Darkness+Devil's Sight is killing my campaign

[Dandu]

Yeah, dips for powergaming are the worst. It's just like that time I took a level in martial artist for the gun-fu perk when my base class was chemist for three solid levels.

 

[Eltab]

OP:
If your group is not travelling often or quickly, word WILL get out about them and their tactics. Feel free to have some BBEGs and smart Enemies start to prepare for the known danger.

- Traps don't care if they can see you, you just step on the trigger plate - which you can't see any difference between it and all the other stones that make up the floor - and they go Bang.
- Poison gas will look like fog in the dark, I would think.
- Troglodytes don't have to hit you, they just have to be close by your nose, to mess you up.
- Drow might see the PCs as a challenge to their notions of cultural superiority. Who has longer-ranged Darkvision?
- Magical lantern that sheds dim light no matter what spells are operating around it. (Only works in that particular room.)
- Have the blinded enemy retreat through a door and close it, (now they are in light again), and set up an ambush for "when something opens the door".
- Maybe the head of the Thieves Guild DOES have a way to extract a favor from a youngling dragon...
- Bat-stirges (may be described as "vampire bats"): use blindsight and drain HP.
- Medusas use Gaze attacks, but they are truly just scouts for the REAL threat in this dungeon.
- Can all the PCs see in the magical dark? If not, a stairwell behind a door will be entertaining.
- A monster with Tremorsense (an Earth Elemental?) can find you as long as you step along the ground.
- A monster with Tremorsense and a Tunnel speed can swipe at the PCs then hide within the walls. Pppphhhtt !
- 4e Kobolds got a bunch of low-damage "grenade"-like weapons that had status effects attached. They threw a beehive into the Darkness just to bug you (pun intended).

 

[Greenfield]

Your "magic lantern" idea is a bit contrived. A perfectly ordinary Everburning Torch will do the job.

Continual Flame, cast by a Cleric, is a 3rd level spell with the Light descriptor. Its light automatically ends any lower level Darkness spell it encounters.

It will also take down Deeper Darkness", which is also 3rd level, though it gives it's "life" to do so.

But if it's prepared using Heighten Spell to make the Continual Flame a spell of 4th level or higher, then it takes down every standard Darkness spell/effect in the book, even the huge area version cast by a Black Dragon.

Now, where would an adventurer encounter such a marvelous bit of magic? In any town that sells adventuring gear (in other words, it's right out of the equipment section of the PHB.)

To put it more simply, their tactic should have been failing, regularly, almost from the start. It should be a non-issue.

And here's the best part: Does the adventuring party have any of those among their own members' gear?

 

[CapnZapp]

This thread radiates a moderate necromancy aura.

Other than that, it's eerie to see how little the game has changed in this particular regard.

 

[elgatochurro]

do not disallow it, work around it... honestly.. you're a DM youre supposed to be able to handle players powers and decisions more than anything else. have the monsters be more spread out...

not only that but you can make a whole campaign based on this, idk about the drow but Devils and demons all have devils sight as well, nullifying the tactic, while i dont mean run only encounters that can nullify their party, a campaign around such creatures popping up would be excellent. you also dont need to pile on the enemies in one area and you can in fact have them move about in darkness, they do not need to see in order to walk, but it may obstruct their movement, id base their success on a int check with the enemies.

 

[elgatochurro]

why though?

 

[amethal]

This thread just will not die ...

 

[Greenfield]

The Darkness spell is 2nd level, or a "Least invocation", meaning it's the equivalent of a 1st level spell when used by a Warlock

Continual Flame
Evocation [Light]
Level: Clr 3, Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Object touched
Effect: Magical, heatless flame
Duration: Permanent
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
A flame, equivalent in brightness to a torch, springs forth from an object that you touch. The effect looks like a regular flame, but it creates no heat and doesn’t use oxygen. A continual flame can be covered and hidden but not smothered or quenched.
Light spells counter and dispel darkness spells of an equal or lower level.
Material Component: You sprinkle ruby dust (worth 50 gp) on the item that is to carry the flame.

As shown, Continual Flame is a 2nd level Evocation(Light) spell (3rd if the caster is a Cleric), and counters or cancels any Darkness effect of the same or lower level.

So if anyone in the party has a Continual flame torch in the area, bye-bye Darkness.

If any opponent has an Eternal Torch, as sold in the Player's Handbook, bye-bye Darkness.

If there are any such torches or lights along the halls of the dungeon or structure you're in, bye-bye Darkness.

I used to play with a DM whose group-monsters *ALWAYS* used Darkness. Somehow his monsters were never hindered by it. He nearly went ballistic when my Cleric brought out his forever-light and took the Darkness away.

But that very common item, one that almost every adventuring party has, makes the whole problem go away.