"I tuck the sunrod in my belt".

[Delgar]

Since I've been recently using maptools, using light sources has become important and easier to track. But without it I probably wouldn't bother or track it too closely.

 

[Patlin]

I think sunrod sticking out of the backpack is fairly standard for my group. In 3rd edition, I frequently had continual light cast on some piece of equipment, such as a non-magical amulet. The expense was only noticeable in the early levels.

In 4e, my Druid likes the ritual (darklight?) that creates a light only he can see, as a compliment to stealth.

 

[Zinovia]

I think reducing the radius covered by the light source is fair if it's not being held up by someone. A pocket at the top of a backpack makes some sense though, and might get around this. Mostly It doesn't come up that often for us.

My group loves the darklight ritual (FRPG), and uses it frequently. It creates a 5 square radius of light that only those within it can see. I need to keep track of how far everyone is from the caster, because once they step out of that range, it's dark and they have no light source. This has caused the rogue to begin looking for an item to grant darkvision. I've told him no way on the excessively broken Cannith Goggles from an Eberron Dragon article. They grant darkvision for 24 hours if you burn a daily, and a +2 to perception all the time as well, as a level 1 item.

I nerfed sunrods down to a 10 square radius, since they were flat out better than every other option otherwise. I want them to be like a lantern, only more convenient, rather than a portable arc light capable of illuminating a football field during a blackout at moon dark (I know, 20 squares is only 100' radius, so not quite enough to get 100 yards, but it does cover 2/3 of it!).

 

[Felon]

I'd say sure, but it halves the distance that the light travels. Seems like a reasonable tradeoff.

Hmm. To me the trade-off is that in exchange for being able to see, they're shining a big light that makes their presence a dead givieaway.

Is the gist of this thread that a PC should forego a shield, a two-handed weapon or some other use of a hand just to be able to function in lightless places? Seems to me my canny players would make themselves some sunrod helmets. Such a contrivance would actually shine the light more effectively in all directions than holding it in their hands (where the body of the holder would block it in one direction).

 

[caudor]

Seeing Light Dog

Well, I suppose one could tote along a seeing-light-dog...a dog with sunrods strapped all over him

Need to see down that chasm, just lower him down on a rope. If he sees something, he'd surely bark.

If you pull him up and nothing is there, you'd know for sure that something really bad is down there.

Ah, well...April Fools Day is just getting to me I suppose

 

[Felon]

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.

I think the point of sunrods being so good is the same point behind behind rituals like Create Campsite and Unseen Servant (which to me is more ornerous than sunrods). Namely, for every chore or inconvenience the DM might think to throw in a PC's path, there should be some magical remedy that spare them the hassle. PC's simply shouldn't have to worry about darkness, starvation, thirst, getting lost, and other problems that you can't simply blast away at.

I'm not on board with that way of thinking, but I get it. And I also get that people in modern times take heatless light sources and affix them to their head so they can have their hands free. It conjures a silly visual, but I can't begrudge the PC's needing their hands for things, so I'd just as soon let them strap the rod to their shield, stick it out of their backpack, or what have you.

I think Kinneus scenario could work. You just need a reason the PC's can't go cracking sunrods (seems to me like even torches would thwart the design). In the real world, people have to worry about light giving their position. You could set up something similar here, where there's something the players don't want to attract (maybe something nastier than a random zombie).

 

[Felon]

Well, I suppose one could tote along a seeing-light-dog...a dog with sunrods strapped all over him

Unseen Servant can do many things a dog can't, and it can hold a sunrod.

 

[Rechan]

In my experience, players either carry it and then just DROP it when combat starts, or THROW it. The sunrod lights up a HUGE area, so there's no reason to cling to it.

And that's why I HATE sunrods. They make lowlight vision pointless, they light up an entire area. Want any area lit up? Throw a new sunrod.

 

[eriktheguy]

I don't see why you would halve the distance (or why every advantage has to have a cost tradeoff for that matter) It's easy to imagine a small leather strap tied around a sunrod covering less than 10% of it. To be honest, I never track the distance of those light sources, I just assume the players can see. Monster's in shadows that I feel are far away are considered hidden.

 

[eriktheguy]

In my experience, players either carry it and then just DROP it when combat starts, or THROW it. The sunrod lights up a HUGE area, so there's no reason to cling to it.

And that's why I HATE sunrods. They make lowlight vision pointless, they light up an entire area. Want any area lit up? Throw a new sunrod.

Our table has never really used low-light vision in combat either. I guess this goes with not tracking light sources. We use these things more in RP, characters with low-light vision might notice things that other players miss.

I guess if I get em into a dark fight I could always try going for their light source.