More Tools for 5e: Chandlery Supplies
What is a chandlery, you might be asking yourself. Rest assured, you aren’t alone, as I didn’t know. This tool was asked by a long-time fan of Dump Stat (thanks Dale!) and is all about making and crafting candles!
This tool takes the power of candles, which are used in a huge variety of ways like religious services, reading a book, or just getting down with some romance, and provides ways to create your own and cause some mayhem on the battlefield.
Chandlery Supplies
This tool is inspired by the Encyclopedia Magica (1995) collection, which contains hundreds of magic items from the 2nd edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It has some crazy ideas in there about magic items since it seemed to have gone on a mission to collect every magic item from 20 years of Dungeons & Dragons rule books, campaign settings, supplements, adventures, Dragon magazine, and more. If you can think of it, it’s probably in one of those 4 volumes, and let me tell you, not all of them are hidden gems. In fact, one of the magic candles in there is this beauty:
Candle of Convocation
XP Value: 800 GP
Value: 4,000
DRAGON Magazine 156
These large candles can be found in all sorts of garish colors. When one is lit, the lighter and the entire party find themselves instantly teleported to a high school pep rally in an alternate plane of existence, where they remain stranded until the candle burns out or until they lead their section to victory in the cheering competition.
While that particular candle wasn’t able to inspire me, there are plenty of others in there that do. In fact, volume 1 of that set even has a small section on the making of candles way back when. It’s a pretty neat collection, especially if you just love wacky and fun magic items, but not everything in there is just weird. Some of it is quite useful and helped inspire part of this tool, like applying additional layers to the candle for longer effects or more potent effects. One of my favorite candles, which I didn’t update for this tool (yet), is the Candle of Blinking down below.
Candle of Blinking
Normal Large: 400 XP / 2,000 GP
Normal Small: 100 XP / 500 GP
Rare Large: 2,000 XP / 10,000 GP
Rare Small: 100 XP / 2,500 GP
DRAGON Magazine 179
Upon lighting this candle, the user begins blinking (as the spell) and continues to do so until the candle is extinguished or the user blinks outside of the area of effect. The spell effect is limited to the user only, though in 5% of these candles the blinking effect affects all other creatures within the area of effect except the individual who lit the candle. These candles are made with onion juice, crushed chicory root, and a few drops of blink dog blood.
For those that don’t care about the how of my tool:
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Crafting
So, actually creating candles isn’t a very difficult process. It involves dipping a wick multiple times in a vat of bubbling tallow, beeswax, what-have-you, or using a mold in order to create the candle. You can churn out this equipment rather quickly over an hour, but that isn’t the meat and potatoes (wax and wick?) of this tool.
Instead, what makes this tool special is that you can create magical candles that have a wide variety of effects based on being a candle and the huge amount of culture surrounding them. Candles are used in religious ceremonies, contacting spirits, romancing a special someone, or even just creating a bit of light to see by.
These specialty candles are much harder to create, requiring 8 hours for each layer you wish to apply to the candle. The layers are more than just fat or wax. They require special ingredients to be added, the correct processing of the wax so that no imperfections or air bubbles are in the candle, and even decorating or carving each layer to fully empower the candle. It’s a lengthy and precise process that only the best chandlers can accomplish.
With all this hard work, you hope it’s worth something, and it is! After 8 hours of work, you can now light the candle and shed 5 feet of bright light and an additional 5 feet of dim light… AND you get a fun magical effect, but how important is that compared to light?
Ogres Have Layers
I sure hope that Shrek quote is still relevant after 20 years.
A candle can be given multiple layers, up to its maximum layer count, and these layers allow the candle to last longer, have stronger effects, or anything else to increase the potency of the candle. Each time you apply a new layer, it takes another 8 hours and more material costs, along with having to make a check to actually craft the candle. Not every candle needs a super-duper extra layering, but it can be useful to have multiple layers on a candle to help it stick around longer.
Layering can help candles have greater effects, especially if you want to create a powerful candle whose effects slowly get weaker each time you use it. These layers break away as the candle is used, and once the last layer is gone, the candle is destroyed.
Effects
Each candle does different things. Some can be taken underwater, others only create the illusion of light (so there is no fire damage when you knock it over in bed), or they explode upon being lit. There are other uses for candles, like obscuring you and your allies from undead eyes, demanding answers from the dead, or maybe you just want to create huge billowing smoke clouds.
There are tons of different applications, and in the future, I’ll be adding more candles with a variety of different effects and applications.
Chandlering
That’s the basis of creating candles, and it extends past just dipping into wax and repeating the process over and over. I hope that these candles can help guide you, and let me know if there are other tools you are interested in! I like creating these tools, but need help when it comes to what tools people are looking for in their games!
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Art Credit: -Candle- by Anas Asghar
