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*Dungeons & Dragons
Darkvision and Magical Darkness
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<blockquote data-quote="darbyrm" data-source="post: 9464404" data-attributes="member: 7047320"><p>The specific to general only works when the mechanic is referenced directly. So if Devil's Sight said "The Darkness spell doesn't impede the Imp's darkvision." then it would overcome that mechanic. But, it says "Magical darkness doesn't impede the imp's darkvision." By Crawford's ruling this is nonsensical, because ALL darkvision is not impeded by magical darkness. That is like getting a magical item that lets you see in bright light. You would look at that and say 'Um, why do I need this, I can already see in bright light.'.</p><p></p><p>This this case we have 3 rule elements:</p><p>Darkvision: "If you have Darkvision, you can see in Dim Light within a specified range as if it were Bright Ligth and in Darkness within that range as if it were Dim Light." (Very General)</p><p>Devil's Sight (Creature Version): "Magical darkness doesn't impede the (creature)'s darkvision." (More specific, affects all spells that create darkness or wording that says 'Magical Darkness'.)</p><p>Darkness (Spell) "A creature with darkvision can't see through <strong>this</strong> darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it." (Very specific, only darkness from this spell.)</p><p></p><p>In this case (using Crawford's interpretation) the spell is the most specific, it says 'A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness.' Devil's Sight has absolutely no bearing on this, it doesn't matter if it can see through magical darkness with Darkvision, all creatures can see through magical darkness with darkvision (according to Crawford) so the specific wording of Darkness blocks their darkvision. If there was a spell called Piercing Fire for instance that said 'The fire created by this spell ignores all resistances and immunities' it would be clear that a monster with fire immunity would not be immune to this spell, even if their resistance said 'works even on magical fire.' The spell text takes precedent. As I said, if the correct interpretation, as Crawford says, is that the Darkness spell doesn't explain what magical darkness is, and that the spell's rules are specific rules to the darkness spell only, it is the specific source and overrides Devil's Sight on the Imp which only generally lets them see in Magical Darkness - a completely redundant ability.</p><p></p><p>This is true for the Warlock's Devil's Sight and Truesight, but not for Creature's Devil's Sight. Creature's Devil's Sight is written "Magical darkness doesn't impede the (Creature)'s darkvision." Crawford's ruling makes this completely a useless ability as he ruled all darkvision isn't impeded by magical darkness - only by specific spells that are worded to block darkvision.</p><p></p><p>All that said I agree with you that Devil's Sight -should- work on the Darkness spell... but that is because I don't agree with Crawford's ruling. The Darkness spell says "Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot-radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it." You can look at it two ways, either Crawford's way in that the first and third sentences have nothing to do with each other, they are separate rules and thus a creature with darkvision not being able to see through this darkness has nothing to do with it being magical darkness OR the third sentence clarifies the first and explains how magical darkness works generally. If the latter, which is my interpretation and the interpretation that doesn't break other game mechanics and works as most player's assume it does (at least before Crawford's ruling), then Devil's Sight works just fine, and any spell that creates magical darkness follows the same rules including Summon Fey.</p><p></p><p>Finally, that third sentence causes even more problems for Crawford's ruling on Summon Fey. The 10' cube of Magical Darkness actually does absolutely nothing when you fully apply Crawford's ruling. "The fey can fill a 10-foot cube within 5 feet of it with magical darkness, which lasts until the end of its next turn." This does not mention that non-magical light can't illuminate it, and Crawford says that is part of the Darkness spell not magical darkness in general... so.... any light source can illuminate the fey spirit's magical darkness. That means the only place it works is in an area already in darkness. In other words, just like creature's version of Devil's Sight, this ability does nothing when applying Crawford's ruling.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="darbyrm, post: 9464404, member: 7047320"] The specific to general only works when the mechanic is referenced directly. So if Devil's Sight said "The Darkness spell doesn't impede the Imp's darkvision." then it would overcome that mechanic. But, it says "Magical darkness doesn't impede the imp's darkvision." By Crawford's ruling this is nonsensical, because ALL darkvision is not impeded by magical darkness. That is like getting a magical item that lets you see in bright light. You would look at that and say 'Um, why do I need this, I can already see in bright light.'. This this case we have 3 rule elements: Darkvision: "If you have Darkvision, you can see in Dim Light within a specified range as if it were Bright Ligth and in Darkness within that range as if it were Dim Light." (Very General) Devil's Sight (Creature Version): "Magical darkness doesn't impede the (creature)'s darkvision." (More specific, affects all spells that create darkness or wording that says 'Magical Darkness'.) Darkness (Spell) "A creature with darkvision can't see through [B]this[/B] darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it." (Very specific, only darkness from this spell.) In this case (using Crawford's interpretation) the spell is the most specific, it says 'A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness.' Devil's Sight has absolutely no bearing on this, it doesn't matter if it can see through magical darkness with Darkvision, all creatures can see through magical darkness with darkvision (according to Crawford) so the specific wording of Darkness blocks their darkvision. If there was a spell called Piercing Fire for instance that said 'The fire created by this spell ignores all resistances and immunities' it would be clear that a monster with fire immunity would not be immune to this spell, even if their resistance said 'works even on magical fire.' The spell text takes precedent. As I said, if the correct interpretation, as Crawford says, is that the Darkness spell doesn't explain what magical darkness is, and that the spell's rules are specific rules to the darkness spell only, it is the specific source and overrides Devil's Sight on the Imp which only generally lets them see in Magical Darkness - a completely redundant ability. This is true for the Warlock's Devil's Sight and Truesight, but not for Creature's Devil's Sight. Creature's Devil's Sight is written "Magical darkness doesn't impede the (Creature)'s darkvision." Crawford's ruling makes this completely a useless ability as he ruled all darkvision isn't impeded by magical darkness - only by specific spells that are worded to block darkvision. All that said I agree with you that Devil's Sight -should- work on the Darkness spell... but that is because I don't agree with Crawford's ruling. The Darkness spell says "Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot-radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it." You can look at it two ways, either Crawford's way in that the first and third sentences have nothing to do with each other, they are separate rules and thus a creature with darkvision not being able to see through this darkness has nothing to do with it being magical darkness OR the third sentence clarifies the first and explains how magical darkness works generally. If the latter, which is my interpretation and the interpretation that doesn't break other game mechanics and works as most player's assume it does (at least before Crawford's ruling), then Devil's Sight works just fine, and any spell that creates magical darkness follows the same rules including Summon Fey. Finally, that third sentence causes even more problems for Crawford's ruling on Summon Fey. The 10' cube of Magical Darkness actually does absolutely nothing when you fully apply Crawford's ruling. "The fey can fill a 10-foot cube within 5 feet of it with magical darkness, which lasts until the end of its next turn." This does not mention that non-magical light can't illuminate it, and Crawford says that is part of the Darkness spell not magical darkness in general... so.... any light source can illuminate the fey spirit's magical darkness. That means the only place it works is in an area already in darkness. In other words, just like creature's version of Devil's Sight, this ability does nothing when applying Crawford's ruling. [/QUOTE]
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