Ways to penetrate Deeper Darkness

[Kuulvheysoon]

Well, I am evil.

My players asked for a difficult encounter, and I am delivering. the party consists of an wild elven bard, halfling cloistered cleric, and a human warblade.

I have a 14th level hobgoblin Swordsage, specializing in Shadow Hand and Diamond Mind maneuvers, with a gnomish illusionist cohort.

The encounter takes place in a lightless cave, and NONE of the players have darkvision. On the off chance that one of them has light, however, there's a deeper darkness spell in effect (the lair item in Draconomicon, can't remember it's nae right now). Suffice to say, they'll be fighting blind. Problem is, so will the swordsage (the gnome has fiendish heritage feats from PHB2, including he one that lets him penetrate magical darkness).

Anyways, is there someway for the swordsage to see through the magical darkness? He's got darkvision (racial), so no worries about that after he's penetrated the magic.

Suggestions? He's got a feat or two left to fill, and nothing spent on equipment yet, so go wild in your suggestions!

[Greenish]

Planar Touchstone: Catalogues of Enlightenment (Baator). Requires 5 ranks in Know (Planes).

[ILM]

There's a Deeper Darkvision spell in SpC that does this quite well, it's hours/level too, and level 3, so grab an eternal wand. Or can't the Illusionist cohort heighten a light spell, that should do the trick ("A light spell (one with the light descriptor) counters and dispels a darkness spell (one with the darkness descriptor) of an equal or lower level"). Alternatively, Blindfold of True Darkness won't give him long-range perception, but at least lets him fight.

[Greenish]

Or can't the Illusionist cohort heighten a light spell, that should do the trick ("A light spell (one with the light descriptor) counters and dispels a darkness spell (one with the darkness descriptor) of an equal or lower level").That would defeat the point of the exercise. :smallamused:

[sengmeng]

Don't cheese it, just make him a grappler and tackle a PC before the darkness falls, pummel them, and yell "all done!" when he needs the lights turned on again.

[Blackjackg]

If you're willing to dip a level, you can go Warlock and take the Devil's Sight invocation.

[ILM]

Ah there you go, there's even better than Deeper Darkvision: Ebon Eyes (SpC) does largely the same thing except it's level 1 and 10 min/CL. :smallsmile:


That would defeat the point of the exercise. :smallamused:
Yeah nevermind that, I originally misread and thought he was one of the PCs :smalltongue:.

[Darrin]

Planar Touchstone: Catalogues of Enlightenment (Baator). Requires 5 ranks in Know (Planes).

8 ranks, actually. Education, Knowledge Devotion, or Skill Knowledge can make it a class skill.

Blindfight + Mage Slayer + Pierce Magical Concealment works against darkness, although I'm not sure how it works with deeper darkness.

Blindfold of True Darkness (9000 GP, MIC) would work: blindsight 30'.

Dip into Ardent + Practiced Manifester for touchsight 60'.

Any daylight spell/SLA/effect will dispel the deeper darkness. Any random Aasimar or half-celestial just passing through could get rid of it 1/day. There are several items with daylight effects. Daylight Pellet (150 GP, MIC/DotU) would work.

Is the gnome illusionist doing any shadowcraft shenanigans? A shadow evocation of faerie fire could be interesting. As a 5th level [light] spell, anything outlined by the faerie fire would get no concealment from the deeper darkness. Targets still get a Will save, and then a 20% chance the faerie fire works, but get that up to 100% and the Will save is meaningless. Or give the illusionist Arcane Disciple: Moon Domain + Heighten spell for a 4th level faerie fire.

[Greenish]

8 ranks, actually.Right, my bad.

Well, Knowledge Devotion to get Know (Planes), and max your ranks in Know (Local) which is a class skill to get the mileage out of KD.

[Kuulvheysoon]

8 ranks, actually. Education, Knowledge Devotion, or Skill Knowledge can make it a class skill.

Blindfight + Mage Slayer + Pierce Magical Concealment works against darkness, although I'm not sure how it works with deeper darkness.

Blindfold of True Darkness (9000 GP, MIC) would work: blindsight 30'.

Dip into Ardent + Practiced Manifester for touchsight 60'.

Any daylight spell/SLA/effect will dispel the deeper darkness. Any random Aasimar or half-celestial just passing through could get rid of it 1/day. There are several items with daylight effects. Daylight Pellet (150 GP, MIC/DotU) would work.

Is the gnome illusionist doing any shadowcraft shenanigans? A shadow evocation of faerie fire could be interesting. As a 5th level [light] spell, anything outlined by the faerie fire would get no concealment from the deeper darkness. Targets still get a Will save, and then a 20% chance the faerie fire works, but get that up to 100% and the Will save is meaningless. Or give the illusionist Arcane Disciple: Moon Domain + Heighten spell for a 4th level faerie fire.

...Darrin, I'm actually trying to make it so that the swordsage can function with the deeper darkness INTACT. The deeper darkness is for challenging the PCs.

Warlock dip seems to be the easiest way to 'ignore' the dd effect. Although that Ebon Eyes spell looks useful... it is arcane or divine (AFB)?

[ILM]

Warlock dip seems to be the easiest way to 'ignore' the dd effect. Although that Ebon Eyes spell looks useful... it is arcane or divine (AFB)?
Assassin 1, Cleric 1, Sorc/Wiz 1. :smallsmile:

[Darrin]

...Darrin, I'm actually trying to make it so that the swordsage can function with the deeper darkness INTACT. The deeper darkness is for challenging the PCs.


Everything I posted except the paragraph about dispelling with a daylight effect can be used by the swordsage to ignore the effects of deeper darkness.

Blindfold of True Darkness is probably the easiest, and could be a nice piece of bling the PCs can keep for the next time they get hit with deeper darkness. It can also present a more tactical problem for the PCs: if they know the blindfold is what allows the swordsage to act in complete darkness, then they can neutralize the swordsage's advantage by grabbing/stealing/sundering/negating/dispelling the blindfold.

Pierce Magical Concealment requires 3 feats (which your swordsage probably doesn't have room for), but would also work against other magical defenses the PCs may have: blink, blur, displacement, invisibility, etc.

Touchsight would probably be a 2-level ardent dip.

Faerie fire isn't for dispelling the deeper darkness, it's to light up targets for the swordsage. Have the gnome illusionist "paint" the PCs in the first round (it's an area burst effect), and they get no benefit from concealment. The swordsage could still take advantage of the darkness. The added benefit is any allies of the swordsage can also target the "painted" PCs, including the illusionist and any minions he might have handy.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

NPC spellcasting costs spell level x caster level x 10 gp, plus costly material components. Buy a Continual Flame, Heightened to 9th level, at caster level 17, for 1580 gp. It overpowers any Darkness spell of 8th level or lower, so pick up a couple of Heightened Everburning Torches and a party should never have to worry about darkness effects again.

[Gavinfoxx]

I think you need Darkvision AND Ebon Eyes for Ebon Eyes to work...

[Daftendirekt]

Get a 1 level dip in Telflammar Shadowlord? Their Darkvision pierces all magical darkness.

[Abemad]

NPC spellcasting costs spell level x caster level x 10 gp, plus costly material components. Buy a Continual Flame, Heightened to 9th level, at caster level 17, for 1580 gp. It overpowers any Darkness spell of 8th level or lower, so pick up a couple of Heightened Everburning Torches and a party should never have to worry about darkness effects again.

Lets hope the party doesn't figure that out :smallwink:

[nedz]

All your Swordsage needs is Blindsight or Tremorsense.
Blindsense with Blindfight would do at a pinch. (25% miss-chance and a little trouble targetting)
These are available as spells, so he could have an item of whichever. The problem here is that your PCs are going to end up with this as loot - unless these are going to be recurruring villains maybe. e.g. The previously mentioned Blindfold of True Darkness grants Blindsight to 60' range.

You can also get them as class features, but not as cheap dips AFAIK.

Consider this feat
Blindsight 5-foot Radius
From: Deities and Demigods and Sword and Fist
Prereqs: BAB +4, Blind-Fight, Wisdom 19+
Not sure you can make the Wisdom ?

Basically with these abilities you can ignore the darkness.

[Douglas]

This isn't compatible with Shadow Blade, but if you're not planning on using that then you could just take Hearing the Air as your 5th level stance and spend a feat on Blind Fight. The stance lets you find your enemies, the feat reduces miss chance to 25% instead of 50%.