Darkness spell clarification?

[JohnDoomdriven]

John Doomdriven casts raise thread.

Anyway, this is how I've decided to handle it.

First, calculate the light level for every square while ignoring any magical darkness effects.

Then, apply the best darkness effect square by square. (Magical darkness effects do not stack. Take the best one only.) Examples: A darkness spell lowers the light level by one step, and a deeper darkness spell lowers the light level by two steps. However, a magical darkness effect does not lower the light level of a square which is in the primary area of effect of a higher spell level magical light effect.

Then, ignore anything which says or can be read to the contrary, such as bits saying that magical darkness effects suppresses light effects, or that light effects cannot raise the light level in an area of darkness.

I'm reasonably confident that this is RAI (rules as intended) for some degree of 3.0, 3.5, and Pathfinder. I'm also fairly confident that it's pretty well balanced and not terribly abusive for players and NPCs to use.

One last bit is to decide whether magical darkness effects blocks line of sight from one side to another, such as two creatures standing outside a magical darkness effect, one on each side. I would say yes. I'd imagine that creatures trying to look through a magical darkness effect treat everything on the far side as being at the light level in the magical darkness effect, or the light level on the far side, whichever is worse.

[Jiggy]

JohnDoomdriven wrote:

I'm reasonably confident that this is RAI (rules as intended) for some degree of 3.0, 3.5, and Pathfinder.

Nope, I'm afraid not. Magical darkness effects changed enough over the editions that you really *can't* do one thing that's "RAI" for the group. As for Pathfinder in particular, you got it on some parts, but not others.

Fortunately, some of this is cleared up in some FAQs that have been issued in the three years following this thread's creation.

Go HERE, and scroll down to the Spells and Magic section. There are three FAQs on the topic of darkness.

If it all seems a bit much, I wrote a guide to the topic that you can find HERE.

Hope that helps!

[Remy Balster]

Yeah, as Jiggy mentioned, there are FAQs on this topic. They're basically errata actually, because they change the way the spell functions from how it is printed in the book.

Book: Area with less light.

FAQs: Orb of inky black cloud.

[Jiggy]

Remy Balster wrote:

They're basically errata actually, because they change the way the spell functions from how it is printed in the book.

Um, no. There's no contradiction between how the book says the spell works and what the FAQs say. Maybe there's a contradiction between the FAQ and your own assumptions of how the spells would play out in a given situation, but nothing that's actually written in the book is contradicted by the FAQ.

[Remy Balster]

Jiggy wrote:

Remy Balster wrote:

They're basically errata actually, because they change the way the spell functions from how it is printed in the book.

Um, no. There's no contradiction between how the book says the spell works and what the FAQs say. Maybe there's a contradiction between the FAQ and your own assumptions of how the spells would play out in a given situation, but nothing that's actually written in the book is contradicted by the FAQ.

The FAQ adds things that are not in the book. They're different.

FAQ wrote:

Darkness: Can I see light sources through an area of darkness?

No. If a darkness spell reduces the light in the area to actual darkness (or supernatural darkness, if using a more powerful spell), you can't see through the darkness into what is beyond it.

Nothing in the spell says this. And darkness(lighting condition) does not work like this.

This FAQ adds a new effect to the spell, in that the spell creates an actual barrier to seeing through to the other side. This functionality is not included in the spell, as written, within the book.

An area of natural darkness can be looked through. The level of lighting known as 'darkness' is not a barrier against illumination effects from the other side. Two people in a dark open field with candles lit can see each other. That is how areas of darkness function...

And that is what the book indicates, to reduce the light level to darkness. It gives every indication that we are using the lighting rules. With the one exception being which effect suppresses which. And a one degree drop in light.

The FAQ adds that areas of darkness creates a barrier against looking through the spell area. So it is an errata. It changes the spell, it is no longer just an area of decreased illumination, but an area of inky black cloud that people with darkvision can still see through.

[Jiggy]

That FAQ is a logical extension of what's in the spell.

The spell says that the light of a torch (for example) is completely suppressed within the area. If I'm standing just inside the darkness and you're standing 5ft away (outside the radius) and you're holding a torch, the spell description says that the space where I'm standing is just as dark as if your torch wasn't even there.

The FAQ's assertion that the guy standing 100ft away can't see the torch any more than I can isn't adding to the spell, it's making explicit that which any reasonable person who carefully read the spell for comprehension would have concluded on their own.