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Revisiting RAW Darkness Spell
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<blockquote data-quote="Rabulias" data-source="post: 8261122" data-attributes="member: 16651"><p>I am firmly in the inky, impenetrable <em>darkness </em>spell camp. The spell could be more clear in its description of the effect, but I think the intent is obvious.</p><p></p><p>For those who say it is not that, what purpose does the spell serve in general terms within the game? A buff? Debuff? Offensive? Defensive? Within the fiction, what was the goal of the wizard who created the <em>darkness </em>spell?</p><p></p><p>Why this gets all wonky is it creates an area of <em>something </em>(darkness) that is not a thing in the real world. Darkness is the <em>absence </em>of visible light, not a thing unto itself.</p><p></p><p>We see things by receiving light that is emitted by or reflected off an object. Basically there are two ways that someone's vision would not see a target: 1) A barrier prevents some or all of the light from the object from reaching the viewer's eyes (<em>obscurement</em>), or 2) Not enough light is being emitted by or reflected off the object to register in the viewer's eyes (<em>darkness</em>). The 5e rules for Obscurement (big o) are simple and straightforward, and work fine for obscurement (small o), IMO, but applying the Obscurement rules to natural darkness does not always work.</p><p></p><p>I think of the <em>darkness </em>spell as a sphere of "anti-light;" no visible light can exist within its confines, so it cannot be seen out of, into, or through, except by a higher-level <em>light </em>spell (or an effect like Devil's Sight that specifies it sees through magical <em>darkness</em>). A higher-level <em>light </em>spell works as it simply overpowers the <em>darkness </em>spell, and things like Devil's Sight work because they use a wavelength other than visible light.</p><p></p><p>IMO, <em>darkness </em>is mainly a multi-purpose battlefield control spell. It can be a handy to effectively blind a number of opponents at once for a short time for either offensive or defensive uses. If the caster has Devil's Sight or similar, they magnify the offensive and defensive utility of <em>darkness</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rabulias, post: 8261122, member: 16651"] I am firmly in the inky, impenetrable [I]darkness [/I]spell camp. The spell could be more clear in its description of the effect, but I think the intent is obvious. For those who say it is not that, what purpose does the spell serve in general terms within the game? A buff? Debuff? Offensive? Defensive? Within the fiction, what was the goal of the wizard who created the [I]darkness [/I]spell? Why this gets all wonky is it creates an area of [I]something [/I](darkness) that is not a thing in the real world. Darkness is the [I]absence [/I]of visible light, not a thing unto itself. We see things by receiving light that is emitted by or reflected off an object. Basically there are two ways that someone's vision would not see a target: 1) A barrier prevents some or all of the light from the object from reaching the viewer's eyes ([I]obscurement[/I]), or 2) Not enough light is being emitted by or reflected off the object to register in the viewer's eyes ([I]darkness[/I]). The 5e rules for Obscurement (big o) are simple and straightforward, and work fine for obscurement (small o), IMO, but applying the Obscurement rules to natural darkness does not always work. I think of the [I]darkness [/I]spell as a sphere of "anti-light;" no visible light can exist within its confines, so it cannot be seen out of, into, or through, except by a higher-level [I]light [/I]spell (or an effect like Devil's Sight that specifies it sees through magical [I]darkness[/I]). A higher-level [I]light [/I]spell works as it simply overpowers the [I]darkness [/I]spell, and things like Devil's Sight work because they use a wavelength other than visible light. IMO, [I]darkness [/I]is mainly a multi-purpose battlefield control spell. It can be a handy to effectively blind a number of opponents at once for a short time for either offensive or defensive uses. If the caster has Devil's Sight or similar, they magnify the offensive and defensive utility of [I]darkness[/I]. [/QUOTE]
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