D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Darkness Spell - Otherwise known as "Huh?"

[John Crichton]

Okay. Feel free to skip down to my point at the middle of this post but I need to vent...

I have been reading, searching and scouring these and the WotC boards for a few hours now and I am thoroughly frustrated and just a little frazzed with a dash of annoyed.

I'm doing some campaign playing for my FR run and doing a little NPC creation as well as jotting down some rules clarifications and corrections that I want to mention to my players next session. They fought a tiefling in the last run that had to withdraw from the combat because she was getting beaten down pretty badly by the PCs. She dropped a darkness globe (a la drow tactics) on the area and scampered away (the PCs did not persue because of a time related puzzle).

Now, maybe I just getting old or perhaps I'm just tired at this point. My group is used to your good-ol Darkness spell. 20 foot radius, no one can see and all that. Mind you, it was never abused nor did we ever get too rules heavy as the party always left the magical darkness very quickly anyway. Now, I see that 3.5 Darkness creates "shadowy illumination."

*sigh*

My eyes POINK open like in the cartoons as I realize that I've paid no attention to this until now. So I consult tables, read descriptions, check some message boards to get myself familiar with all the jargon and changes. The conclusion seems to be that Darkness is not actually darkness, at least not anymore.

The Point - For those of you who skipped my ranting above.

I'm not really worried about the change but especially because it is the FR and because we have been playing there for some time I am having a tough time convincing myself that the drow are throwing around globes of "shadowy illumination" that simply dim the small area and offer some concealment. Gone are the days of globes of darkness from the FR novels and my very own campaign so it seems. But since this is my game (not to mention the comfort level of my players) I really don't like this.

After all the research I can see that the old 3e version was a bit too powerful but I never noticed it nor was it abused. Blind-fight still helps on the conceal roll and it does effect rogues (for good and ill so it seems) and the general mechanic seems pretty solid in comparison. I still don't like it. It's not Darkness anymore!

I'm not complaining about 3.5, here. I am looking for some advice as I need some middle ground and want to see what others have done about this or if it is even a big deal. I guess they should have changed the name of the spell or something like because of the drastic (IMO) change and had the good ol globes of Darkness be higher level or something like that.

Anyone out there want to help ease my frustration?

I want to keep balance while keeping the flavor (and general utility) of the spell in tact as it will be used with frequency in the coming weeks.

 

[dcollins]

You have my sympathies. Can't help out your problem, I and my playgroup stuck with 3E, but you have my sympathies.

 

[shilsen]

Here's my solution: I'm house-ruling Deeper Darkness to create actual darkness (not shadowy illumination) in my 3.5 campaign. I'll also drop the duration down to 1 hr/lvl.

I don't know if that helps you, and it definitely doesn't your concern about the drow, but the good old darkness + faerie fire combo is still going to help them a good bit.

 

[Piratecat]

Annoyance with this is one reason that we haven't yet switched to 3.5.

 

[LifebaneSoulshadow]

Darkness et al.

It's often hard to know the game balance reasons for why certain spells are changed because the PHB doesnt contain the changes, plus the logic behind it. If I had to guess I'd say they felt that for such a low level spell, the effects it had were pretty powerful. Especially when combined with feats or other spells that let you throw down darkness that the enemy likely couldnt see in, but you could negate some or all of the disadvantages. Imagine if you will trying to fight someone with blindsight spell from MoF up, in a globe of darkness. They can 'see' you perfectly well, and you cant see them.

In any case, I agree with the changes to darkness spell. If I wanted a fix for the balance issue, I'd simply have deeper darkness added to both cleric/wiz/sorc spell lists, have it be level 3 (or 4) and have it be like old darkness. I'd also tone the duration down to 1min/level or possibly 10mins/level.

10mins/level would probably fit the classic drow usage of the spell where globes of darkness were thrown on the opposing house and the attack commenced. It would last long enough for a quick, decisive strike and that's all.

Lifebane Soulshadow *

 

[Sir Whiskers]

I can't speak to the balance issues, but it does simplify gameplay somewhat. Whenever someone throws out a 3.0 darkness spell, our group has to stop and figure out how those trapped within it move - do they use Listen checks? Intuit Direction? Random movement? There may be clear rules somewhere in the core books, but I never found them.

With the new versions, players retain control of their characters' movement - the spells just limit certain abilities (some significantly).

All that said, I agree: it just doesn't feel like the old darkness.

 

[Philip]

I agree that its not primarily a balance issue. It more an issue of gameplay. In 3.0 there was a dwarven cleric with Blind-Fight in the party I DM'ed for, and he would often pull out his stone with Deeper Darkness precast on it when in battle.

Since none of the characters could see their position (or keep track of it) anymore, I had to shield the miniatures on our battle mat from the player's view and move everything myself. The players constantly had to guess at their position and that of the enemies, making constant Listen checks, saying thing like I move a few steps forward, turn to the right and swing my sword in that direction etc.

It made the battle last five times as long as normal and gave the other players the feeling they lost control over their characters. And this would tend to happen every battle. In short: it wasn't a lot of fun.

It was a perfectly good tactic from the point of view of the player who played the dwarven cleric though, as it hampered the enemy more than it did him.

 

[Unseelie]

And there's your answer for the logic behind the change, I think... miniatures. Darkness slows down the game and makes it harder to use minis.

 

[CyberSpyder]

And there's your answer for the logic behind the change, I think... miniatures. Darkness slows down the game and makes it harder to use minis.

It disturbs me that that would be true, but it does seem entirely possible.

 

[DarkSoldier]

For a moment, I thought you were going to go into a Dalaeck-esque "3.5 is Satan!" rant.

/wipes brow