Item-created darkness

[Arkusus]

So here's the question, there is a character in the party who gets many benefits from being in darkness via his class, including Darkvision as well as specifically the ability to see in magical darkness as well.

The problem of course is he's in a party with a bunch of other people who don't have these abilities, so he can't just go around throwing down darkness and expect the party to be able to deal with that.


The question then is, is there an item that basically shrouds it's wearer in shadows? Not even a blur-style effect, just... Darkness is all we need. Actual absence of light, but short enough range to not always affect the rest of the party(Specifically in combat).

Any ideas?

[holywhippet]

The actual darkness spell is portable as it is cast on an item, not an area. So that isn't a problem.

What you might want is a rod of cats (magic item compendium) which can create a darkness effect once per day. As an added bonus, anyone who is holding the rod when it is activated can see straight through the magical darkness so your allies won't be hindered by it if used correctly.

[Arkusus]

A rod of cats sounds promising, but the issue with normal darkness cast on a pebble or whatever, continues to be its 20 ft radius, meaning no help from allies against any monsters within 4 squares of you.

The ideal scenario is an item that darkens only the square he's in, or only his square and adjacent squares... But I don't know what would do that...

[Maginomicon]

A darklight (Secrets of Sarlona, page 140; 500gp) creates a zone of nonmagical darkness at-will.

Activation: Imbuing a darklight with psionic power is a standard action. Controlling a darklight is a free action for the character holding it. A darklight can be used for 24 hours per power point imbued into it, and it can hold a maximum of 7 power points at any time. The level of light can be adjusted (or the darklight disabled or enabled) with a mental command. A darklight does not use its stored power while disabled.

Effect: A darklight works by adjusting the levels of ambient light in an area either gradually or instantaneously. A darklight affects an 80-foot radius and can be set to one of four settings. The light and shadow created by a darklight is not magical or psionic in nature, and so can be overcome by any source of magical or psionic light or shadow.

No Light: In areas of bright light or shadowy illumination, a darklight can decrease the level of ambient light to total darkness.

Shadow: In areas of darkness or bright light, a darklight can increase or decrease the ambient light to the level of starlight or other shadowy illumination. In areas of total darkness, a darklight amplifies latent heat energy (however faint) to provide normal visible light.

Bright Light: A darklight can increase shadowy illumination to the bright light given off by a lantern or torch.

Beacon: A darklight can raise the level of bright light to extreme brightness, causing creatures in the area (including the user if he doesn’t close his eyes) to be dazzled for a round unless they make a DC 14 Fortitude save.

[Greenish]

Darklight (you probably oughtn't copy-paste the non-OGL text) would be worse than the actual Darkness given it has 80' radius instead of 20', and OP wants as focused effect as possible.

[Maginomicon]

Darklight (you probably oughtn't copy-paste the non-OGL text) would be worse than the actual Darkness given it has 80' radius instead of 20', and OP wants as focused effect as possible.
I only posted what was relevant to the topic. I didn't list the full details. He'd still have to look it up in order to use it. Additionally, it's not really the non-OGL content anyway. The original is worded a little weird, so what I posted includes some minor changes I've made in house rules as RAI. For example the original doesn't make it clear that the beacon's dazzled effect only lasts for that round (in which it was set to beacon). The implication is that leaving it on beacon forces another fort save the next round.

[KillianHawkeye]

Darkness is only a 20% miss chance. They can still pick out their targets and everything. Your party spellcasters, especially, will be just fine unless they're ray specialists or Warlocks or something (but then, Warlocks have an invocation for seeing through magical darkness anyway).

[Maginomicon]

Darkness is only a 20% miss chance. They can still pick out their targets and everything. Your party spellcasters, especially, will be just fine unless they're ray specialists or Warlocks or something (but then, Warlocks have an invocation for seeing through magical darkness anyway).
Oh gods not this mess again...

Darkness and deeper darkness create pitch black darkness, as they outright explicitly prevent all normal light from illuminating the area (normal light includes sunlight). If normal light can't light the area, it's pitch black. Sooooo many people ignore that line in the spell description it's appalling.

It always boggles my mind when people try to assert that "radiates shadowy illumination" means that it creates a state condition of illumination for the affected area. Even if you could somehow make a case that it's RAW, it's most certainly not RAI. The terms “shadowy illumination” and “dim light” refer to the same lighting condition. In those spells, they describe a general case and follow it with exceptions and clarifications. One of those exceptions is "normal lights (torches, candles, lanterns, and so forth) are incapable of brightening the area", overriding the earlier general case. Elementary physics and common sense (although RAW hates them) always dictate RAI, and thus that's what should be used in play and in common parlance.

What darkness actually does is create a zone of pitch black that forces total concealment against those without darkvision and forces concealment against those with darkvision. It doesn't state that explicitly, but it's obvious that that's what it meant. It's like the official rules for how to use a tower shield. It wasn't stated, but it's pretty clear through basic logical reasoning that that's what was meant.

[Greenish]

It always boggles my mind when people try to assert that "radiates shadowy illumination" means that it creates a state condition of illumination for the affected area.If they didn't mean to say that the spell radiates illumination, well, why did they say so? It can't be that hard to say "creates an area of magical darkness".

Trying to puzzle out the RAI behind the wording of the rules can be a worthy effort, but really, Darkness spell just defies common sense. (And physics, elementary or otherwise, hardly apply to magic.)

[Maginomicon]

(And physics, elementary or otherwise, hardly apply to magic.)It may not apply to magic, but it sure as hell applies to basic game design tenets.

I don't want to derail the thread with this subtopic (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=15832703&postcount=7), so I won't say anything more on it.