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The description of the Goodberry spell states:

Up to ten berries appear in your hand and are infused with magic for the duration. A creature can use its action to eat one berry.

According to the Wikipedia article on Watermelons:

It is grown for its edible fruit, also known as a watermelon, which is a special kind of berry botanically called a pepo.

Emphasis mine. Given these two bits of information, can the Goodberry spell be used to summon ten watermelons, which can then each be eaten as a standard action?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Is there a contest you're trying to win? I hear judges frown on magic use during county fairs. \$\endgroup\$
    – Hey I Can Chan
    Apr 9, 2016 at 21:50
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    \$\begingroup\$ Can you hold 10 watermelons in your hand if they all appeared there? ;) \$\endgroup\$
    – Guy
    Apr 9, 2016 at 21:54
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Guy Presumably, this is best done by jugglers. \$\endgroup\$
    – DuckTapeAl
    Apr 9, 2016 at 21:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ @DuckTapeAl Alright, multi-class Druid with Bard (College of Satire from UA to be sure) and I think its perfectly acceptable. Advantage on perform checks! \$\endgroup\$
    – Guy
    Apr 9, 2016 at 21:59
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    \$\begingroup\$ On a more factual note, I don't know that a watermelon can be eaten in 6 seconds (assuming this is the standard time for a round of combat), I'm not sure if stack exchange values "logic tests" in D&D answers, but that would be a stretch for me (no pun intended, which was a shame). \$\endgroup\$
    – Guy
    Apr 9, 2016 at 22:03

3 Answers 3

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No, nothing in the spell gives the caster choices about the berries. They're just archetypal berries (because that's what a category word like “berry” means when it's otherwise not specified), so they're small round fruits that fit in your hand, as implied by the spell's wording about them all appearing in your hand.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I guess my only question is "who does choose the berry?" For you does this fall under the 'player describes action (casting spell)'->'gm describes results (berries that appear)' paradigm? \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60 ♦
    Apr 9, 2016 at 22:26
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    \$\begingroup\$ @nitsua60 I got the impression they weren't any specific kind of berries, just something that any random murderhobo off the street could identify as "berries". \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage ♦
    Apr 9, 2016 at 22:41
  • \$\begingroup\$ @nitsua60 yes, the player chooses if the spell says they can (Goodberry) doesn't, the DM chooses otherwise. \$\endgroup\$
    – Dale M
    Apr 10, 2016 at 0:11
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    \$\begingroup\$ @nitsua60 Werll, goodberry is a divine spell, so possibly a god chooses. Or one of the god's servants. Or the high priest. Or maybe the acolyte who makes the coffee decides based on whatever berry is on sale that week. \$\endgroup\$
    – GMJoe
    Apr 11, 2016 at 0:49
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    \$\begingroup\$ I always describe them as unique, green-gold berries that glow with the requisite inner light 'cause magic; I imagined them as concentrated pellets of healing magic, not literal biological fruits. I don't want my PCs to try fermenting them and selling the healing potion equivalent of moonshine. \$\endgroup\$
    – W. Gering
    Nov 29, 2017 at 2:15
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No and no.

No:

in plain English, the language of the authors of the PHB, a berry is

a small, pulpy and often edible fruit. (Berry at WP, emphasis mine.)

Just like berry, "small" is not a defined term (when applied to objects--ignore creature sizes for a moment, please). But to paraphrase Potter Stewart "I know it when I see it, and this melon is not that."

The other 'no':

But as you say, berry used as a term of art includes watermelons. Today I learned it also includes tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, pumpkins, and bananas (ibid.). So, can Goodberry produce watermelons? Possibly. This depends on whether at your table the DM or the player describes the ambiguities in a spell's effects.

But you asked:

can the Goodberry spell be used to summon ten watermelons? (Emphasis mine.)

Nope. Even if a GM allows watermelon-summons, only one would appear because that's what fits in your hand. (And you'd have to eat the whole thing in six seconds to gain the effect. I'd rule you can, 'cause magic, but I'd want to see some serious RP involved.)

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    \$\begingroup\$ Especially since I just discovered pumpkins. PUMPKINS! \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60 ♦
    Apr 9, 2016 at 22:24
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    \$\begingroup\$ "I'd want to see some serious RP involved." - since (normal small) berries are normally eaten whole, would you have to eat the rind? \$\endgroup\$
    – Random832
    Apr 10, 2016 at 0:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ The spell actually says you can use an action to eat a berry - but not whether you have to eat the whole berry; Arguably it'd be enough to take a single bite. Of course, if you take that argument too far, you could end with players licking watermelons to gain the full effects of eating them... \$\endgroup\$
    – GMJoe
    Apr 11, 2016 at 0:58
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    \$\begingroup\$ Hmm... it says "eat a berry," not "eat of a berry" or "eat some berry." (Obviously, the whole thing's ridiculous, so we shouldn't mince things too finely. There's more than one way to skin an eggplant, after all. Really, I just want to homebrew a Badberry spell which conjures pickles.) \$\endgroup\$
    – nitsua60 ♦
    Apr 11, 2016 at 1:26
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    \$\begingroup\$ @nitsua60 pumpkins... my favorite berry. \$\endgroup\$
    – Aviose
    Nov 20, 2017 at 16:48
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The answer is probably no, and there's a good piece of evidence as per why it's probably no. The required spell component for casting Goodberry is a sprig of mistletoe, which, for those of you who imagine the festive decoration, actually looks like a tree branch with long, fingerlike leaves and groups of milky white/pale red berries. Since one of the casting components of Goodberry is a handful of berries, odds are you are using those berries to hold that good good goodberry magic. You're not creating new berries out of nothing, you're just eating berries right off a sprig of mistletoe and hoping that your magic worked correctly because if it didn't mistletoe is somewhat poisonous.

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    \$\begingroup\$ 'Sprig of Mistletoe' is used in most druid exclusive spells, so saying that the berries are from the mistletoe is a bit presumptuous. It doesn't require a new sprig for every spell cast by a druid (it's more like a focus for druids). Mistletoe is poisonous, though, regardless of what part of it is consumed, so using its berry as the resultant good-berry would cause many to never even attempt to eat them. \$\endgroup\$
    – Aviose
    Nov 20, 2017 at 16:51
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    \$\begingroup\$ The spell says you do create new berries out of nothing: "Up to ten berries appear in your hand". \$\endgroup\$
    – user17995
    Nov 20, 2017 at 16:54

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