Tier Ranking Cantrips in D&D 5e (Part 2) 

I recently used the Light cantrip to signal party members who were robbing a house. I cast light on a coin that they took with them, then took watch for the owners returning home. When I saw them, I cast light again on another object (which cancelled the original casting) - this was the signal for the thief to get out. This has become a regular use for our party.

One thing people forget about Primal Savagery vs Shillelagh is that PS has normal cantrip scaling. So once you hit lvl 5, and especially 11 and onwards, your gonna be getting more bang from PS than Shillelagh since Druids don't get another attack. On top of that, acid isn't a common resistance/immunity. Early on, Shillelagh definitely shines and will be better later on something like a Spores Druid (since they want to make weapon attacks), but PS outshines it later. Plus, come on which is cooler: wacking something with a stick or shredding/tearing it up with your bear hands/fangs? :P

Worth mentioning with Mold Earth: its true value shines in wargaming. Being able to instantly excavate foxholes and reliably create trenches and earthen fortifications in a short period of time is HUGE, especially if the character using it has knowledge of how to make those fortifications.

The flavor altering property of prestidigitation is underrated IMO. I once used it to take a cheap wine and flavor it like a super rare vintage, then forged a label and presented it as that super rare vintage to gain favor with a noble. Nobody could tell the difference. I also once changed the flavor of the wine a party member was drinking to dishwater as a form of payback for something he did to annoy my character. Great for utility as well as roleplay!

Another point for the Light cantrip is that it allows you to see in color. Darkvision characters only see in shades of gray while in darkness. It’s a niche point, but it’s a point regardless.

I've always maintained that artificers should just always get Mending by default, it's weird that it's required to heal their summons but you still need to lose a cantrip slot to take it

My favorite usage of the Light cantrip was actually as a timer. I needed to wait 3 hours, but it’s not like I had a clock or watch with me, cast light on a coin 3 times. After the last one ended I was good to go.

Just last night, our wizard found a really cool, story relevant use for mending. Someone hired a person to assassinate the king, and while we caught the assassin, he didn't know who his him, he only had the note giving him the details. Well, we were able to tell the parchment came from someone in the castle's notebook paper. The plan is to have the captors of the guard gather all of the nobles' parchment books and systematically cast mending on the with the paper in hand until we find whose notebook it came from. The paper will only mend to its original book, so if the conspirator is from the castle, this is turning out to be a great way to find them

My favourite thing about Magic Stone is the synergy with the Crusher Feat since you inflict Bludgeoning damage at a distance and can automatically move the target 5 feet without any save. That's good control at will to push enemies into hazards. 👍

I've had a fondness for Mold Earth ever since we encountered some imps in an abandoned temple, trying to draw a huge summoning circle on old loose stone tiles. The GM clearly intended for us to fight through the monsters protecting the imps as he was counting the rounds until the circle was complete, but my bard/sorcerer used Mold Earth to upend their summoning circle from across the room

Mending is a great cantrip. I have it as an archaeologist character, and EVERY art piece, historic item and equipment our party find in tombs gets a complete restoration to mint condition. Also, you could have an artisan crafting you a really long rope, cut it in pieces, split it through the party. When you need a longer rope, mending makes it longer instantly and it is more reliable than tying a knot.

The good thing about Lightning Lure's wording is that because you pull them up to 10 feet, you can choose to only pull a target 5 feet, so it won't take damage from you. Useful for getting a hurt party member outside of a creature's reach so they don't have to disengage.

The most useful thing I remember using Prestidigitation on was that we were trying to infiltrate a cave that had goblins as the guards and two of us took out one set of roving guards and my teammates were trying to throw snow over the blood stains to hide it so it didn't alert the second team when they came around. I just looked to our Bard and asked "Won't Prestidigitation fix that?" His light bulb moment was pretty funny when he got to use his Cantrip to help our infiltration.

Mending is essential for any Archer who has a DM who makes them track arrows. Also for Artificers easy first choice you are going to have either a steel defender, eldritch cannon or homunculus. Mending heals all of them for free😊

You can't throw a torch 100+ feet and have it shed light up there. The light cantrip is fantastic for casting light on a little pebble or a ball bearing, and asking a strength based character in your party to throw it off into the distance (or down into a pit that's at least 60ft deep). Or, if you're not worried about your familiar getting killed, you can attach it to your familiar and have your familiar fly off into the distance and light up wherever you need to see. There are a lot of uses for Light even if you have darkvision.

Magic stone also feels like a great cantrip for situations were you are going to be searched and can’t bring weapons. i’m imagining someone wearing a necklace/bracelet of stones they break the string holding them together once the fighting starts

I think Prestidigitation qualifies as at least A Rank, if not S, purely because if you're creatively minded, you can do so much with it. It's like the magic equivaleny of a swiss army knife.

One part of this that I found telling is when he said (regarding the Light cantrip), "...but you probably already have dark vision..." It seems like everyone has darkvision now. In a recent campaign, three out of my four players had characters with darkvision and they heckled the one player whose character didn't; every time he lit up a torch they complained that he was ruining their chances to sneak up on monsters. I think darkvision has become too common, to the point were characters that don't have it are at a disadvantage. I think it's supposed to be a powerful cool feature for some rare races but instead it's become the default and non-darkvision is a handicap like blindness.

I learned very early on in my dnd adventures that Message was an INVALUABLE cantrip for characters to have. It's gotten to the point that literally everyone in my group who can take it, does. It may not be our most used cantrip by a long shot, but when it's necessary to use, its a game changer. We've pulled off so many cool deceptions, infiltrations, sneak attacks, etc., all enabled by this one simple cantrip allowing us to communicate even when face to face with the person we're trying to hoodwink. It's one of those spells that really adds to the immersion for me because nothing feels more fantasy than being able to communicate plans on the fly through thought alone. Edit: Regarding the pointing to cast the spell, if we're trying to hide it from the people around us our DM allows us to roll slight of hand so it's more like we just make small movements to point at each other behind our backs or what not. I find that adds more fun to it as there is a very real chance of failing that roll and chaos erupting as people realize you're communicating with someone they can't see and now they know something is up.

As others have said, Primal Savagery is the default attack for many melee druids from tier 2 onwards due to its scaling and acid resistance/immunity being fairly uncommon. I think it deserves at least a C. And once a druid is able to cast spells while wildshaping at level 18, it's even more useful. I have a tier 4 moon druid who uses it all the time while in elemental form.

I use minor illusion to make an image of the BBEG. DM: You can't image a creature I make a portrait depicting him. DM: works for me

My favorite use of Lighting Lure I've seen in a game was when our Wizard was being reeled in by a Cave Fisher spider. Just as they were about to get grabbed they threw out Lighting Lure which pulled the Cave Fisher off the ceiling, and both of them plummeted like 50 something feet into the lake below. The rest of us were able to pick off the defenseless swimming spider while the wizard floundered away.

In one of the campaigns I have been in we went through extremely cold areas and extremely warm areas. I used prestidigitation to make my clothing warmer or cooler and the DM ruled I did not have to make con saves to prevent exhaustion. I have also used it to clearn up areas in a dungeon so we could search them more easily. Going through a pile of garbage to find a key might be difficult. Spending a minute cleaning up all the garbage and just seeing the key lying on the ground is easy.

Mold Earth can also be used for combat purposes, instantaneously excavating a 5ft. cube and putting it in front of you, creating quick and easy cover for the caster, protecting them from ranged attacks.

If you can fly either racially or via magic items, Lightning Lure can be an amazing spell. Fly above an enemy, yoink them upwards and then they'll fall prone dealing fall damage as well. Also very useful for pulling allies out of grapples (forced movement breaks grapples and they don't take damage unless they end within 5 ft.)

for me prestidigitation is one of the favorite non combat spells, as a sorcerer casting a subtle prestidigitation, the look on a rival face as they let lose a loud fart, a horrible smell and then soil themselves in front of nobility, or their boss is well worst it. the warm or chill in environmental setting is a huge help, being in the freezing cold, warming up 1 cubic foot area can do wonders or creating a small fire

Primal Savagery on my Lizardfolk Druid with the Chef feat is so much fun to role play. Also has the Eldritch invocation feat for Mask of Many Faces, so he looks human most of the time.

Prestidigitation feels like the social variety cantrip. Very nice for someone who wants to be presentable or for things to go smoothly. I'd say thaumaturgy leans intimidation and deception but is something of a cousin to it.

Aside from the fact that you can use coins or rocks that you have cast light on to check for anti-magic fields, Stalker style, you can also use light underwater or in strong winds where a torch would be less useful. There's also the bullet lantern option where you light up a coin and then shade most of the light by holding it inside your hand, so that only a beam spills out in one direction, this can then be further enhanced if you get something that has an actual reflector and/or a lens, this may seem rare but remember that this is a magical setting, there are ways and means to create lenses that does not require an entire workshop. Edit: Well, I guess you didn't forget the underwater option, I should have known that the resident spellcaster would agree more with me.

Something you've overlooked is that Mold Earth is the only cantrip which can provide an AC bonus by creating cover. For this reason I'd probably bump it up to A-tier since it's such a potent defensive option against anything that attacks at range

Produce Flame is actually really useful for when you take the Druidic Warrior fighting style, which gives you 2 druid cantrips. It gives you 2 spells in one on a class that probably isn't getting cantrips in the first place, considering you're taking a ranger fighting style. This frees up a feat so you don't have to take magic initiate to get cantrips, and it frees up your second cantrip slot for either guidance or a more flavorful one for your character.

The thing they didn't mention about Magic stone is that if you use it with a sling, it's range is only 30/120 but if you just throw it with your hand, the range is 60. Also, if your modifier is at least +4 then it's the most damage dealing ranged attack roll cantrip in the game. Max is the same as Firebolt & Eldritch Blast but minimum is 5 magical bludgeoning damage.

One thing I'd like to point out about magic stone is it doesn't have to be you who uses them, so you can give them to commoners and have them help you defend their village.

You guys have been a big help to my career as a dm. I wish you all the best of luck

Mold Earth. Early in our Campaign (level 3) our party of 4 was in a small hamlet. The locals notified us that a Hill Giant was roaming around the nearby hamlets and would come down the road every 4 days. We had a day to prep and spent a full day using Mold Earth to dig a large enough pit. We turned it into a tiger pit and were able to take pot shots at him before he got out. He only got 1 turn after getting out before going down.

My DM hates prestidigitation and complains when I try to use it to create distractions, stating I should take Minor Illusion to create sounds. Then I turn around and use it in a social interaction to clean a wall in the Sunless Citadel with mean things about gnomes on it, and my DM has Irky Timbers forever in my debt. Sometimes the roleplay possibility of a cantrip is it's best part.

I would love to see a video like this where you rank all the feats. Including those in all books like XGtE and Tasha’s etc

Thoughts: 1. Lightning Lure, if the bad guy is already next to you, is Shocking Grasp based upon a save. Consider a variant: Lightning Push. 1d6 (scale) electric damage, 5' range, strength save, on fail the target is pushed 5'. Cast first then GTFO with no opportunity attack. 2. Magic Stone is a great way of getting magic damage to overcome resistance in low-magic campaigns, and share the ability to do that damage with a different character than yourself. In such campaigns it is TOTALLY an S-tier cantrip, like Shillelagh. 3. Mage Hand = the argument-maker. "10 pounds of pressure on a dagger tip is total stab!" Don't let a cantrip attack or duplicate the effects of a leveled spell. 4. Mind Sliver is Bane with a save that brutes will fail bundled with a single-target save-Bane. Fantastic. 4. Minor Illusion is great for hiding people. Make a boulder, bush or section of a wall to cover up a compatriot who is Small or crouching. 5. Message: "There be voices in me head, make them stop, make them stop!" (or, for those of you who have seen Real Genius, "This is Jesus, Kent...") 6. Mold Earth = never dig a ditch again. Consider that effect on canals and agriculture. 7. Prestidigitation = the argument-maker. "I warm my armor every minute so now I'm not freezing." Don't let any cantrip duplicate the effects of a leveled spell. 8. Primal Savagery is another great cantrip that isn't resisted much, counts as magic, and scales. Give it to your cultist NPCs. "Oh, they're magic initiates..." 9. Product Flame: Super flexible. I love it. Replaces both Light and Fire Bolt. Really, how often are you specifically between 95' ("I move forward 30' to get in range") and 120' of an enemy? And only loses 1 point of damage on average vs. Fire Bolt. I'd almost rather have Produce Flame than Fire Bolt. 10. Resistance as a Reaction is beauty. Already enacted in my campaign.

I think precipitation is an S tier for Bard's who perform. Adding those little light shows are sensory effects brings a performance a whole new level and if you're deep into Storytelling that is the best.

Also, one thing to remember about Darkvision and Light. If you have Darkvision, you still only see the darkened areas in black and grey. You don’t get to see color. DMs can use that for puzzles and such where they still need some light source to see some drawn runes or a hidden message, etc, which Light can be.

Prestidigitation is at least an A rank, if not S. Help convince the guard to give us some slack by reminding him of the cinnamon rolls his wife is baking at home. Turning the human fighter's torch on and off to spook him. Warm my coffee on a cold winter day. Endless uses for the creative.

One time my cleric mended a doorknob (because it looked like someone had been messing with it) and it relocked the door… The party’s rogue was not pleased with this.

There was actually an interesting article I read about for mending that pushed it up a level for me. It can mend and ONLY mend things that were once joined. So you if you are dealing with dopplegangers or other look alikes or something like that where you need to verify someone, you can snap a stick in half, give them half and keep half, and when you meet up again, cast mending and see if the stick mends, if it doesn't, they aren't the same person. This use is niche, but the more open ended spells/cantrips like this are really only limited by how far out of the box you are willing to go. Beyond that, loving the series.

Have to add in that the mending cantrip is perfect for artificers! It meshes so well with the battle smith construct, and it just fits thematically.

Magic Stone. So underrated they couldn't even spell it all the way lol

Magic stone has a nice feature not discussed: you can pass the stones to your party members, them using your modifier. It's nice when partymembers fall behind in ASI through feats or multiclassing

Mind sliver is definitely my favorite combat cantrip. It doesn't have the best damage, but the saving throw effect is amazing, and worse case scenario you are just using it to set up for another mind sliver next turn so you still get some benefit.

One thing I love about prestidigitation is the warming aspect, and use it to warm clothes and other things to help make cold weather a little easier.

Dungeon Dudes commentary on mage hand:... Arcane trickster: I'm going to ignore that.

I have Lightning Lure on my fighter who is the primary tank for the group. The lightning lure cantrip for me is mostly about moving enemies away from allies so they can escape without provoking

On Magic Stone - one time my party was defending a village against a siege of otherworldly beings while a cleric in the center cast a Hallow spell over the course of 24 hours. We had a lot of combatants that didn't have long-ranged attacks, so I kept casting Magic Stone with my bonus action and using my interaction to hand out the stones to nearby NPCs on the wall. Produced a lot of damage output over the rounds. I didn't keep the cantrip long-term since it unfortunately doesn't scale super well, but in a situation where you need to create ranged for many people quickly? I have fond memories of it.

Thing about dark vision is in total darkness you still can't see colour and sometimes seeing colour is useful. The Light Cantrip is one way to get around this.

Ah yes, Mold Earth, the "I dig a shallow grave to enhance my intimidation" cantrip

Prestidigitation + Mending = A way to make yourself into acceptable before a noble after a really bloody battle. Also - with a bit of heal - make it looks like, that the enemy wasn't even able to touch you. About message - it's the magical version of a walkie-talkie. We used it to communicate with our scout in a dungeon, where the bigger half of the party doesn't have Darkvision. The high elf scout shared the information for us, so we could hide our light sources before any enemy could detect them, then it casted Dancing Lights - the humanoid shape was useful attract the initial attacks of the dungeon-dwellers, as they were confused, what it was, and where it came -, and the team could storm in the dimly lit room, not having a disadvantage by the dark. The Dancing Lights was a great cantrip for this, as unlike the Light cantrip, it has a 120 feet range, so our scout doesn't had to put itself in danger by using it (or, at least he could do it from a reasonably safe distance).

Mold Earth is probably my #2 favorite cantrip. I'm not saying it's S tier, but I love it. It's the ultimate camping spell, as you can, in a matter of minutes or even seconds, surround your camp with a trench and a barricade. Dig a pit trap and cover it with sod or leaves. Bury the treasure so your pursuers don't take it from you. And while you can't deal date with it, you *Can* hold your action to cast it in front of a creature moving towards you to open a pit. Depending on the depth of soil, even a 1 foot deep hole suddenly appearing in front of them could trigger a save against falling prone. It can be used to create sand or soil molds for quickly casting metal objects. I feel like it's a perfect cantrip for a Ranger to grab with Magic Initiate, along with Shillelagh.

Mind Sliver also works great with the Arcane Hand monk since you can use it as part of one of your attacks and then use Eldritch Flurry to use a spell with a saving throw instead of your Flurry of Blows. Granted the spells won't be as powerful as a Sorcerer's but still something to consider

Lightning lure is a DM spell that you give to flying enemies attacking your PCs on a bridge.

Lightning Lure has been useful at my table on an eldritch knight, very handy at pulling out of reach things that like to fly or stick to walls and ceilings

Mage hand is epic. I love using it as a representation of my character. I recently had an eccentric rouge that took magic initiate, and used mage hand to get into harmless hijinks. For example, I patted the cultists on the shoulder as we walked away, I pissed off a poltergeist by messing with her wall of dolls as we ran down the stairs, and I waved at the bandits that tried to rob us as we passed them. Good times! And of course, snatching important things or doing things at range is always fun

Favorite usage of Minor Illusion: when you're eavesdropping on a language the rest of the party doesn't know, using minor illusion to create real time subtitles while you listen.

Mold Earth is A/S Tier Cantrip as long as your party can create situations when they have time to prepare. It being "Action" Cantrip meaning you can cast it 10 times per minute. That's a lot of excavation. You can set up a killing field, a trap, an ambush with only 1 Caster and five-ten minutes to prepare. It can be extremely powerful. Though in the straight-up combat it's quite niche, I'd have to say.

This is actually part of the reason I wish I could play in more Eberron campaigns. There are dragonmarks that offer both mending and message, and I'm one of those weird people that actually likes playing gnomes, plus going alt human with the dragonmark of house Cannith opens up a lot of plot hooks.

Something you didn't mention about Minor Illusion : It has no verbal component. Which means you can cast the spell when you are hidden, and you won't be breaking stealth. Which makes it very useful for distracting enemies while sneaking in.

Light is still important for characters with Darkvision. Those characters still have disadvantage on Perception checks in darkness. And the free hand it gives you, by not needing a torch is A+

I had a lot of fun using Lighting Lure on a character who could fly to pull enemies off a ledge. Extremely situational, but cool when it the circumstances are right.

I think prestitigitation is being nerfed by many DMs because they just handwave things like getting an audience with the king while wearing bloodstained and muddied armor from the dungeon the players just fought their way out of or like them eating disgusting meals because they ran out of rations and the only edibly food they find are hard roots, rats or insects. So in a way the DM solves some of the issues prestitigitation solves for free by letting them just pass.

It is often fun to see what the automatically generated subtitles make of your dialogue. In this case, I was amused to learn that Kelly would make his girl tasted like stew.

One of the really creative uses for Mending that both my both the Blood Hunter and myself a Tome Warlock used in Descent Into Avernus was putting back together cracked armored plates on our Infernal War Machine. So it allowed us to repair the war machine's hit points and get its AC back up. Just the internal mechanisms were magical, not the outside armor plating. Our DM allowed that because it was a clever solution.

I love mold earth. My druid used it to dig a pit trap in front of a door behind which we knew the bad guys were hiding. We made a distraction outside the door, they ran out and fell right into the pit, making combat all but a joke.

There is one strong use case for lightning lure, the Eldritch Knight. More for pulling an enemy off a squishy ally than trying to create a combo of some kind. This is in my experience a constant issue that a defender has to deal with. Strength isn't a very common save proficiency either.

Creating nonmagical trinket with prestidigitation. I think this part of the cantrip is overlooked a lot and it is my favorite part. We needed to climb a wall. we got a rope, created a little hook with it, tied it to rope, with mage hand hook it on the wall. Now we can climb (hopefully) without making noise. Once I created a little bottle of blood to distract sharks away from us with it. (I am not sure if you can normally but DM loved it allowed it).

Just a note regarding lightning lure, you can move the target 5' and not damage them. It's not efficient, but it can disengage an ally on their behalf which lead to some extraordinarily inefficient booming blade shinanigans at a table I play at. L Lure as a disengage is rarely the correct play, but it's incredibly sweet on the rare occasion it is.

Another strategy for magic stone is as an artificer, give them to your pet homnoculus for them to spend their action throwing them.

I wish you guys had brought up the use of Minor Illusion to make SOUNDS. Static images are great and all, but my favorite use of the cantrip is to make a shrieking sound directly behind the target I'm about to leap out and attack... :)

One of my groups has used Mending to great effect, such as repairing a desk and furniture they wrecked, a lock they smashed, Restoring a secret door. repairing a map. It can repair damage to transport, such as a wagon wheel or wagon bed. A ship that took damage. Yes, it takes one minute but fixes a lot of things.

This is such an awesome tier list. Can't wait for Part 3!

I once used Lightning Lure to catch a Quickling. Completely trivialized that encounter, but that was the only time that cantrip came up in that entire campaign.

With minor illusion, I play a warlock with Misty Visions and often use minor illusion as the audio portion of my illusion. I have used itany times to pretend someone is speaking, or to make it sound like the party is running somewhere, or a door closing elsewhere. The S tier if very apt, and while you talked a lot about the visual version, the audio version shouldn't be ignored either.

"Please don't use the word, 'mouthfeel.'" Loving your guys' videos as always! Been binging you guys after I've discovered you since about 3 weeks ago!

Great job on this tier list thus far. Choosing cantrips and 1st level spells can be daunting and can affect a new player's first experiences with the game. This tier list is a useful guide that I'll likely point new players at my table towards.

Magic stone works great with minions if they have hands. Just bonus action, and all your minions have much stronger attacks. Even commoners can use a magic stone.

Did not expect the S rank for chill touch last episode, but that has me excited for this one😁 not that I'm not always excited for these videos

My best with Prestidigitation so far: Flavoring a roasted animal to disguise the poison in it which was then "gifted" to an enemy, and using the Dirty feature to make some writing on stone easier to read... and then removing it again so nobody else could read it. It gets used in nearly every encounter in our game, and my character has used every feature at least once. I think it's the overall best non-damaging cantrip out there, even over mage hand (which gets used much less often so far).

I like that you are taking flavor into account. It’s good when characters feel distinct.

I was playing a geomancer once and used mold earth to help a village dig latrines. 10/10 cantrip

Produce flame is easily a pick up for me. It's a decent light utility and does only slightly less damage that fire bolt.

Very cool video, make me rethink a lot of my characters ! Can't wait for part 3

A great combo for Magic Stone and Druids is summoning animals that can throw (apes) and equipping them, suddenly they get a pretty potent ranged attack. For this alone it's S Tier.

Primal Savagery is one of my FAVORITE cantrips. It scales MUCH better than Shillelagh in that it actually scales with levels. At 5th level you're hitting harder than Shillelagh with Acid damage. On the role playing side, I've used Primal Savagery on my fingernail to corrode and melt locks and door hinges to get into locked areas. I call it my Savage Lock Pick. Got a letter that needs to disappear? Primal Savagery without the risk of setting the rest of the place on fire. Don't have a club/staff because you had to leave it at the entrance? You're still armed.

Id say certain situations are so common they are basically required in party and need a higher grade. Most parties want one person with mending, message, prestidigitation, light, and minor illusion. None of them are must takes but u want at least one person with them so id say they each deserve at least an A.

Been waiting for part 2 all week!

"A lot of my friends use me as an object" Slick deadpan

Great vid dudes! Lightening Lure is probably a C, but i have seen some Eldritch Knights put it to good work, it works well with them to hold the line, and also they can pull someone in and still attack with their bonus action. It's not build defining by any means, but it is a solid pickup for them. I was just surprised you guys overlooked this in the discussion. Cheers!

Minor illusion, concentration free obscurement or cover. Many spells and attacks require line of sight. This is incredible!

Something that was failed to mention with the mending cantrip is that Spelljammers provided an additional ruling with it. On page 25 of the Astral Adventurer's Guide, it says under the Ship Repairs section: "Casting mending on a damaged ship or shipboard weapon restores a number of hit points to the target equal to 1d8 plus the spellcaster's spellcasting ability modifier. The target can regain hit points from that spell no more than once per hour." This could be game changing if a DM were to apply spaceships to their campaigns, and I'm sure some DMs would use these rules for water sea travel since they elaborate on some rules.

We just crawled out of sewers and need to go talk to the king. Prestidigitation! Now we smell like roses and taste like ice cream.

Magic Stone doesn't let you stockpile stones over a few rounds to use because the description explicitly states that if you cast the spell on any new stones, the ones previously affected lose the effects of the spell.

I think presdigitation is useful for adventuring situations. I use it to warm or cool clothes while traveling. I've also used it to replicate the smell of bug repellent or to mask a scent

My Warlock used Minor Illusion as a remote megaphone. My Arcane Trickster used it to make a "section of wall" for a party member to hide in for an ambush. Prestidigitation can be used to create or extinguish small fires, so my Sorcerer used it to put out the small fires fairies made in our first session, and later the DM allowed me to use it to set papers on fire that were in a bag.

One minor benefit of Light over a torch is that you don't have to *carry a torch*. Cast it on a weapon, shield, or some other always-out equipment and you don't have to drop anything to fight