D&D 3E/3.5 [3.5] Darkness Spell 20% ?

[Cybern]

(in fact, only being useful for illuminating a dark area without having the illumination be visible at a distance ("We can't see." "I could cast Daylight." "But then the villains would see us sneaking up on them." "OK, I'll cast Darkness; that way you can see but there's no bright light source to be visible at a distance")

Does it create a shadowy zone in complete darkness? I hadn't tought of that one... and maybe WOTC neither.

The other uses of the 3.0 version were neat, though.

So can we say darkness got nerfed?

 

[Hypersmurf]

So can we say darkness got nerfed?

I'd be more inclined to say Darkness got removed from the game.

3.5 also introduced a new spell, bizarrely and counter-intuitively named "Darkness", that bears no connection to the now-non-existent spell formerly known by the same name.

-Hyp.

 

[Rashak Mani]

This is one of my favorite rants about 3.$... sorry 3.5 in our gaming table.

1. Its not Darkness its "Shadows" now. So change the frickin name
2. It could be called Blur 20' feet too.
3. "Deeper" Darkness is an even worse joke... 60 feet of the same rubbish instead of 20 feet.
4. Obscuring Mist is now way more useful since it does block sight

Like someone mentioned... its not useful for anything it used to be ! 20% sucks... and I dont see many uses for it now. I will prod my DM about the "lighting the way with darkness spell" idea.

Contrary to what nightshade said... it was a great spell and thou not used every session was critical when the party wanted to disengage and run. Or to use some smart tactics. (Thou I agree the blindsight and darkness combo was corny). It does reduce the use for blindfighting feat too.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I prefer the new version. Maybe Darkness became nerfed, but the original version seemed to be way to powerful.

Take a Young Adult Green Dragon. He can cast spells as a 3rd level sorceror. Take Darkness, and use its Blindsight to ignore the effects. Enemies can`t see it and have to guess where it is, while it uses his flight ability to burn (or corrode) them dead or to take out single foes. (Snatch, fly away 1.000 feet, use breath weapon, let them fall to death. Return, cast Darkness again if neccessary...)

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[isoChron]

Well, I like the new Darkness... one spell less to worry about during preparation time. No more "Shall I prepare Darkness or ...".
Now I can just ignore Darkness/Deeper Darkness.

BYE

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Sure, that's a decent tactic for the dragon, but by the time any party is fighting the dragon, they ought to be prepared with a Daylight or a Dispel Magic. And if they don't have either, darkness is conveniently the same diameter as a fireball. That's one of the features of mid to high level D&D play: the use of magic to alter the battlefield.

(Anyway, if the dragon casts the darkness on itself, it won't be able to see the party after it moves a significant distance away--the blindsight is still quite limited in range and the dragon is quite limited in manueverability--and a young adult Green Dragon can't even make Snatch work on a halfling--check the size restrictions again).

I prefer the new version. Maybe Darkness became nerfed, but the original version seemed to be way to powerful.

Take a Young Adult Green Dragon. He can cast spells as a 3rd level sorceror. Take Darkness, and use its Blindsight to ignore the effects. Enemies can`t see it and have to guess where it is, while it uses his flight ability to burn (or corrode) them dead or to take out single foes. (Snatch, fly away 1.000 feet, use breath weapon, let them fall to death. Return, cast Darkness again if neccessary...)

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Cybern]

Well, I like the new Darkness... one spell less to worry about during preparation time. No more "Shall I prepare Darkness or ...".
Now I can just ignore Darkness/Deeper Darkness.

BYE

I guess youre kidding...

I don't think a spell wich becomes useless (if I understand you) is a good thing.


Edit: all messed up

 

[kreynolds]

That's right - candlelight, essentially, just four times bigger.

"It's too dark to see!"
"Okay, I cast Darkness."

Good grief.

Except that this has been clarified. Can't remember if it was on the WotC boards or in the FAQ though. Anyway, the clarification was that Darkness does not change prexisting lighting conditions if said conditions are already darker than "shadowy illumination", or something like that.

Bah. I just can't rely on memory this morning. I'll see if I can find it.

 

[Urbannen]

Cloak of Shadows

One side effect of the Cloak of Shadows spell, err, the 3.5 Darkness spell, is that all characters can hide in plain sight because they have 20% concealment at all times while in the spell's area.

Note: this spell royally confused us this week when we ran into some drow warriors. It would have been nice if the spell description had said something specifically about how the spell affects visibility.

 

[kreynolds]

Re: Cloak of Shadows

One side effect of the Cloak of Shadows spell, err, the 3.5 Darkness spell, is that all characters can hide in plain sight because they have 20% concealment at all times while in the spell's area.

If they have concealment, then they aren't exactly in plain sight.