Creative Cantrips - Dancing Lights

[FlumphPaladin]

Inspired by the wonderful "101 Uses for a 10' Pole" on this very forum, I thought it might be fun to explore our favorite creative uses of some other classics, such as good old dancing lights spell. Please, submit your own!

1. Lantern. Use it to light your way without having to use a hand on a torch or risk setting things on fire.
2. Decoy. Send it in ahead of your party to distract occupants.

Red Herring. Send the forces tracking you on a wild-goose chase.

3. Jerry-rigged illusion. Combine with ghost sound for a scary illusion (humanoid for fey or angel, orbs for lantern archon...).
3. Surveying. Send it in as two lights at maximum distance from each other. Use quadrant/sextant/astrolabe/protractor/other wizardy tool to measure the angle between yourself and the shadows cast by objects in the room, and triangulate their sizes and positions. Estimate room dimensions by making the lights orbit each other; when a wall is found, the light cast by it will flicker dramatically (if they can pass through the wall) or remain steady (if they can't).
4. Communication.

Visual Alarm Signal Credit to Lord Torath for reminding me of The Giant's own submission, all those years ago.
Vector for Drow Sign Language.It's the only sign language mentioned in the game; you'd better believe it deserves its own spot. Credit to ninja_prawn.

5. Bait. Lure your enemies into your ambush. Or into quicksand/mudpits/insert-your-favorite-hazardous-terrain-here.

[Lord Torath]

4. Visual Alarm Signal

[FlumphPaladin]

Thor's hammer, I was all set to make a reference to that strip, and then forgot about it! I'll stick it in the list! Thanks!

[Lord Torath]

5. Bait. Lure your enemies into your ambush. Or into quicksand/mudpits/insert-your-favorite-hazardous-terrain-here.
6. Red Herring. Send the forces tracking you on a wild-goose chase. This may or may not count as a 2. Decoy.

[Mastikator]

7. Impromptu puppet show

[Ninja_Prawn]

8. Vector for Drow Sign Language.

[Joe the Rat]

4c. Runway / guide lights for nighttime fliers

9. Illusory Juggling. Combine with actual juggling for a real show-stopper.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Fake will-o-the-wisp, in case you know someone who's afraid of them.

Lighting for a rave?

Entertainment for cats. Probably works on cat-people, too. Maybe even lions and tigers...?

Prove to the court that you're a wizard (even if you're not).

Hold a sheet of parchment in front of it - instant projector.

Confuse moths and baby turtles. Destabilise the local ecosystem (requires some patience & dedication).

Loudly announce you're about to cast Fireball, send a mote of yellow light towards enemies. Watch them dive for cover / waste Counterspells.

[FlumphPaladin]

Fake will-o-the-wisp, in case you know someone who's afraid of them.

Lighting for a rave?

Entertainment for cats. Probably works on cat-people, too. Maybe even lions and tigers...?

Prove to the court that you're a wizard (even if you're not).

Hold a sheet of parchment in front of it - instant projector.

Confuse moths and baby turtles. Destabilise the local ecosystem (requires some patience & dedication).

Loudly announce you're about to cast Fireball, send a mote of yellow light towards enemies. Watch them dive for cover / waste Counterspells.

How do you do this? These ideas are great!

I see also, in the "prove to the court that you're a wizard" one, that someone has been reading over the Charlatan class!

[Ninja_Prawn]

How do you do this? These ideas are great!

I see also, in the "prove to the court that you're a wizard" one, that someone has been reading over the Charlatan class!

Sorry to disappoint, but I couldn't even tell you which game system the Charlatan class comes from...

As to where I get my ideas from, the answer is meditation. Seriously. I just sit down, empty my head and ideas appear out of the aether.

Also, on second reading, those ideas weren't particularly great. I'm sure I can do better. Let me see...

Visual Aid.

a. Explain the motion of the planets without resorting to scale models.
b. Teach children to count to 15 in binary without consuming valuable ink.
c. Explain the offside rule without rearranging the crockery.

Lantern (additional)

b. Realise that Dancing Lights is ranged while Light is not. Use it to illuminate your enemies while you remain in darkness.

Surveying (additional)

b. Measure the depths of wells (as long as they're less than 120 feet) by advancing the lights in 5-foot increments.

Fake Project Image?

"Your honour, I'm afraid that my client can't be here today, but he has consented to appear before the court using the spell Project Image."
"I have no objection to this."
*Wizard's bardic friend casts Dancing Lights (outline of the wizard) and a sorcerer with twice the wizard's Charisma impersonates him using Minor Illusion (voice).*
"Well, I find your arguments very persuasive, sir. Case dismissed!"

[Milodiah]

One of my PCs was a fairy who had a racial trait of being ale to glow as per the light spell at-will.

He cast dancing lights to make it appear that an entire squadron of fairy troops were on the way to break up a bandit raid on a caravan.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Pretend you have Ioun Stones.

Whizzing around your head.

Pretend you're Link.

"Hey, listen!"

Somehow I don't think we're going to get to 101 uses...

[Rockoe10]

Decoy (In detail):

Use at a range through the Inn room and confuse enemies.

You're outside in the bushes, your light is flickering in the second story room. The enemy makes for a stealthy assault on the empty room. You get the jump on the unsuspecting fools.

[IntelectPaladin]

If i may add a few ideas of my own. Ninja_Prawn, However, Seems to be quite apt. As does every person posting, it seems..I hope my own ideas have any merit.

Without further ado:

A fake artifact.
Place the light into, through, or onto a weapon. This has a variety of uses,
Such as a scare tactic at a bar. Or TO convice someone that the beer mug you bought
really was made by "the wizard melcik", Etc.

Hypnotism.
Have the lights move along your fingers and hands in an entrancing way, Intertwining
them, with other various hand movments. Good for slight-of-hands hypnotism.

Mid-battle beacon.
Too often, that magic ring/jewel/ball Is tossed around and lost during combat.
Place a light on the item to find it afterwards. The risk is that it will be visible to both sides fighting.

Those are all the idea i have at the moment. I'll be sure to think up more, if you like.

{Thank you for reading this.}

[golentan]

Surgical Aide. Either 1) Provide better illumination for conducting an operation, or 2: Placing one inside a person as a harmless effect for an Egg Illumination effect to determine if bones are broken, deep tissue punctures, etc. to help determine the severity of casualties in triage, diagnose kidney stones, all sorts of stuff!

Target Calling: For artillery. Place a green light on the desired point of impact. Red light on actual point of impact. Use additional markers to designate subsequent hits. Fire the Catapults, firing in the dead of night is now reasonable!

Bluff an artillery target. Your enemies know you use Dancing Lights as target markers? Even if you don't have functional siege engines, place a target marker on the enemy keep and watch the soldiers flee to avoid being trapped in the rubble.