RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Ok, I didn't see anyone else mention this, but really?
I'm trying to build a bard for Sunday. Sad that tanglefoot isn't on the bard spell list, so I went for my old standby, prestigitation.
And stopped.
Ok, so the two more 'fun' portions of the spell are no longer available to the bard? 'lift' is worse than mage hand in every possible aspect, and 'make' is not even good for the purpose of making eggs pop out of your mouth, as it is now concentration only.
So apparently the bard should not be able to season his food, chill his wine, clean his outfit after going through the sewers or change the colour of his cape to match his patron's preferences.
Why?
The problem with Prestidigitation is that it's one spell that does everything. Now the bard/wizard/sorcerer might well be justified in doing all of those minor things, but not all from the one spell slot.
Cantrips were introduced, IIRC, in AD&D1e Unearthed Arcana (an MU could take 4 in a 1st level spell slot), and there were about 40 of them, each doing one thing (eg clean, season, mend, dampen, etc) that P does. That was obviously excessive, so 2e replaced them all with a 1st level spell called Cantrip that combined the lot. That became P, and a cantrip, in 3e because it wasn't worth a 1st level slot. But in 3e you could cast a cantrip only once, not 1000 times like in PF, so it wasn't OP.
So...what I would suggest is replacing P as it stands with half a dozen cantrips that each do a reasonable proportion of the things that PF1 P could do.
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I'm with the OP on this one. Prestidigitation is and never has been OP, it's just been fun.
If you're going to theme it differently for each of the four traditions, then give each of them an equal number of different things they can do, or else separate them out.
5E does this very nicely with Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy, and Druidcraft. They hit the nail on the head with those spells, I have to say.