Attacking the Darkness

[Olgar Shiverstone]

So, what are the odds that 4E will contain lighting and darkness rules that will not only make sense, but also play well at the game table?

Illumination, vision, sighting/spotting, the interaction of various light/dark spells, the meaninglessness of faerie fire ... all a sore point of current 3E rules.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

My favourite part of the current lighting rules is the way that illumination changes depending on who's looking. A rogue can hide if he has concealment. If he's standing in the shadowy darkness at the edge of a light source's illumination zone, he can hide (assuming no one is watching him). A group of humans walks by, and they roll Spot against his Hide roll, and no one spots him. An elf walks by, and suddenly the rogue is not in shadowy darkness, so he can no longer hide. The elf does not need to roll spot in order to see him.

I hate that.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I'd be happy if not every monster in the MM has darkvision.

 

[howandwhy99]

My favorite is: "I stay awake all night. No wait! I never sleep again!"

 

[mhensley]

It's not necessary. In 4E, all dungeons will be brightly lit by fluorescent lights.

(It might as well as that's usually how we end up playing anyway. :\ )

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I can only hope that they improve the rules for lighting conditions in this version. I had a very difficult time understanding how the rules worked the first few times we had night-time combat. Even now I'm still not 100% sure about them.

At least I feel better knowing that they will have a hard time in making those rules worse than they already are.

(And as a side note, I hope they change the Darkness spell back into something that actually makes an area dark, and not just a little bit dimmer than normal.

My big question is, will I still be able to cast Magic Missile at The Darkness?

Olaf the Stout

 

[justinsluder]

My big question is, will I still be able to cast Magic Missile at The Darkness?

Olaf the Stout

There are some things which can never be killed.

 

[Balgus]

Or you can always aim at the monster in the darkness

 

[marune]

I hope rogues will be able to sneak attack elsewhere than in full light

 

[Stalker0]

I hope they drop the whole light generates 20 feet of light, etc etc, and just make a big area lighted or not. Its such a pain in the butt if you do it by the book, you have to measure out light areas, see whose in full light, whose in shadowy, etc etc.