Light Sources - Best Bang for Your Buck

[Mistwell]

I'd like to make a list of equipment that provides a light source from official 3.5 WOTC sources. My goal is to determine what item(s) cast light for the largest radius for the least amount of money, for the longest period of time, and in addition factoring in slotless versus held items.

For example:

Lamp, Common: 15 foot bright, another 15 foot shadow, 6 hours on 1 pint oil, hand held, 1sp.

We have the chart on page 165 of the PHB. That indicates a bullseye lantern has the greatest potential distance for a light source for normal equipment (60 ft cone bright, another 60 ft. shadow).

Everburning torch costs 110gp for 20ft/shadow another 20ft (so 20/40). Not slotless, but in theory you could pay a spellcaster to cast it on your helmet, weapon, or other piece of attached equipment and try and make it slotless.

The Illuminating weapon ability from Magic Item Compendium ("MIC") makes a weapon glow constantly for 20 ft bright, another 20 shadow, for 500gp, slotless essentially.

Crystal of Illumination from MIC (attaches to a weapon, so basically slotless) costs 50gp for a 5 foot bright/10ft shadow, 400 gp for 20/40, and 1000 gp for 60/120.

 

[SteelDraco]

I've always liked dull grey ioun stones with Continual Flame cast on 'em. No hands, and you get 20' of bright light.

 

[awayfarer]

I've always liked dull grey ioun stones with Continual Flame cast on 'em. No hands, and you get 20' of bright light.

Someone in my Eberron campaign suggested that but I feel like it would be a bit of a pain in the hinder to have a light source that spent half it's time blinding you by spinning in front of your face and the other half being partially/completely blocked by your head.

 

[Pyrex]

Everburning torch costs 110gp for 20ft/shadow another 20ft (so 20/40). Not slotless, but in theory you could pay a spellcaster to cast it on your helmet, weapon, or other piece of attached equipment and try and make it slotless.

Here's one better. Pay a cleric with Widen Spell to create that for you and you get 40'/40'.

Here's two better. Find a cleric with Widen Spell and levels in the Radiant Servant of Pelor PrC to cast that for you and get 60'/60' of light.

And you don't even need to cast it on your helmet; just tie the thing to your belt. It's not like it's actually [Fire].

 

[Deset Gled]

30% of magic weapons generate light at no extra charge (and you can't turn it off, either).

A Flint and Steel or Tindertwig is 1gp. The forest is free.

 

[Felnar]

eek, Deset Gled way beat me to it
----
all randomly generated magic melee weapons have a 30% chance to shed light (dmg pg 216 & 223)
i thought it was "as a torch" but apparently its undefined

 

[Deset Gled]

all randomly generated magic melee weapons have a 30% chance to shed light (dmg pg 216 & 223)
i thought it was "as a torch" but apparently its undefined

Actually, it's defined as being equal to the light spell (bright light in 20' radius, shadowy light in 40' radius).

The forest is still cheaper.

 

[Felnar]

Actually, it's defined as being equal to the light spell (bright light in 20' radius, shadowy light in 40' radius).

The forest is still cheaper.

so i didnt completely pull torch out of nowhere
got a page number for me?

 

[Zaruthustran]

What? No one's yet mentioned glow sticks?

Sunrod: This 1-foot-long, gold-tipped, iron rod glows brightly when struck. It clearly illuminates a 30-foot radius and provides shadowy illumination in a 60-foot radius. It glows for 6 hours, after which the gold tip is burned out and worthless.

These things are cheap and handy. Chuck 'em down wells, into pools, into intersections, and so on. Fire 'em out of a crossbow for a handy flare. Bust them out next time you visit a halfling rave.

Seriously, these things sure come in handy. Three or four are standard issue with every character I make.

-z

PS: best part is, you can chuck 'em unlit, and they'll light when they impact the ground/wall/monster hiding in the dark. No need to give away your position, or waste an action "activating" the item. Just throw and glow.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Cheapest? Probably use Lesser planar binding to bind a lantern archon and get it to churn out Continual Flame items (since it can do it at will, and doesn't require the costly material component)