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How would storing a cantrip (0th level spell) like Prestidigitation work with the ring of spell storing?

Could one just create a Ring of Prestidigitation some other way?

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5 Answers 5

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RAW

Rings of spell storing capture a given levels worth of spells. Cantrips are considered level 0, so by RAW they couldn't be stored.

Any creature can cast a spell of 1st through 5th level into the ring. (DMG, p. 192)

Why not?

If you could, you would be able to store an infinite amout of them in the ring and pass it off to another party member, essentially giving them a free set of off-class cantrips.

The level of the slot used to cast the spell determines how much space it uses.

A pure fighter with an endless supply of free eldritch blasts, green flame blades or chill touches would be game breaking.

Houserule and the Problems it Might Cause

A DM might rule that for the ring of spell storing purposes the cantrip is a level 1 spell.

Which might still break balance. Because cantrips are "free" attacks (in that they don't spend resources) some of them are designed to be the primary attack of certain classes. A level 2 fighter for instance, who convinced a high level warlock into storing for him, could use Action Surge to fire 4 beams of Eldritch Blast from the ring of storage, then fire 4 more beams of Eldritch Blast. Each blast potentially doing 1d10+(CHA modifer of warlock) damage and pushing the target back 10ft -- if the invocations used at the time the Warlock stored the spells could be released.

Granted, multiclassing could (possibly) allow you to do that, but that has been balanced and play tested and has costs. It would be odd for a level 2 fighter to be in the same party as a level 11 Warlock, so it isn't likely something that would happen alot, just that it could if the the player met an NPC or such willing to store the spell for him.

For prestidigitation, I don't see a problem with a DM letting you use a Ring of Spell Storing counting it as a first level spell.

Could one just create a Ring of Prestidigitation some other way?

Yes. And at a fairly reasonable price you could either craft (if your DM allows crafting) or buy it. That said, if magic is more rare in your world the costs for making or buying it could vary.

Crafting it.

The cost for buying a Common Item is 50 gp to 100 gp , and the cost for buying a Uncommon Item is 101 gp to 500 gp (DMG p 135). Crafting rules state that "you must expend raw materials worth half the total market value." (PH p.187).

It would take 4 full days and about 50 GP if the DM says it is a Common item, or 20 days and about 250 GP if it is an Uncommon item.

The chart in the DMG (p. 129) seems to say that to craft a magical item you have to spend the total cost of the item and the time. Running completely RAW for magic items would put it at 4 full days and about 100 gp for Common item, or 20 days and about 500 gp for Uncommon item. The one issue with this is that there is no benefit to spending the time on crafting over just buying it. I assume the reason that this is the case in the rules is because previous editions allowed wizards to get get very rich selling magical things.

Buying it

If the DM allows you to find a place the sells it, the purchase price should be somewhere between 50 (if it common) or 500 (if it is uncommon).

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Wait, how is a fighter casting 4 eldritch blasts out of a ring, even with a houserule, and how is it more powerful than the similarly leveled warlock? \$\endgroup\$
    – Kyle W
    Jun 9, 2016 at 23:03
  • \$\begingroup\$ Isn't there a feature (racial? feat?) that lets any class know one Cantrip? Thus, you can have a RAW "pure fighter with an endless supply of free eldritch blasts, green flame blades or chill touches". \$\endgroup\$
    – Adeptus
    Jun 10, 2016 at 1:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ "Attacking" with an Eldrich Blast isn't an attack action for the purposes of Extra Attack; it's its own action. You cannot combine the two. If it were, it wouldn't be a problem just here - there are classes with both Extra Attack and cantrips (see bards, for example); it's balanced because they can't use both at the same time (some have class abilities that combine spells and attacks, but they have their own rules). A fighter with an unlimited number of cantrips wouldn't be especially unbalanced either; it's not unbalanced on the spellcaster itself, and they're not "worse" otherwise. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 10, 2016 at 10:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ Why did you halve the cost (and time) for magic item construction? \$\endgroup\$
    – Marq
    Jun 13, 2016 at 13:45
  • \$\begingroup\$ Explained the prices I had, fixed the time, and elaborated a bit more. \$\endgroup\$ Jun 13, 2016 at 15:25
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You can't store cantrips in the ring of spell storing because it doesn't affect 0th-level spells (DMG, p. 192):

Any creature can cast a spell of 1st through 5th level into the ring by touching the ring as the spell is cast.

To get a “ring of prestidigitation” — which would presumably just let someone without Prestidigitation cast it at will like a normal cantrip — you'd have to make one yourself or (if there are mercantile wizards accessible in the campaign world) commission one. This is assuming that the DM has “turned on” the optional magic-item-crafting Downtime activity (DMG, p. 128) — if crafting magic items is not part of this campaign, the best you can do is suggest it would be a neat minor item to the DM, and hope that it turns up as treasure some day.

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The ring won't hold a cantrip since a cantrip isn't a spell with levels between 1 and 5. Cantrips are spell level zero (Basic Rules, p. 78).
From the item description for Ring of Spell Storing:

Any creature can cast a spell of 1st through 5th level into the ring by touching the ring as the spell is cast. The spell has no effect, other than to be stored in the ring. If the ring can’t hold the spell, the spell is expended without effect.

Trying to cast the cantrip spell into the ring for storage would simply fail. This may or may not have been intentional, but I think it was. Why?

The level of the slot used to cast the spell determines how much space it uses.

Allowing the storage of cantrips in such a ring, since a cantrip is spell level zero, results in potentially infinite cantrips (hundreds? thousands?) being stuffed into a ring of spell storing. You could add 0+0+0 all day and not reach five spell levels. Since anyone can cast a spell from that ring

While wearing this ring, you can cast any spell stored in it. (No restriction to class or being a caster is in the rules)

one could (in theory) stuff cantrips from all classes into this ring in great numbers. A non caster now has an enormous store of magical effects on hand. It would likewise, in theory, allow casters the use of cantrips from other classes that they won't normally be able to use. (Example: a druid with a few hundred charges of Eldritch Blast in such a ring).

There's another fiddly bit to consider. How does the storage counter function if the value of an expended spell is zero levels?

The spell cast from the ring is no longer stored in it, freeing up space.

How does the ring know that the spell is gone? I suppose the magic in it senses "spell expended" and one instance of a cantrip is gone.

A simple way to make this work, if you want it to work, would be to establish by a local ruling or house rule that any cantrip cast into the ring uses up a level 1 slot. That preserves the KISS principle, avoids the fiddly questions, and keeps the range of power for this item (rare) close to its design boundaries. Since a cantrip is typically less powerful than a first level spell, this would be a decision to accept less power as a trade-off for the flexibility of using "Cantrip X" for a PC-based reason. It would not provide the wearer with a cantrip's use "at will" the way a caster uses one.

Could one just create a Ring of Prestidigitation some other way?

Yes. Use the item making tables/rules in the DMG. This is the standard "work with your GM" procedure common in D&D 5e.
From DMG (p.128-129)

Magic items are the DM's purview, so you decide how they fall into the party's possession. As an option, you can allow player characters to craft magic items.

(Item description was taken from SRD page 241. Looks to be the same as DMG p. 192).

Such a ring would likely be common or uncommon, per the other answers to this question.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Okay--I just wasn't sure if there were some limiting factor you had in mind, or just using it as a placeholder for "arbitrarily-large number." Thanks. \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60
    Jun 9, 2016 at 16:43
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I would either rule that no, they cannot be stored, or if they are stored they fall under the following restrictions:

They count as lvl 1 spells for the purposes of storing.

Cantrips cast this way no longer benefit from any effect that specifies cantrips in the ruling.

Cantrips cast this way take 1 action to cast.

This makes it virtually useless to cast them into a storage device.

I had a similar question regarding a Reserve Ioun stone last week. I gave the RAW interpretation (which either specifically mentions cantrips or is worded in a way to not allow them). When pressed why not, I gave something similar to the options above, at which time the player elected to throw some lvl 1 spells into it.

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They count as 1/2 level for the purposes of wand creation. I would treat them as 1/2 level for spell storage as well.

A Ring of Spell Storing 1 could hold 3 spell levels, so up to six cantrips castable 1/d each, not unlimited, or 2 1st spells and 2 cantrips, etc.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ It's often helpful to find a source in one of the core rulebooks to go along with your answer, are you able to find the book/page that your information is from and a quote? \$\endgroup\$ May 27, 2017 at 20:57

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