Spells which negate serious threats :

[Sangeet]

[Muthare]

I try to run my games in very logic based world, with assumption and addition of heavily expanded magical theory my answear is this:

Spellcasting is a mental task, requireing focus, ask your players to caligraph a sentence 10 times, every letter must be the same, it seriously tires you out- same like combat is, despite it being often neglected combat is wasting, just look up mma fights how fighers slow down after 2 minutes mark.
Second- Dry and wet water is disgusting, because you soak items water materialises inside things not on them, so u need cloth to soak- make your players drink water squized out of a towel... gonna be fun.
Third-Creating too much food upsets balance- casting too many spells can affect balance of place- especialy with elementalists in question, what is worse it actualy ravishes wood element around- energy doesnt come from nowhere- possibly creating tones of food could make nature wither if done in short pace.
Fourth- i changed the spell cos it wasnt elementalist enough- in my campaing it is limited to area, and it only creates what can be gathered around, no meat, and in quantities as would gathering area provide- so in jungle you can make house out of food, in the desert you get few dried berries and some bitter roots.

[evil]

neither of those spells will be realistic to feed or take care of more than a few hundred people. As for an adventuring party only one discipline can cast those spells so it isn't likely to be a game breaker. Or just make that spell impossible to find.

[treorai]

Adepts represent about 10% of the total population, by some estimates. Only about 10% of those are actually Spellcasters, and let's be generous and say that 25% of the total Spellcasters are Elementalists. With a very liberal estimate of the population of Barsaive at around 500,000, that makes 50,000 total Adepts, 5000 total Spellcasters, and 1250 Elementalists. High Circle Adepts are also said to be fairly rare, due to the danger of their job, but let's be generous and say that about 75% (937) will reach 3rd Circle (the Circle to cast the spell), 50% (625) will reach higher than 5th Circle, 5% (64) will get higher than 8th, and 1% (12) higher than 12th. Assuming an average Perception Step of 7, and a Spellcasting Talent Rank equal to Circle, on an average Test Result, those 3rd-5th Circle Adepts can feed 10-17 (5th Circle gets Willforce, so there's a jump there, well assume Rank=Circle) people at a time. The 6th-8th Circle Adepts can feed 19-23 people at a time, the 9th-11th Circle Adepts can feed 25-29 people at a time, and the 12th-15th Circle Adepts can feel 31-37 people at a time.

That's a decent amount of food, to be sure. But, even assuming that every single Elementalist in all of Barsaive did nothing but sit in villages and make vibrant, vivacious victuals for the villagers, that's hardly enough to actually feed anything other than small towns. Kratas, Throal, Batertown, the T'Skrang Arapagoi, Travar, etc are left in the cold.

Added to that, most of the 3rd-6th Circle Adepts have thrilling adventures and daring-do to go out and accomplish, so they probably aren't going to be hanging around a town making dinner for peasants all day long, every single day of their lives. The 8th Circle - 10th Circle Adepts may want to retire from the adventuring life, but they are probably going to find an apprentice and start training their successor, not become village cook. The rare few Adepts of even higher Circles have far better things to do than provide food for a village: mundane farmers and Farmer Half Magic Adepts can take care of that. The 11th+ Circle Elementalists have blighted lands to heal, Horror infested forests to cleanse, and invading Theran soldiers to flambe.

Then there's the other practical concern: Horrors. Horrors are attracted by magic. Even Matrix casting, if you keep doing it in the same place over and over like clockwork, is going to leave a mark in Astral Space, and eventually Horrors are going to come and make a snack out of those villagers you have been making snacks for.

And then there's the Adept's Legend concern. Who do you want to be remembered as? Neraea the Flame Child, or Bob the Burger Cook? Unless your name is H. Jon Benjamin, it's probably not the latter.

[ArcadianRefugee]

[slayride]

I don't have too much of a problem with purify water or plant feast, just means I don't have to care too much about travel logistics unless the group is in an area where finding water or plants at all is difficult (desert, tundra), which is when they'll have to dig into their rations and water skins. In a game more dedicated to dungeon delving this might be a problem, as part of the DnD mechanic is being prepared means you have less weight you can carry loot out with which are games more reliant on encumbrance than other types of Earthdawn games. This is why the spell is really good since you don't need to carry as much food and water as previous. Of course when the Horror living at the next kaer eats your Elementalist you might want to have some rations and skins on hand. Its not too much different than goodberries or create food and water in DnD. I guess I really don't have much of a problem with it, because I personally find the survival logistic mechanics to be boring.

Dry or wet isn't a spell I've ever found to be too powerful. Sure you could wet your robes and wring them out for water. But that's pretty nasty. Mostly Nethermancers like to use it on dead bodies to dry them and help preserve them somewhat for study is what the spell usually gets used for that I've noticed in my games, until they get Preserve and Cold Storage later anyway.

[Anunnaki]

And don't get me started about my campaign's Wizard player, who made judicious use of the Clean spell at EVERY opportunity.

"There's so much blood and gunk." <snaps on pair of rubber gloves> " Dirty, dirty, dirty. Let's get started with the Swordmaster, shall we? " <begins spellcasting one of many Clean spells>

The Clean spell was ALWAYS in the character's Spell Matrix...

[slayride]

lol OCD wizard. Needs inventory all the time too, because he must know what is in the room at all times. "No No, the cup should not be in here!" [looks under couch, takes it to kitchen]. "Dirty, dirty cup!" [Clean spell].

[Anunnaki]

The previous post will NOT be shared with the aforementioned player.