D&D 5E does Daylight make daylight?

[jayoungr]

When I ran HotDQ, I did rule that daylight damaged a vampire just as sunlight would. But it never occurred to me that it might not be the same thing. Oh well. The players were happy that they didn't have to fight a vampire that was well above their CR.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

No it does not. Because Sunbeam exists.

 

[ExploderWizard]

No it does not. Because Sunbeam exists.

What does a loaf of bread have to do with anything?

 

[Rod Staffwand]

What does a loaf of bread have to do with anything?

Regular bread or garlic bread?

 

[Kalshane]

Daylight is simply unfortunately named. In 3rd Ed it took the place of Continual Light from previous editions, but with removal of the permanent duration (which was bestowed on the new spell Continual Flame). It's basically just Improved/Greater Light.

Effects that actually function as sunlight are called out as such (Sunbeam, Sunburst, the Light cleric's Radiance of the Dawn ability, etc). So no, I would not allow Daylight to count as sunlight.

 

[indemnity]

It sounds like a dumb question but the spell's description doesn't say that it's actual daylight. Just a "sphere of light." This is of some concern if fighting a vampire.

Well huh, I wonder what wavelength the light is.

Probably non-ionising as it doesn't do damage (it can attack the darkness), so >300 nm I guess. The name suggests it is visible to humanoids during daylight, so probably <700 nm. If the sun in the realms is like ours, the most intense colour is green (http://solar-center.stanford.edu/SID/activities/GreenSun.html)

No damaging UV or hot IR, but definitely in the blue-red spectrum. Unless the monster is photosensitive, I think it is just like an LED torch.

 

[evilbob]

I didn't want to bump the thread since I feel like it's been answered pretty well at this point, but people keep responding so I'll just go ahead and say: I'm convinced! It's not actually sunlight. Thanks for weighing in! This is one of the best parts of this forum.

 

[Khisanth the Ancient]

Well huh, I wonder what wavelength the light is.

So maybe the reason light/daylight spells don't injure vampires is the lack of UV? That would make sense, because fires are generally a lot cooler than the sun so firelight wouldn't contain much UV.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

So maybe the reason light/daylight spells don't injure vampires is the lack of UV? That would make sense, because fires are generally a lot cooler than the sun so firelight wouldn't contain much UV.

MAGIC.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Looking for any scientific reason for some light to harm vampires and other light not to is not only an exercise in futility, but--IMO--completely misses the point of the vampire mythology. Sunlight harms them for mystical and spiritual reasons, not due to any factor that can be measured.