Clever Cantrip Uses: Thaumaturgy (DnD 5E)

Coming from the Greek words “thauma” and “urgy”, Thaumaturgy means “marvel-work”. Spiritualists of the past, who claimed to be able to speak to the spirits and ghosts of the beyond, would use sleight of hand and simple tricks to create illusions to deceive and thrill their audience at a seance or theatre. To this day, people pay for such services in Halloween haunted houses or in the homes of a psychic. In order to understand the limits and abilities of this cantrip, we can refer to these performers who inspired it.

To make creative use of this cantrip, your creativity will be up to DM discretion, as you will need their approval for advantage or enhancing a spells capability. It is not guaranteed that your DM will permit some of these benefits, but it might be worth a try! 

Voice booms 3x volume

• Deceive people in the distance with the sound of whatever you can impersonate: a monster, dragon, etc.
• Enhance your vicious mockery or divine word to affect a larger area.
• Use your best Wizard of Oz impression to make those out of line of sight think you’re bigger than you are. “Do not look behind the curtain!”

Flame to flicker, brighten, dim, change color

• Increase radius of torch in darkened places
• Decrease enemies light radius, or change it’s color to be dark
• Change colors of a flame to signal someone far away

Harmless tremors

• Deceive others that an army is approaching.
• Make it appear that a cave is about to collapse.
• Convince a town that a great tragedy is about to befall them – a dragon or volcano awakening.
• Time tremors in unison with someone’s steps to make them very self-conscious or overly confident.

Sound – thunder clap, raven cry, whispers

• Intimidate nearby animals or enemies mounts with predatory sounds. Use mating calls to attract nearby animals.
• Deceive others to think that there are people hiding just out of sight.
• Make a person paranoid by surrounding them with barely audible whispers.
• Persuade people to leave the area due to incoming rain, with the sound of approaching thunder.
• Send messages to others through whispers.
• Convince those around you of the truth of your message with the divine approval of thunder clap.
• Nothing beats a classic and well timed fart noise.

Unlocked doors/windows to open/close

• Is a trap set on that door or chest? From a distance, open it to be sure. Even if it is locked, you might trigger any trap.
• Enemy pressed up against a door? Open the door to smack them in the face, or at least throw them off balance.
• Someone chasing you? Throw open wagon doors, shop entrances, animal cages, anything that get in their way and slow them down.
• Chasing someone? Do the opposite of the above and hope they run into a door or trip over some chickens.

Alter eye appearance

• Deceive others into believing that you are blind by having damaged or missing eyes!
• Intimidate others with entirely black eyes, just like the Eyebite spell
• Deceive others that you are ill with your entirely blood-shot eyes
• Charisma advantage with eyes the colour of sapphires, amathyst, or emerald. Don’t forget to add the sparkle of stars over a still night sea.

Combined Effects

• Persuade others that their home is haunted: tremors, flickering light, and moaning. You could remove that haunting, for a fee of course. 
• Intimidation advantage: Booming voice, eye color, and tremors!
• Deception advantage: Disguised as a monster? Cause some tremors and enhance your voice to aid your deception.
• Performance advantage: Dramatically timed thunder and sound effects can certainly help a bard with their stories