I'm planning an encounter where my players are trekking through a swamp in dim light, and are beset by several Dark Creepers and a Dark Stalker.
The Dark Creepers all have the spell-like ability darkness, which causes illumination to drop by one step, and they will use this to render the dim lighting conditions of the swamp to darkness, making the PC's fight in the dark. I'm planning to run this where the players are unaware of the enemy's movement, tracking everything on a piece of paper.
Now, my question is about another ability they have called Death Throes, and I'm just wondering how this would interact with the darkness patches they'll be throwing around:
Death Throes (Su) When a dark creeper is slain, its body combusts in a flash of bright white light, leaving its gear in a heap on the ground. All creatures within a 10-foot burst must make a DC 13 Fortitude save or be blinded for 1d6 rounds. Other dark creepers within 10 feet are automatically blinded for at least 1 round, due to their light blindness. The save is Constitution-based.
The way I see it, there's three options:
1- It dispells the darkness completely
2- It causes a sudden flash of bright light after which the darkness returns
3- The darkness consumes the flash, rendering it harmless
I can see arguments for all three options, and was wondering if other people had some insight to offer here.
Lastly, the Dark Stalker has deeper darkness, would this interact differently?
So each creeper has a darkness ability. I'd say the death of one creeper causes the flash of light which is unaffected by the darkness. Think of it as a single strobe effect; anything within 10' is affected as per the description.
This should let the players get a snapshot view of the area. Other creepers' darkness ability drops the bright light to normal, so there is no problem seeing them. The Dark Stalker involvement depends on where it is as I'd say deeper darkness works with the creeper darkness.
If it is outside the other creepers' darkness field drops bright light to low light and it can be seen. Where its deeper darkness field overlaps a creeper's field, there is darkness (bright-> normal then normal->darkness).
I'd let the players know where the various light levels fall and where any creatures stand (assuming they have a clear line of sight and there are no clouds of darkness standing in the way) at the moment of a creeper's death.
So, yeah, I would suggest option 2.