Maginomicon
2013-04-20, 11:09 AM
We all (I'm assuming) know that typical spells with the darkness descriptor (that is, that create a zone of darkness) have two primary characteristics distinguishing them from eachother:
Their spell level (for the purposes of determining overlap vs prevailing conditions)
How the zone affects darkvision
...but how does a magical darkness zone affect low-light vision when there's magical light involved?
For example, consider the following image, with the prevailing conditions throughout being natural total darkness:
http://gyazo.com/8d4e0297b31cba083dc703e6cfa53b51.png
Blue = Darkness spell (2nd-level darkness spell)
Red = Continual Flame spell (2nd-level light spell)
Green = The typical effective radius of the Continual Flame spell from the perspective of someone with low-light vision. ("Characters with low-light vision can see objects twice as far away as the given radius. Double the effective radius of bright light and of shadowy illumination for such characters. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/exploration.htm)")
(The inner red and green circles represent that every light source has an area of "bright" light and an outer area of "shadowy illumination".)
My overarching question is this: How far into the blue circle should the character with low-light vision be able to see?
That is, the first green line, or the second green line?
A. If the first green line, doesn't the fact that the two equal-level spells overlap cause that overlapped zone to instead have the prevailing conditions of natural total darkness and thus stop low-light vision outright?
B. If the second green line, doesn't that necessarily mean that the continual flame's effective spell radius is doubled? (which can have some nasty implications)
C. Regardless (or in the case of neither green line), would also carrying a natural torch as well as a continual flame allow the character with low-light vision to see even partially into the blue area (by the additional light of the natural torch which pierces natural total darkness)?
Their spell level (for the purposes of determining overlap vs prevailing conditions)
How the zone affects darkvision
...but how does a magical darkness zone affect low-light vision when there's magical light involved?
For example, consider the following image, with the prevailing conditions throughout being natural total darkness:
http://gyazo.com/8d4e0297b31cba083dc703e6cfa53b51.png
Blue = Darkness spell (2nd-level darkness spell)
Red = Continual Flame spell (2nd-level light spell)
Green = The typical effective radius of the Continual Flame spell from the perspective of someone with low-light vision. ("Characters with low-light vision can see objects twice as far away as the given radius. Double the effective radius of bright light and of shadowy illumination for such characters. (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/exploration.htm)")
(The inner red and green circles represent that every light source has an area of "bright" light and an outer area of "shadowy illumination".)
My overarching question is this: How far into the blue circle should the character with low-light vision be able to see?
That is, the first green line, or the second green line?
A. If the first green line, doesn't the fact that the two equal-level spells overlap cause that overlapped zone to instead have the prevailing conditions of natural total darkness and thus stop low-light vision outright?
B. If the second green line, doesn't that necessarily mean that the continual flame's effective spell radius is doubled? (which can have some nasty implications)
C. Regardless (or in the case of neither green line), would also carrying a natural torch as well as a continual flame allow the character with low-light vision to see even partially into the blue area (by the additional light of the natural torch which pierces natural total darkness)?