Truthseeker's Candle
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a slender beeswax candle worth 10 gp, which the spell consumes)
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes (concentration)
Description
You light a slender beeswax candle and name aloud the truth you are seeking. The flame burns a steady, colorless white and sheds dim light in a 20-foot radius for the duration. Any creature that speaks a deliberate falsehood while inside that light must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or the flame gutters, curls oily black for a moment, and the speaker takes 1d6 psychic damage as the candle drags the buried truth toward the surface of their mind. Every creature in the light sees the flame change color, but only you know which creature caused it. The candle compels nothing: a creature may simply refuse to answer, and a statement the speaker sincerely believes to be true never darkens the flame, however wrong it may be. A creature that succeeds on its saving throw is unaffected for the duration and knows that something tried to weigh its words. Wax that has burned black will not take a flame again, so one candle is worth exactly one interrogation, and canny courtiers have learned to hold their tongues until it is spent.
Damage
1d6 psychic damage
At Higher Levels
When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the radius of dim light increases by 10 feet for each slot level above 2nd, and the psychic damage increases by 1d6 for every two slot levels above 2nd.
Spell List
Bard, Cleric, Paladin, Wizard