specific question about a cleric candlecaster multiclass

[sneerglaw]

Hey guys!

First time posting here :) just wanted to see if anyone has encountered a fairly fringe/weird question i had. I am building a candle caster cleric in 3.5 and was wondering if anyone knew how channeled spells work when being turned into candles. Im wondering if you have to spend several turns 'lighting the candle' to get the channeled effect or if you can light the candle and the delay it activating (ie not using more turn actions but waiting the desired amount of time) to get channeled effects.

thanks!

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Ogre: Moved from General

[Fizban]

There will be no concrete answer. As far as I know there is zero official response regarding the variable casting time spells being put into items. The Candle Caster's candles are based on scrolls and potions with altered activation (and duration) parameters, which are further modified by the class features of a higher level member of the PrC. First you would need to figure out how variable casting time spells work in scroll form: since scrolls use the normal casting time and there's no conflict, they should work from scrolls as normal. However, you also have to remember that the rule which says scrolls use the casting time of the spell was written after the Candle Caster was: the rules text Candle Caster was written around simply said that things took a standard action, so it says that candles take a standard action- scrolls and wands were later updated (presumably when they made Swift actions a thing, though the change also fixes 1 round and greater casting times), though potions were not (scrolls are spell completion which uses the spell's casting time, but potions are "manipulation" so they use an arbitrary action length).

Since there's no reason to assume that weird edge cases and mismatched updates let you suddenly ignore action costs, I would not expect it to cost any less actions. Following the pattern, variable casting time spells should be terrible for scribed candles, since they take effect the start of the turn after you finish lighting it, so Swift action spell never takes place on the turn you use it (except that can also be a benefit, allowing you to stack Swift spells that normally can't be stacked). However, your DM could decide that for their game a benefit of Candle Casters is that spells with weird casting times get better, or they could make that part of the Quick Light feature at 7th, or they could rule some of one way and some of the other, or on a spell by spell basis.