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After a quick search of the forums I couldn't immediately see an answer. No burning in-game issue here, just curiosity.
This spell makes spoiled, rotten, diseased, poisonous, or otherwise contaminated food and water pure and suitable for eating and drinking. This spell does not prevent subsequent natural decay or spoilage. Unholy water and similar food and drink of significance is spoiled by purify food and drink, but the spell has no effect on creatures of any type nor upon magic potions. Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon. One cubic foot of water contains roughly 8 gallons and weighs about 60 pounds.
I'd be inclined to say it doesn't remove the salt, you just end up with really clean sea water, but I could see how it'd be argued the other way. What say you ladies and gentlemen of the boards?
I would see the salt to fall under the "or otherwise contaminated" clause, and would allow it to remove the salt.
After all, Create Water is a level 0 spell that would be available (within 24 hours) to any class that could cast Purify Food and Drink anyway.
Of course, if the caster were a creature who normally imbibed saltwater, or required saltwater to live? Then the spell as cast by that particular creature might just remove all contaminants besides the salt.
It all really depends on your interpretation of "otherwise contaminated". Is salt considered to be a contamination in sea water? For that matter, is calcium and other minerals considered to be a contamination in fresh water? Will casting the spell on hard water remove those minerals?
Personally, I would say no. Casting this spell on seawater would give you pure seawater, not fresh water.
But the spell does say it makes is suitable for drinking, and seawater is not suitable for drinking. So I believe, by RAW, it does make seawater into fresh water.
I'd go with yes. It may not be RAW per say, but I'd definitely say it's RAI when looking at the words "otherwise contaminated."
Bah. You're over-thinking it. Of course it would purify salt water. Whether you get your water from the ocean or a saline-contaminated well doesn't matter. It's still contaminated. Source is irrelevant.
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The spell says it makes the water suitable for drinking, not that the water has to be suitable for drinking. Of course it works on salt water. It is contaminated with salt.
If nothing else, even if Purify Food and Drink didn't igniting a fire and boiling the seawater and distilling it would result in fresh clean water...you'd just have to make a distillation column.
Now a Better Question is what would ENHANCE WATER do to Salt Water!
The more contaminated the better the liquor!
I once had a dwarf who...
My Dwarven cleric of Cayden Cailean would "recycle" his water. He'd urinate into his flask and then cast the enhance water to get a holy brew to drink. Waste not, want not! All the other PC's were pretty grossed out, but it did make for a wonderful brew!
Purify food and drink would turn the salt water to drinkable freshwater. Plain and simple and I don't think anyone would really argue with that.
But if the water had some creatures in it, lets say sea fish. Then I would rule it would fail as the spell is having an effect on the creatures by moving them to a hostile environment; which isn't allowed.
Now to be mischevous... what about a swarm or colony of microbial creatures that only live in salt water. Is that classed as effecting creatures or classed as removing contamination?
Now to be mischevous... what about a swarm or colony of microbial creatures that only live in salt water. Is that classed as effecting creatures or classed as removing contamination?So far, thankfully, nobody has ever claimed that a caster accidentally hit a bacterium suspended in the air when firing a ray or other hurled spell. Let's not open the floodgates to that insanity!
What about oozes? In the real world amoebas are often a contaminate of water so would be removed with the spell. The munchkin could follow that logic to say an amoeba swarm would be effected and then extend that to a crystal ooze (an aquatic gray ooze) and other sea dwelling oozes.