What Cantrip Would You Take In Real Life?

Today we have a bit of fun with a constant topic of discussion here at the Dungeon Dudes studio. What cantrip would you take in real life?
TIME STAMPS
00:00 - Intro
01:07 - Cantrips in 5E
03:31 - Elemental Control
05:39 - Flavour Cantrips
09:36 - Encode Thoughts & Friends
10:48 - Guidance
13:39 - Mage Hand
15:28 - Mending
17:02 - Message & Minor Illusion
19:47 - Resistance
20:51 - True Strike
21:23 - Spare the Dying
22:53 - Top 3 Picks
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[@Irongineer]

Prestidigitation. No more dirty dishes or bland food.

[@treymarcum]

Also open a “green”laundry charge the hippie extra

[@mufasafalldown8401]

It's under the "Flavour Cantrips" section of the video. Pun intended?

[@Wintermute909]

Oh yeah that's a clear winner.....but gust of wind would be pretty cool for paragliding! You could make your own wind for take-off.

[@user-gw9ff5un6c]

1st level spell, find familiar, centripetal easy prestifisication, mage hand miner illusion

[@simonmoody8400]

Yeah, Prestidigitation is an easy winner. One particular aspect that I love is creating a small illusion in the palm of your hand. As someone who has no ability to draw/paint, the ability to create an image directly from my head, with no skill to put it on paper, this is wonderful. (IG I love the idea of using this to show other people the image of say..someone you caught a glimpse of, so they know what the person looks like now as well...a rotating head and shoulders image floating over your open hand, just is such a nice visual to me). Same can be used IRL, but sorry, Monty, nope. Objects or smells only for Minor Illusion, that's why imho Pretidigi is much better, you can create any sort of image hovreing over your hand. Granted, it's only got a 6 second duration, but it's actually got a much wider range. Mending, Guidance and probably Spare the Dying (in that order after Prestidigi), which for someone untrained in treatement is just as useful, when it is useful would be a great set of four. But, between that and Mending, you could do an awful lot in terms of a no cost, no training needed repairer and medic. Good catch on cleaning wounds w Pres as well though. (1st Level - Comprehend Languages, Unseen Servant or a weak option, but for certain people very nice, Feather Fall. I just worry about things that are too overtly magical, Prestidigi hovering over hand images 'could' be explained away as holograms at this point, but Silent Image, that's a much tougher one to explain away except as part of a stage magic act)

[@francisfranciscano]

You know you're an adult when you're offered a magic power and your top choice is doing house chores.

[@godsamongmen8003]

You could also be a master criminal. Being able to not just clean, but soil material means you could clean up evidence and plant new stuff.

[@davidarmstrong1617]

Growing up means realizing you have a favorite sponge.

[@H3xx99]

@@godsamongmen8003 I've always secretly loved that aspect of Presto. The "I shit YOUR pants" aspect is NEVER expected.

[@donebydice9985]

@@davidarmstrong1617I had to bin my favourite sponge the other day and now I’m sad because I don’t know where they were bought from.

[@chameleonx9253]

I mean, that's what the vast majority of the machines we use on a daily basis is for, so why not magic?

[@dion8895]

"I'd be hard-pressed not to pick Prestidigitation just for the dishes" is the quote the rest of this video may as well have been built around.

[@arcanecypher]

I feel obligated to mention that mage hand doesn’t have hitpoints. This means that it can touch some pretty dangerous stuff. An application I can think of is cooking where you could now grab pans straight out the oven or use it to add or removing food while deep frying. There’s probably other better uses but that’s the first that comes to mind

[@truekurayami]

the cooking idea isn't bad but it does need to face the 10-5lbs limit based on edition your sourcing from, but that would just require you to learn the limits of how that can be an aid.

[@MagusDouken]

Mage Hand for special needs would be another story. getting something high up when in a wheel chair, or down low when you have to fight to get back up, would probably aid someone in their daily life so well, as well as a third hand for crafts or blue collar work. As you said, the hands have no hp, so what's stopping them from manipulating a hot wire?

[@DreamersDragon]

It would be useful for scientists that work with toxic stuff or acids

[@aggonzalezdc]

Would make you incredibly useful in dangerous industrial applications. Need me to just grab something out of the arc furnace? No problem. Need me to trip that damaged 480 kV switch? Sure.

[@mattsmith4027]

Doctor here. Spare the dying would be useful in emergency situations. So like it's actually quite difficult and delicate work to "stabilise" someone. The knowledge required to manage a first aid situation isn't too heavy but once someone is in an ED it gets very complicated. Also the nature of these emergencies usually means the situation is chaotic and there's a constant need for quick thinking and adaptability which is *really* difficult while someone is dying in front of you. There's also less obvious things; a team of people with diverse skills that can be difficult to manage is needed, the situations this takes place in are usually complex and stressful and mistakes are easily made. There's also no guarantee that effective treatment exists for the thing this patient has. So to have one person to be able to just decide the patient is stable and have it be so would be amazing. The other side is the cost, actually stabilising someone in hospital might need the involvement of dozens of different professionals, most of whom have advanced degrees and high earning potentials in private land and who demand a premium to do a stressful and unpleasant job where night shifts are a regular occurrence and where they regularly watch people die. Also the cost of the stuff and equipment and drugs and cost of the people required to make sure all the stuff and drugs and people are there, effective and accessible at all times. Compare that to one guy, who needed four years to learn one cantrip and can now just decide that a patient is stable. Sounds *amazing*

[@sharmakefarah2064]

It's definitely good, but the issue is that it's insanely restrictive in both it's range and the fact that it requires the target to be at 0 hit points, and at that point you are likely seconds away from death, so you'd have to act insanely fast. If it was more lenient in the HP range it targeted and had a longer range, it would absolutely be amazing.

[@sazuru5708]

@@sharmakefarah2064 0 hp is unconscious and dying, but not dead. The cantrip is at will so you just cast it on repeat until it takes.

[@RLKmedic0315]

I'm a paramedic. Spare the Dying would be quite useful. I'd get more use out of it than most Doctors that don't work in the ER or in trauma surgery.

[@Sawtooth44]

@@sharmakefarah2064 you have a minimum of 12 seconds thats rolling a nat 1 on the death save and failing in any other way, in an emergency thats HUGE

[@drunkenwarrior3875]

@@sharmakefarah2064sorry dude but I’m gunna trust the doctors opinion on this one as like he said it will probably save millions of people and millions in cash for the government the only down side is quite a lot of people might be out of a job

[@CatgirltheCrazy]

Getting up and walking 30 feet to grab something might not be a big deal to _you,_ but as someone with muscular dystrophy who uses a wheelchair, Mage Hand would be _life changing_ for me. I've got a dozen or more long handled tools around my house that I use for everything from getting dressed, going to the bathroom, getting stuff out of cabinets/drawers, and Mage Hand could replace _all_ of them. It could also do a whole bunch of things I currently need another person to help me with. Example: repositioning my wheelchair footrests Prestidigitation would be a close second, simply because it would save me the ordeal of getting in and out of the shower/bath.

[@giovannisperanza5755]

I totally second that.

[@nickhayley]

Mage hand exists. It's called a grabber claw. 😂

[@CatgirltheCrazy]

@@nickhayley Grabber claws are great, I own several already. But I could name a hundred everyday tasks that a Mage Hand could do that a grabber can't, lol.

[@lampostsamurai2518]

Even for someone who has full mobility, a third hand is incredibly useful

[@tylergreen4977]

I was thinking this (I too am extremely disabled) while watching also lol

[@vanessarider5708]

Mending seems useful, but so many broken things are broken because they are missing something. I also don’t find that things break very often, and if you can only pick one cantrip it would be best to pick the most used one. Prestidigitation is the obvious first pick, but if I had a second choice it would be mage hand. I’m an artist, and having a third hand would be super helpful with everything. I think people are underestimating the handiness of having a third hand. My bard dnd character also uses mage hand in the bedroom lol.

[@Precaricat]

You could make a living repairing cracked phone screens, but mostly I'd find it useful for clothes - particularly broken zips and busted buttons.

[@rollinsolo1157]

I actually laughed at that lol

[@great-wyrmII]

Plus prestidigitation can also summon small illusions which could help you invision ideas.

[@sidecharacter7165]

Mending replaces missing material too based on the description.

[@andrewjohnson5050]

You would still need another hand.

[@meredithbutikofer5658]

22:46 personally the reason why I argue that spare dying is more useful in a medical setting is because things go wrong quite often when it comes to blood loss and moisture loss that just can’t be fixed because once it goes so far, there’s no going back. For instance a burn unit. This would be soooo useful in a burn unit because once a burn goes so far there’s no going back at a can’t be fixed, but if you have a spare dying you can fix it.

[@Merilirem]

This is what baffled me. They seem to think modern medicine is magic. Its not. People can die from complications or unknown reasons all the time. Modern medicine can't stop someone from dying. It can only try to fix what is killing them in time. Spare the dying just stops death. It stabilizes them which is a huge difference to someone dying. They could be bleeding out on the ground and spare the dying could just deny death until you stopped casting it. Healing and necromancy are the kinds of magic that go beyond what humanity can currently do. Its not at all comparable to convenience. Unless prestidigitation can actually clean radiation or toxins or microplastics from the earth, its not worth nearly as much.

[@nathano176]

Fire truck rolls up, fire fighters jump out, all of them start spam casting Control Flames

[@thebitterfig9903]

Does that work? Control Flames can only target a fire which can fit inside a 5-foot cube. Most fires that a fire truck would be called out for are bigger than that. Not saying it'd be a useless spell in real life, since it's basically a fire extinguisher for a small household fire, but that kind of firefighting probably needs more than cantrips to be effective.

[@dodobarthel2249]

Add in shape water so you can move your water to split one big fire into multiple small ones that the collegues with control flames can handle...

[@Sp4rt4nSl4ya]

​@@thebitterfig9903Maybe not so effective if only one person is casting it, but a team of 6-8 all casting it could quell the flames at a decent pace.

[@thebitterfig9903]

@@Sp4rt4nSl4ya I guess what I mean is that there might not be a valid target. The valid targets are pretty specific: "You choose nonmagical flame that you can see within range and that fits within a 5-foot cube." If there's a 10-ft diameter fire, my inclination is that Control Flames doesn't do anything, because a 10-ft fire doesn't fit in a 5-ft cube. My interpretation of RAW is that it wouldn't work, there probably isn't a valid target. Adding more casters wouldn't help, not with 8, not with 88 people casting the Control Flames. In terms of mechanics, I don't think that's inappropriate. This is a cantrip.

[@Sp4rt4nSl4ya]

@@thebitterfig9903 my interpretation of that is if there's a 10ft square of fire and one person casts to reduce in that area they could take out a quarter of it, and if four people did it they could take out the whole thing. I don't think the fire being bigger than 5 square ft means the cantrip can't effect it at all, I think it just can only effect its max area. Your interpretation may be a bit too literal.

[@docnevyn5814]

Being able to 100% stabilize a patient every 6 seconds would greatly reduce the mortality in a busy trauma hospital. It would also make numerous highly trained medical professionals from codes available for working on what to do to actually get the patient to recover. We can already clean things. The only benefit to Prestidigitation would be if it could clean a burn victim's wounds with less pain than current techniques.

[@MandalorV7]

Also combat medics and other civilian first responders. So many lives could be saved. Though with the combat medic that darkly could cause more loss of life in the long run. As those soldiers they saved could be well enough to send back to the front line and do more fighting.

[@TheHandgunhero]

Also staff could finally get needed breaks for a change.

[@bingus549]

less pain and a 100% thorough cleaning guaranteed

[@andrewlyon4495]

@@MandalorV7 Just because someone is in no danger of dying doesn't mean they will be ready for combat after a long rest, especially if dealing with things like lost limbs, damaged organs, or significant burn wounds.

[@TheLublume]

Guidance would be more useful in the ER, patients that come in already dying are rare. Usually they come still alive, and it's better to find out whats the issue right away and act, than to wait to stabilize.

[@jono3952]

I live in an area with a lot of dirt and gravel roads, Mold Earth would be SOOOoooo useful. "Oh is that pothole back? Not anymore!"

[@ARockRaider]

Also working around buried utilities. I don't play D&D so I don't know what the rules are for how much it can move, but isn't it like a 5 foot cubr every 6 seconds? That's a lot of dirt!

[@SteveVig]

My Magic Initiate loadout would be: - Prestidigitation - Mending - Comprehend Languages I would become an amazing archeologist/historian! There are many undeciphered ancient scripts in the world (Wikipedia lists more than fifty!) and many other scripts that we have possibly deciphered correctly but we can't be sure. Choose any artifact with writing on it. Prestidigitation to clean it perfectly without causing damage. Mending to repair it perfectly without causing damage. (multiple castings) Comprehend languages to translate it.

[@samuelteare8160]

Mage Hand would be great as a blue collar worker. You could touch something electrical without worrying about getting shocked or electrocuted. Or you can grab a tool that's not next to you. Or get to something just out of reach in a tight space.

[@Crowsinger]

That's what I was thinking. 🔥

[@LilithCrow-v4v]

Mage hand is phenomenal for a criminal. The spells description does not require line of sight, so you could just waltz up to a locked door, cast Mage Hand inside and turn the lock to unlock it, and waltz right in like its the most casual thing in the world. Pickpocket people while having both hands where they can see them, as the spectral hand goes to work behind them. Mages hand is a Rogue’s best friend, and unlike most classes, Rogues essentially do exist, and can be a viable (if illicit) career path for them. Am i saying that i would immediately turn to a life of crime if given the smallest shred of magical power? Legally i think i have to say no.

[@samuelteare8160]

@@LilithCrow-v4v Not to mention you can reach that part of your back that is always itching and just out of reach.😜

[@Sp4rt4nSl4ya]

​@@samuelteare8160a little flexibility solves that issue just fine

[@daniel_.-]

Mage hand is also for crafty hobbyists that need that 3th hand to do things or hold things like the flashlight.

[@Zanarthis]

Prestidigitation, Mending, Spare the Dying. I'm practically prepared for nearly every situation that I come across every day, including my job. So much tedium just REMOVED from my life.

[@sebastiansirvas1530]

Had the same list during the video. I would say guidance is also great. I would take your list and try to swap one for guidance, but it is kinda hard (either mending or prestidigitation).

[@Zanarthis]

@sebastiansirvas1530 unless you're around injured/dying people often, probably replace Spare the Dying. It's the least useful for the most people in the everyday.

[@Saeda88]

Prestidigitation is so obvious, I pick it with every spellcaster, you can be SO creative with so little. I once kept a blizzard out of our druid's face with continuous Prestidigitation so he could drive our sled down the mountain, likely saved the entire party just with a "fan" on command.

[@mariusspace]

Im a service technician so mage hand would be my number one pick every time. There are so many times where you can use a third hand just to hold something in place, put a bolt in while you hold the part in position, mark something, be much faster with cabeling or have a way more easy way when soldering thin wires. Prestidigitation would be my second pick and Mending my third.

[@Venjax420]

Definitely do a series of "Real life" D&D. Feats, each spell level, class features... In real life situations.

[@danwebber9494]

Bard, with either keen mind or lucky.

[@Merilirem]

Healing wins most of the time if its a choice. People overestimate doctors and modern medicine. Its not at all comparable to healing magic.

[@RuBoo001]

It may not be considered real in modern days, but a historically-accurate ninja? No way they’re taking any Class but Druid. “But what about Rogue?” I hear you ask. Well, it’s too obvious. Of _course_ the guy with a penchant for sneaking around would be the ninja, can’t be anyone else! Certainly not the guy who turns into animals and can cast spells and the like, no, why would people who were basically the feudal Japanese equivalent to James Bond want abilities like _that?_ …If you know anything about real ninja, you know that they would _love_ to have abilities like that.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

@@Merilirem You're overestimating the NEED for healing spells in real life. Yeah, lesser and greater restoration are awesome. But how many people would reach level 3 at all? Or level 9 for greater. Revivify is also not a strict improvement over what modern medicine can already do. Yes, there are situations where modern medicine isn't as good as Revivify, but there are also situations where Revivify isn't as good as modern medicine. Especially when we factor in the cost of diamonds, which would only skyrocket if this magic actually existed.

[@GabeNode21]

Seconded!

[@sirryanofwiley]

Being able to warm up or cool down my clothes with Prestidigitation is clutch

[@godsamongmen8003]

Yes, cooling your shirt in summer or warming it in winter would be amazing. I even do that in game.

[@TheRavenLilian]

Our heat index here has three digits! Yes let me cool my clothes down, that would be amazing!

[@2MeterLP]

Yes! Sweaty in summer? Three prestidigitations later your clothes are clean, cool and smell nice!

[@Sp4rt4nSl4ya]

Cool your pillow...

[@sidecharacter7165]

Make healthy and cheap food tasty.

[@DragonSinged]

Early on in 5th edition when I was running Tyranny of Dragons, one of my players was playing a Barbarian/Warlock multiclass who wasn't the brightest - he.. realized that he could make dirt taste good with Prestidigitation. Thus was born the term "Prestidigi-Bad-Idea".

[@angrytheclown801]

My more mischievous characters would take a rock, paint it up like a cupcake, and put it somewhere people wouldn't find it weird. Then use that. My cruel characters would poison the rock, do all that, and then use prestidigitation to cover the taste of the poison.

[@jamoecw]

It is a Somali dish, dirt cookies. You take some dirt and mix in a little bit of honey or sugar and let them dry in the sun, then you have something that tastes okay and will keep your stomach from collapsing into itself when you are starving.

[@GuardianTactician]

Number 1 pick is mending. I am a technician. Sometimes, things break and need replacement. Having new parts flown in overnight is expensive and slows down our work. Number 2 pick is prestidigitation. It is called "minor wish" for a reason. Number 3 is control flames. Mostly for the show I could put on around the campfire.

[@nathans9764]

Mage hand holds 10 pounds, not 5. Also, everyone has been working on something where they just need someone else to hold it, or a third hand to reach something, move something, etc. Super useful.

[@thomasstyan2066]

Niche use, but mage hand would be useful handling dangerous things like radioactive waste.

[@derekstein6193]

​@@thomasstyan2066 Or, more practically, the shards of a dropped plate or glass.

[@psiah9889]

Also useful to, say, hold something that might burn you, be too cold, or covered in thorns or something. Could fit into spaces you otherwise can't reach, unlock doors from the inside, etc. It's definitely very useful.

[@kratze1738]

While I'd also pick Presti as my 1st choice, Mage Hand would come in handy for a lot of things and might come third after Mending (if I could have three). I just started volunteering at a Parrot Sanctuary, and being able to interact with the birds without fear of getting nabbed would be huge. I could also use it to clean the gutters on my house, fetch a tool when I'm working out in the yard and dropped it a little way back (would be really nice when it's boiling hot), hold band-aids still so I can position them better, brush off skeeters when I'm out walking, take certain pictures with my cellphone on trips without having to deal with my fear of heights (it would be like owning a short-range drone). So many possibilities.

[@Sp4rt4nSl4ya]

Ive had a number of situations where a third hand would be a massive help. From mechanical work to basic house tasks.

[@TheLublume]

100% guidance. Reducing my chance of missing a diagnose by AT LEAST 25% is huge. Would easily become the best doctor in the area.

[@TheLublume]

Also, spare the dying is not useful at all for saving patients. We can stabilize pretty well already, we need to know whats the issue to help them, otherwise they get stabilized and stay in a coma forever

[@user-semenar]

@@TheLublume If other D&D rules apply, they will actually only be in coma for 1d4 hours.

[@Merilirem]

@@TheLublume The idea of a coma counting as stabilized is concerning. I didn't think of that. Though I still think being able to force people into a stable condition is worth it.

[@GM-vt3tu]

Their math is way off, forgetting the d20, but guidance is still pretty powerful just for its broad scope of uses in any profession, craft or social situation. (The increase would only be 9-38% for a skill you have no bonus in).

[@zero11010]

Average D4 role is 2.5. I think you’ve got that. The value isn’t 25% though. It’s roughly 25% better (23.8) of an average D20. But that’s virtually meaningless when you consider DCs which is how success is measured. Unless the average DC is 13 or less, it’s a fail either way. And if the average DC is 10 you would typically pass and not be 25% (23.8%) more likely to succeed. What it is though is a 12.5% increase (still great). It’s early and I’m still waking up, pardon me if I’m way off base. But, there is a target number you need to hit. There is a 5% chance of each number showing up on D20. So, if your target is 7 or 17 or whatever … the D4 effectively lowers that by 2.5 meaning you’re 12.5% more likely to hit your target. That falls apart if target DCs are impossible but that’s incredibly uncommon. Anything that boosts your roll or decreases a DC is worth 5% per point. All you’re doing is adjusting your target D20 number and each number is worth that 5%. Yeah? 1D8 bardic inspiration plus 1D4 guidance are (4.5 + 2.5) * 5 == 35% more likely to hit a target DC. You don’t add 4.5 and 2.5 then compare to an average D20 roll and decide that this is a 66.66% increased chance of success. It IS going to average 66.66% higher. But, success, your metric, isn’t based on you hitting that average roll. Success is a target number and these modifiers make you 35% more likely on that D20 to reach your target number.

[@sada1504]

One thing about Mage Hand, it could be incredibly useful for people with limited mobility! The extra range when you're bedridden or using a mobility aid would be amazing. My top three are Prestidigitation, Mending, and Mage Hand.

[@TrevBauer]

As a dad and someone who works in manufacturing, prestidigitation is number 1 then mending is a very close 2nd. Minor illusion would then be 3rd, being able to tell amazing bedtime stories and include visuals to my kids would be amazing.

[@Asaomar]

Mage hand, mending, and prestidigitation are top of my list

[@Babbling_Wizard]

Get out of head! Same

[@godsamongmen8003]

Mage hand was undersold in the video. How many times have you wished you had a third hand because the first two were full? And the mage hand could touch dangerous stuff, like a wire that may still be live.

[@Asaomar]

@godsamongmen8003 there are a ton of uses for it. Imagine someone who is say, really short, or in a wheelchair who can't reach something in a higher cabinet or on a shelf. Or if they can't afford an electric wheelchair, they can use mage hand to push themselves around. The disabled community would be able to make incredible use of that cantrip to vastly improve their quality of life.

[@rogerwilco2]

These

[@michaelbarnard8529]

Those, plus shape water and mold earth.

[@carsonrush3352]

I'm choosing Mold Earth, Druid Craft, and Mending. I love gardening, and the ability to instantly dig holes is essential to the planting season. So Mold Earth is awesome for me. I can till the soil and create a perfect grid of seed holes in 18 seconds. I can the be a human back hoe/ bull dozer. I can add swales to hillsides to catch water and end droughts through water infiltration. I'll go take Andrew Millison's course on permaculture earthen works principles to master the principles of terraforming. Then I'll take a few months to go camping throughout the Colorado River Basin and fix the water retention issues of the landscape, saving California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado from rampant droughts in a single year. Druid Craft allows plants to accelerate through their life cycles in a controlled fashion. Foremost in my mind is the ability to propagate plants instantly by forcing a cutting to grow roots and sprout leaves in 12 seconds. This is a process that takes months and fails half of the time. Now you can clone a plant 100 times in an hour. Sold at $10 each, that's $1000 of rare and exotic plants perfectly propagated and ready to sell. With enough genetic diversity, I could plant entire forests and end deforestation and global warming (through carbon sequestration into plants) at the same time. I could force a plant to put out flowers and produce food. Mending is just awesome.

[@shixter]

You Win! You have the most responsible and altruistic list - and Plan - Thank you for watching out for the Earth and all of us!

[@velocitymg]

There are animals and plants and environments that prefer drought conditions “fixing” it is just going to create even more ecological issues

[@qualandrew201494]

Agree on all points except the 10$ per cut, you would over inflate the market so quickly

[@Cyclopsided]

i was going to comment this same thing about getting JUST ONE being Mold Earth for regenerative agriculture. I would be doing so much hiking with.... rebelliously benevolent illegal swale/pond/water landscaping system creation. While bringing various native seeds along for the swales and keep going as I walk.

[@Cyclopsided]

@@velocitymg His example of the colorado river basin of the desert southwest was historically a seasonal grassland that was destroyed in the 1800s onwards and turned into a desert. It was not the desert you're used to seeing. This would be restoration in the example given.

[@yuridhjeeyn9034]

Prestidigitation (in addition to what you said): cleaning wounds purifying materials (anything that isn't that material is "dirt" to be cleaned away, probably only works when the material is ground to a fine powder first) dirtying something: depending on how granular my control is this could be bonkers -> this is because in a lot of cases we want some materials to be ever so slightly impure, e.g. in solar-panels: we need to "dirty" the used silicon with other materials, such that we have ~1/10000 parts being this impurity (it has to be contaminated with a very specific material, but you are still "dirtying" pure silicon with something else)

[@gyletre675]

Prestidigitation would be my first pick as well. Mending and Guidance is fighting each other for second place. For magic initiates free 1st lvl spell, Find familiar would be a great spell. Imagine all the shenanigans you could do, not to mention the fact that you could get a overhead view of any situation as well as look at yourself without a mirror. It probably wouldn't die ever, as you could just keep it out of danger, and since it's a magical creature it probably lives a long time. Tenser's floating disk, or comprehend languages would be very nice as well. A healing spell would maybe be the best option though, as magical healing would be invaluable. Of the 1st lvl options, goodberry would probably be the best option, as 10 hp guaranteed with the additional effect that you can sustain 10 people with it. When a person has only a few hit points, it would be overpowered. (False life would be very nice as well, although it only lasts an hour, while goodberry lasts 24, and also it is purely selfish)

[@LeChevalierduLys]

Minor Ilision would be amazing for Engineers, Architects, Filmmakers or some sort of Designer.

[@justlapiis6008]

"What Feat Would You Take In Real Life?" would be awesome to see! i could see ritual caster, alert, observant, and even shadow touched coming in useful!

[@windsgrace688]

Legitimately would consider taking Magic Initiate for once. Having prestidigitation, mending, and unseen servant would be such a quality of life game-changer for almost anyone.

[@Sawtooth44]

would ritual caster be useful? since in order to ritual cast you need magic, dose it give you any magic?

[@Merilirem]

@@Sawtooth44 I mean magic not being real kills most things. So you have to assume that it works as written. Which means you could gain all rituals should you be able to find the actual spells written down for those classes. Which also means druid and cleric rituals might actually work. I mean ones from real life druids and clerics. Find some holy books and see if it works. Expensive though.

[@Sawtooth44]

@@Merilirem just checked, you do actually gain 2 1st level spells from taking the feat

[@2MeterLP]

Cleric magic initiate with spare the dying, guidance and cure wounds would turn you into the ultimate doctor! Stabilising a dying person is actually very difficult to do, and you can just snap your finger and their life is saved! Plus fully healing one person a day, and use guidance to make sure every surgery around you always succeeds!

[@lucasstrong9208]

I played a warlock who used minor illusion to mimic voices (a very often overlooked portion of the spell) and mask of many faces to be the ultimate at deep fakes at level 1 (free feat to get the invocation). Then at level 2 I took misty visions to become more than just a grifter, but a pop up theatre company. The 15 foot cube is plenty of stage for a single actor and can be popped up in a few seconds, changed in a few seconds, and costs nothing. It was great.

[@Greedsmith]

1. Prestidigitation 2. Guidance 3. Druidcraft Druidcraft, perfect for the camper and survivalist. Having an accurate weather prediction, grow plants, make a campfire and making animal noises for hunting. You could also use it as a farmer to never have a bad season or to grow and sell herbs and flowers. Flowers are expensive!

[@abel4542]

Guidance is for sure the best cantrip for real life, it's not situacional, it has a significant impact in your chances to succeed and you can use it in other people.

[@jakeroon]

I agree. As cool as prestidigitation is, it's basically just a conveince cantrip. I can clean by hand, I can flavor things with spices, I can warm or chill things with fire or ice-packs, I can scent things with essential oils. Guidence was make the "average" person like me 25% - 100% better at everything ? That's amazing.

[@that_guy1186]

an already just slightly above average person could possibly instantly become the best in the world at something with Guidance. you want to throw something? use Guidance on yourself and potentially increase your modifier to that throw by 4. learning something? potentially increase your intelligence by 4 for every instance of learning. anything charisma related? you could be the most motivating, charming person around.

[@Merilirem]

Agreed, except I would say spare the dying comes in clutch when it matters most. Which could be worse more. You literally cannot die if someone is stabilizing you. Not unless its a quick death anyway.

[@fastrayd1]

My problem with guidance is that it in fact is situational. It has a 60 second duration with a 6 second cast time and requires that you make a loud determined vocal casting of the spell as well as a hand gesture and touch of some sort. Every 54 seconds you have to start that process just to keep it going and that is just not tenable for many many tasks. Imagine just even writing emails in an office. Every 54 seconds you have to start chanting loudly and touching your chest while waving your other hand, just to make sure Sharon in HR understands the importance of hiring one more person to work on Thursdays. And for very long tasks like repairing a vehicle while underneath and turning a wrench, your hands are full. It may not be reasonable to drop the nut you've been holding in your left hand for the past 5 minutes just to shout "Bastard engineers designed this!" and slap your chest to recast the spell.

[@thomasstyan2066]

@@fastrayd1 Yeah, And remember that an extra d4 doesn't guarantee a good result. If you roll a 2, even with an extra 4, that's still only a 6. I see guidance as being more useful for competitive games like shot-putting or archery, but the sports would soon catch on that you are using magic. Using cantrips would soon be regarded as being like using performance enhancing drugs.

[@brittanyanderson97]

Prestidigitation is the most realistic pick because cleaning is just a pain, even more so if you’re ND. 😂 like I don’t have to clean my dishes, do laundry, dust and vacume anymore. Plus you can make tiny items with it so if you need a random item you can just make it.

[@RichWoods23]

A coin for the vending machine, which then gives you both a snack and some loose change.

[@2MeterLP]

@@RichWoods23 Note that the trinkets you can make only last until the end of your next turn, so 6 seconds. That massively restricts what you can do with it. Vending machine coins is clever, though technically stealing. The only other thing I can think of off the top of my head is make stuff to throw at people.

[@RichWoods23]

@@2MeterLP Twelve seconds maximum, not six.

[@nephalos666]

@@2MeterLP it's only stealing if you get caught.

[@Sp4rt4nSl4ya]

Its such an easy pick for me based on the cleaning front alone. All the other abilities are just extra perks. 😅

[@user-jr2lb2kt4w]

1 Wildshape first choice especially if i can mix and/or augment myself or my forms 2 Guidance 3 Encode thoughts 4 Mending 5 prestidigitation 6 mage hands 7 Find steed 8 Conjure animal

[@ayoCC]

As a regular civilian, its going to be prestidigitation. Whenever surfaces get dirty or greasy just waving your hand and it getting clean is super nice.

[@alexgruel9932]

It has to be either Prestidigitation or Guidance. You either always have perfectly tasting food or are just a little better at everything

[@DavisOdom]

I didn't even start the video and immediately shouted "Prestidigitation!" And then I watched the entire video :-). I concur with your assessments and would also choose mending as my second. Some objects are just irreplaceable and would be wonderful to fix. Imagine going into a museum and fixing all the displays.

[@knowwhoiamyet]

Maybe I'll sound like "that guy" for saying, but I feel like fixing the displays would starkly go against some of the appeal. Like, seeing the history in an object or item, the age, is all part of it, isn't it? I can see practical use for it in a museum, certainly, but I think I would do my absolute best to keep the use of it on the displays themselves to a minimum. But if something got damage *by* the museum while setting up or transferring to and from storage... Yeah that's fair game lol.

[@truekurayami]

@@knowwhoiamyet Agreed and the Japanese even developed an art style around repairing a number of items that would be in a museum or gallery that highlights the damage the item had taken.

[@TheRewasder97]

I'd really like to see that last idea. I'm not entirely sure about what level 1 spell I would pick, but Presdigitization and guidance would be my cantrips.

[@SageSaga25]

So, I'm late to the party but I want to point out a couple things. But first- more of these videos from time to time. They are a lot of fun! Anyways! Prestidigitation creating small marks, or symbols could be done on paper- we generally call that drawing- and while it only lasts for 1 hour, we have cameras and scanners. If you don't agree with that use, creating an illusory image that can fit in your hand, and take a picture of it works great for a quick sketch to base something off of. Minor illusion is superior here as while people wont be fooled into thinking a minor illusion is a real creature (because its a still object) it can have all the required appearance like texture and color. If you could 3D scan that with your phone- well 3D modelling finally got a lot easier as well as texturing. You could also create the illusion of an illustration you want made, snap a picture of it- man the new Monster compendium you are working on is really moving now... Mending is great but still takes a minute to cast for each use. Sure, it's still worth it BUT- it has one glaring issue. Someone hands you a cellphone in pieces, and yes- all the pieces are there... It's still 1 minute of casting PER BREAK OR TEAR. O_O Shattered to pieces? Sorry- that's going to be hours of work- as written. I think it should be more like - healing the damage delt to the object or restoring its condition, but as written, kinda sucks for a lot of our use cases. Finally - Spare the Dying... I don't know how many people realize what this means exactly. So, to stabilize someone in D&D prevents them from dying, so long as they take no further damage, which again can be stopped by a spare the dying cantrip applied again. The creature that is stabilized will, wake up, gaining 1HP, after 1-4 hours. So, you stabilize, you make sure they are protected from harm for 1-4 hours, and you save a life, almost regardless of what happened to them. This only doesn't work against things that would prevent natural healing, death from massive damage, or some kind of ongoing damaging effect. If we are combining real word and D&D rules- Spare the Dying seems to halt any death from most diseases, until that disease can cause damage again, only to be stopped by another casting of the spell. Meanwhile, doctors can work without fear of the patient dying, allowing them the precious resource of time in figuring out how to save the patient. Till they can get that variant human in the room with magic initiate with cure wounds/healing word. And or the person who can cast Detect Poison and Disease and basically in 6 seconds can tell you exactly what disease someone has and if they are poisoned, and if so by what.

[@tscoff]

Mage hand for changing light bulbs 15 feet in the air and other things that require reaching up 15-25 feet above your head!

[@targetdreamer257]

Exactly. Especially useful for short people.

[@xiongray]

Mending. I don't need much. I will want to use everything until its gone gone.

[@alexmin4752]

IMO, electronics and other advanced mechanisms should be considered as magic items in DnD terms. They actually run on lightning energy. Basically it's only good for stuff that could be made in medeival era.

[@Lonesomefly]

With mending, you are controlling chemical bonds. You are walking a nuclear reactor. You can mend diamonds together. If you are not careful, for sure you are on fbi list

[@sir_wffles]

@@alexmin4752Gotta disagree here, I don’t know why electronics stuff would be considered “magic-y” and mending has to be for medieval stuff. There’s like no description for mending that implies that at all. Even if we take a step back and say electronics are considered “magic items” (despite being built using the physical and chemical properties of the material element themselves), mending can still fix magic items remember, it just can’t re-imbue magic. Considering I’m not being called a wizard or artificer irl when I use a phone or driver a car, I think mending has to take the cake here. (Not to mention the amount of bank you can make from repairing antiques like an ancient painting or pottery or a broken Stradivarius)

[@Greytusks]

The problem with Mending is that it does not repair wear or material fatigue damage, only tears and breaks. And only on a single 'physical' break or tear at a time at time on top of it. It 'could' repair a tear caused by wear or fatigue, but the wear would remain and it will break again in a blink. 95% of what breaks in our daily life is due to wear or it's a break but the item gets shattered in so many piece it's not practical at all to find all pieces. That hole in your socks or shirt, most of the time it's wear of the fabric that over time thins it so much that it can't hold itself up anymore, not tear. Leaky faucet? Wear. Tears usually only occur during accidents, misuse or similar occurences.

[@alexmin4752]

@@sir_wffles Ok, in this analogy we can say that the battery is the magic source and everything else is mundane/mechanical. But "Target: A single break or tear in an object you touch". If you break a phone there will be hundreds of conductive lines snapped. IMO, the wording implies you can fix something that's rather simple in design. Also, most devices aren't discarded due to physical damage but of malfunctions.

[@starxrox]

Oddly, this has been my favourite episode for a while haha. Love ya work dudes

[@lotematu2812]

1. Presdigitaion 2. Druid craft 3. Mage hand (Garden work)

[@drachimera]

Mage hand can do dangerous stuff! It can also do stuff that’s hard to reach, like getting at a bolt inside an engine, it also doesn’t get tired…. you could do things like unplug a clogged drain. How many times do you need an extra hand to hold something? Mage hand is S tier!

[@twicedeadmage]

Guidance. I'm needing it (also a +5% to +20% of success to everything would save so many headaches)

[@2099Spartan]

Would be useful at work

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Most people don't generally fail at things in life. This is only a problem for absurdly incompetent people, and likely would make those people even more reckless and impulsive than they were before, making Guidance ACTIVELY MAKE THEIR LIFE WORSE.

[@solarissv777]

​@@dontmisunderstand6041how about becoming better at life? I wonder if guidance can help with understanding things when learning, that would be huge. Also, what about persuasion checks, when closing deals, or, maybe intelligence checks, when trying to come up with the best solution to a problem. I would say, prestigigitation is the best "blue collar" job cantrip, guidance is the best "white collar" cantrip, and spare the dying is the best white coat cantrip.

[@recursiveslacker7730]

@@dontmisunderstand6041what are you talking about? Catastrophic failures are rarer, sure, but mundane failures and minor slipups add up over time. Even getting rid of half of them would be great. Now the question is how to stop employers from knowing about it, lest they see it as an opportunity to overwork people harder with fewer consequences….

[@GM-vt3tu]

@@dontmisunderstand6041 If you're not failing, then you're not challenging yourself. For example, Every person you ever tried to persuade ended up agreeing with you? No, most people fail a lot. They're just failing at things that don't result in death.

[@Sviorr]

Oh, that's fun. If we're talking about Magic Initiate, then for sure Find familiar Prestidigitation Mending I know spare the dying is super-effective, but that's too much pressure for me: even if I'll be working 24/7, I won't have the time to save everyone

[@shaulkramer7425]

what a fun video!!! Looking forward to the 1st level spell one.

[@Sockacroc]

I’m a janitor so prestidigitation would be phenomenal BUT I’d have to use it sparingly because if I was too supernaturally fast and thorough somebody would wanna see what I’m doing

[@targetdreamer257]

That is a great point. I never thought of it like that.

[@Draeckon]

Or your boss might start cutting your hours. 😅

[@Cyclopsided]

Your problem is you're trying to be hidden about it and keep your current job, instead of creating your own company and cleaning 20+ businesses' entire office buildings every night shift by just yourself, at just below market rates. They are closed at night and just want their stuff cleaned. The only thing you'd still have to do is take the trash out physically, and people WILL see you doing that on their cameras etc... as you just prestidigitate everything around you constantly.

[@douglaspope-gz1eq]

Honestly prestigitation and mending would make life so easy and BTW shadows of Drakenheim is such a banger of the series so far I've only seen two episodes so far but it's amazing and i learned something Kelly's character designs somehow ends up being my favorite part of this channel keep up the good work Kelly and Monty

[@dantethefan9654]

Probably my favorite video of yours in awhile, it’s fun to just listen to you guys theorize about real life stuff with the dnd context. Would 110% want to listen to the variant human load out video

[@joshuaferraiuolo2565]

Bard Magic Initiate: Mending, Prestidigitation, and Cure wounds. Although speak with Animals was tempting.

[@joshsaegesser3001]

Paramedic here, adding to the spare the dying discussion: It definitely would save a ton of lives better than modern medicine without question. Most ICUs are loaded with patients forced into stability with lots of medications and a medically induced coma, a quick fix for that would be a literal miracle. But what are the limitations, would it save someone who needs CPR? their heart and lungs have already stopped, in some cases the heart is shaking around and can be restarted with electricity but would they be considered dead or dying? How many people would have access to this cantrip? If it becomes common (even like 1000 people in the US might be enough) it would collapse the entire corrupt healthcare system. We've built it around corrupt greedy businessmen and politicians profiting off the sick and dying, so that would all collapse. But I should also point out that most of our patients are not dying, even when we respond to 911 calls we don't often see real life or death emergencies, and if things have gotten that far (outside of massive multisystem traumas) it is usually due to a failure to find or treat a less severe problem. That being said, if prestidigitation can sterilize objects as part of its "cleaning" then it could save almost as many lives as spare the dying. Infection is a huge killer in hospitals, CLABSIs and CAUTIs (common hospital acquired infections that shouldn't exist if proper sterile technique or catheter replacement protocol was followed) would be essentially erased and sepsis would be a thing of the past. We wouldn't have to worry about antibiotic resistant superbugs or blood borne pathogens. I also can't stess enough how many times I wish I could use mending on various things in my ambulance. Many private ambulance companies don't invest enough in maintenance that lots of our trucks are running with check engine lights, jury rigged replacement parts, or just old equipment that should be replaced. Outside of maintenance, sometimes our equipment just fails. Wires, tablets/clipboards that you use for reports, oxygen regulators, BP cuffs, even my ventilator sometimes fails us in the field. A quick fix to all of these would make my job 10 times easier and probably save some lives (though less than spare the dying or prestidigitation). TLDR: all the top choices they mention would be AMAZING things to have in healthcare, especially emergency medicine but even in less emergent situations.

[@Merilirem]

Spare the dying is my pick just so I never have to hold someone in my hands and watch them die. Assuming it stabilizes them you could just keep casting it if need be and the ambulance would make it to you. As long you can keep using it they shouldn't die from the kinds of things that kill most people. Its magic that stabilizes after all.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Spare the Dying effectively just creates that medically induced coma. It's the same thing. CPR, that's effectively modern medicine's version of Revivify, a spell that brings people back from the dead if they died within the past few seconds, and their body isn't so badly damaged that they'd just die again anyway.

[@Cyclopsided]

If a DND character just had their chest caved in and arm severed by a series of brutal monster attacks, and would die in 18 seconds -- spare the dying STABILIZES THEM. That objectively means it must save someone who needs CPR. It must immediately stop the bleeding and stabilize blood pressure by sealing gaping wounds. It must stop sepsis. It won't bring them up from there... but that puts them in the medically safe stable coma! insane honestly for ER and paramedics

[@jamescoughlan7175]

Number 1 is far and away Prestidigitation (though for the cleaning it specifies nonliving matter so no replacing showers or brushing your teeth), but if you're doing the magic initiate thing of 2 cantrips than the second would be Mending easily. Third would be one of the three; Mage Hand (for shenanigans, teasing, and laziness around the house) Minor Illusion (for as Monty said about being a creative where I can just show what I'm thinking of instead of having to describe it) Dancing Lights (for no more light bill) I also saw someone comment on a Dimension20 short about the same concept to this that Spare the Dying would basically be Coma the Spell. And for True Strike, if you're in a combat sport True Strike could get you that the first hit knockout if you cast it just as the match starts.

[@visualstoryboard1406]

Guidance 100%. Being 20% percent better at everything you do would definitely add up.

[@-Daidalos]

1. Prestidigitation, no contest 2. Minor Illusion. Creative people can do so much with illusions, it's crazy. If Presti wasn't that OP, I'd definitely pick Minor Illusion first. 3. I think Spare the Dying. Probably wouldn't get much use out of it, since I'm not in the medical field. But I don't know, I'd be really mad if I needed this one and didn't pick it.

[@MoonBoyAdino]

I do a lot of agriculture landscaping and construction, and clean drinking water isn’t always available to me, so my two cantrips would have to be Mould Earth and Prestidigitation, and my first level spell would have to be create/destroy water. Creating seed beds, digging out dirt for foundations, digging up root vegetables, watering my plants, access to clean water 24/7, and I can clean all the dirt off me afterwards. It’s too good to even think about.

[@joshuaholiday254]

Had this conversation many times and I think all of us decided prestidigitation was the way to go for most of the same reasons you guys landed on.

[@singletona082]

It's so damned versitile for all manner of little annoyances.

[@Merilirem]

I always land on spare the dying because it means you never have to watch someone die in your arms. That should be more than enough. Let alone the ability to help out at a hospital. No one would die during surgery as long as you kept casting. The doctors could finish and the patient would then be stable and fixed. Almost no chance things go wrong. Guidance is my next pick because it just makes you better at everything by a large margin. I can clean stuff on my own and make healthy tasty food. I can't be better at things than I am literally capable of being. Your limits as humans are set in stone. Guidance raises those beyond such limits even if you roll a 1.

[@demonazgrael]

This nerdy deep dives is my jam and I am here for it!

[@beardedbrooks6580]

I really enjoyed this one guys, thanks!

[@kylesavage6319]

Prestidigitation, clean wounds as well! Never worry about a cut or scrape getting infected!

[@2MeterLP]

The spell states you clean an object. So not people. Maybe browse 4chan to become extremely sexist so you can cast it on women?

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Creatures are not objects.

[@kylesavage6319]

@@dontmisunderstand6041 just view every wound as a thing. In game, every person is just a cog in the wheel so they aren’t a creature to them 😆. Though one could argue a scrape or a cut is a thing/object not a creature.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

@@kylesavage6319 Perspective does not change reality. Neither in real life nor the specific fictional game worlds these ideas come from.

[@recursiveslacker7730]

Ok, but the real benefit is that after cleaning the wound through mundane means, you can ensure the dressings and bandages remain pristine.

[@keithpowell8611]

As a nurse, Mage Hand would be so useful just to grab/hold that thing while my hands are full...but then prestidigitation would just clean up all my patients for me...that's a hard toss up. Spare the dying is ironic because if I had that, I would never send anyone to the ICU 😅 that would result in some strange staffing disturbances. I think I'd have to take guidance as my 3rd

[@jasonreiyn9311]

1. Prestidigitation 2. Minor illusion 3. Mending. Great video looking forward to seeing similar reviews of spells of all the levels

[@Jack_Winters_Wintercold55]

Please give us more of this I think we are all begging for more of this irl stuff please keep it up.

[@bobbys.8295]

Very entertaining. One of my favorite videos. 1. Prestidigitation 2. Mending 3. Minor Illusion If Magic Initiate, Find Familiar

[@timoth666is]

1. Prestidigitation 2. Guidance 3. Mending if Magic Initiate, Comprehend Languages and if given a second first level spell, Speak with Animals

[@rakatika]

Prestidigitation and start a cleaning business. Car detailing/car wash, house cleaning, dorm cleaning etc. Druidcraft and Mold Earth perfect for a landscaping business. Mending to start a repair business

[@redbeard5939]

Prestidigitation and become a world famous chef

[@ClanValor]

I've worked as in CNC machine repair. It is A LOT of money a year. 200k+ without fixing an 8 hour day in 1 minute.

[@2MeterLP]

Spare the dying and become the worlds best paramedic.

[@Johnhamsta]

The surface of a car is not a valid target for the spell, as it specifies an object less than or equal to 1 cubic foot. RaW does not permit the targeting of portions of a contiguous obeject. Parts of the car would be targetable, such as: screws, bolts, hubcaps, headrest, etc., as they are non-contiguous.

[@2MeterLP]

Car wash doesnt seem like the most efficient use of magic. You gotta think bigger! Do something noone else can do! Clean things that are too delicate to clean the conventional way, like priceless paintings! Or remove stains that are hard to get out conventionally, like blood!

[@QuirkyView]

1) Mage Hand: Telekinesis is consistently around the top of my list of ideal super powers 2) Minor Illusion: Personal hologram to get ideas out of my head is so good, plus you could take pictures of them and make art that way 3) Mending: Not as useful as you might expect, size limits and needing every part of what's broken at hand means it wouldn't be useable as often as desired, but you could also make impossible objects, things that would require a weld but made of wood, etc. Prestidigitation is very good for cleaning, but not as good as you think. It can only clean objects, so no part of a person like teeth or wounds could be cleaned, and it has a size restriction so you couldn't clean the floor or something equally large with it. Message is slightly better than texting in that literally no one can possibly hear or intercept the message. It would be great for people with secretive jobs. Bonus point for Mage Hand (NSFW): It has the most potential for being useful for lewd acts of any cantrip.

[@basvandiepen2772]

7:28 it warms and chills things to

[@JohnR31415]

Mending

[@dragoninthewest1]

Oh yeah. Me: oh crap, I dropped another glass. Mending

[@EliasMorals]

The amount of DSes I would fix with this...

[@dragoninthewest1]

@@EliasMorals or old cds

[@Immudzen]

I would also do prestidigitation, mending, and guidance. I write very complicated code for a living to make medicine and guidance would be amazing for that. Since it applies to that skill check I would use it before each coding session.

[@maxpowers9129]

This was a fun topic. Thinking about which spells and feats would be most useful in real life sounds like it could be a fun series.

[@vickrpg]

Tied for first 1. Prestidigitation, Minor Illusion 3. Mending For entertainers, especially youtubers, these dudes are vastly underestimating the freedom/cost saving/earning potential of making ANY visuals they want. You could make an entire animated movie with a time lapse camera and 6 seconds per frame. you could make any overlay or screen graphic. designs that take 6 seconds to cast would make bank.

[@papasimscs]

There's nothing better than prestidigitation, but my second choice is control flames, with guidance right behind that

[@palatonian9618]

I think I go guidance followed closely by prestidigitation Shoutouts to mage hand and control flames.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

@@palatonian9618 Guidance is proactive, not reactive. Which massively restricts its usage and utility. And it often has no meaningful effect at all In fact, the math suggests it's almost never going to matter. For a 1 on the d4, it only matters 5% of the time, for the 2, 10% of the time, 15% and 20% for the 3 and 4. In effect, Guidance only has AN effect 12.5% of the time, roughly. Or, to put it into perspective, it's a waste of time and effort in 87.5% of cases. 7 out of 8 times, it's worthless.

[@recursiveslacker7730]

I’d take being 12 and a half percent better at anything, personally.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

@@recursiveslacker7730 Only in cases of extraordinary effort. Passive skills are the baseline, extraordinary efforts allow us to roll for a potential that's higher than our passive, but can also give a lower result. On average, the result of a roll will be 5% better than your passive. However, it's important to note... guidance doesn't affect your passive skills. And those passive skills are what make up almost all of the things you do. If it improved passives, then it truly would make you better at anything. But it doesn't. It does nothing 87.5% of the time, and prevents you from hurting yourself by doing stupid things the other 12.5%. Because remember... those extraordinary efforts generally don't have a benefit at all for success, they avoid consequences. When you roll acrobatics to make a sick jump across a chasm, success doesn't make you better off, it just stops you from falling to your death.

[@gongolongo1]

I loved this video guys I mean dudes Please do more stuff like this and what you started talking about in the end with the first level spells

[@TheParallelSound]

Definitely love these style of videos!!

[@allenwurl6245]

Shovel of lesser mold earth 😬👍 Now that I finished the video and understand the assignment 1. Mending (because its always my job to fix the things someone else broke more failing to fix it) 2. Prestidigitation (because all the reasons you listed 👍) 3. Mage Hand (because I’ve been bed ridden more than once in my life and independents is empowerment.) Besides I already have a “Shovel of lessor Mold Earth” 😬👍 Also looking forward to the second part of this video

[@JunMiyazaki]

No damage dealing cantrips? This is very Canadian of you! :D

[@sharmakefarah2064]

To be fair, only Eldritch Blast is worth it, and I think the damage dealing cantrips are far less useful IRL primarily because of the verbal component, and in particular combat just isn't a part of a civilian's life almost all the time.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

Humans don't generally have a need to deal damage in real life. They go to jail or die if they try.

[@Julia________]

​@@sharmakefarah2064 Eldritch blast specifically only can target creatures, so some others like fire bolt might have more practical uses. Considering 1d8 hp of a commoner, you don't really need d12 over a d10 either

[@sharmakefarah2064]

@@Julia________ True, Fire Bolt definitely is the best generalist cantrip for a civilian focused on defense, though Eldritch Blast comes in a close second.

[@recursiveslacker7730]

Why pick eldritch blast when you can get basically the same thing from literally any Walmart?

[@tylernelson310]

You should do this for every level of spell, and then, using the class that can get all or most of them (probably wizards, since its not sorcerers of the coast is it), make the best real life spellcaster for dnd, id probably say be a divination wizard, but id love to see the argument for each subclass of the chosen class

[@obi-wan-jacobi840]

If they did every level, the last video would just be two seconds: “It’s Wish”

[@Merilirem]

Healing until you can get crazy stuff like wish. Healing magic and necromancy completely go beyond what humanity can do.

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

@@obi-wan-jacobi840 I highly doubt the video for level 4 spells would be as short as "The answer is Wish".

[@pierregrubb7323]

"You'd never have to wash the dishes again" THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT IVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT! We are on the same wavelength here!

[@lylemitchell1991]

Great video! Love it. And yes i'd love to hear your real life variant human loadout!

[@mentalrebllion1270]

Most useful quality of life cantrip spells - prestidigitation - druidcraft - mending - message - mold earth - shape water - thaumaturgy - spare the dying - light - control flames - guidance - encode thoughts - dancing lights - hunter sense (Humblewood cantrip) - mage hand Least these are the ones I would consider. As for my tops choices, personally 1) Prestidigitation (of course) 2) Druidcraft (frankly being able to know the weather always and being able to grow things is too good to pass up, especially since I love herbalism irl) 3) Mage Hand (let’s be honest, this is amazing for short people and those who might have mobility issues, of which I am the short person in this case) With any additional it would be 4) mending 5) guidance 6) dancing lights 7) message 8) spare the dying 9) control flames 10) mold earth 11) shape water 12) light 13) encode thoughts (because that’s just neat to me) And that’s pretty much what I would be interested in.

[@kal-eldritch]

Eldritch Blast, and just like in D&D, I'd commit nefarious acts

[@2MeterLP]

There are plenty of ways to put holes in people without magic, though. At least take a damage cantrip that leaves no trace, like viscous mockery!

[@musicmonster6999]

Please do this with all the spell levels. I think the more powerful the spell, the more fun conversation!!

[@dontmisunderstand6041]

To a point. Wish is crazy good, and none of the other level 9 spells are versatile enough to warrant discussion.

[@musicmonster6999]

9th levels are always in another league of conversation anyway, and they could always do it "if we didn't pick wish"

[@kevinnoorman4815]

I loved your spell ranking vids id love to see you do 2nd lvl ranking and eventually the other levels

[@0Fyrebrand0]

For sake of argument: imagine you witness somebody get into a horrible accident, they're grievously wounded. You call 911. It's taking a while for the ambulance to arrive. Eventually the paramedics arrive but they are too late, and the victim dies. This might happen only once in your life, but you're forever haunted that you didn't choose to take Spare the Dying. Someone is now dead because you wanted to clean things easily. Maybe you didn't know the person. But maybe it's a close friend, or a family member, or your spouse. What if the choice of "best cantrip" is secretly not about achieving the best use, but preventing the worst potential tragedy and regret? Also, I LOVE what the Dudes are wearing in this video. This is peak fashion in my opinion.

[@demonkingsparda]

So you're saying anyone who doesn't choose spare the dying is a bad person?

[@danielcruz4960]

The biggest issue with your comment is assuming you owe a debt of charity to everyone. In your example, you say if you had spare the dying you could have save a life, so are you saying everyone that doesn't know first response is being selfish for not knowing it even tho it could save a live?

[@Awzn123]

4:44 counter point if you’re in the military both cantrips are really handy so now I can walk around with no weapon in a hot zone and now every time we have to fill sandbags I can do it with no effort

[@darcyrobbs6866]

dig a fox hole.

[@TheHandgunhero]

These cantrips only have a range of 120 feet which doesn't help you if a dude is 50m away. Also 10 shots a minute was impressive 150 years ago. Nowadays you'd be suppressed up the wazoo if you weren't able to output more than 10 shots a minute.

[@Merilirem]

Better to take spare the dying. Save your buddies.

[@theodoreharrold9875]

​@@TheHandgunherosome cantrips straight up ignore partial cover though

[@ussxrequin]

This was awesome, guys.

[@johngillan4475]

Thank you for your fun ideas

[@TechnoLawyer]

Prestidigitation for sure. It can “soil” pants. It can make sounds and smells. Nobody would be safe from my inner 12yr old. 😬

[@Grooveworthy]

"What did you do?!" "I just shat your pants."

[@davea6314]

If D&D cantrips were available in the REAL world the 3 most useful cantrips outside of combat might be prestidigitation, mending, and spare the dying.

[@TLBainter]

Mending would be OUTSTANDING for all the minis I have to put together. Especially after they've been broken by my cat. No more superglue for me!

[@kylepask4989]

Would love a video like this for every level of spell

[@j.troydoe1278]

Mage hand, i would steal so much.

[@StriderZessei]

Remember the Mage Hand isn't invisible without the Arcane Trickster feature. People would see the spectral hand move from and to you.

[@jaspermooren5883]

In fact, you can't even use sleight of hand with mage hand RAW unless you are an arcane trickster. So it would be a clumsy hand that everyone would immediately notice.

[@StriderZessei]

@edwintaylor6891 the context of the discussion is based on how the spell is described in the books. The topic itself, by virtue of its very nature, includes the rules as written.

[@Merilirem]

@@edwintaylor6891 It has to be rules as written or you have to logic things like magic not existing into the equation. The weave doesn't exist so arcane spells shouldn't work. Let alone divine.

[@YMasterS]

​@edwintaylor6891 saying anything other than rules as written for this discussion is just so incredibly dumb. Like, omg, unbelievable levels of stupidity.

[@MorieldeCaelum]

First. Presidgitation for the win

[@franzfrikadelli6074]

Before i watch: This is the best idea for a dnd video i came across in a long time

[@TimFrie-GD]

RE: Magic Initiate picks - Prestidigitation, Mending/Guidance, and Comprehend Languages. I'd be so incredibly productive and could operate in pretty much any work environment and with any staff.

[@Grooveworthy]

I don't care about people so much, so my once per day spell would probably be speak with animals. Then I could tell my dog that I love her every day.

[@erelat]

Spare the Dying

[@erelat]

My teenage son said Vicious Mockery

[@muddlewait8844]

This is the only right answer. They’d build a high-risk surgical center *around* you.

[@pairot01]

​@@muddlewait8844spare the dying doesn't heal people. You take them from critical condition (i.e. they are going to die within seconds) to stable, but they aren't healed, it doesn't remove deseases, it doesn't mend broken bones. The ONLY use is if you are an emergency responder.

[@mufasafalldown8401]

Ray of Frost and I would get a high end bartending job.

[@pairot01]

What does Ray of Frost do for a bartender?

[@philswiftdestroyerofworlds1988]

​@@pairot01 I suppose to insta freeze drinks if that's ever needed But idk not too sure on what OP was going for

[@mufasafalldown8401]

@@pairot01 no more shaking a stupid silver can around to chill drinks. Obviously not taking the thought exercise too seriously.

[@mufasafalldown8401]

​@@philswiftdestroyerofworlds1988 it's currently 111 degrees here. I may slightly overvalue ice 😆

[@philswiftdestroyerofworlds1988]

​@@mufasafalldown8401 Haha love the creativity on your choice

[@AccursedGnome]

One thing about Guidance; it gives you (an average of) +2.5 to a skill check. That increases your probability of success by 12.5%. That means Guidance makes turns a fail into a success (on average) 1 time out of 8 castings. When compared to Mending, that sucks. Keep up the great work though!

[@frankieadriang]

Awesome! Great discussion, I have had this discussion with my friends and we have also pretty much agreed that Prestidigitation is the clear winner, I agree with Kelly on Mending as a second best, but I the ability to make a visual representation of my creativity like Monty stated and I think Minor Illusion would be my third.