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If a wizard uses the spell fabricate to prepare a feast, would that food be hot?

Assumptions are that there is plenty of raw produce available. The wizard is proficient in cooking tools (has expertise actually). The wizard has the spell prepared.

The problem

The wizard's boss1 has the habit of showing up at a random time/day, without notice, with a random number of guests, wanting an elaborate meal for everyone

Does a raw chicken and veg become a hot stew?

1 The boss of the wizard is in charge of the biggest, most dangerous dungeon in the region, and this wizard is his cook. The party are getting wrecked in his dungeon while he (the boss) and his buddies watch. So yeah, quite a jerk.

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    \$\begingroup\$ If you already have the materials, why not just cook them normally? Or is this just a character... flavor... decision? \$\endgroup\$
    – Lauren Moylan
    Feb 7, 2019 at 15:05
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    \$\begingroup\$ @G.Moylan time is the thing. The spell could create a huge feast in 10 minutes, wheres it would take hours otherwise. \$\endgroup\$
    – Overthinks
    Feb 7, 2019 at 15:09
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    \$\begingroup\$ What situation are you in that this would be an issue? Just trying to understand the actual problem. \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Feb 7, 2019 at 15:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ The context around this is a boss is has the habit of showing up at a random time/day, without notice, with a random number of guests, wanting an elaborate meal for everyone. \$\endgroup\$
    – Overthinks
    Feb 7, 2019 at 16:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ I added your problem and boss description to the question. This sounds like a really fun game/campaign/table. \$\endgroup\$
    – KorvinStarmast
    Feb 7, 2019 at 18:00

3 Answers 3

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It does seem creating cooked food is possible due to proficiency in cooking tools

The base description of this spell is about using unworked (raw) materials and converting them into products of the same material.

It's unclear, and likely up to a DM, if that works with cooking. In the standard fabrication of products, you aren't necessarily chemically changing the properties of the original materials - you are just working them into something greater.

Having said that, there is the possibility of changing those properties. Working some materials that require craftsmanship (armor, weapons, jewelry) often does involving working the material in a way that chemically changes it. If you take that tack, then the spell can do this (but requires the proficiency that this Wizard has.)

But whether or not a DM wants to allow that type of change I think is up for table debate but the argument is very strong for allowing it.

How complicated is the dish?

Fabricate also explicitly states:

You convert raw materials into products of the same material...You can fabricate a Large or smaller object (contained within a 10-foot cube, or eight connected 5-foot cubes), given a sufficient quantity of raw material.

It is unclear if you can fabricate from multiple types of raw materials, but in all of the examples you are converting one raw material into one finished product. There isn't mixing and matching of various raw materials to create a new complex product.

Is it hot? A slippery slope for higher temperature finished products

There is also a concern about having this spell do more than what it says with regard to temperature of the end product. The fabrication process describes ending in mundane objects that are seemingly of standard room temperature. While the process of fabricating a sword mundanely requires high heat, the spell is simply skipping that step and producing the final usable product.

If you do allow fabricate to create final food products, then it should go with the rest of fabricated items and have them be at room temperature. Should cooked food come out at higher temperatures, then you could conceivably fabricate a sword whose blade is at high temp and thus delivers fire damage upon striking (if done quickly enough after fabrication.)

The issue of slippery slope is one to consider by the DM. Limiting it to food creation for Rule of Fun seems reasonable, but extrapolating that acceptance to mechanical advantages during combat might be where a DM draws the line.

Sure, but why?

I don't think it's unreasonable to allow it, and the proficiency in cooking tools that the wizard has solves the craftsmanship issue, but I'm not really sure what the purpose would be (other than not lighting a fire.)

Have everything you need?

In addition, in order to make a complete dish a DM could demand that you'd need all relevant ingredients (raw materials). You can't fabricate Beef Wellington with only raw meat. Even in the case of a simple stew...you need herbs and spices.

And for that, there are other ways to eat.

If this is ultimately about time and taste, then a combo of Create Food and Water and prestidigitation would provide you with flavorful food in a much faster timeframe with less resource expenditure (3rd level spell vs 4th level for fabricate. And you don't even need to find all the raw materials. This combo first create:

food is bland but nourishing

and then

You chill, warm, or flavor up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour.

to make it tasty and palatable.

The real option: Make a Heroes' Feast

You could also get what you're really looking for..and more with heroes' feast. It's a 6th level spell, but when it happens it'll be great for the party and the guest.

You bring forth a great feast, including magnificent food and drink. The feast takes 1 hour to consume and disappears at the end of that time, and the beneficial effects don't set in until this hour is over. Up to twelve creatures can partake of the feast.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Create Food and Water easily achieves what the OP is after, although it would cost them an additional spell slot. It sounds like OP is trying to be efficient with picking spells. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lauren Moylan
    Feb 7, 2019 at 14:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ I don't know about the whole "not changing chemical properties." Almost all swords are quenched and tempered using chemical processes, and I think fabricate is intended to replicate those processes \$\endgroup\$
    – Sir Cinnamon
    Feb 7, 2019 at 14:52
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    \$\begingroup\$ So in your view you could fabricate, say, a fruit salad, but not a potato salad? \$\endgroup\$
    – Mark Wells
    Feb 7, 2019 at 14:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ <comments removed> Other people are trying to work with the author to clarify and improve the post. Comments, as a rule, aren’t for secondary discussion because it interferes with that. \$\endgroup\$
    – SevenSidedDie
    Feb 7, 2019 at 15:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ "contained within a 10-foot cube" Now I'll always take a bag of gelatine with me so I can create a 10-foot cube of jello, then animate object it to make enemies think they're being attacked by a Gelatinous Cube. \$\endgroup\$
    – Suthek
    Feb 8, 2019 at 9:04
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If I was DM, I would say yes. From the link:

You also can’t use it to create items that ordinarily require a high degree of craftsmanship, such as jewelry, weapons, glass, or armor, unless you have proficiency with the type of artisan’s tools used to craft such objects.

Since the wizard is proficient with cooking, it seems reasonable to assume he has created a very tasty feast.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ You can make a tasty but room temp feast. macaroni salad, Potato salad, various sandwiches and wraps. Anything you'd eat at a beach picnic, really. \$\endgroup\$
    – Monica Apologists Get Out
    Feb 7, 2019 at 17:36
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    \$\begingroup\$ The spell says nothing one way or another about the in-game fluff of the transmutation from raw materials into final fabricated thing, so it is entirely up to the DM and/or player (with DM's permission) to describe it as they see fit. It seems very dull if making a sword really was just a "pop" and it's done, rather than an impressive fast forward through a smithing process, blazing hot metal and all, for instance. Let them have hot food. Just don't let them use the spell to directly harm anyone, because that ceases to be fluff. \$\endgroup\$
    – Protonflux
    Feb 8, 2019 at 16:19
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Yes and no.

Fabricate does not cook items, only transmutes them into their cooked form. While you could make an amazing feast with the materials, it would be the same temperature. You'd need to heat it up in another method (prestidigitation).

This is because Fabricate doesn't generate heat. Otherwise, fabricate would get metal up to forging temperature, which is what heat metal is for.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think you can say this, as the spell says nothing about it one way or the other. There is nothing that says that the metal does not heat up and once hot change shape into a sword and then quench back to room temperature, just as a smith would need to do, as part of the casting of the spell any more than it describes any other in-game fluff about the transmutation. It is entirely up to the DM and/or the player. \$\endgroup\$
    – Protonflux
    Feb 8, 2019 at 16:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ In fact the requirement of appropriate craft skills suggests that the fabrication magic does follow the normal manner of crafting more than it suggests anything else. \$\endgroup\$
    – Protonflux
    Feb 8, 2019 at 16:15

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