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I had a particularly crafty player, a level 1 Wizard purchase a simple patch of hard leather, approx 1sqr foot. Along with some thin rope he rolled this leather into a 'tube' and capped one end, leaving the other open. Then by wedging a stone inside this he now has a leather tube with a rock in it. When it come time to dungeon crawling, he cast LIGHT spell on the rock, essentially funelling the light out of the tube? I instead allowed the light given off by the spell to be be funneled in a 'cone' shape, rather than a 'radius'.
What do you all think about this?
See the sunrod and everburning torch in the Equipment section. Not game breaking by any means. Also, for the record, the distance the light travels by being funneled into a cone doesn't change. It's clever and logical, I'd let it fly at my table. Encourages lateral thinking.
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Hello anachronism... Why not just put it in a Bullseye lantern??? Does the same thing but would essentially be better as the lantern amplifies the out put by reflecting it out.
Lantern, Bullseye: A bullseye lantern provides normal light in a 60-foot cone and increases the light level by one step in the area beyond that, out to a 120-foot cone (darkness becomes dim light and dim light becomes normal light). A bullseye lantern does not increase the light level in normal light or bright light. A lantern burns for 6 hours on one pint of oil. You can carry a lantern in one hand.
--School of Hard Vrocks
I've seen many variations of this over the years. It always brings a smile to my face when someone new comes up with it.
It's a useful trick, especially when it can be 'turned off' somehow. Like with a end cap or shutter.
As funny as the idea is, it doesn't really add anything, since this more or less already exists - only better - with other items :p
I love it when players think weirdly and make bizarre ideas that...don't really do anything ;)
Hooded lantern does a 30' radius, Bullseye 60' cone.
Light does a 20' radius, Light in a Bullseye lantern 40' cone.
See this is the a prime example of what I like to see and do. It's not ground breaking or game breaking but it adds flavor to the character and the game.
Some other such things I've enjoyed myself:
Mithral Summoning circle permanencied shrink item with harden cast on it (from the campaign guide): Portable and convenient the price of the mithral was 3,150gp (10 foot wide circle, seven pointed, 1 inch thick).
Adamantine cloak made with a 15'x15'x2 inch sheet of adamantine and (again) a permanencied shrink item spell. DM fanangling and it could shape it then harden it to stay in place, useful for bridges, staves, ladders, almost unbreakable restrains.
I had a player who liked to cast light on a fish hook. When needed, he hooked it onto clothing to free his hands. When he wanted to be discreet, he would put it in his pocket. ;)
Done it myself.
Put red glass in the end and you can play "Submarines" :)
Little known fact: If you find a windowless room and cast light on a hirelings eyeball, then pay him or her to stand there and blink really fast, you get a pretty good approximation of a disco. No kidding. Try it. You'll see.
Do multiple "light" spells (of any type) cast on the same object increase the candlepower output, and thus the radius, of the illumination? Or would a spellcaster have to research "Brighter Light" in order to accomplish that?
No, and the spell you are looking for is Daylight.Agreed. We're talking about magic, not real-world physics. The spells overlap but do not stack (as much for mechanical simplicity as anything else).
R.
Although I'm not trying to precisely recreate reality -- counterproductive in a fantasy RPG -- I am often impatient with the notion that magic is simultaneously unfettered by physical rules ("it's magic, not science") and incapable of producing more than a limited range of effects (magical light is only available in two levels: torch and sun.)
Putting too much of this stuff into the routine gameplay will just slow it down to no good purpose; having a certain amount underlie the game principles would, IMHO, enhance the gaming experience by improving the game's internal logic.
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RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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The "smoking gun" is not that you can do this with light, but that you can also do the same trick with darkness and deeper darkness.
It isn't clear whether or not you can also do it with silence since you can also tie the radius of that effect to an object, but it doesn't say anything about being able to suppress it by putting it inside a container. You can, however, cast silence on an arrow and shoot the enemy spellcaster, or cast it on your melee type and have him stand next to the spellcaster.
Heck in Ebberron (3.5) they had minor mages who made streetlights, so why not...it is actually pretty easy to imitate technology with the right spells. I once saw what were basically radios--multiple amulets that used whispering wind at will.
has the rogue mounted one on his crossbow yet?
Or reduced the size of the hole and made a laser-pointer?
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You can, however, cast silence on an arrow and shoot the enemy spellcaster
Actually that trick doesn't work as when ammunition hits it's destroyed and a spell cast on an object is ended when the item is destroyed (like a rogue scratching out a magical rune). Also that's really just a cheesy way to avoid the Will Save of centering it on that caster.
--Vrocky Mountains
My kender has a bobbin light, which is a light spell cast on a yo-yo,
It is good for seeing down holes, and you can roll it down hallways as well, you can also throw it at opponents and bring it back really fast.
It is also a good perform skill for tricks such as
walkin the bobbin light, around the world,.......
ARRRGHHH!!! it's a Kender..Kill it..kill it now
Well Liliths if you animate object it I'll let you get away with it... however it can't move on it's own or attack -- you've altered the basic spell to something else.
Or reduced the size of the hole and made a laser-pointer?
Amusing, but wouldn't work. A regular light source will lack the phase coherence of a laser beam and so will become dispersed and scattered (practically speaking: spread out and disappear) quite quickly.
It isn't clear whether or not you can also do it with silence since you can also tie the radius of that effect to an object, but it doesn't say anything about being able to suppress it by putting it inside a container.
It doesn't have to say it. The rules already define this interaction.
Area 20-ft.-radius emanation centered on a creature, object, or point in space
An emanation spell functions like a burst spell, except that the effect continues to radiate from the point of origin for the duration of the spell. Most emanations are cones or spheres.
A burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, including creatures that you can't see. It can't affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don't extend around corners). The default shape for a burst effect is a sphere, but some burst spells are specifically described as cone-shaped. A burst's area defines how far from the point of origin the spell's effect extends.
Or reduced the size of the hole and made a laser-pointer?Amusing, but wouldn't work. A regular light source will lack the phase coherence of a laser beam and so will become dispersed and scattered (practically speaking: spread out and disappear) quite quickly.
This thread has made a point of discussing magic v. physics. I think magic deserves another advantage
One of the PCs in my adventure has ambitions to invent the lollipop.
Miniature prismatic sphere :)
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Seen it a few times. Reeks of metagaming (my character just spontaneously invents something this world has never seen but is common in the real world), but it's not really going to change the game in any fundamental way, so I allow it.
I wouldn't say it's metagaming, and frankly I doubt that the character would be the first in the fantasy world to do it. Wizards are supposed to be intelligent. To me nothing says intelligent more than using common spells in new and unexpected ways. So far from being a new idea, it's probably been a very common use for the spell since the earliest wizards.