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The spell Prestidigitation can:

You can create a non magical trinket...that can fit in your hand and that last until the end of your next turn.

Some plastic medical gloves "could" fit into your hand and don't require any magical properties to work. So could this be done within the confines of the RAW?

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    \$\begingroup\$ What are you trying to do with this glove? \$\endgroup\$ – NautArch Mar 18 '20 at 16:35
  • \$\begingroup\$ @NautArch I'm not sure yet. Just had a thought and wanted to see where the thought train went. The time limit doesn't leave may viable options, but that is for another thought train. \$\endgroup\$ – Overthinks Mar 18 '20 at 16:41
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    \$\begingroup\$ Related: What are the creative limits of Prestidigitation? \$\endgroup\$ – Robotnik Mar 19 '20 at 5:14
  • \$\begingroup\$ What's your reason for asking the question? It seems pretty obvious that it's a nonmagical item that fits in one hand, so is there some reason you think the answer would be "no"? \$\endgroup\$ – Mark Wells Mar 19 '20 at 8:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @MarkWells A couple (maybe even few) answers do address why it might not. \$\endgroup\$ – NautArch Mar 19 '20 at 12:56
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Trinkets can be wearable items, so Prestidigitation could create medical gloves

'Trinket' is not a specifically defined game term.

However, there is a list of 100 trinkets in the Player's Handbook from which it's possible to derive some parameters.

The following items are all included on this list:

A pair of old socks
A white, sequined glove sized for a human
A vest with one hundred tiny pockets
A nightcap that, when worn, gives you pleasant dreams

From this it is safe to conclude that trinkets can be wearable items.

I therefore would allow Prestidigitation to create a pair of wearable medical gloves.

As per the spell description, they still wouldn't last beyond the end of your next turn, however, which probably isn't really enough time to make any use of having them.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ It could be added that "medical gloves" need to be in the Gameworld context, and most fantasy worlds would have a different definition of what that item is. \$\endgroup\$ – JPicasso Mar 20 '20 at 20:27
  • \$\begingroup\$ It's a cantrip though, so you could cast it each turn... \$\endgroup\$ – chaos Mar 23 '20 at 13:56
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RaW, I don't see why this wouldn't technically work. In-game, an argument could be made that creating something as thin and fine as medical gloves is beyond the scope of "trinket" but nebulous terms like that usually fall to the DM to define. It could also be argued that our modern, real-world interpretation of medical gloves is foreign to the fantasy realm your game inhabits, requiring out-of-context knowledge to create.

Your real limiting factor though, is the duration of the spell. Creating the gloves requires an action, leaving little time to use them that turn, then they vanish at the end of your next turn. Because this is not an instantaneous effect, you can't have multiple castings of it active. This means you have roughly six seconds before your gloves vanish.

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    \$\begingroup\$ For what its worth, some items specifically listed as trinkets in the Player's Handbook are at least as thin as surgical gloves including "A sheet of parchment upon which is drawn a complex mechanical contraption". \$\endgroup\$ – David Coffron Mar 18 '20 at 15:56
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    \$\begingroup\$ @DavidCoffron This is true, though the spell never directly refers to the trinket list. (Also parchment can be very unevenly thin, even holey, not what you want from medical gloves) \$\endgroup\$ – Crazjtk Mar 18 '20 at 17:02
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I'm not sure if you can or not, but I don't think that matters.

You could instead just use Prestidigitation to instantaneously clean your normal gloves before, after, and during whatever you are doing. This would make medical gloves obsolete in many cases.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Nice frame challenge :) You can even just your hands - no glove needed. Great workaround for using the spell as intended! +1 \$\endgroup\$ – NautArch Mar 20 '20 at 13:37
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You're going to need to talk with your DM

There's a few things that remove this from RAW. First, there is no 'medical glove' item. If there is, it will be up to the DM to determine what it is. Mostly because there is also no plastic. So how this medical glove is available and what's it made of and how it works will be up to your DM. Additionally, if they are having to make this up at your character's request...how does your character know of these to begin with?

It will also be up to the DM to determine if it qualifies as a trinket. I personally would allow it to be a trinket if I did create this item, but I'm not sure I would create the item itself.

Finally, some of the above decisions may depend on your intended use for this. If they feel you're trying to sidestep another mechanic that normally prestidigitation wouldn't (even being clever), then a DM could very easily say NO at that point.

But I also really like Crazjtk's answer in discussing the amount of time that you'd actually have this item before it disappeared.

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You can only create one medical glove, and only if it has sequins on it.

The text of the spell says that it can create Trinkets; this refers to the list of items found in the Equipment chapter of the Player's Handbook, as well as similar lists of items in other supplements.

One of those items is the following:

A white, sequined glove sized for a human

As such, you're capable of creating a single, sequined glove with a single casting of Prestidigitation. The design of the glove and the materials used to make it aren't specified, other than the fact it's white, it's sized for a human to wear, and it has sequins on it. As such, you could create a white, sequined medical glove with a casting of the spell.

None of the other items on any of these lists are suitable for this purpose - one of the items in the Curse of Strahd list is a pair of leather gloves, but that means that the material that they're made from is specified, preventing them from being made of latex.

Note that the glove would only last until the end of your next turn, so it's unlikely that you'll be able to use it for much.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Could the drive-by downvoter maybe leave a comment about why? This is the RAW answer. \$\endgroup\$ – nick012000 Mar 19 '20 at 8:47
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    \$\begingroup\$ The spell does not tell you to look into the table of 100 trinkets and choose one. So limiting the spells use (regarding the creatinon of trinkets) to one of those 100 items is NOT the raw answer. \$\endgroup\$ – Patrick Artner Mar 19 '20 at 9:17
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    \$\begingroup\$ Trinket is a normal english word and not defined by this list. Plenty of the items on the trinket list cannot be produced by prestidigitation because they are too big to fit your hand, are imbued with magic or could not be discerned to be what they are in the 6 seconds they last. See rpg.stackexchange.com/a/65603/55159 for a listing. IF the spell ment to be reduced to that list, it would have been mentioned. \$\endgroup\$ – Patrick Artner Mar 19 '20 at 9:46
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    \$\begingroup\$ You are going to have to justify your assumption that the trinket list in PHB is exhaustive. \$\endgroup\$ – Taemyr Mar 19 '20 at 12:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ To answer your curiosity: I downvoted it because it's wrong. The setting in D&D is not constructed entirely out of objects that appear on equipment lists. \$\endgroup\$ – Mark Wells Mar 19 '20 at 17:18

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