Can we take a page out of 5e's book in how to give prestidigitation to non-arcane casters?


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So, PF1 only gave prestidigitation to arcane casters (and the psychic I guess), so it only makes sense that arcane casters can do more stuff with the Playtest's prestidigitation than non-arcane casters can; and though this unfortunately means that bard can do less stuff after being recategorized from arcane to occult, I do like how much sense it makes that divine and occult casters both use spiritual essence to telekinetically lift objects, in line with bards' access to force spells, and arcane and primal casters both use material essence to cook and tidy objects.

But, nonetheless, non-arcane casters just getting a *strictly* worse version of the same spell *feels* bad. So 5e introduced the cantrips thaumaturgy and druidcraft that gave them fewer uses, yes, but cool, different, and thematic uses: Clerics "manifest a minor wonder, a sign of supernatural power", e.g., your voice booms up to three times as loud as normal, or you cause harmless tremors in the ground. Druids can predict the weather, or make a flower blossom. Could PF2 just . . . do that? Give each magical tradition, like, one or two uses exclusive to that tradition?


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To be honest 5e gave a lot of ‘same thing, just reflavoured’ effects. I’m expecting something more detailed from Path.

I am thinking of a small graph here, it looks really simple on paper but not so easy on text... basically I am imagining a situation where each use of Prestodigitation is either exclusive to one magical tradition or shared between two, but no two uses appear on three lists - it would require 10 separate effect and grant each list a unique combination of 4 effects.

If we go by tradition, we have minor telekinesis, minor illusions, cleaning/dirtying, reflavouring, materialising, gusts of wind... then we could add minor divination (limited to, say, knowing time and north), minor empathy (the ability to read or communicate emotion with a touch, only on willing subjects), finding the closest edible plant, and maybe producing some sort of divine sign related to a god’s edicts/anathemas (perhaps confirming that you are acting towards that ideal).

Distributing these by tradition gives us:
Arcane: materialising
Divine: divine sign
Occult: empathy
Primal: find nourishment
A/D: cleaning/dirtying
D/O: altering flavour
O/P: minor divination
A/P: minor gusts
D/P: minor telekinesis
O/A: minor illusions


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I always thought it was particularly silly for clerics to call upon the holy power of their deity to tie their shoes or warm their breakfasts...

Too Monty Python for a serious campaign...

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