adjudicating 'darkness'... what did I do wrong?

[Krelios]

Drow get Darkness + Faerie Fire. That means that you have concealment versus your opponent (20% miss chance and no sneak attacks) but they don't have concealment versus you, so Drow Rogues will kill you quick with that combination and other Drow simply have a combat advantage. There's no reason not to use it.

 

[Thanee]

(And if there's a 2nd level Light spell in the Complete books, let me know, because my GM is really busting my hump with Darkness lately, using it in this manner. We've been spending most of our time flailing about blind, lately.)

heightened Light

Continual Flame

At 3rd level, there is the nice Deeper Darkvision from the Underdark sourcebook, which lets you see in magical darkness for 1h/lvl.

Bye
Thanee

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I'd thought about heightened light ... and how sad it would be needing to heighten a 0th level spell all the way to 2nd just to counter what should otherwise be a simple battlefield control effect.

I didn't realize Continual Flame was a [Light] descriptor spell. Unfortunately 2nd level for Sor/Wiz and 3rd for Clerics ... and the party wizard doesn't know it. >.< Gah!

There's also Devil's Eye from BoVD which also appears as Devil's Sight in C.A., a Warlock invocation. I've honestly contemplated coming back in this campaign as a Warlock with Darkness and Devil's Sight ... with the way the ruling stands, I could just stand around and blanket the whole room in darkness and blast away at all of the flatfooted, -2 AC people crawling around on their hands and knees trying to find the exit.

--fje

 

[Peter Gibbons]

Drow get Darkness + Faerie Fire. That means that you have concealment versus your opponent (20% miss chance and no sneak attacks) but they don't have concealment versus you, so Drow Rogues will kill you quick with that combination and other Drow simply have a combat advantage. There's no reason not to use it.

Faerie fire is a 1st-level [Light] effect and does not function in the area of a 2nd-level [Darkness] effect (such as darkness). The spell description even mentions this specifically.

 

[nittanytbone]

Faerie fire is a 1st-level [Light] effect and does not function in the area of a 2nd-level [Darkness] effect (such as darkness). The spell description even mentions this specifically.

In "Winning Tactics against Drow" (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/tt/20050719a) from WOTC it specifically mentions, "Darkness creates an area of shadowy illumination, impenetrable to darkvision or low-light vision. By itself, it's an interesting option and most useful when the drow are encountered in an area familiar to them, but foreign to their opponents. The final spell-like ability drow have pairs superbly with darkness. Drow are clever enough to place their faerie fire spells to good advantage, outlining the player characters and making them easy targets. (Though DMs should note that darkness will affect faerie fire's ability to work if it's a 2nd-level or higher effect; a drow's spell-like abilities have a caster level equal to the drow's class levels.)"

So it seems to me that you can basically "heighten" any spell-like ability as desired by this interpretation, casting Darkness as a 2nd level effect and Faerie Fire at 3rd.

 

[Peter Gibbons]

In "Winning Tactics against Drow" (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/tt/20050719a) from WOTC it specifically mentions, "Darkness creates an area of shadowy illumination, impenetrable to darkvision or low-light vision. By itself, it's an interesting option and most useful when the drow are encountered in an area familiar to them, but foreign to their opponents. The final spell-like ability drow have pairs superbly with darkness. Drow are clever enough to place their faerie fire spells to good advantage, outlining the player characters and making them easy targets. (Though DMs should note that darkness will affect faerie fire's ability to work if it's a 2nd-level or higher effect; a drow's spell-like abilities have a caster level equal to the drow's class levels.)"

So it seems to me that you can basically "heighten" any spell-like ability as desired by this interpretation, casting Darkness as a 2nd level effect and Faerie Fire at 3rd.

It seems clear to me that the Wizards employee who wrote that article was confused about the meaning of "caster level" (as opposed to "spell level"). A CL3 darkness spell suppresses a CL20 faerie fire just like it does a CL1 faerie fire. Thus, the fact that "a drow's spell-like abilities have a caster level equal to the drow's class levels" (which the author is clearly relying on for her conclusion) is irrelevant.

 

[Nail]

I've honestly contemplated coming back in this campaign as a Warlock with Darkness and Devil's Sight ... with the way the ruling stands, I could just stand around and blanket the whole room in darkness and blast away ...

Your DM is just askin' fer it.

As soon as you get this ability (to cast "Pitch black" Darkness and be able to see thru it with impunity), the DM will change the rule. Trust me.

 

[Stalker0]

See...this is exactly the kind of situation I think warranted the change to the 3.5 darkness and why its not that much of a nerf at all.

Adjucating a whole room where no one can see is an absolute pain in the butt and often hurts the people casting it as much as the people in the field. Now its a general effect that's very easy to use.

 

[green slime]

See...this is exactly the kind of situation I think warranted the change to the 3.5 darkness and why its not that much of a nerf at all.

Adjucating a whole room where no one can see is an absolute pain in the butt and often hurts the people casting it as much as the people in the field. Now its a general effect that's very easy to use.

IMO, it was fun to do, having people run about, taking wild swings at each other, and the general mayhem that ensued. IMO, the reason for the change was more connected to the fact that players started to have access to blindsight/blindsense, through certain feats/PrC/items, and it turned the spell into a kill-zone.