Darkness - What is "shadowy illumination"?

[werk]

No worries.

I just see thread after thread where people denounce the darkess spell for no reason other than it lightens dark areas...a little. While that may exist in a strict RAW interpretation, I don't think it is a reason for wholesale slander of a perfectly good spell.

 

[Dracorat]

Now that it has been likened to candlelight, I like the analogy. It makes sense. (But it still darkens otherwise lit areas. =] )

 

[Bad Paper]

Out of curiosity, in the same paragraph, you say that anything other than the 3.5 description is asking for trouble, and also that it doesn't make natural darkness brighter. I'm having trouble understanding the contradiction.

The spell radiates shadowy illumination. A candle radiates shadowy illumination. What do you consider the difference to be?

I do not believe that it creates light. If it did, it would have the [Light] descriptor. Furthermore, it would probably appear on the Light Sources and Illumination table. I would be willing to believe that it creates light-and-dark if it had the [Shadow] descriptor.

Does somebody want to pester WotC CustServ on this, just so we know the wrong answer?

 

[Klaus]

Now that it has been likened to candlelight, I like the analogy. It makes sense. (But it still darkens otherwise lit areas. =] )

Thanks. In true Ravenloftian form, you could say that at the point of origin of the spell a ghostly hand holding a candle appears. When the spell runs out, the candle is blowed out, as if someone invisible blew it out.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I do not believe that it creates light. If it did, it would have the [Light] descriptor. Furthermore, it would probably appear on the Light Sources and Illumination table.

Flaming Sphere does not have the [Light] descriptor, nor does it appear on the table, yet it illuminates an area.

The [Light] and [Darkness] descriptors don't seem to have any meaning in the core rules except to define which spells counter, dispel, or suppress each other. (In some supplements, I think there are PrCs which gain bonuses to [Light] spells.) But whether or not they illuminate an area doesn't seem to be related to the descriptor; Sunbeam, for example, has the [Light] descriptor but doesn't seem to illuminate an area.

-Hyp.

 

[Dracorat]

For the duration of this spell, you can use a standard action to evoke a dazzling beam of intense light each round.

Since it's an instantaneous effect, not lighting up the area makes sense.

As far as descriptors go:

The descriptors are acid, air, chaotic, cold, darkness, death, earth, electricity, evil, fear, fire, force, good, language-dependent, lawful, light, mind-affecting, sonic, and water.

Most of these descriptors have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how the spell interacts with other spells, with special abilities, with unusual creatures, with alignment, and so on.

 

[Drowbane]

Anybody else find it silly that a spell called expeditious retreat also works when you're charging at your enemy?

If I really needed to justify it, I'd say that darkness was named with the same level of precision.

1) is a source of poor-lighting.

2) can actually be used for its name (back in 2e, it did only work if you ran away... IIRC)