A small sample of area light settings.
I added an area light with the default settings.
The scene layout was inspired by a concept art piece by Matt Rhodes. Reference link here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Yqob
Render:
The light placed in a different position:
And another position:
I changed the decay rate to quadratic.
Ooops, it’s too dark to see now.
I increased the intensity to 10. It’s slightly brighter if I increase the gamma.
You can see that the light is effecting the area, but it just isn’t enough. So, I changed the intensity to 150000.
Here is a comparison between the first (1 intensity, no quadratic decay) and last image (150000 intensity, quadratic decay):
Alchemist Boots 