"I tuck the sunrod in my belt".

[Nytmare]

Now I usually just give a delver's light as one of the first treasure items or floating lantern it's easier that way.

I forgot about the floating lantern.

Once they run through this trick about a dozen times or so they effectively start losing money, right?

Is light really that big an issue for normal adventuring past the early heroic levels?

 

[Xyrlove Woodsoul]

I let my players put them in their belts and other places, but I make sun rods a standard action, to activate or deactivate.

I'm a bit draconian.

 

[Aulirophile]

Remember Sunrods shed MAGICAL light in 20 squares. Lashing it to a weapon, putting it in a barrel, etc., still sheds light in 20 squares. So says CustServ anyway.

 

[Chronosome]

Say what now? A sunrod in a barrel still sheds light beyond the barrel? That's ridiculous. If physical barriers can't prevent magical light, then a sunrod is a poor choice of something to carry while exploring, well, any enemy lair with walls.

 

[renau1g]

That seems like an awesome prank then. Ok, so I'm in Waterdeep/{insert large city name} and it's late at night. I grab a bunch of sunrods and activate them outside a nobleman's residence. I run away and the magic light penetrates the brick home and wakes him up.

That's just one example of the hijinks I can think of with them...imagine ruining the mood at a bordello with bright light appearing....

Ahh....customer service, you try hard I'll give you that.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I guess the real question is:

Does darkness actually add anything to your game?

Without heavy modifications to the existing rules, I doubt it. The light rules as written are basically presented as a big screw to use against the PCs if they neglect to write "a light source" on their character sheet.

If you're going to go all out and actually work out where shadowy areas on a battlefield are, and actually play monsters as if they don't want to stumble about in the dark all the time, then I'd say feel free to enforce accurate usage of light sources along with it. I think such a system has the potential to add a lot to the game (ok, if you move over there with our light source, then I have concealment because I'm in the shadows from that statue, so I can hide!) but also a lot of complexity.

 

[Aulirophile]

I guess the real question is:

Does darkness actually add anything to your game?

Without heavy modifications to the existing rules, I doubt it. The light rules as written are basically presented as a big screw to use against the PCs if they neglect to write "a light source" on their character sheet.

If you're going to go all out and actually work out where shadowy areas on a battlefield are, and actually play monsters as if they don't want to stumble about in the dark all the time, then I'd say feel free to enforce accurate usage of light sources along with it. I think such a system has the potential to add a lot to the game (ok, if you move over there with our light source, then I have concealment because I'm in the shadows from that statue, so I can hide!) but also a lot of complexity.

At least one game I'm in actively keeps track of light sources. We have two. A torch in the hands of the Bard, who holds it in the same hand his light shield is on, and a Paladin with a magic Longsword that can shed light as an at-will within 4-5 squares. Two of the party have low-light, two don't. It really isn't that complicated once you get used to it, not any worse then stealth rules. We houseruled away Sunrods, they don't exist.

I imagine my other group will really get involved with it soon, as well, just because of the party composition.

 

[Nytmare]

At least one game I'm in actively keeps track of light sources.

...

We houseruled away Sunrods, they don't exist.

That actually makes me wonder how these numbers line up with people who would normally pay attention to light sources on the battle map if Sunrods didn't fill pretty much the entire battlemap with light.

In my game (currently in the Eberron Underdark), we have light sources, we track them on the map, lots of fighting takes place on that border between where lights end and darkness begins, and sunrods are available if people want to purchase them (everybody keeps one or two on them, but they're only used in a pinch).

 

[Kinneus]

Yeah, it seems to me like if you want to get any mileage out of light resources or darkness/dim light obstacles, you need to neutralize sunrods somehow. I once had a great idea for a dark dungeon filled with a bunch of zombies shuffling around randomly... you could sneak by them, but had to figure out where they were based on Perception checks/sound. I pictured lots of nervous Stealth roles with the party scurrying from one beam of faint moonlight to the next. Undead moans would fill the air, and some great horror moments when a rotting hand burst through the dimness to drag somebody into deeper darkness...

And then I realized that a single sunrod would invalidate the entire thing, and decided to scrap the idea. So long as one PC has at least one sunrod, then I don't worry about lighting whatsoever.

 

[Jhaelen]

I've learned years ago not to worry about this. In fact the first thing that my 3e players bought when we started our campaign was a necklace with a pendant that had permanent light cast on it.

If you look at any of the published adventure modules (at least the ones from WotC), you'll notice that (almost) every encounter includes sufficient light sources anyway. Darkness isn't en vogue, any more