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?

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    \$\begingroup\$ Hey folks - we appreciate that all gamers have opinions. But "in my opinion" yes or no is not a valid answer here on RPG.SE. You need to back up answers with rules, or evidence, or a designer statement, or something. Every poster knows by asking the question that it could be X or Y and there's probably people that advocate for X and Y. Only one of the answers below is even attempting to use the game rules to support their conclusion. \$\endgroup\$ – mxyzplk says reinstate Monica Oct 15 '17 at 16:22

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.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I think it'd be worth adding that while trinket isn't a defined term, the table on PHB pp. 160-161 could give a player/GM some guidance as to what the scope of "trinkets" might be. \$\endgroup\$ – nitsua60 Oct 15 '17 at 12:59
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    \$\begingroup\$ It would also be worth noting the limitation that some spells require more than three material components and prestidigitation can only produce three concurrent effects. \$\endgroup\$ – Protonflux Oct 16 '17 at 9:42

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).


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).

  • \$\begingroup\$ Please review the problem statement. Component pouches and arcane foci have been taken away. This answer looks like an opinion. If you would read the question asked, and then edit the answer, you can improve your answer with an edit. (FWIW I agree with "I don't see why not" ... but that's my opinion) \$\endgroup\$ – KorvinStarmast Oct 16 '17 at 14:46


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.

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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm not sure how you can equate the trinket with a high-cost gemstone. Those seem mutually exclusive. \$\endgroup\$ – NautArch Sep 25 at 16:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ See this comment for a suggestion of a possible indication that "trinket" doesn't equate to "high value item". \$\endgroup\$ – Rubiksmoose Sep 25 at 19:11


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).


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