How long do torches / candles last?

[Mellack]

I see no listing on how long these light sources last. Is there any info on these I missed?

[Samurai]

I don't know the official answers, but we have usually used 1 hour for a torch and 10 minutes for a candle.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Mellack wrote:

I see no listing on how long these light sources last. Is there any info on these I missed?

You have not missed anything. Only lantern oil has a defined lifetime thus far in PF2 (6 hours / pint).

For the record, candles and torches lasted 1 hour each in PF1; that sounds reasonable to me.

[Gorbacz]

But are those African or European torches?

[Wheldrake]

One hour is reasonable. 10 minutes is too short for candles - unless they're really short candles.

[AnCap Dawg]

Samurai wrote:

I don't know the official answers, but we have usually used 1 hour for a torch and 10 minutes for a candle.

Those are some short candles.

[Mellack]

One hour does sound reasonable. Or perhaps they have no duration. That would explain movies that have torches still lighting up age-old crypts.

[graystone]

They last for all time... How else do you explain dungeons having lights after hundreds of years? ;) [think most video games] Just another 'ask your DM' area.

[Bandw2]

i guess continuous flame is applied to all torches

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

But for some reason not to lanterns.

[The Holiday Cultist]

Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:

But for some reason not to lanterns.

Oil companies have ... discouraged the lantern manufacturers from such actions.

[Draco18s]

I will point out the following definition

Merriam Webster wrote:

candle hour, noun:

a unit of light or luminous energy equal to the total luminous energy emitted in one hour by a source having a luminous intensity of one candle

And this candle burns for up to 2.5 hours and is 5.75 inches in length while this one will go for over 3 days.

[Tender Tendrils]

I think it's probably deliberately abstracted, sort of how in a movie you see the heroes light a torch once and it seems to last the whole dungeon.

I think its good for it to be a GM decision - some groups enjoy keeping track of how many torches they consume in a dungeon, while others just want to be "I light a torch" and be done with it.

There are a few different ways you could run it;

One torch per "room" (a room being defined as a distinct area of the dungeon, so corridors or storage closets don't count as a room on their own, and 3 small rooms linked together count as a room)this way you don't need to keep track of timing as much.

One torch per hour
One torch per half hour
One torch per dungeon
One torch per period in which person holds a torch (if they drop it they need a fresh one, so most encounters will need a fresh one)

You can also mix these with dramatic torch timing - if you want an atmosphere where the dark is impressive, you can have the lack of good air flow causing the torches to choke on the smoke or sputter out quite regularly in the deepest parts of the dungeon.

[Mellack]

Tender Tendrils wrote:

I think it's probably deliberately abstracted, sort of how in a movie you see the heroes light a torch once and it seems to last the whole dungeon.

I think its good for it to be a GM decision - some groups enjoy keeping track of how many torches they consume in a dungeon, while others just want to be "I light a torch" and be done with it.

There are a few different ways you could run it;

One torch per "room" (a room being defined as a distinct area of the dungeon, so corridors or storage closets don't count as a room on their own, and 3 small rooms linked together count as a room)this way you don't need to keep track of timing as much.

One torch per hour
One torch per half hour
One torch per dungeon
One torch per period in which person holds a torch (if they drop it they need a fresh one, so most encounters will need a fresh one)

You can also mix these with dramatic torch timing - if you want an atmosphere where the dark is impressive, you can have the lack of good air flow causing the torches to choke on the smoke or sputter out quite regularly in the deepest parts of the dungeon.

While I appreciate your opinion, I do not like that it has been totally left open. It came up for the first time last session, and if my players assumed a torch would last the entire dungeon when I assumed it would last only an hour, we would have a problem. I think such a basic thing should be given some guidance in the rules, especially since they did that for how long a lamp can burn. I think it was more likely an oversight.

[Wheldrake]

In the absence of specific guildance in the PF2 CRB, I see no reason not to use the durations listed in PF1.

This said, any group with a spellcaster in it could easily benefit from his light cantrip. My group didn't bother with torches.

[Billium]

Wheldrake wrote:

In the absence of specific guildance in the PF2 CRB, I see no reason not to use the durations listed in PF1.

This said, any group with a spellcaster in it could easily benefit from his light cantrip. My group didn't bother with torches.

We do the same. HOWEVER! I always carry a torch now to deal with swarms and webs. At least at 1 -3 level.

[Wheldrake]

Great! Although now you can just hit that swarm with your greatsword. Or whatever weapon you're using.