Darkness in the Air

[JimTheConquerer]

I tried searching to see if this had been asked before but did not have luck.

Flying sorcerer is being pursued, so he casts darkness on an object and uses levitate to hold the object in place in front of the opponents while his flying companions set up an ambush.

Would it be a 40 foot diameter black sphere, maybe a little shadowy around the edges or what?

[PallentisLunam]

Essentially yes. But remember that the darkness spell only conveys 20% concealment. Enemies still know what square their targets are in. They can still see the sorcerer and his maneuvers. They can still see anything beyond/outside of the sphere according to prevailing conditions.

[JimTheConquerer]

I reread the spell. It is obviously not very dark darkness.

[Deophaun]

I reread the spell. It is obviously not very dark darkness.
It's actually light. Cast darkness in a pitch-black room and now you can see without darkvision.

And to clarify, it will not be a black sphere. If nothing is inside the area of effect, it will be like the spell doesn't exist at all.

[PallentisLunam]

Exactly. For the longest time I read Darkness and figured that was all I needed to know. It's actually a pretty crappy spell and Deeper Darkness only expands the radius and duration it doesn't make it darker.

[Inevitability]

If you want 'real' darkness, try the No Light cantrip from the BovD.

Yeah, I know. A freaking cantrip is better at making things dark than the 2nd-level spell its based on.

[JimTheConquerer]

Yeah, what is "shadowy illumination"?


Deophaun, so casting Darkness in the dark makes the dark less dark? The SRD says: "Even creatures that can normally see in such conditions (such as with darkvision or low-light vision) have the miss chance in an area shrouded in magical darkness."

Of course, I am an old skool gamer. I remember when the daylight spell actually meant daylight and not Not Daylight.

[Troacctid]

Shadowy illumination is the same kind of light given off by a candle. Normally it grants concealment unless the observer has low-light vision. Magical darkness grants concealment even if the observer has low-light vision, so it's slightly stronger.

[Pluto!]

Fog Cloud does Darkness better than 3.5 Darkness does. Go figure.

Not unrelatedly, Darkness is one of only a handful of spells my group defers to 3.0 rulings on.

[Deophaun]

Deophaun, so casting Darkness in the dark makes the dark less dark?
Yes, for exactly the question you asked:

This spell causes an object to radiate shadowy illumination out to a 20-foot radius.
In the absence of all other light, anyone with normal vision actually has their vision improved by darkness. People with darkvision get theirs worsened.

[Tvtyrant]

I always imagined it as a theaters blacklight. It makes it really difficult to see, but is better than darkness.