Darkness - What is "shadowy illumination"?

[Dracorat]

Yeah, quite disappointing, isn't it?

 

[Cedric]

It really seems like one more effort by WotC to eliminate spells that can be used in a variety of creative ways and boil them down to some boring, predictable effect.

However, it usually backfires, because players are smart...I've seen darkness as it exists in 3.5 used as a stealth spell. Cast in areas of complete natural darkness when you need just a bit of light to make something possible, but don't want to tell the whole area, hey...someone turned a light on.

Cedric

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

The problem with true darkness is that it can be manipulated by the user(s) to the extent that it makes some battles unfair and it slows things down to a crawl.

Maybe if it was true darkness and anyone who entered always had to roll 1d8 to determine which direction they were going in, it would be a little bit nerfed but still usable. So long as people don't have the ability to see in the magical darkness.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Dull but playable.

AoW, Three Faces of Evil, one fight with Darkness-as-Darkness took most of a session for a short combat because the PCs AND THE MONSTERS spent most of the time stumbling around in the darkness, moving at half, making balance checks for rough flooring in the dark, 50% miss chance, groping around in the dark to find things (with 50% miss chance) ... we used the Listen Check/d8 method for locomotion as well ... we were also using "Hampered Movement" for "poor visibility" so the GM was calling for Balance checks unless we moved at 1/4 speed ...

Nobody, including the GM, had much fun with it. We decided, if it was that much of a total PITA to do anything in Darkness, we'd have to cover everything in Darkness at every opportunity and funnel the badguys into the lighted areas where we were. Then he'd have to do the same thing. Then every combat from there on out would be an utter nightmare of constant checks, random movement, and 5' steps.

--fje

 

[Stalker0]

Second...I clear the mini's from the area of darkness, note where the players and bad guys are on graph paper personally, and make them talk through their actions which I track on the graph paper.

So instead of moving a mini, you have to recreate the battleboard on graph paper.

Aka slowing down combat

 

[Cedric]

So instead of moving a mini, you have to recreate the battleboard on graph paper.

Aka slowing down combat

You could infer that if you want, but anyone who has ever played with me as the GM would not complain that my combats are slow.

For one thing, I don't give people all day to think about their next action. When I think someone is being slow, I put them on a 15 second clock. If they want more time to decide what to do, they can play a different game.

 

[elijah snow]

Well, I guess it might be best to stick with it as is to keep combat short.

 

[Thanee]

I would make one change to Darkness... it does not create shadowy illumination, but it limits light in the area to shadowy illumination instead; it doesn't make a dark room any brighter than it is, because that is just silly.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Dracorat]

Yeah but RAW darkess does.

Have I mentioned I don't like the spell?

I don't like the spell. =)

 

[KarinsDad]

So instead of moving a mini, you have to recreate the battleboard on graph paper.

Aka slowing down combat

What do you do in total darkness anyway?

Darkness conditions still exist in the game rules. They are rare in actual play, but they exist.