2nd Edition style Darkness, but in 3.5

[Eaglejarl]

In AD&D (2nd Ed), the 'Darkness' spell was very simple: there is no light, period. Normal vision didn't work, infravision (now called darksight) didn't work, nada. Pitch blackness.

3.5 has replaced this with its pansy cousin, "shadowy illumination". Is there any spell in 3.5 which creates true darkness -- a total absence of light and complete obstruction to vision?

[John Longarrow]

Wall of stone. Make a hemispherical wall around target.

Illumination in all versions is rather wonky and often takes a lot of home brewing to make sense. As DM, you can work with what makes sense to you. If your a player, talk to your DM about it.

[Sliver]

How about Blacklight (http://dndtools.eu/spells/spell-compendium--86/blacklight--3956/) from SpC?

[lytokk]

In AD&D (2nd Ed), the 'Darkness' spell was very simple: there is no light, period. Normal vision didn't work, infravision (now called darksight) didn't work, nada. Pitch blackness.

3.5 has replaced this with its pansy cousin, "shadowy illumination". Is there any spell in 3.5 which creates true darkness -- a total absence of light and complete obstruction to vision?

*reads post and immediately reads darkness spell*
*reads darkness spell again*

sonofa....
I thought that's how 3.5 darkness worked. I need to go find my DM from 10 years ago and beat him with the players manual.

[Sliver]

What would happen if you have Darkness and Blacklight in the same area? Neither counters or dispels the other one, since neither is a light spell... Does Blacklight win just for being the stronger effect? Is that part of the universe transforms into the Shadow Realm and the fate of the rules depends on the results of a card game, potentially played on motorcycles?

[Zombimode]

*reads post and immediately reads darkness spell*
*reads darkness spell again*

sonofa....
I thought that's how 3.5 darkness worked. I need to go find my DM from 10 years ago and beat him with the players manual.

Well, thats what you get for not reading the rules yourself.

I tell that to may players, over and over again: read the spell descriptions, read through your class features, read the feat description. No, not just the summaries on the table, the actual descriptions.

[Eaglejarl]

How about Blacklight (http://dndtools.eu/spells/spell-compendium--86/blacklight--3956/) from SpC?


HAH! You are teh awesome! Thanks, Sliver.

As to the 'Darkness + Blacklight' question, my guess is that whichever one is cast second would win; since neither one counters the other, they would take their normal effect, which would either create or remove "shadowy illuminaton" from the area.


(For the record, this is for my story (link in sig), not for a campaign. The rules of the world are pretty much "it works by physics unless trumped by RAW. No homebrew." So I really needed something that was actually sourced. I have such a very cool exploit in mind, but I needed an utter darkness spell to make it work.)