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View Full Version : Devil's Lantern (magic item, 5e or 3.PF)



Segev
2021-08-17, 11:27 AM
This kind-of works in any game system, I think, but I'm thinking of it for 5e D&D and maybe PF/3.5.

Devil's Lantern (5e)
Very rare wondrous item (requires atunement)
The light this lantern sheds is invisible, and illuminates nothing except for those with Devil's Sight or who are attuned to it. To such creatures, it seems to shed light like a normal lantern. The attuned owner may choose, when lighting it, to instead cause it to shed magical darkness out to the radius of its bright light, and to lower any bright light to dim out to the radius of its dim lighting. The attuned owner may choose whether darkvision can operate in this magical darkness or not when he lights it. He still perceives its light as normal lighting, unaffected by the darkness it sheds.

(I am unsure if this should be Rare or Very Rare for the basic "devil's sight"-like effect, but I just added some bonus features like optional magical darkness (through which the attuned wielder can see) and the ability for somebody with Devil's Sight to use it without attunement (perhaps placing it somewhere in the dark outside their normal Devil's Sight range and using the illumination it sheds to spot things) in order to push it to Very Rare territory.

Devil's Lantern (3.PF)
Wondrous Item, 12,050 gp, CL 3
This lantern has an Invisible continual flame in it, whose light can only be seen by those who can see invisible. The one who holds it can see the invisible within the radius of its light, allowing him to see the light it sheds as well as anything - visible or invisible - its light illuminates.
Creation: CL 3, continual flame, see invisible, Caster must have the Invisible Spell feat, 6,050 gp.

(The 3.PF version possibly should be 24,050 gp, due to being slotless.)

Maat Mons
2021-08-17, 11:46 AM
Under 3.5 rules, an Invisible light source still gives off visible light.

Segev
2021-08-17, 01:35 PM
Under 3.5 rules, an Invisible light source still gives off visible light.

True, but not an Invisible Spell.

"You can modify any spell you cast so that it carries no visual manifestation. ... [T]he spell's source might still be apparent, depending on the situation, despite its effects being unseen. For example, fireball cast by someone with this feat could be made invisible in the moment of its detonation, but everyone in the area would still feel the full effect (including the heat), and any flammable materials ignited by the explosion would still burn visibly with nonmagical fire. Those with detect magic, see invisibility, or true seeing spells or effects active at the time of the casting will see whatever visual manifestations typically accompany the spell[.]"

So it would make the light itself invisible.

It's not the lantern that's invisible, after all; it's the continual flame spell's visible effect: the light it sheds.