What to Ask Before Playing a Conjurer

Author: Majin Evelyn

The School of Conjuration Wizard feature Minor Conjuration has a huge variety of uses and applications, significantly contributing to the power and versatility of the subclass. The feature will likely see a larger amount of table variance than many other class features or abilities, due to balance concerns and unanswered questions by the rules. One of our Core Tenets is that communication is key. This article will go over some questions to answer between the DM and table to align expectations about how the subclass will work in play.

Minor Conjuration Rules Text

The Player’s Handbook says the following on the Minor Conjuration feature:

Starting at 2nd level when you select this school, you can use your action to conjure up an inanimate object in your hand or on the ground in an unoccupied space that you can see within 10 feet of you. This object can be no larger than 3 feet on a side and weigh no more than 10 pounds, and its form must be that of a nonmagical object that you have seen. The object is visibly magical, radiating dim light out to 5 feet.

The object disappears after 1 hour, when you use this feature again, if it takes any damage, or if it deals any damage.

– PHB p116

There are a number of questions raised with this text. What is an object? What makes something magical or nonmagical? What does it mean to have “seen” an object and how does that affect my character’s story? What is the value of this conjured object? What happens when the object disappears?

These questions frequently do not have clear answers within the rules, and a table’s interpretation of these questions will impact how Minor Conjuration will function. The following sections will dissect these questions and more consequences of this feature.

What is an object?

The DMG defines an object as the following:

For the purpose of these rules, an object is a discrete, inanimate item like a window, door, sword, book, table, chair, or stone, not a building or a vehicle that is composed of many other objects.

– DMG p246

What does something being discrete mean?

The Oxford dictionary definition is “individually separate and distinct.” This is still somewhat unclear. We can draw further information from the examples given. 

From the examples, we can determine that objects need not only be made of their smallest part (a table or chair are made up of several pieces of wood and nails). However, certain things that are “composed of many other objects” are not considered one object. So a backpack itself is one discrete object but that object does not include the backpack’s contents. Similarly, a bag of ball bearings or caltrops would not be one discrete object, despite being listed as an adventuring item. A liquid would not fit within the definition of a discrete object either. A vial of liquid is multiple components (the vial itself and the liquid), also not one discrete object. 

This seems to be the most consistent reading but is still not 100% clear, and deserves clarification at the table using the above information. One could take “discrete” to a very extreme conclusion to only include very rudimentary things, or only include subatomic particles (if those even exist in this system). However, this would contradict the examples given. At the same time, the rules’ object description contradicts itself, saying that things that are “composed of many other objects” are not objects themselves, while a chair itself is in fact composed of many other objects. Perhaps that section is only referring to buildings or vehicles though, which gives us even less guidance on what defines an object.

Worth of the Object

What is the value of the conjured object?

As written, the object you make with Minor Conjuration has the form of one you’ve seen. The only difference is that it radiates a magical light. This implies the objects are otherwise equal, as there is no text that changes any other properties of the object, including its value. However, there is a tweet by Jeremy Crawford that says the conjured object has a gp value of zero. To remind you, tweets from designers, including Jeremy Crawford are not official. They are not included in the Sage Advice Compendium, and no errata has been made to the Minor Conjuration feature. These tweets contradict RAW, or at the very least add an additional aspect to how the feature works that simply does not exist in its currently written form.

This is not to say that the object can easily trick others, like a vendor to whom you want to peddle your wares. The object is visibly magical, which is an obvious difference between the “real” version of the object, which could very well make an outsider suspicious. 

As established, the conjured object is the same as a “real” object, except for the magical light. So when a spell calls for a material component, it doesn’t ask for “a diamond worth 300 gp that isn’t glowing,” it just asks for “a diamond worth 300 gp.” RAW, this means that any material component that is considered an object, even costly ones, can be made with Minor Conjuration and then used to fuel a spell as long as you’ve seen one before.

The impact of this aspect of Minor Conjuration heavily depends on the table: If other casters are in the party, they can also make use of the conjured material component for use in spellcasting, the value of which depends on what spells they have. Several of the most impactful spells that require costly components aren’t ones you would normally cast on an adventuring day, they’re spells you’d cast during downtime, the availability of which depends on your table. Some notable examples of spells with costly material components include glyph of warding, heroes’ feast, fortune’s favor, planar binding, and revivify. The relative power of these spells is well worth the gold cost in a typical situation, which is why they are mentioned across our various guides. Often the limiting factor to casting these spells is not the gold cost, because of the plethora of gold suggested to be given by the DMG and the capacity for players to make money with downtime. Instead, the limiting factor ends up being the availability of downtime and costly material components. It’s quite possible that you only have limited access to a certain costly component to make use of one of the above spells. Even if the gold-reducing factor of Minor Conjuration barely matters at your table, it effectively makes every rare component always available, which could make a difference at your table. Minor Conjuration is certainly not useless for the purpose of getting material components, but it is not as strong as one may think. Using the Minor Conjuration ruling presented via Twitter at your table may curb, reduce, or do nothing to the problem of downtime, depending on the many variables present in your situation.

Defining Magic

What makes an object magical?

The rulebooks of D&D do not have explicit definitions about what makes something magical, but the Sage Advice Compendium does. Note that the Sage Advice Compendium talks about the intent of things, but is not always aligned with RAW. In this case, this is just further clarification of something not talked about in the rules.

Determining whether a game feature is magical is straightforward. Ask yourself these questions about the feature: 

• Is it a magic item?
• Is it a spell? Or does it let you create the effects of a spell that’s mentioned in its description?
• Is it a spell attack?
• Is it fueled by the use of spell slots?
• Does its description say it’s magical?

If your answer to any of those questions is yes, the feature is magical.

For the purposes of Minor Conjuration, we mostly care about the first, second, and fifth bullet points. Obviously, magic items with an explicit rarity are ruled out. Items from some adventures like Ice Troll Hearts, Astral Font water, or White Ghost Orchid Seeds are described as magical. In the case of Astral Font water or White Ghost Orchid Seeds, they create the effects of a spell. If you are unsure about whether a different object is magical or not, refer to these criteria.

How does Nystul’s Magic Aura affect which objects are valid for Minor Conjuration?

The False Aura part Nystul’s Magic Aura does not make any magic object into a non magical object for the purposes of Minor Conjuration. There are a few ways to interpret the RAW effect of this part of the spell, but none of them matter for Minor Conjuration’s purposes. So you cannot replicate scrolls or other magic items using this spell in conjunction with Minor Conjuration.

Backstory Optimization

Minor Conjuration mentions that you need to have seen the form of the object that you conjure. Reasonably, your wizard has spent time perceiving objects in-world prior to coming under your control for your table’s campaign. This begs the question of what objects they have already seen prior to the campaign. And consequently, how you can design your backstory in such a way that you’ve seen certain useful objects before the start of the campaign.

What objects has my wizard seen?

The first page of the DMG’s introduction mentions this:

The DM creates a world for the other players to explore…

– DMG p4

This indicates directly that your DM has control over the world itself. Perhaps their world simply doesn’t have Catapult Munitions, or that there is simply no way for your character to have seen them prior to coming under your control. 

Consequently, a player doesn’t actually have direct control over their backstory. Using your backstory to gain more mechanical power is also not present in other areas of the game. So if you are planning to play a Conjuration Wizard or are planning to DM for one, you should acknowledge the unique situation of that character’s backstory and its impact on their player power. As a player or DM, it is necessary to work together to come up with a solution for this question that is not directly answered in the rules.

Notable Objects and How to Use Them

What objects can I conjure with Minor Conjuration?

Most of what is listed in the non-magical items article fits within the parameters of Minor Conjuration. However, not everything listed there is considered an object. Things like bags of ball bearings or caltrops would reasonably not be considered conjurable by Minor Conjuration, as they are several discrete objects instead of one. Some of the poisons listed in the article are likely liquids (most likely any contact, injury, or ingested poisons) and would not count as objects, and subsequently not be conjurable by Minor Conjuration.

However, things get interesting when you consider drugs, explosives, and inhaled poisons. If available to the conjuration wizard, many of these items are exceptionally powerful in combat. Some standouts include the following:

Catapult Munitions – The highest damaging explosive you can conjure. At 10d6 fire damage (save for half damage) in a 15 foot radius, this competes with fireball. Couple this with the below strategies to throw two on the first turn of combat, and you have an extremely potent option, often beating out using leveled spells.

Tangler Grenade – A powerhouse of a control effect, this alchemical grenade restrains creatures with a very high escape DC. If your table makes lingering effects go away when you conjure something new, the value of this object goes down, limiting your capacity to have more than one instance of this effect active, or to make more explosives later.

Essence of Ether – An inhaled poison that effectively removes a creature from combat if they fail the DC 15 Constitution saving throw. Risky to try and activate (you have to be within 5 feet of a creature to do it), but rewarding when it does. Same as Tangler Grenade, this object’s power goes down if lingering effects are ruled against at your table.

Fragmentation Grenade (modern) – A step down from Catapult Munitions at 5d6 piercing damage (save for half), but the radius is bigger (20 feet) and the range is higher (60 feet, or 120 if you get a grenade launcher). As described below, throwing two of these the first turn of every combat can still handily make you do significant damage.

Smoke Grenade (modern) – This has a similar effect to the fog cloud spell without concentration. This can be pretty handy in cases where you would want to cast fog cloud anyway, or you can use it regularly in combination with you (and possibly other party members) taking the Alert feat to make many creatures attack you with disadvantage.

How can I use the objects conjured?

Some objects explain in their rules text that you need to use an action to produce their effects. However, some don’t, such as poisons and some other objects. The SAC clarifies that one such class of objects would actually make use of the Use an Object action to produce their effects:

Can a Thief use Fast Hands to use or apply poisons?

Yes. Administering poison uses the Use an Object action.

We can reasonably conclude that other objects that do not explicitly explain their use require the Use an Object action instead of an object interaction. Consequently, features like the Thief Rogue’s fast hands, as well as the Plasmoid and Hadozee’s racial features would also change their cost from an action to a bonus action. A wizard can also make use of an Unseen Servant or familiar to make use of the objects they conjure. 

For example, a typical encounter as a Plasmoid Conjuration Wizard may go something like this:

The Wizard holds on to a Catapult Munition before entering combat, re-conjuring it if necessary when the one hour duration runs out. Their familiar follows them in a close-by position. On their first round of combat, they use their bonus action to throw the Catapult Munition, which explodes on the target(s) and instantly disappears after doing damage. Then, they use their action to use the Minor Conjuration feature, making another Catapult Munition. The wizard hands the Catapult Munition to their familiar with their object interaction. On the familiar’s turn, they use their own action to throw that Catapult Munition. Effectively, the wizard has thrown two explosives on the first turn of combat with no resource expenditure. This can be applied to other available objects to your wizard as well.

Lingering Effects

What happens when the object disappears?

The rules text of Minor Conjuration says:

The object disappears after 1 hour, when you use this feature again, if it takes any damage, or if it deals any damage.

What is left unclear is what happens to the effects produced by conjured objects once they disappear. Obviously in the case of damaging explosives, nothing meaningful happens. They do their damage, and they disappear instantly. They’ve already done their job (damage), so this is no issue. 

What about objects like Essence of Ether, which knocks a creature unconscious for 24 hours? The object won’t disappear before an hour unless I use the feature again, but what if I do use it again? Does the creature wake up instantly? Or did they already suffer the effects at the point of inhaling the poison, and stay unconscious for the usual duration? Does this situation change with Tangler Grenades, where the description says that sticky webs restrain the targets? Would those webs disappear upon conjuring another object? What about Murboosa Balm, do you only get the fire resistance if the thin layer of balm remains on your skin? 

RAW there is no answer for these questions. How you answer them at the table will impact the power of the Minor Conjuration feature itself as well as the power of different items. For example, Tangler Grenades are very good, but a lot less good if you are essentially locked out of conjuring more items while it’s restraining something because it would then break out. Explosives care not for any interpretation in this section, as their effects do not linger. Damaging poisons like Purple Worm Poison become a free damage increase for ranged weapon users in your party, if your table rules the effects of those poisons to linger after the “object” disappears.

How to change Minor Conjuration

To summarize, in order for you or your player to use the Minor Conjuration feature, you will need to answer the following questions.

1. What is an object?
2. What makes something magical?
3. What objects has the wizard seen?
4. What happens when the object disappears?
5. What is the worth of the object for the purpose of spell components?

To summarize and expand on these points, let’s review each.

1. Objects have some guidelines as explained in the Item vs. Object section, but RAW this question does not have a 100% clear answer.
2. The SAC makes this answer pretty easy for the purposes of Minor Conjuration. See the “What Makes Something Magical Anyway?” Section.
3. Completely up to the DM RAW. As a DM, you can spend a lot of time determining what makes the absolute most sense for the wizard to have seen for every object. Alternatively, you can handwave this question and just introduce a clear blacklist or whitelist for conjurable objects. 
4. There is an argument for lingering effects staying or going away upon the object disappearing, based on the rules information available. Consider that making lingering effects go away upon the object disappearing makes balancing easier, makes it easier to justify more powerful (and perhaps fun to the players) objects, and makes the conjuration wizard have to make more choices during combat. It also reduces the amount of bookkeeping and effects that you’d have to keep track of from the whole party taking various drugs at the start of an adventuring day or before combat. 
5. As written, the conjured object is just as valuable as a “real” object. The consequences of this aspect of the feature depend on several variables at your table, discussed further in the Worth of the Object section.

An example for how to answer these questions may look something like this. Note that these are not all RAW answers, nor are they how we think is the best way to rule this feature, as that is dependent on the conditions of your table. These are simply examples, and you should discuss with your table what will work best for everyone involved.

1. Any adventuring item or other object that fits the size and weight restrictions of Minor Conjuration is an object for these purposes. Containers do not include their contents as one item.
2. Any item with a magic item rarity, or anything that explicitly meets the SAC definitions of magical. 
3. Unless the object is a Catapult Munition, Tangler Grenade, or a modern/futuristic object, you can assume that your wizard has seen it without the need to make up a reason for it in your backstory. 
4. Any lingering effects of conjured objects end once the object would disappear for any reason.
5. The object is worth 0 GP, including for the purpose of spell components.

You don’t have to provide the same answers at your table, but giving clear answers can keep Conjuration Wizard a little more sane and set expectations on how the class will play. How these questions get answered at the table can make Conjuration Wizard the best wizard subclass, or the worst, and can significantly impact the play experience of the wizard. If Minor Conjuration doesn’t provide much in-combat benefit, the subclass itself provides next to no benefit over having no subclass at all. So when a player wants to play a Conjuration Wizard, it’s important to use communication before the first session to establish how that character will play in practice.