skin, hence the name).
@@tinkerer3399 those are still objects though. Mending couldn't be use on say a broken bone, unless it was completely removed from the body first
It's nice that minor illusion doesn't have a verbal component, allowing it to be used sneakily like you mentioned in the video. But other, higher level illusion spells DO have a verbal component, so minor illusion has a unique niche the others can't do better.
True, granted outside of AL im about 1:1 on DM's who follow every little detail strictly, for every DM who will apply the tiniest rule, I also have had a DM that merely requires you have a spell on your spell list, no mats for spells or giving yourself away with a verbal incantation either so situationally that's a bit of a nonissue.
@@kylebeach6799 a lot of DM's note that casting a spell will attract attention especially in diplomatic encounters. I think I remember that the message spell had a verbal component, but could be whispered so it wasn't too much of a problem still had some risk in a stealth situation. Certainly, I could see situations were having no verbal component for minor illusion could be relevant, especially when using it for ventriloquism, which is a valid use of the spell.
There is no verbal component to Minor Illusion, but you do need a free hand. That can be an issue for all those Gnomish Fighters and Rogues who get this cantrip as part of their Forrest Gnome racial package. I don't see many fighters with a free hand. This isn't a deal-breaker, just something to keep in mind.
I like doing a variation on the metal gear box. I minor illusion an extension of a wall for me to hide behind. Now I can either drop an AOE ambush spell with little chance of detection or since I'm the caster I know it is an illusion (so I can see through it) now I pick creatures off from a hidden position. So now I have advantage to attacks and they have disadvantage unless they are in my square. I also used the box trick over a floor hatch to allow us to avoid being sniped as we try to climb up. It gave us a chance to get someone on the level before the fight started.
I used minor illusion 10 feet over a mayor to scare him into letting us in to the town by pretending to be the voice of god lol
I always imagine Mage Hand as being an opaque, electric blue.
I’m legit sewing a blanket for one of my DnD players, and I have smiled through THIS ENTIRE VIDEO.
Thank you for sharing these cantrips. Mending is one of my all time favourite ones, and it makes me delighted to hear the unique ways you two have used these so creatively.
I use hand of grabbing.
DM: You don't have to say that everytime you pick things up.
I cast flesh hand
to mend a cloak that has been ripped in two is easy : roll the two halves of the cloak into rolls and hold the ends together it now easily fits in a 1 foot cube
Sounds like a magic trick
@@mslabo102s2 Which makes it even better. Tada!!
The cleaning and soiling effect, and the reflavouring effect, are my favourite parts of prestidigitation.
My noblewoman has prestidigitation almost entirely to make sure she isn't caught covered in mud and blood, but she is mischievous enough to occasionally soil the clothes of others or make the food they're eating taste like a million Scoville units of spice.
The minor illusion box sounds really fun.
You can get around Minor Illusion 'object only' is to create a statue of a creature, or even yourself - it doesn't move, it's a perfect duplicate, also, since you can recaste it every turn, you can 'move' it by just recasting it in a new location. An example would be - creating a perfect replica of the wall you are standing next to, and recast it as you move along the wall, with a stealthy PC, this works really well as you move the illusion and move behind the new casting, especially if your short and overlap the illusions.
mending always seems like something that you really want when you dont have it, but when you do have it and you try and use it... ive never seen it work how people want it to. its the kind of spell that a DM will always nerf because its potentially so game breaking.
Dungeon Dudes: "There is one distinct question that comes up very often with mage hand."
Me: "Can you block with it?"
Dungeon Dudes: "Can you do damage with mage hand?"
Me: "Don't people know how to read?!?!?"
TheRealSkele yeah, but CAN you block with it? I’ve been wondering
@@Jack-The-Gamer- I'd rule in one of my games that you'd have to have already moved it into position using your action, and then it could resist 10 lbs of physical force... which isn't going to block much.
You can't "Attack" with it. As in fire a spell or throw a dart, or swing a sword.
But you can carry things, so it logically follows you can also _drop_ things, and dropped items can deal damage.
@@theuncalledfor yes, in the few cases where a 10lb item might make a booboo, when you drop it on someone, you might want to search for "falling objects" for damage.
@@diamondflaw lol what you used to block with now is broken hurtling a shard of wood about the size of a stake sending it directly to your heart hope your character is not a vampire make a dex saving throw, sorry just had to say that or was just thinking of that
Yea, if I could bring a few DnD spells into reality, I would definitely put Mending and Guidance at the top of my list, along with Prestidigitation and maybe Mage Hand if I had enough cantrip slots or could take the Telekinetic feat froM Tasha's. Never need to replace comfy shoes, never need to do laundry, never need to carry a lighter. Mending would save me lots of money at the mechanic shop. Guidance would make a person an excellent tutor, or improve skills at any craft. Prestidigitation cleans soiled objects, so no more doing dishes or scraping and scrubbing the pet litter boxes. And Mage Hand would get lots of use picking up dropped screws, sweeping out deep under cabinets, and holding a flashlight.
Add to that some low level rituals like Unseen Servant, Speak with Animals, and Leomund's Tiny Hut...
Apparently if I had DnD magic I'd just become a hermit.
"Can I use a mage hand to tickle?"
I would rule yes. But the hands low carry weight means it would easilly be pushed away by anyone who didnt wanna be tickled
@@Desdemona-XI It is just a small hand though, so even if it would we easily pushed away would it actually be that easy to hit to push it away?
AoAD Yes, though that requires an exotic feather component to cast
If two players know mage hand, they have to arm wreste.
Absolutely.
But can you use a mage hands to pull the trigger on a cross bow?
I have a reoccurring necromaner villain in my campaign that uses mending on his skeletons after the party keeps destroying them. I also have a displaced lizardfolk druid NPC that, having been left alone for several years, took a temperate forest piece of land and basically turned it into a temperate jungle with constant uses of Druidcraft and his skills.
Me: “Guidance”.
My wife: “Hellish Rebuke!”
She listens to too many of my D&D videos! 😂
Smart girl
would guidance improve the damage hellish rebuke causing you to even more damage?
@@clintonbehrends4659 Knowing my wife, I’m sure!
Cackles
"A creature is not willing"
Cut the ends of a rope, or fray it along its length. Repair it after tying someone up, and now they're tied up extra well.
Carson Rush thats actually very smart! Ill use that :p thanks!
Carson Rush not necessarily. You’ll have essentially just made a rope loop, which whist can be useful, is no match for a knot.
Colobrinus With a side of cube Mathematically speaking, mending the rope back onto itself is actually the only way to make a “mathematical knot” look it up.
Evan Nibbe so? Doesn’t affect how tight the rope is.
Colobrinus With a side of cube You can make the rope tighter within this loop by changing where the cuts are.
While Mage Hand visible to most, the Arcane Trickster sub-class can make it invisible and use Sleight of hand so you can try to deactivate traps from a distance.
Mage hand isn't broken until an Arcane Trickster gets it!
I don't think it's broken that way either lol because most Arcane Tricksters I see forget they even have Mage Hand! Lol
@@chainer8686 The Arcane Trickster in my campaign never forgot to take the villians weapons with his invisble Mage hand though :P
I use mage hand for Everything. EVERYTHING.
Hell yeah, I'm loving these!
Mage hand is just a useful spell that suggests lots of cool ideas for how to use it, but also a ton of ways you probably can't. In the one game I've actually DM'd the players wanted to use mage hand to hold a door shut on a silenced wizard, but I was like if the level 1 spell _Unseen Servant_ only has 2 strength, there's no way I can give your hand more than that, haha.
I actually used Mage hand recently on a ship to help me with loading and firing a Balista from the side of the ship. it worked, also had a Unseen Servant on the ship as well doing minor things(Cast as a ritual) it worked rather well to be honest.
That is an incredible use of unseen servant
Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy and Druidcraft are must picks for all my magical characters.
My Tiefling Bard has both Prestidigitation and Thaumaturgy.
There's rules in Dungeon of the Mad Mage that allow the mending cantrip to heal 1 point of damage to a very large object every cast.
For those fans of D&D's new movie, prestidigitation is what Simon is using for his magic show. It actually shows he's a better Sorcerer than even he thinks as he is casting two spells at once. One top of his cantrip he's using telekinesis to kick the bits and bobs as the commoner said.
One thing I love to do with Prestidigitation with my bard characters is I'll cast three of them in a tavern in different areas (since three is the max number you can have active at one time). And when my bard plays on the stage for the guests to get gold, the three castings will act like speakers, letting the music play throughout the full tavern. My bard comes with surround sound! XD
Great breakdown of RAW limitations yet still providing creative uses for Minor Illusions Gentlemen!
My issue is they describe using minor illusion for extended hiding periods but it only last 1 minute :/
Unless im reading the spell wrong
A personal favorite prestidigitation use my players used was when they came up against a Catoplebas that had the awful stench aura, they covered their mouths with clean cloth then cast prestidigitation on the cloths to give them a pleasant smell.
My wife and I are in our first campaign now, she’s a Druid and is constantly handing people flowers and we all love it lol
Also, one of my players used Bonfire constantly for offense and tactical relocation of assets.
oh yeah, the ability to shit down a 5 ft space as a cantrips is amazing. Cloud of daggers might do more damage, but why do I care? I can cast bonfire wherever I want and it takes an action to move it somewhere else
My favorite use of Thaumaturgy is when me and a little tiefling girl just walked up to 20 kobolds and just walked towards them menacingly while the ground shook and they all scattered as fast as they could
Great list and examples. I love seeing players use spells like this in creative ways, and am happy as DM to reward that creativity or help it along a little. My #6 useful cantrip might be Mold Earth. I've seen players use it in battle to create barriers or cover, as well as to slow down pursuers in a tight passage. And of course, it's great for quickly burying bodies when your murder hobos need to hide their handiwork.
What up my dudes. Looks like we have another fantastic topic!
I love cantrips. Guising yourself then using Friends to make someone mad at whoever you guised as. Minor Illusion and Thaumaturgy for deceit. Eldritch Blast, duh. Lightning Lure on a Sorcerer with Twinned Spell. Guidance is stupidly useful, especially with Help Action.
Edit: Twinned Lightning Lure while multiclassed into Tempest Cleric. Pull two enemies closer, shock them, thus push them 10ft away. Helps reposition enemies.
Damn, I forgot about Mage Hand. Good for triggering traps
Something interesting for the mending cantrip, we went to a tailor in Greenest, and my warlock (who could never cast magic before his deal) saw the tailor casting it when he fixed his torn coat (damaged during combat). After coming to him several times, and the tailor making good money to fix these clothes, the tailor offered to make a coat similar to/better than the coat my character wore out of a self Mending fabric.
Also used prestidigitation to start setting fire to the tents in the Cult of the Dragon’s war camp. Or I used it to light a bottle of oil before throwing it as a makeshift Molotov. Warlock now has a bit of a dark obsession with fires and setting them.
We had our mages fixing holes in our boat while we fought the pirates! It was great, we all had a role to play and everyone felt useful.
In some situations, Guidance can also be added to Initiative rolls (if you can manage to cast it before initiative is called) since initiative rolls are just dexterity checks.
A shield only weighs 6 lbs... So conceivably mage hand could hold your shield, even if it only gave you 1/2 cover because it couldn't move, that's still 2 AC. Food for thought. If Animate objects wouldn't work because it's a corpse, mending shouldn't work either. I feel like allowing a corpse to be an "Object" is dangerous territory.
I would personally rule that the mage hand is not strong enough to resist a hit, so I'll allow the half cover for 1 hit
Great video. I'm totally going to grant one of those class based cantrips to my dudes. Love those creative solutions!
Ay first time player here and first like to say- thank yall so much, you guys help me set up the character sheet but this is my second video of yours and i chose two of the five cantrips x3
My friend was running the Rime of the Frost Maiden module and I was playing a Forest Gnome Order of Scribes Wizard named Alstion Snickerwick. When attempting to escape a giant’s lair in a small little nook, we had reason to believe there were wolves in a cave. I, in my brilliance in remembering this video, rubbed dirt and rubble on myself and my adventuring partner. Then, I used Minor Illusion to squeeze us into a 5 ft cube, made a box, and sent my familiar to goad the wolves to follow the path that led to the giant, to ensure I could command things smoothly, I saw through the familiars eyes. Only to learn it was a very, very large bear. And then after about fifteen minutes, we explored that path to the giant a *teensy* bit, and learned there was an unguarded door the whole time. Excellent idea, Kelly, I just didn’t use it the best.
I threw a small bag of flour into a room, and cast prestidigitation. The aerosolized flour caught fire, and caused a small explosion... I am a fairly new player and may have gotten away with more than I should have.
Me with a bag of holding full of charcoal, niter and sulfur with a dash of sugar
Ray of Frost. Being able to slow your enemies movement is always helpful. Also, Mold Earth is AMAZING! You can completely take out a foe with two castings and a means to knock someone back. Also it can create partial cover, blocking off or making movement difficult by excavating a 5ft cube of dirt
Minor illusions: Could you cast loud foot steps onto a nearby rat so that when the rat moves the foot steps move as well?
I love this.
Technically, if rat isn’t moving super fast and you can cast multiple footsteps every few seconds then yea.
In regards to mending several time for a larger object there’s actually a point in the dragon queen campaign where it’ll say how many mends it takes to fix this so wotc has thought of this and thinks it’s ok at the very least
I think it’s really early in the first chapter even
Maybe you can give Sebastian prestidigitation as a reward so he will be able to clean Pluto for all the time Pluto gets his armor dirty lol.
Yes please! And for all the other uses he will find for it, hours and hours and hours of entertainment!
Fully agree on each and every one of these. Guidance was the first cantrip I picked for my cleric, and I use it pretty much every session.
One of my favourite uses I’ve seen for prestidigitation was when a party member dirtied an enemy’s sword, he specified that their weapon would be covered in feces. It’s a nice way to get them to drop their weapon
My first game ever, I was DMing a party of 3 players, and one of them was a wizard who planned on specializing in illusion. First combat encounter, this player was brand-new to the game, and was still learning. It was a small pack of wolves, and he asked if he could cast Minor Illusion. I told him, "Absolutely, please describe the effect you'd like the spell to have."
He tells me he wants to create a sound like the roar of a ferocious beast to scare the wolves. I had to think on my feet and had the wolves make an intelligence check to see if they could discern whether the sound was an indication of an imminent danger. Most of them failed, and they become startled, running away from the party to a distance equal to their movement, on the first turn after being frightened.
I'd like some experienced opinions on whether I allowed this spell to be too powerful for what it's meant to do.
I'm not a dm, but it sounds like the exact reason you'd take the spell
Int SAVE not Check. 1 round only as wolves use Scent to Hunt. As nothing was smelled, they could ignore the sound.
[I started playing in 1976, DM since 1980]
Power is relative. Never shy away from player creativity.
There is the kind which is unfun and straight up rules abuse, but that is apparent when it happens.
If it turns out your party can scare wolves away, then they are no match for your party.
It is the same as pitting an intellect eating monster against a party of low INT guys. The monster will be powerful. Pit the same monster against a party of wizards, artificers and rogues with good or outstanding INT saves. The monster stands no chance.
Power is always relative.
Let your players have agency and freedom. You did not sit down to play a crpg, where there are only scripted events and scripted abilities.
Lets say your bbeg summons a fire elemental and it should be destroying the party CR-wise. What makes for a better story? They either run or die, or if they cleverly trick the elemental into a lake they disguise with a spell? Why hate them being powerful/clever?
On the other hand... If a player wants to do things with spells that are narratively wrong, that is bad playstyle. For example a player wants to "outwit" the elemental with a charm spell. This IS not creative, just begging the DM to extend the capacity of a spell for more raw power.
Does the roar a thing the spell can make? Yes. Did it help the party? Yes. Will it work on every encounter? Hell no.
"May the Force be with you" *Casts Guidance*
"Lets turn this Bard's performance into a TV show!" *Begins casting a series of Minor Illusions*
"... This sounds like a hands job!" *Listens to your friends grown as you cast Mage hands*
"Blacksmith? Why?" *Casts Mending to repair a dent in your armor*
"Man, paper/parchment is expensive! And the ink!" *Casts Prestidigitation to soil or unsoil the a pattern of ink on a single bit of paper*
I have literally used Prestidigitation as a kind of etch-a-sketch, it is so freaking great! My GM was amazed at this use, they never thought of ink on a clean sheet of parchment as the ink soiling the paper. I have used it to clean dyes off banners, remove rust from armor, is it just so freaking good!
Then again i have done what i can to be make spell casters with ONLY RP related spells. imagine a clan of Sorcerers who are blacksmiths and all their magics relate to forging. Gust of wind to supercharge the forge! Heck, the spell "Creation" can be used by a Smith to make folded metal, once the spell ends the metal poofs out and you are left with a now perfectly formed metal sword out of folded metal that is has very low mass but is just as strong because the folding is so extreme that it is kind of honeycombed internally. The voids are a vacuum so you can use this to create vacuums inside seamless glass globes because you dipped a created Iron ball into molten glass over and over again until it is solid and cooled. The iron ball then vanishes and a vacuum is inside. Imagine the fun you can have with a vacuum in a glass ball...
Now combine Creation and Fabricate use both real and created materials. ... So nice :)
in The Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion the Sorcerer class is portrayed as wearing heavy armor in the game artwork; a heavy shield in his left hand and a metal bracer, shoulder guard and neck guard