Candle of Invocation 5e

Wondrous Item, very rare (requires attunement)

This slender taper is dedicated to a deity and shares that deity's alignment. The candle's alignment can be detected with the Detect Evil and Good spell. The GM chooses the god and associated alignment or determines the alignment randomly.

Candle of Invocation Alignment Table

            d20
            Alignment
            
            1-2
            Chaotic Evil
            
            3-4
            Chaotic Neutral
            
            5-7
            Chaotic Good
            
            8-9
            Neutral Evil
            
            10-11
            Neutral
            
            12-13
            Neutral Good
            
            14-15
            Lawful Evil
            
            16-17
            Lawful Neutral
            
            18-20
            Lawful Good

The candle's magic is activated when the candle is lit, which requires an action. After burning for 4 hours, the candle is destroyed. You can snuff it out early for use at a later time. Deduct the time it burned in increments of 1 minute from the candle's total burn time.

While lit, the candle sheds dim light in a 30-foot radius. Any creature within that light whose alignment matches that of the candle makes attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks with advantage. In addition, a cleric or druid in the light whose alignment matches the candle's can cast 1st- level spells he or she has prepared without expending spell slots, though the spell's effect is as if cast with a 1st-level slot.

Alternatively, when you light the candle for the first time, you can cast the Gate spell with it. Doing so destroys the candle.

Commentary by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Alignment is a dying mechanic in modern D&D; one of the few remaining major items that work with the system is the Candle of Invocation. These are major assets to parties aligned to a specific alignment- getting one can be a compelling reason to figure out exactly how your character feels about the world, and get them on the alignment axis aligned with your Candle!

Detect Evil and Good normally provides no information about alignment; this item specifically reacts unusually to it, providing that information when the spell detects it.
Being able to cast spells without expending spell slots is a massive boon; notably, the spells have to be prepared, so spells acquired through other methods like multi-classing non-preapred casters or acquired through feats like Strixhaven Initiate or Fey Touched won’t be castable freely with this item.
Using the Gate effect requires a fresh candle to work at all; if your party has no characters that share alignment with it, it's probably the best use for it.
4 hours equates to 240 minutes of candle light, or more total minutes of fights than an average campaign will ever have.

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