As the title suggests, my question is regarding the Minor Alchemy feature in the Wizard School of Transmutation.
I have been trying to think of creative RAW uses for the feature and one of my first thoughts was, of course, to turn wood/iron/copper coins into silver coins. That seems pretty straight forward as a short 10 minutes allow you transmute a whole cubic foot of material. However, another limitation is that you can only "alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object", which seems to limit the spell to a single coin. So my question is this: Would you consider two (or more) copper coins lightly melted together as a single object?
Also, feel free to leave creative RAW uses of the feature in the comments ^^
Minor Alchemy
Starting at 2nd level when you select this school, you can temporarily alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object, changing it from one substance into another. You perform a special alchemical procedure on one object composed entirely of wood, stone (but not a gemstone), iron, copper, or silver, transforming it into a different one of those materials. For each 10 minutes you spend performing the procedure, you can transform up to 1 cubic foot of material. After 1 hour, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell), the material reverts to its original substance.
Step 1: I find a piece of wood and carve it into a cubic foot, it's easier than carving a stone into a cubic foot, but that also works.
Step 2: Turn it into silver.
Step 3: Sell it in a town or city. Huge profits.
Do you know how much a pound of silver costs? On page 157 of the PHB, under Trade Goods it says a pound of silver is worth 5 gp. In real life you can google how much a cubic foot of silver weighs. I found a site that says it is 655.31so that would be about 3,275 gp (if you round down to 655).
If you do this while under the Disguise Self spell you will get rich while they look for someone who doesn't even exist. Maybe only do it once per town or city as not to risk getting caught.
So my question is this: Would you consider two (or more) copper coins lightly melted together as a single object?
Sure. The rules define an object as "a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects." If you weld a pair of copper coins together, you've got a discrete inanimate item.
Coins welded together would become one object. Individual coins would be separate individual objects.
For converting wood to silver for sale at tremendous profit I would choose something like a branch with twigs. A cubic foot of branch is a lot of branch, but the volume can be determined by displacement in water. The reason I would go for a branch or something similar is that it is more easily broken up into pieces than a solid cubic foot of silver. Rgis will allow you to disperse the pieces and also make easier for a buyer to deal with.
Brian_Avery The reason I am asking about coins is that I think most people would find it suspicious/inconvenient to simply be handed a solid silver bar. Especially as a bribe. And regarding the combination of fake coins and appearance, I think it'd work even better if you disguised yourself as someone you despise ;)
InquisitiveCoder Thanks for the quote! I always appreciate your well-documented answers!
DavetheLost Totally agree that it'd be weird to be trading in solid silver bars, as most people probably wouldn't know how to deal with that much money at once.
Dave brings up a good point that brings me to a new question: Is the cubic foot of material measured in mass or as the perceivable area? Personally I'd think that the object would have to be able to fit within a 5 foot cube (as 5e is all about simplicity). Thoughts?
A cubic foot is a measure of volume, not mass or area. How you want to keep track of which parts of the object have already been transmuted is up to you, but strictly speaking you can transmute as much of the object as you could cram into a 1 foot x 1 foot x 1 foot box, if that object was made out of something soft and squishy instead of stone, metal or wood. If you've got an iron gate, it could take up a wide area but have relatively little volume due to all of the empty space between the bars.
for small purchases, coins are used... but for large purchases it is quite common to use promissory notes, trade bars, or some other method, as carrying around large amounts of coins can be awkward and unwieldy
it hardly ever comes up in many d&d games, but I know the forgotten realms uses trade bars
InquisitiveCoder Thanks! So just to clarify, you'd say that it'd be reasonable to use the feature to transmute all of a 6 foot tall staff within 10 minutes if it wasn't more than 2 inches in diameter?
Brian_Avery Yeah I know it is rather common with larger business deals, but as you say it hardly ever comes up in many D&D games. And I'd imagine that names/faces would be exchanged/remembered in such cases during a thorough background check, before even sealing the deal with an authentic seal. The formal part of the trade itself would probably take some time as well eating away at the 1 hour time limit. In any event the scam would probably be figured out as soon as the remaining time is up, at which point the ones getting scammed would probably be wealthy enough to spare the resources to get you hunted down immediately or otherwise make your life miserable.
Thanks! So just to clarify, you'd say that it'd be reasonable to use the feature to transmute all of a 6 foot tall staff within 10 minutes if it wasn't more than 2 inches in diameter?
If they wanted the object to fit within a certain space, they could've done that. For example, Mold Earth targets earth that fits within a 5-foot cube, and the School of Evocation's Minor Conjuration feature limits the object to be no longer than 3 feet on any side.
I would think transmuting a staff would be reasonable.
If you were going to transmute blocks, I would transmute smaller blocks over a period of time. A 655 pound block of silver is going to be a little difficult to manage.
Note that a standard iron blacksmith's anvil weighs about 150 pounds, a large one might go 300. A cubic foot of iron weighs weighs 491 pounds. This means that a standard anvil is about half a cubic foot. Lifting a 300 pound anvil is a two person job. I can lift and carry a 125 pound anvil, but it takes both arms and I can't carry it very fast or very far.
A cubic foot being a cube 12 inches on a side or 144 one inch cubes is a pretty big chunk of something.
Worth noting that you are not limited to a single cubic foot of material. You are, instead, limited to 1 cubic foot of material per 10 minutes spent performing the procedure. If you have the time to burn, you could potentially transform an entire Gargantuan object.
Do you know how much a pound of silver costs? On page 157 of the PHB, under Trade Goods it says a pound of silver is worth 5 gp. In real life you can google how much a cubic foot of silver weighs. I found a site that says it is 655.31so that would be about 3,275 gp (if you round down to 655).
What kind of weirdo is just hanging around town agreeing to buy 655 pound chunks of silver from complete strangers? This might seem like a clever ruse to someone in our world where magic doesn't exist, but surely this theoretical silver merchant is aware that alchemy is a thing. Any purchase of valuable metals would certainly be out of the question without a few minor divination spells, or at least a waiting period long enough for temporary transformations to expire. Even if you pulled off this grand deception with magic disguises to boot - you are going to have to cover your tracks exceedingly well, as you are, by definition, ripping off some rich and powerful people. Getting back 3000gp would be worth hiring some pretty expensive diviners, trackers and assassins...
Worth noting that you are not limited to a single cubic foot of material. You are, instead, limited to 1 cubic foot of material per 10 minutes spent performing the procedure. If you have the time to burn, you could potentially transform an entire Gargantuan object.
As I read the feature, each cubic foot of material reverts back to its original form after an hour, meaning that after 1 hour and 10 minutes spent transmuting the first cubic foot would have transformed back to its original form, leaving a transmutation cap of 6 cubic foot at a time.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
As the title suggests, my question is regarding the Minor Alchemy feature in the Wizard School of Transmutation.
I have been trying to think of creative RAW uses for the feature and one of my first thoughts was, of course, to turn wood/iron/copper coins into silver coins. That seems pretty straight forward as a short 10 minutes allow you transmute a whole cubic foot of material. However, another limitation is that you can only "alter the physical properties of one nonmagical object", which seems to limit the spell to a single coin. So my question is this: Would you consider two (or more) copper coins lightly melted together as a single object?
Also, feel free to leave creative RAW uses of the feature in the comments ^^
Step 1: I find a piece of wood and carve it into a cubic foot, it's easier than carving a stone into a cubic foot, but that also works.
Step 2: Turn it into silver.
Step 3: Sell it in a town or city. Huge profits.
Do you know how much a pound of silver costs? On page 157 of the PHB, under Trade Goods it says a pound of silver is worth 5 gp. In real life you can google how much a cubic foot of silver weighs. I found a site that says it is 655.31so that would be about 3,275 gp (if you round down to 655).
If you do this while under the Disguise Self spell you will get rich while they look for someone who doesn't even exist. Maybe only do it once per town or city as not to risk getting caught.
Sure. The rules define an object as "a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects." If you weld a pair of copper coins together, you've got a discrete inanimate item.
Coins welded together would become one object. Individual coins would be separate individual objects.
For converting wood to silver for sale at tremendous profit I would choose something like a branch with twigs. A cubic foot of branch is a lot of branch, but the volume can be determined by displacement in water. The reason I would go for a branch or something similar is that it is more easily broken up into pieces than a solid cubic foot of silver. Rgis will allow you to disperse the pieces and also make easier for a buyer to deal with.
Dave brings up a good point that brings me to a new question: Is the cubic foot of material measured in mass or as the perceivable area? Personally I'd think that the object would have to be able to fit within a 5 foot cube (as 5e is all about simplicity). Thoughts?
A cubic foot is a measure of volume, not mass or area. How you want to keep track of which parts of the object have already been transmuted is up to you, but strictly speaking you can transmute as much of the object as you could cram into a 1 foot x 1 foot x 1 foot box, if that object was made out of something soft and squishy instead of stone, metal or wood. If you've got an iron gate, it could take up a wide area but have relatively little volume due to all of the empty space between the bars.
for small purchases, coins are used... but for large purchases it is quite common to use promissory notes, trade bars, or some other method, as carrying around large amounts of coins can be awkward and unwieldy
it hardly ever comes up in many d&d games, but I know the forgotten realms uses trade bars
InquisitiveCoder
Thanks! So just to clarify, you'd say that it'd be reasonable to use the feature to transmute all of a 6 foot tall staff within 10 minutes if it wasn't more than 2 inches in diameter?
Brian_Avery
Yeah I know it is rather common with larger business deals, but as you say it hardly ever comes up in many D&D games. And I'd imagine that names/faces would be exchanged/remembered in such cases during a thorough background check, before even sealing the deal with an authentic seal. The formal part of the trade itself would probably take some time as well eating away at the 1 hour time limit. In any event the scam would probably be figured out as soon as the remaining time is up, at which point the ones getting scammed would probably be wealthy enough to spare the resources to get you hunted down immediately or otherwise make your life miserable.
Yeah. Assuming it's a perfect cylinder, it could actually be up to 5.5" in diameter.
If they wanted the object to fit within a certain space, they could've done that. For example, Mold Earth targets earth that fits within a 5-foot cube, and the School of Evocation's Minor Conjuration feature limits the object to be no longer than 3 feet on any side.
I would think transmuting a staff would be reasonable.
If you were going to transmute blocks, I would transmute smaller blocks over a period of time. A 655 pound block of silver is going to be a little difficult to manage.
Note that a standard iron blacksmith's anvil weighs about 150 pounds, a large one might go 300. A cubic foot of iron weighs weighs 491 pounds. This means that a standard anvil is about half a cubic foot. Lifting a 300 pound anvil is a two person job. I can lift and carry a 125 pound anvil, but it takes both arms and I can't carry it very fast or very far.
A cubic foot being a cube 12 inches on a side or 144 one inch cubes is a pretty big chunk of something.
another idea is to find a rough rock and change it into silver, to simulate a silver nugget
in real life people exchange gold nuggets for cash and the transaction doesn't take that long
in a medieval type game they don't have our methods of testing, although they might have magical ways
also maybe a little trinket/statue/or other item of art (cheaper than silver) could be turned into silver and sold for a profit
Worth noting that you are not limited to a single cubic foot of material. You are, instead, limited to 1 cubic foot of material per 10 minutes spent performing the procedure. If you have the time to burn, you could potentially transform an entire Gargantuan object.
What kind of weirdo is just hanging around town agreeing to buy 655 pound chunks of silver from complete strangers? This might seem like a clever ruse to someone in our world where magic doesn't exist, but surely this theoretical silver merchant is aware that alchemy is a thing. Any purchase of valuable metals would certainly be out of the question without a few minor divination spells, or at least a waiting period long enough for temporary transformations to expire. Even if you pulled off this grand deception with magic disguises to boot - you are going to have to cover your tracks exceedingly well, as you are, by definition, ripping off some rich and powerful people. Getting back 3000gp would be worth hiring some pretty expensive diviners, trackers and assassins...
As I read the feature, each cubic foot of material reverts back to its original form after an hour, meaning that after 1 hour and 10 minutes spent transmuting the first cubic foot would have transformed back to its original form, leaving a transmutation cap of 6 cubic foot at a time.