Can I have two castings of minor illusion active at the same time?

Question

I had made a new half-elf sorcerer who will soon be a rogue multi-class. His spells are based off of what a rogue would choose them to be, such as fog cloud, mage hand, and minor illusion. In addition, I chose prestidigitation in the hopes of combining with minor illusion, using one for sound and one for an image.

Yet it was never clear to me if I could just use minor illusion twice, as it is a cantrip. This will free up a cantrip spot for a more offensive spell, seeing as all of my other spells are more ability than offense. We are playing D&D 5E.

Can I have two castings of minor illusion active at the same time?

Answer 1

One character can't have more than one casting of minor illusion active at a time.

From the description of the minor illusion spell:

You create a sound or an image of an object within range that lasts for the duration. The illusion also ends if you dismiss it as an action or cast this spell again.

Let's say that a character casts minor illusion once (let's say, to create a visual illusion of a rock). He then wants to cast the spell again (e.g. to create the sound of a lion's roar). However, as soon as he casts minor illusion the second time, the first illusion ends and goes away.

In order to have multiple illusions active at once, you'd need to use a different spell, or have someone else cast minor illusion the second time. Since it is a cantrip, it could be pretty overpowered to let one character just create an unlimited number of illusions that were all active at the same time.

Answer 2

Not at the same time, but quickly after

The rules state that if you cast minor illusion again then one illusion replaces the other. That said it only takes a 6 second round to cast so you could for instance create the noise of a rock fall,then quickly cast again to show a stationary pile of rocks blocking a passage. No good if you are directly observed but good enough if enemies aren't in line of sight.