Chainlock and Darkness

[Cathwar]

From what I can tell, a Chainlock could cast darkness on a small pebble he is holding, and then have his imp familiar (who also can see in magical darkness) move the darkness sphere by picking up the pebble and flying the pebble around. So, for example, the imp could use its readied action to move with the BBEG and keep him enveloped in darkness. Since the imp is intelligent, a one-time instruction to "stay at least 5' away from that guy but keep moving to keep him in the sphere of darkness" should be sufficient guidance.

The advantage of this strategy, as I see it, is that it allows the Chainlock to keep a BBEG in darkness without having to use up his own action (it's the imp's readied action to move with the BBEG instead of his own).

I am building a 3rd level warlock character, and am wondering if this interpretation is really within the rules. If it is, do you think it would tend to ruin everyone else's fun, or would it be OK?

Any thoughts/comments would be very much appreciated. Thank you!!

[Sir cryosin]

From what I can tell, a Chainlock could cast darkness on a small pebble he is holding, and then have his imp familiar (who also can see in magical darkness) move the darkness sphere by picking up the pebble and flying the pebble around. So, for example, the imp could use its readied action to move with the BBEG and keep him enveloped in darkness. Since the imp is intelligent, a one-time instruction to "stay at least 5' away from that guy but keep moving to keep him in the sphere of darkness" should be sufficient guidance.

The advantage of this strategy, as I see it, is that it allows the Chainlock to keep a BBEG in darkness without having to use up his own action (it's the imp's readied action to move with the BBEG instead of his own).

I am building a 3rd level warlock character, and am wondering if this interpretation is really within the rules. If it is, do you think it would tend to ruin everyone else's fun, or would it be OK?

Any thoughts/comments would be very much appreciated. Thank you!!

Well its a great tactic if everyone in the party can see in magical darkness. Which only warlocks with devil sight invocation can see in magical darkness. As a party tactic it is not that great because everyone will be attacking with disadvantage.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Well its a great tactic if everyone in the party can see in magical darkness. Which only warlocks with devil sight invocation can see in magical darkness. As a party tactic it is not that great because everyone will be attacking with disadvantage.
This. Fog Cloud type abilities cut both ways. It's a great way to keep the boss out of trouble while you concentrate on minions, though.

[DivisibleByZero]

My first thought was "How will the now blind familiar know if the enemy moves, or where he moves to, in order to keep him in the sphere of darkness?"

[Troacctid]

Imps can see in magical darkness.

[mer.c]

Mobile darkness or other vision-blockers like Fog Cloud are great when you can really break the symmetry. Devil's Sight on its own only goes so far. Using it this way, you're giving a huge headache to any party member using ranged weapons, and giving a moderate headache to all melee characters. So remember to take that into consideration when you decide to use the spell like this.

Often, you'd be better off having your imp stick by your casters and other ranged characters so they can step out of the darkness, shoot/cast, and step back in to hide while hopefully being able to set it up not to provoke attacks of opportunity. In those cases, though, it may be better to use your familiar to do something else and just spot-target the Darkness. Or even cast it on yourself to be a mobile Darkness for others to pop in and out of, and that you can see though just fine.

However, there are some creatures that are really crippled by Darkness effects. Beholder variants can't use their eye-beams from Darkness (IIRC). So your party probably won't mind the fact that you're nerfing all of them while you yourself are the only one operating at full capacity, because you've nerfed the enemy more.

As for the tactic itself, yeah, I can't see any reason not to allow it.

[Cathwar]

Thanks for the feedback!! Sounds like it is within the rules, with some practical caveats.

I appreciate what everyone is advising about the use of darkness overall and the effect it has on the rest of the party. My plan would be to use this trick very situationally. The examples posted above are exactly my intention - against specific types of monsters, or to take a BBEG temporarily out of circulation while the party deals with his minions, or perhaps as a way to cover a retreat if the party is overmatched. Nobody (including me) wants to wait around doing nothing while my warlock is firing round after round of EB's at the helpless bad guy.

This is just something else to add to the arsenal as appropriate.

[Corran]

Any thoughts/comments would be very much appreciated. Thank you!!
It is not a bad idea, and it is within he rules as far as I can see. Problem is, there is nothing stopping the BBEG from killing your familiar. Sure, he will have to spend an action or so to do it, and he will have to attack at disadvantage due to darkness and due to your familiar being able to see, but my bet is that the familiar will go down in round 1 in 99% of the time. Your best bet is ti cast it and move it with you, I think.

You allies will more or less fight in the same way when inside darkness as if they were outside of it. Unless they fight from inside the darkness against sth that is outside of it, in that case they have advantage as they can see out of the darkness and they cannot be seen. But when fighting inside darkness, not much changes. Some spells (that require los as specidfied in their description) dont work, same for OA's and for some features like reckless attack. And most importantly, this negates every other sourcer of advantage or disadvantage, so if the party has already a means of getting advantage, darkness will do more harm than good. Rogues (with cunning action) will love you for it though. And anyone with the alert feat will profit too. Also, great to use for fights when you have disadvantage for some reason as already metioned why, and spam it of your party is geared towards range combat.


Well its a great tactic if everyone in the party can see in magical darkness. Which only warlocks with devil sight invocation can see in magical darkness. As a party tactic it is not that great because everyone will be attacking with disadvantage.

This. Fog Cloud type abilities cut both ways. It's a great way to keep the boss out of trouble while you concentrate on minions, though.
Not true. The BBEG will suffer disadvantage only against creatures who can see in the magical darkness, so that is the warlock and his familiar most likely. He will fight more or less normaly (with some restrictions as I mentioned above) against anyone else when inside the magical darkness.