Amiria
2009-09-02, 01:30 PM
So, in my 3.5 Night Below campaign the group just made it to 7th level after slaughtering the trolls for the svirfneblin. The Cloistered Cleric took her first level in Radiant Servant of Alintan (our god of life and the sun) and now has the radiance class feature and access to 4th level spells.
That means that she can cast Celestial Brilliance (BoED) on some object which last for a week and gives 120 ft. of bright light and 120 ft. shadowy illumination. She'll usually have Luminous Armor pepared as a backup spell. That's a pretty obvious but effective way to explore the underdark. The rules for seeing distant light in FR Underdark say that the party's light source will likely be seen from up to 1200 ft. away (DC 10 spot check), automatically from 600 ft away.
Mass Darkvision (SC) might be an alternative but would eat up one or two 4th level spell slots every day for our party's wizard. It also only reaches out to 60 ft. which is charging range for nasty critters if the cavern floor is smoots enough. Only two of the party of six (the dwarf and the whisper gnome) have darkvision. Items like belts of dwarvenkind or goggles of night are still a bit expensive.
Party consists of
Male human Ranger 2/Barbarian 4/Champion of Gwynharwyf 1
Female dwarf Rogue 4/Scout 2/Barbarian 1
Male grey elf Generalist Wizard 5 /Paragnostic Apostle 2
Female human Cloistered Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Alintan 1
Male human Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/Warblade 5
Male whisper gnome Bard 7
No multiclass penalties, fractional BAB and saves (+2 bonus only once per good save)
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1) With what methods of illumination/perception would you explore the underdark at this level (7) ? What about higher levels ?
2) How would underdark creatures react to such a bright light that's very unfamiliar, unpleasant, threatening to them ? Probably depends on various factors like i.e. level of intelligence, type, alignment, etc.
That means that she can cast Celestial Brilliance (BoED) on some object which last for a week and gives 120 ft. of bright light and 120 ft. shadowy illumination. She'll usually have Luminous Armor pepared as a backup spell. That's a pretty obvious but effective way to explore the underdark. The rules for seeing distant light in FR Underdark say that the party's light source will likely be seen from up to 1200 ft. away (DC 10 spot check), automatically from 600 ft away.
Mass Darkvision (SC) might be an alternative but would eat up one or two 4th level spell slots every day for our party's wizard. It also only reaches out to 60 ft. which is charging range for nasty critters if the cavern floor is smoots enough. Only two of the party of six (the dwarf and the whisper gnome) have darkvision. Items like belts of dwarvenkind or goggles of night are still a bit expensive.
Party consists of
Male human Ranger 2/Barbarian 4/Champion of Gwynharwyf 1
Female dwarf Rogue 4/Scout 2/Barbarian 1
Male grey elf Generalist Wizard 5 /Paragnostic Apostle 2
Female human Cloistered Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Alintan 1
Male human Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/Warblade 5
Male whisper gnome Bard 7
No multiclass penalties, fractional BAB and saves (+2 bonus only once per good save)
----------------------------------------------------
1) With what methods of illumination/perception would you explore the underdark at this level (7) ? What about higher levels ?
2) How would underdark creatures react to such a bright light that's very unfamiliar, unpleasant, threatening to them ? Probably depends on various factors like i.e. level of intelligence, type, alignment, etc.