Can trinkets created by the Prestidigitation cantrip substitute material components?

Question

The prestidigitation cantrip (SRD V5.1, p. 170) allows the caster to create a number of magical effects, one of which is:

You create a non-magical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in your hand and that lasts until the end of your next turn.

Our group has had all our items taken away, including component pouches and arcane focuses. Certain materials definitely seem like something prestidigitation can make as a trinket such as a magnifying glass.

Assuming the material is cheap (no cost stated) and is not consumed by the spell, can prestidigitation make the material components as trinkets? Even if the person casting it can't use it (since they've used their turn) can another character hold and use it?

Answer 1

Up to the DM

"Trinket" is not a well defined term and thus what prestidigitation can or cannot summon is left up to the DM.

There is no mention of magically summoned components in the general rules (PHB 203). Some spells specifically rule out the use of what they create as components (like creation, PHB 229). This seems to suggest that it is generally ok to do this. Your DM could still reasonably rule otherwise.

Answer 2

I asked a similar question (although narrower in scope) a while back: Can a Bard use Prestidigitation to conjure a musical instrument trinket for their spellcasting focus?

The answer I accepted was "Yes" (for the reasons Szega listed above), but there was an interesting caveat to it:

You must use your action to cast prestidigitation, and then you cannot use your action again to cast another spell. On your next turn, you could use the instrument to cast a spell, but then it disappears at the end of that turn, and you have to recreate it on your third turn. This allows you one spell every other round that isn't prestidigitation (unless it's a bonus action or reaction spell).

Answer 3

Yes.

In fact, the only limit is non-magical, so you could use prestidigitation to make material components that are consumed and even ones with high prices like gemstones. The only issue you have is they will only last 1 round so you'll need to cast the spell in a single action, bonus action, or reaction; and you can only make one object.

Rules as written, this works completely as the only definition for "trinket" we have is a small object that would fit in one hand, which covers almost any item you could need. You couldn't make a few things, such as a sword, piece of armour, or object with multiple parts like a chess set. Almost anything else though, is fair game.

Answer 4

I don't see why not. Material components are mostly a flavor thing unless they've got a specific cost associated with them, they're easily enough rendered irrelevant by using a Spellcasting Focus anyway, since you can ignore them if you have a Focus, and if you don't have a Focus you can just take a Components Pouch and automatically be assumed to already have them regardless, because that's basically what the Components Pouch does (and has done, ever since it was introduced in 3.0).

Answer 5

No.

Material components are generally not important, but there are cases where they are, which is why they exist at all. Your example, in which the party does not have access to its equipment, is such a case. Prestidigitation does not create real objects with permanence, and they thus cannot serve to focus spell energy.

This can be a fun opportunity, however, for creativity. I had a party in a similar situation recently, working in a slave mine, and figuring out how to get/make material components was an interesting and creative part of the adventure. Some of their spells were rendered useless, but others they could gather or improvise. Spiderwebs they could find. Mica flakes they could watch for and dig out of the walls. The fighter had proficiency in jewelers tools, and managed to carve a crude flute out of a chicken bone for the bard to cast spells with (I had her make some rolls to see how long it took).