Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7238397" data-attributes="member: 58172">Illumination Spellsfrom the worst ... to the best!0-Level CantripsLess UsefulProduce Flame 0Not BadLight 0Dancing Lights 01st-Level SpellsSetup−less usefulDaylight 3Darkvision 2−not badContinual Flame 2−goodFog Cloud 1Darkness 2Note, many spells radiate illumination. Compare, Flaming Sphere, Guiding Bolt, Faerie Fire, Lightning Arrow, and so on. However, the spells listed above create or negate illumination as their main effect. The Prestidigation-style cantrips are also absent from the list because they can only produce fire if an actual candle, torch, or campsite is already present, making their spark even less useful than that of a flint stone in a tinderbox that can ignite any kind of flammable material.Illumination. The need for illumination generally happens when: one is in the wilderness at nighttime, inside a cave or similar underground ‘dungeon’, in a Human habitat but inside an uninhabited room or building, or one filled with sleepers at night, or in a Nonhuman habitat such as a Dwarf manor underground. The need for illumination happens often enough. But, it is easy and inexpensive to carry a torch, lantern, or candle. A torch can be dropped to illuminate from the ground to keep the hands free during combat. And so on.Light 0 is Not Bad for a cantrip. It makes any object radiate an aura of light as a light source. The object can be upto 10-foot diameter, and its illumination extends across close range (20 foot radius) and is bright. One can even target an arrow to shoot it to illuminate a distant area. The ability to generate light at will, without occupying ones hand, even underwater, has situational value in combat or in long expeditions. The Light cantrip sets the standard for magical illumination in the 5e D&D gaming system.Produce Flame 0 is comparable to Light 0, but Less Useful. The hand conjures a torch-like flame, at will. The description is ambiguous, but the 10-foot radius illumination seems to still burns if this hand also holds a sword or so on, since this flame wont burn oneself or ones own equipment. As a minor feature, the flame can also be thrown at a target to deal 1d8 fire damage, if that is useful for some situation. The use as a weapon seems less effective than other damage cantrips, and the use as illumination is not as effective as the Light cantrip. This is an other case where small fiddly abilities fail to add up to a more significant utility. Again, weapons such as arrows and light sources such as torches, are normally already present without wasting a cantrip slot.(Perhaps it is better to fold the description of Produce Flame into one of the other fire-manipulating cantrips, as an additional feature, such as Control Flames, or Create Bonfire, or even Thaumaturgy, or Prestidigitation or Druidcraft.)Create Bonfire 0ee fails to mention its illumination, but a ‘bonfire’ necessarily radiates quite a bit of light. Its main purpose is as a Less Useful attack spell to catch a hostile within it. Arguably, its bright light makes it more useful than Produce Flame, and its similar 1d8 damage does half damage on a failed save.Dancing Lights 0 is comparable to Light 0, but probably slightly better. It creates four independent light sources at short range, thus can instantly illuminate distant hostiles without illuminating oneself. For amusing flavor its four auras of light can merge to form vague human-sized animate shapes.The spell, Continual Flame 2, is less effective than a 2nd-level spell slot. There are already easy ways to generate illumination, when needed. The need for non-fiery light, such as underwater is situational. Moreover, the several cantrips that have this capability are permanent and at will. In other words, even ‘continual’ light is typically available. A situation is infrequent when a torch or a cantrip is unavailable, where it might become useful to spend a 2nd-level spell slot. And even if used as a Setup spell cast during down time, Continual Flame costs 50 gp to cast, the same price as a ten lanterns. If a character requires it, it might make more sense to hire an NPC to cast the spell on an object for the light source.For the moment, the Continual Flame spell locates as a 1st-level Not Bad Setup spell, meant to be cast during downtime for an upcoming adventure, or simply to illuminate ones own ‘lair’. (Relative to other spells in the 1st-level list, I would probably rather have Continual Light 3 than Reincarnation 5, and would probably rather have Alarm 1 than Continual Light 3. Continual Light offers an effectiveness that seems on the cusp between Less Useful and Not Bad for a 1st-level Setup spell.)As a 1st-level spell, one can still cast Continual Flame (or cast Daylight) by heightening its spell slot for it to a 3rd-level spell slot, in order to negate the Darkness 2 spell, according to the Darkness spell description.Daylight 3 is yet an other method for generating illumination. It lasts 1 hour, and is not even continual. Its brightness extends to a short range radius (upto 60 feet). Cast it on an object to make the illumination mobile. Heh, cast it on a lantern to make a brighter lantern. For most situations, a lantern that illuminates for 6 hours is more useful than this 1 hour spell. Note, this socalled ‘daylight’ fails to qualify as ‘sunlight’ that might harm Drow, Undead, Oozes, or so on. The main purpose of the Daylight spell appears to be to negate magical Darkness. However, at 3rd-level, Dispel Magic is a Good spell that also does this among many other kinds of usefulness. In general, Daylight 3 feels more like a 1st-level spell that is Less Useful than Continual Flame 2. Perhaps it could be cast as a 1-hour Setup spell. It is difficult to imagine wasting an action to cast it during combat. Nevermind, it is painful to waste a spell slot for only 1 hour of illumination.Even if it could be cast as a bonus action it might have been more useful during combat. As is, Daylight is a disappointing spell.Darkness 2 blocks sight, even Darkvision, at short range, targeting a 15-foot radius for 10 minutes. Yet at 1st level, Fog Cloud 1 is probably a better spell, doing the same thing, but at twice the range, targeting a 20-foot radius for 1 hour. Moreover Fog Cloud negates even high level illumination spells. However, a wind of 10 miles or more disperses Fog Cloud, making it less useful outdoors if windy. Darkness can be cast on an unattended object to make the obscuration mobile. In other words, situationally Darkness is better.It is easy to exit both Fog Cloud and Darkness with a single 30 foot move, making both situationally useful to require Setup.Mainly, the spell will temporarily neutralize distant hostiles (archers and casters) while ‘focus firing’ on near hostiles.Darkness and Fog Cloud blind the visibility of both allies and hostiles, making the benefits of its disadvantage a wash. It requires Setup to create a circumstance where hostiles can be contained in the obscuration, or allies can obviate it, or a temporary blinding of hostiles is circumstantially useful. Both spells seem 1st level Good spells that require Setup to make worthwhile.Darkvision 2 allows colorless vision in nonmagical darkness. It only benefits when in darkness and competes with the ease of illumination. But moreso the spell offers no benefit if any team mate lacks Darkvision thus requires illumination. The notable advantage of Darkness is highly situational: if all team members enjoy darkvision, and if the area is in total darkness, and if all hostiles lack darkvision, then it is functionally equivalent to Invisibility 2 versus those hostiles. Yet Invisibility itself is a 2nd-level spell that requires none of these significant situational prerequisties. In comparison, Darkvision is less powerful than Invisibility.Darkvision seems a 1st-level Less Useful Setup spell, that is cast ahead of time for a situation that might benefit from operating in total darkness. The clue to its meriting 1st level, is the normalcy of Nonhuman races having Darkvision automatically at 1st level, as well as the spell itself having a duration for 8 hours, all without a hint of being too powerful. Note, most Nonhuman hostiles will also have darkvision thus negating any advantage against them. The fact that the spell description for Darkness requires concentration, makes the Darkness spell painfully inferior because casting it to see in darkness, effectively negates ones own ability to cast decent spells (that require concentration) for the next 8 hours.</blockquote>

Verification