Prestidigitation, mending, and mage hand sound good IRL... but "friends" is a little too "somebody put something in my drink" for me, due to using magic to manipulate somebody's opinion of you.
Spare the dying might work, but only if you are using it on people where there is a way to save/heal them with medicine. If it's something that medicine can't cure, does that mean the person is in a coma for the rest of their natural life, or until a cure is found? It probably would lead to a lot of ethical questions and moral quandaries; like there are two people dying, both will expire at the same time unless you save them, but you only have time for one... and each family is begging you to save their family member from death... some tough decisions come with that power.
For me, I would pick "Guidance". I would be using it on everybody all the time to make them better at whatever they are doing at that moment. Got a complicated task that only takes a minute to do? I can help you with that! Probably would be very useful if you coach sports like wrestling or MMA, as long as the match begins and ends before that minute is up, then their a winner every time (hopefully lol).
Spare the dying might work, but only if you are using it on people where there is a way to save/heal them with medicine. If it's something that medicine can't cure, does that mean the person is in a coma for the rest of their natural life, or until a cure is found?
I think just until 1d4 hours pass, then they get 1hp. And of course, after a long rest, they're backup and about like nothing happened.
Spare the dying might work, but only if you are using it on people where there is a way to save/heal them with medicine. If it's something that medicine can't cure, does that mean the person is in a coma for the rest of their natural life, or until a cure is found?
Spare the Dying just temporarily stabilizes someone who's bleeding out. If they've got a fatal condition it's not going to do anything beyond give the EMTs a little more time to arrive. In the modern world it's unlikely to be something that is actually useful unless you're in an active warzone.
Spare the dying would be the kind of thing that gets you scooped up by the government and locked away in a black-ops site, never to see the light of day again. Mage hand is little better since it’s fairly limited in range and scope and clearly visible, with an obvious S component. Mending is fabulously useful… as long as something’s broken. But unless you’re really clumsy or restore broken things professionally it’s only of limited usefulness. My money’s on prestidigitation, it’s super useful, it’s handy & convenient, and it doesn’t need to be flashy unless you want it to be. You can use it every day, for multiple reasons, and nobody ever needs to know you have the power. Thaumaturgy would be close second.
Mage Hand is a perfectly useful spell for all kinds of things that won't get you any attention at all, like grabbing a can of beans from the top shelf of your pantry, giving your toilet a thorough cleaning, or just having a third hand for minor tasks. I'd really list it as being more useful than Prestidigitation.
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"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Guidance is tricky to measure in terms of usefulness. Sure in terms of a bounded accuracy d20-based system, +1d4 to any check is quite powerful, especially if we're talking about low levels where a +2.5 can represent the difference between having training or no training - but if our world is d% based or more, Guidance becomes a great deal less useful.
Prestidigitation would be nice solely for the fact that I can make the healthiest food imaginable taste like whatever I want. I could subsist on salads or brown rice or tofu that taste like fried chicken or ice cream or filet mignon, and thus be quite healthy overall while also saving a great deal of money. The ability to clean 1 cubic foot of material every 6 seconds without physical exertion would be pretty handy too.
Mage Hand is a perfectly useful spell for all kinds of things that won't get you any attention at all, like grabbing a can of beans from the top shelf of your pantry, giving your toilet a thorough cleaning, or just having a third hand for minor tasks. I'd really list it as being more useful than Prestidigitation.
It doesn’t really give you a third hand since you need one of the other two free to control it. And you can’t use it in public or else people will see the glowing, special hand.
Not to mention that with prestidigitation you could instantly heat/cool your sheets, pillows, and clothing for up to an hour, on a particularly hot or cold day/night that kinda climate control would be invaluable. Your cocoa or coffee would never get cold, and your ice tea or lemonade would never get warm. Your tomato juice could taste just like a Bloody Mary with none of the deleterious effects in case you need to drive. And if someone is rude to you in the supermarket you can make it look like they 💩 their pants.
Mage Hand is a perfectly useful spell for all kinds of things that won't get you any attention at all, like grabbing a can of beans from the top shelf of your pantry, giving your toilet a thorough cleaning, or just having a third hand for minor tasks. I'd really list it as being more useful than Prestidigitation.
It doesn’t really give you a third hand since you need one of the other two free to control it.
No you don't. You need a free hand to cast it but after that all you need to do is spend your action. So you could, for example, cast the spell, then hold a box closed with both hands while you use the mage hand to tape it shut.
And you can’t use it in public or else people will see the glowing, special hand.
So don't use it in public? There are a lot of ways it can be used around the house. Prestidigitation has verbal and somantic components for casting too- cast it in public and people are bound to catch on after a time or two.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Mage Hand is a perfectly useful spell for all kinds of things that won't get you any attention at all, like grabbing a can of beans from the top shelf of your pantry, giving your toilet a thorough cleaning, or just having a third hand for minor tasks. I'd really list it as being more useful than Prestidigitation.
It doesn’t really give you a third hand since you need one of the other two free to control it.
No you don't. You need a free hand to cast it but after that all you need to do is spend your action. So you could, for example, cast the spell, then hold a box closed with both hands while you use the mage hand to tape it shut.
And you can’t use it in public or else people will see the glowing, special hand.
So don't use it in public? There are a lot of ways it can be used around the house. Prestidigitation has verbal and somantic components for casting too- cast it in public and people are bound to catch on after a time or two.
Okay, I’ll grant you that you don’t need to keep your hand free to control the mage hand. That’s fair.
But prestidigitation is just as useful around the house as mage hand, and there’s no visible spell effect (unless you want there to be one) for most of its applications. I see people making funny gestures and muttering to themselves all the time, I don’t assume they’re casting a spell, I assume they’re either nuts or talking on a Bluetooth device. With no glowing purple anything I would say that prestidigitation is far, far less likely to be noticed if used in public. And the variety of uses puts it over the top for me compared to mage hand.
Mending. You could open a repair shop and fix things that might normally take a few hours to repair in minutes, even earn a reputation for being able to repair things that normally seem beyond repair and charge a premium. It'd be a great way to earn a living.
Not to mention that with prestidigitation you could instantly heat/cool your sheets, pillows, and clothing for up to an hour, on a particularly hot or cold day/night that kinda climate control would be invaluable. Your cocoa or coffee would never get cold, and your ice tea or lemonade would never get warm. Your tomato juice could taste just like a Bloody Mary with none of the deleterious effects in case you need to drive. And if someone is rude to you in the supermarket you can make it look like they 💩 their pants.
so i was talking at my table and the topic of the best cantrip irl and what it would be we came up with this list
prestidigitation
mending
mage hand
friends
all of those are good and stuff but the one i thought would be the better option would be spare the dying bc of how many people you could help
Prestidigitation, mending, and mage hand sound good IRL... but "friends" is a little too "somebody put something in my drink" for me, due to using magic to manipulate somebody's opinion of you.
Spare the dying might work, but only if you are using it on people where there is a way to save/heal them with medicine. If it's something that medicine can't cure, does that mean the person is in a coma for the rest of their natural life, or until a cure is found? It probably would lead to a lot of ethical questions and moral quandaries; like there are two people dying, both will expire at the same time unless you save them, but you only have time for one... and each family is begging you to save their family member from death... some tough decisions come with that power.
For me, I would pick "Guidance". I would be using it on everybody all the time to make them better at whatever they are doing at that moment. Got a complicated task that only takes a minute to do? I can help you with that! Probably would be very useful if you coach sports like wrestling or MMA, as long as the match begins and ends before that minute is up, then their a winner every time (hopefully lol).
I think just until 1d4 hours pass, then they get 1hp. And of course, after a long rest, they're backup and about like nothing happened.
Spare the Dying just temporarily stabilizes someone who's bleeding out. If they've got a fatal condition it's not going to do anything beyond give the EMTs a little more time to arrive. In the modern world it's unlikely to be something that is actually useful unless you're in an active warzone.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Spare the dying would be the kind of thing that gets you scooped up by the government and locked away in a black-ops site, never to see the light of day again. Mage hand is little better since it’s fairly limited in range and scope and clearly visible, with an obvious S component. Mending is fabulously useful… as long as something’s broken. But unless you’re really clumsy or restore broken things professionally it’s only of limited usefulness. My money’s on prestidigitation, it’s super useful, it’s handy & convenient, and it doesn’t need to be flashy unless you want it to be. You can use it every day, for multiple reasons, and nobody ever needs to know you have the power. Thaumaturgy would be close second.
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Mage Hand is a perfectly useful spell for all kinds of things that won't get you any attention at all, like grabbing a can of beans from the top shelf of your pantry, giving your toilet a thorough cleaning, or just having a third hand for minor tasks. I'd really list it as being more useful than Prestidigitation.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Never have to spend money to clean anything ever again? Sign me up!
Friends would be one of the worst spells in the game to choose. Because whether you fail or succeed, the target KNOWS you did something to them.
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Guidance is tricky to measure in terms of usefulness. Sure in terms of a bounded accuracy d20-based system, +1d4 to any check is quite powerful, especially if we're talking about low levels where a +2.5 can represent the difference between having training or no training - but if our world is d% based or more, Guidance becomes a great deal less useful.
Prestidigitation would be nice solely for the fact that I can make the healthiest food imaginable taste like whatever I want. I could subsist on salads or brown rice or tofu that taste like fried chicken or ice cream or filet mignon, and thus be quite healthy overall while also saving a great deal of money. The ability to clean 1 cubic foot of material every 6 seconds without physical exertion would be pretty handy too.
It doesn’t really give you a third hand since you need one of the other two free to control it. And you can’t use it in public or else people will see the glowing, special hand.
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Not to mention that with prestidigitation you could instantly heat/cool your sheets, pillows, and clothing for up to an hour, on a particularly hot or cold day/night that kinda climate control would be invaluable. Your cocoa or coffee would never get cold, and your ice tea or lemonade would never get warm. Your tomato juice could taste just like a Bloody Mary with none of the deleterious effects in case you need to drive. And if someone is rude to you in the supermarket you can make it look like they 💩 their pants.
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No you don't. You need a free hand to cast it but after that all you need to do is spend your action. So you could, for example, cast the spell, then hold a box closed with both hands while you use the mage hand to tape it shut.
So don't use it in public? There are a lot of ways it can be used around the house. Prestidigitation has verbal and somantic components for casting too- cast it in public and people are bound to catch on after a time or two.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Okay, I’ll grant you that you don’t need to keep your hand free to control the mage hand. That’s fair.
But prestidigitation is just as useful around the house as mage hand, and there’s no visible spell effect (unless you want there to be one) for most of its applications. I see people making funny gestures and muttering to themselves all the time, I don’t assume they’re casting a spell, I assume they’re either nuts or talking on a Bluetooth device. With no glowing purple anything I would say that prestidigitation is far, far less likely to be noticed if used in public. And the variety of uses puts it over the top for me compared to mage hand.
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Mending. You could open a repair shop and fix things that might normally take a few hours to repair in minutes, even earn a reputation for being able to repair things that normally seem beyond repair and charge a premium. It'd be a great way to earn a living.
Mending or prestidigitation
no more time for dnd
I'm clumsy as all hell, but to a normal person prestidigitation is most definitely the best one, mending being a close second, first for me
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Friends would be really useful if it weren’t for the part where the person knows what you did afterward and turns hostile toward you
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i think the real question is what would they do? its not like they can say you used magic on them magic isnt real in our world
Seeing as how the spell specifies that the creature “becomes hostile towards you,” they could stab you in the face.
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I'm sold.
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