So. I'm running a Way of the Wicked campaign, and my PCs (all of whom have darkvision) have been making good use of darkness and deeper darkness against the good guys. And hey. It's a great tactic, and they're the bad guys, so I've had zero problems with it thus far. However, as the campaign progresses, I want to avoid allowing the party becoming a one-trick pony, so I'm setting out to improve my understanding of how the spells work and what methods can be used to counter them. For reference:
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, M/DF (bat fur and a piece of coal)
EFFECT
Range touch
Target object touched
Duration 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no
DESCRIPTION
This spell causes an object to radiate darkness out to a 20-foot radius. This darkness causes the illumination level in the area to drop one step, from bright light to normal light, from normal light to dim light, or from dim light to darkness. This spell has no effect in an area that is already dark. Creatures with light vulnerability or sensitivity take no penalties in normal light. All creatures gain concealment (20% miss chance) in dim light. All creatures gain total concealment (50% miss chance) in darkness. Creatures with darkvision can see in an area of dim light or darkness without penalty. Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness. Magical light sources only increase the light level in an area if they are of a higher spell level than darkness.
If darkness is cast on a small object that is then placed inside or under a lightproof covering, the spell's effect is blocked until the covering is removed.
This spell does not stack with itself. Darkness can be used to counter or dispel any light spell of equal or lower spell level.
[This content was created for the Pathfinder rules by Paizo Publishing LLC and is part of the Pathfinder RPG product line.]
DESCRIPTION
This spell functions as darkness, except that objects radiate darkness in a 60-foot radius and the light level is lowered by two steps. Bright light becomes dim light and normal light becomes darkness. Areas of dim light and darkness become supernaturally dark. This functions like darkness, but even creatures with darkvision cannot see within the spell's confines.
This spell does not stack with itself. Deeper darkness can be used to counter or dispel any light spell of equal or lower spell level.
Two main points I'd like to clarify.
One:
Quote:
Nonmagical sources of light, such as torches and lanterns, do not increase the light level in an area of darkness.
That leads me to think that in any sort of indoor situation, no matter how well it's mundanely lit with torches, braziers, or walls of falling lava, when you cast darkness, poof, it's instantly dark within the spell's area. Any light that isn't coming from a higher-spell-level magic effect doesn't do ANYTHING to provide illumination within the spell's area, meaning zero illumination, meaning darkness (or supernatural darkness, in Deeper's case). As far as I can tell, the only time when you won't get instant darkness is if you're outside and there's sunlight of some flavor. (I'm not even going to get into the discussion of whether or not the sun is a 'nonmagical source of light')
Does that seem to mesh with other peoples' understanding of the spells?
Two:
Would spells that give off light but don't actually have the light descriptor have the potential to illuminate within an area of darkness? For instance, a Wall of Fire. It's a fifth level spell, and it conjures a big wall of fire, which ostensibly should shed light. I'd imagine that would provide illumination within the area of even a Deeper Darkness spell, right?
Thoughts/comments are appreciated. In addition, if anyone has some other ideas for creative ways to circumvent or get rid of Darkness spells, I'd love to hear them. The old heightened Continual Flame trick is great and all, but finding other innovative ways to do it would be awesome.
Question: can a mindless creature utilize a teamwork feat?
I'm not asking if they can -get- a feat. Under normal circumstances, I know the answer is no. What I'm asking is whether, if they get the feat from another source, they are capable of utilizing it.
The party has a cavalier and a witch who's doing some necromancy stuff. Cavalier wants to use her tactician ability and wants to know if the witch's mindless skeletons and zombies would benefit from it.
Of course, then you're kind of screwed if you want to cast, because you have to be holding your bonded weapon in one hand. I'm imagining you'd have to be a pretty buff wizard to be able to heft around a freaking cannon in general, let alone one-handed. =P
So. I have a serious question and a silly question.
One of the other players in our soon-to-start Legacy of Fire campaign decided he wanted to make an archer character, going wizard/fighter into Arcane Archer. He decided for his wizard's bonded object he wanted to take a masterwork composite longbow with a strength rating of +4. Which is valued at 800g. Several -times- more than a first-level character's expected wealth. Our DM vetoed it, just on principle, but I'm still curious. Is there anything anywhere in the RAW that would disallow him from taking that bow as his free bonded item at first level?
And then for sheer silliness, assuming that -is- viable, is there anything specific anywhere in the rules that would disallow ramping that up? I couldn't find anything anywhere describing a maximum allowed strength rating for a composite bow. Could someone theoretically, without breaking the letter of the law, decide to take, for instance, say, a composite longbow with a +5000 strength rating, turn around and sell it, and start the campaign as a first level character with better than 250k gold to spend on things? XD
I strongly suspect there -is- something somewhere that makes this not work, and I just couldn't find it. And obviously this is so ridiculously cheesy that no DM would ever allow it, but I'm just curious to the specific what and where of the rule that disallows this silliness.
Edit: I'd intended for this to be in the Rules Questions subforum, but somehow it ended up in the Advice. Huh. Oh well.
So, after looking through the archives here, there have been several threads that came very close to answering my question, by none that seemed to hit it spot on the nose.
My question is thus:
If I have an animal companion with the Trip feature, say a wolf. He gets a free trip attempt as part of his attack action if he hits with the attack. If he has any situational bonuses to hit on that attack action, do they also apply to his CMB on the trip attempt?
