Shadow Blend and Darkvision.

[Thomas Hobbes]

Hey there. Curious about how Shadow Blend and Darkvision worked together, I sent an e-mail off to Wizards customer service. Here's what I sent, and here's what I said. Having gotten this reponse (Darkvision negates Shadow Blend), I thought I'd ask all of you what you think of it.

Here's what I wrote:

Two templates, the "shadow" template from the Manual of the Planes and the Shadow-bound template from the Wizards.com website (found at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20030728a) both have the supernatural ability Shadow Blend, which reads as follows on the shadow-bound template:

Shadow Blend (Su): In conditions other than full daylight, a shadow-bound creature can wrap itself in shadows, giving it concealment. Attacks against a creature with concealment suffer a 20% miss chance (see the Chapter 8: Combat in the Player's Handbook for more information on concealment). Artificial illumination, even a light or continual flame spell, does not negate this ability. A daylight spell, however, will.

And as follows from the Shadow template:

Shadow Blend (Su): In conditions other than full daylight, a Shadow creature can disappear into the shadows, giving it nine-tenths concealment. Artificial illumination, even a light or continual flame spell, does not negate this ability. A daylight spell, however, will.

The 3.5 D&D update booklet upgrades the concealment granted from the Shadow template to full.

My question is whether or not Darkvision would negate this concealment. If a creature has darkvision, they can see through the shadows; but Shadow Blend seems to rely only on the presence of shadows, whether or not someone can see through them.

And here's what they wrote:

In the PHB it indicates, "Concealment isn't always effective. For instance, a shadowy area or darkness doesn't provide any condealment against an opponent with darkvision."

To me, this indicates that a character/creature with darkvision would not be fooled by those using "shadow" abilities to conceal themselves.

Good Gaming!

 

[3d6]

I think they're nuts. If non-magical lighting and most magical lighting isn't enough to reveal them, the it's obviously not hard to see them because of lack of light. Thus, darkvision shouldn't help.

 

[Thomas Hobbes]

That was my thought too; in much the same way darkvision doesn't negate magical darkness, it wouldn't negate the supernatural ability shadow blend.