I'm curious about this text: "You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour."
My feeling is that this effect is instant, as it doesn't say it creates radiant heat (e.g. that of fire). Also, all of prestidigitation's other effects are instant.
Say you use this on cold food. Is it ready to eat right away? Or does it need to "heat up?"
In the same vein, could prestidigitation instantly melt an ice cube? I would call an object "warm" around 100°F/40°C. If ice is this temperature, it is water.
Based on the actual verbiage of the spell, this particular effect lasts for 1 hour. If you want to warm (or keep warm) that bowl of soup, then the cantrip's effect should keep it warm for 1 hour. The cantrip might not creating radiant heat per se, but the magic should be producing an effect that allows the material to be warmed (or cooled).
How long it takes the spell to warm our cold food example is more of a flavor effect that I would leave to the individual DM. I would expect that it is fairly instantaneous, since the magic shouldn't need several minutes to heat it up. But DM might indicate that it takes a few rounds for something cold to be thoroughly heated. Magic doesn't rely too heavily on real world aspects, but I personally would view it as being a pseudo-microwave that needs part of a minute to agitate those water molecules and heat the item.
For the ice cube example, I would defer to the specific DM to make the ultimate call based on other factors in the situation, but the cantrip should be able to warm the ice cube and ultimately melt it.
Neither "chill" nor "warm" suggests that the material can undergo a phase change, so I'd say no, it cannot melt ice.
As to the timing, I don't know if it's truly instantaneous, but it clearly doesn't take any amount of time that would ever matter.
Warm ice... We are talking about magic and all, but that still sounds silly.
I would say the warm/chill effect can set an object's temperature between mid 40s and mid 90s degrees Fahrenheit. That is firmly in water's liquid state.
And it isn't like there aren't plenty of other cantrips that could reasonably melt ice, so I don't see a problem.
Not instantaneously, no. It takes a few seconds for the ice to thaw unless you make it so hot it sublimates instead of melting. Besides, if you take ice from 26 degrees Fahrenheit to 30 degrees, it would still be below the freezing point, so you can totally warm ice and not melt it.
I'm curious about this text: "You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour."
My feeling is that this effect is instant, as it doesn't say it creates radiant heat (e.g. that of fire). Also, all of prestidigitation's other effects are instant.
Say you use this on cold food. Is it ready to eat right away? Or does it need to "heat up?"
In the same vein, could prestidigitation instantly melt an ice cube? I would call an object "warm" around 100°F/40°C. If ice is this temperature, it is water.
Based on the actual verbiage of the spell, this particular effect lasts for 1 hour. If you want to warm (or keep warm) that bowl of soup, then the cantrip's effect should keep it warm for 1 hour. The cantrip might not creating radiant heat per se, but the magic should be producing an effect that allows the material to be warmed (or cooled).
How long it takes the spell to warm our cold food example is more of a flavor effect that I would leave to the individual DM. I would expect that it is fairly instantaneous, since the magic shouldn't need several minutes to heat it up. But DM might indicate that it takes a few rounds for something cold to be thoroughly heated. Magic doesn't rely too heavily on real world aspects, but I personally would view it as being a pseudo-microwave that needs part of a minute to agitate those water molecules and heat the item.
For the ice cube example, I would defer to the specific DM to make the ultimate call based on other factors in the situation, but the cantrip should be able to warm the ice cube and ultimately melt it.
Neither "chill" nor "warm" suggests that the material can undergo a phase change, so I'd say no, it cannot melt ice.
As to the timing, I don't know if it's truly instantaneous, but it clearly doesn't take any amount of time that would ever matter.
Warm ice... We are talking about magic and all, but that still sounds silly.
I would say the warm/chill effect can set an object's temperature between mid 40s and mid 90s degrees Fahrenheit. That is firmly in water's liquid state.
And it isn't like there aren't plenty of other cantrips that could reasonably melt ice, so I don't see a problem.
Oh, and yeah, instantaneous.
Yes, it’s instantaneous.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Instantaneous or near instantaneous is how I read it. I would have the ice melt in a few seconds.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt
Warming ice doesn't melt it? That's strange logic.
Not instantaneously, no. It takes a few seconds for the ice to thaw unless you make it so hot it sublimates instead of melting. Besides, if you take ice from 26 degrees Fahrenheit to 30 degrees, it would still be below the freezing point, so you can totally warm ice and not melt it.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting