Real Magical Darkness

Mercule

Adventurer

• Mar 8, 2005

• #1

So, the Darkness and Deeper Darkness spells have been changed to be more of Dimness and Deeper Dimness. That leads me to ask two questions:

1) Why? Was actual magical darkness unbalancing? Would I hose things up if I "unfixed" Darkness, etc.?

2) Are there any spells (or monster abilities) that still create actual darkness?

 

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punkorange

First Post

• Mar 8, 2005

• #2

wow, I just realized that was changed. Did 3.5 do that to darkness? I like novel style globe of darkness.

 

Mercule

Adventurer

• Mar 8, 2005

• #3

3.5 did it. 3.0 still had real darkness -- which I used to devastating effect against the PCs when coupled with devils.

I haven't cared up 'til now, but I've got a player who's playing a Warlock and he's of the opinion that Devil's Sight isn't particularly useful when his race already has darkvision while the Sight is limited in range and there is no more real darkness. Gotta say that I agree with him.

 

dcollins

Explorer

• Mar 8, 2005

• #4

Mercule said:

1) Why? Was actual magical darkness unbalancing?

Click to expand...

Popular theories:
- As part of general nerfing of useful magic spells.
- To interact better with miniatures-based combat.

 

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Saeviomagy

Adventurer

• Mar 9, 2005

• #5

Mercule said:

3.5 did it. 3.0 still had real darkness -- which I used to devastating effect against the PCs when coupled with devils.

I haven't cared up 'til now, but I've got a player who's playing a Warlock and he's of the opinion that Devil's Sight isn't particularly useful when his race already has darkvision while the Sight is limited in range and there is no more real darkness. Gotta say that I agree with him.

Click to expand...

Blacklight.

However outside of that, total and utter darkness WAS broken. It was simply too good. Against the average PC party, it totally took them out of the game. And naturally, any creature that used it was immune to it, an avenue that was basically not available to the average party.

So they upped it to a reasonable level (ie - 3rd for blacklight), and decreased the power of the low level versions.

 

punkorange

First Post

• Mar 9, 2005

• #6

Where did it state that creatures who used darkness were immune? I always assumed they were just as blind in it as any other creature. I take that assumption from novels though, so I could be wrong.

 

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Storyteller01

First Post

• Mar 9, 2005

• #7

Agreed. Nothing in the drow description giving them immunity to darkness, and nothing in the spell description giving immunity to the caster (in my PHB anyway...)

 

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Saeviomagy

Adventurer

• Mar 9, 2005

• #8

punkorange said:

Where did it state that creatures who used darkness were immune? I always assumed they were just as blind in it as any other creature. I take that assumption from novels though, so I could be wrong.

Click to expand...

It's not an automatic thing, but it did seem very common for a foe with darkness to also happen to have blindsight or the like. Happened to us a number of times through the sunless citadel chain (first with the black dragon, who'd been bumped up a couple of hit dice, then with a grimlock). In every case, the existence of the darkness totally crippled the party and left the monster unhindered.

Finally, if you really do want low-level darkness that totally prevents vision, just describe obscuring mist in a different way...

 

ThirdWizard

First Post

• Mar 9, 2005

• #9

It was less powerful than fog cloud which is also a 2nd level spell. At least how I look at it. Fog cloud can be blown away, but how often does that happen? In exchange for not being dispersable it was touch ranged and only worked on objects. Now Fog Cloud is clearly the suprerior spell since you can cast it from Medium range. Darkness was fine.

 

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Gadget

Adventurer

• Mar 9, 2005

• #10

Basicly, the old darkness never took into account the conditions when the spell was cast. High noon in the desert? No problem. Vampire wants to stroll around during the day at high noon in the desert? Sure. Other than the "shadowy illumination" phrasing that can actually make an area brighter if the conditions are right, the new version seems to try and take that into account.