The Cozy Dragon's Hoard of Dice

Having recently discussed the travails of writing about cozy magic, it feels appropriate to discuss Prestidigitation, a multi-edition perennial favourite that has, by some, been known as least wish. Diverse, useful for a variety of applications, and usually designed not to provide a specific mechanical advantage, Prestidigitation nevertheless fulfills many of the categorizations of ‘cozy’ magic, as there are some effects which immediately and primarily apply themselves in quality-of-life situations.

Indeed, prestidigitation has been trimmed down from earlier editions, where it had a broader array of clearly mystical but not mechanically advantageous effects. Roleplaying Gamers being the people that they are, this broadly described list of possible effects has, generation by generation, been pared down to a specifically described list of limited effects. While perhaps a disappointment for the odd munchkin, this does mean that it still continues to suit our purposes.

For the goals of this discussion, we will be discussing prestidigitation as it is described in the 5th edition player’s handbook for Dungeons and Dragons. Other prestidigitations and indeed, gaming systems, are available.

Among Prestidigitation‘s various abilities are the following:

• 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.

The first of these is basically a replacement for a flint and tinder and an Interact With an Object action, although quenching or lighting a small campfire may be a longer form action. Still, light and heat in a 6 second action is fairly impressive.

By the time we get to cleaning or soiling an object, you’re getting pretty firmly into ‘comforts of living’ territory. Instantaneously cleaning an object of a cubic foot will often mean instant laundry services, although depending on your definition of ‘object’ – and how generous the GM is willing to be with the spell description – you aren’t using prestidigitation to brush your own teeth.

(There is a frankly horrifying discussion to be had about set theory if you’re treating each individual tooth as a separate object from the person who has it, and best discussed elsewhere.)

While soiling such material is not strictly in the vein of being ‘cozy’, one could assume that such efforts could be useful for gardening. That is thinking a bit further outside of the box than is strictly needed to read Prestidigitation as a comfort spell however.

Finally, chilling, warming, and flavouring nonliving material has obvious applications; warm slippers or boots on a cold day, a cold compress on a hot one, and adjusting the flavour and temperature of food that may otherwise be unpalatable, all just off of the top of the head. Within the normal limitations of the spell, it can be used to make the road or the home more comfortable… which about works with the flavourtext.

This is a set of tricks learned by apprentice spellcasters with the direct purpose of being basic ways of learning their craft. Consequently, it makes sense that a lot of these ‘tricks’ contribute to making life easier – it’s easier to convince a novice spellcaster to continue on with their studies if you’re showing them a concrete example of how their studies help.

If you have a favourite use for prestidigitation that’s not mentioned here, please feel free to leave a comment!