magic darkness / ebon eyes

[Chewychunga]

could i have a item of contiunous darkness + item of ebon eyes to give myself the ability to hide (with hide in plain sight feat) anywhere i want yet still be able to see and have no problem attacking the enemy? or is there some better combination? i saw there was a item that blocked darkvision

[Gildedragon]

The spell Blacklight

[Elder_Basilisk]

Assuming your DM is on board with creating custom magic items, it would potentially work, though it would be subject to a bunch of caveats (devils see just fine in darkness, blindsight, blindfight, etc).

That said, an item of continual darkness is not really going to be as continual as the name implies. You could roam a solo dungeon with it active, but odds are good that most people in social situations won't appreciate it anymore than you would if someone walked into your office and turned off all the lights. So assuming that you don't want to be an unloved loner sitting in the corner of your dark shack whenever you're not adventuring, you'll probably have to spend an action or so to bring it online whenever combat breaks out unexpectedly or in social situations. And if you're not running solo, your party may not appreciate you ruining all of their lives with darkness (unless they get the ebon eyes item too).

The other thing you may want to consider is how the tactic will effect the game. If your whole party gets on board with the idea, your DM will probably need a way to deal with the strategy in most fights and unfortunately, some of the most effective ways of doing so are fun-sucking.
A. Heightened continual flame. You're not the first one to have thought of this--monsters do too, that's why a lot of adventurers carry around items of heightened continual flame. (Status: No you don't, straight-up tactic negation).
B. Fog cloud. Obscuring mist and fog cloud are two of the easiest ways for bad guys to level the playing field and they are low level and cheap to carry on scrolls. How do you really feel about everyone fighting in fog every two to three battles?
C. Dispel magic and daylight. Dispel magic is pretty common as a SLA and will often be used anyway. Daylight (esp heightened) will also show up to counter you more reliably when you face spellcasters. (Status: it was probably going to happen anyway, now it will definitely happen every time it can).
D. You win. Some encounters will be trivialized by this tactic. Do you really want to effectively pass up those encounters? There are fun ways to win and unfun ways to win. This strikes me as a fun way to win occasionally but a very dull way to win regularly. If it were a computer game, I'd rather hit autoresolve than fight out most such battles but I don' think that regular "autoresolves" are much fun in D&D.

This is a tactic that is much better suited to NPCs than PCs. When NPCs do it, it's a puzzle encounter that tests your ability to prepare for eventualities or come up with unusual ways of using your abilities to counter a tactical disadvantage and that is fun occasionally but gets old quickly when repeated (as it is when PCs adopt it as a standard tactic).

[Troacctid]

Sure. A Dark Lantern creates shadowy illumination, which provides concealment. If you have the ability to hide while being observed, you can use that concealment to hide.

[Psyren]

could i have a item of contiunous darkness + item of ebon eyes to give myself the ability to hide (with hide in plain sight feat) anywhere i want yet still be able to see and have no problem attacking the enemy? or is there some better combination? i saw there was a item that blocked darkvision

You need true darkness to do this - darkness from the Darkness spell isn't enough, because all that gives you is concealment, rather than total concealment (thus you can still be observed.)

What you want is something that grants "total darkness" instead - such as the No Light spell from BoVD (it's a cantrip, but is pierced by regular darkvision so it's not very strong), or the Blacklight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/spells/blacklight.htm) spell, in which case you actually won't need Ebon Eyes at all.

[Chewychunga]

Ok I was thinking something that have total / stronger darkness so it wasn't mitigated by daylight
Basically if I was outside it super sunny and standing beside. A daylight spell I would appear as a orb of black
And I was gonna have it continuous that would be downside of it to me.. Make some fights easier some trivial but also might make other encounters a lot harder

[ff7hero]

As far as "turning off" the continual item of Darkness goes, I'm pretty sure you can take advantage of the same logic that leads Batman Wizards to make their hats Shrink Item'd lead cones (to block the effects of an AMF). I'm not sure of the specifics, but I think a small lead box of some kind would be able to block the effect of the Darkness spell.

[Troacctid]

Sounds like you just described the shoulder bind ability of the Shadow Mantle from Magic of Incarnum p85.


AI'm not sure of the specifics, but I think a small lead box of some kind would be able to block the effect of the Darkness spell.
The Darkness spell is blocked by any kind of covering. It works like a light source.

[ff7hero]

The Darkness spell is blocked by any kind of covering. It works like a light source.

Even easier, make a pendant with a permanent Darkness spell on it, wear it on a chain around your neck. Then you can get a little pouch you can tie around the pendant when you want to block the Darkness.

(Or do any of a hundred other things, this was just the first way I could think of to get hands and hassle free perma Darkness)

[Troacctid]

Put it on a tongue piercing or a false tooth. Talking is a free action that can be performed out of turn, so open your mouth to get concealment whenever you're attacked, and close your mouth again if it ever becomes inconvenient for you.

[Chewychunga]

Lol like the talking one
But what I really want is a "hahaha you can't see anything inside or past my orb sucker" effect not just concealment
Basically a dark effect that gives invisiability to anything in a area / behind it

[Crake]

You need true darkness to do this - darkness from the Darkness spell isn't enough, because all that gives you is concealment, rather than total concealment (thus you can still be observed.)

Didn't he specify in his post that he had hide in plain sight, letting him hide even while observed? I imagine he has one of the bad versions of hide in plain sight that still requires you to have some kind of cover or concealment to hide in, which is why he wants to bring along his own personal ball of concealment.

[Chewychunga]

Lol that's one reason
I also want to be able to use it to protect some of my casters by allowing me to cover our escapes and hide us in dark areas

[Eisfalken]

Just FYI, there's no such thing as foolproof darkness magic. Darkness is defeated by daylight; daylight and deeper darkness counter each other so that regular light conditions (including from mundane sources) work normally. Blacklight seems to be the same, defeats/defeated by daylight.

For covering escapes/retreats, may I suggest a cheap, disposable wand of obscuring mist? It's not nearly as "bad" a spell as folks often call it; it's just very situational, and not worth blowing an actual spell slot on. It gives a miss chance, and largely won't be blown away indoors or underground. At 750 gp for a 20% chance to negate any targeted attack made on folks in there, I think you'd be hard-pressed to do better. Throw in some caltrops (from the spell or the mundane version), and you have a great way to keep enemies from pursuing you.

Oh, and by the way, most of this probably won't matter. If you try this with anything that has an area attack, they'll just roast you with one; not even darkness will save you from a breath weapon or a fireball or a flame strike. "Oh, no! There's a big ol' blob of inky darkness I can't see into! Hmm. I wonder if I should rush into there to engage things I can't see in melee, or... naw, here's a blast of flame spell you don't get a saving throw or SR against. Just stay right there inside that big blob of darkness so I know exactly where to land this area attack."

It's a neat idea against mundane enemies in, say, a social or stealth-based campaign. If you're facing actual dragons and other monsters and NPC spellcasters, not so much.

[GenericClone]

I don't know if it's been mentioned.

Use deeper darkness which lasts for days per level. Cast it on a object, contain that object, bring out when needed. No need for permanency.

Then do something with ebon eyes to make it permanent.

And with the right hide in plain sight such as the assassins or shadow dancers you can hide in shadows.

And I believe that hide just says you need concealment or cover. Darkness confers concealment so I believe that you shouldn't have any issues since hide in plain sight removes the observation restriction.

And a spell I like for retreating, or using in general is net of shadows. Surrounds them in shadows and they can't see further then 5 feet away if they fail their will save

[Gnaeus]

More reliable is an Eversmoking Bottle + Goz Mask or Fogcutter Goggles (PF) or Blindfold of true darkness (3.5). Very little can see through that. Of course, you no longer need your HiPS ability, since everyone has total concealment.



Oh, and by the way, most of this probably won't matter. If you try this with anything that has an area attack, they'll just roast you with one; not even darkness will save you from a breath weapon or a fireball or a flame strike. "Oh, no! There's a big ol' blob of inky darkness I can't see into! Hmm. I wonder if I should rush into there to engage things I can't see in melee, or... naw, here's a blast of flame spell you don't get a saving throw or SR against. Just stay right there inside that big blob of darkness so I know exactly where to land this area attack."
.

Here is the other reason the bottle works better. at between 50 and 100 foot radius, even area attacks are hard to target.

[Chewychunga]

The total concilment is what I'm really after
Thought that was what darkness did
Is there any spells that give total darkness / concealment ?
I'm wanting tk be able to hide whole party part of it myself or just blind enemy depending where I stand
And the smoke is alright just too noticeable in some locations

[Troacctid]

Obscuring Snow + Snowsight

[Psyren]

(Greater) Invisibility is pretty much the only way to get total concealment without having anything noticeable (like fog) to hide behind.

Well, there's also the Tower Shield trick for total cover, but GMs tend to throw books for that one.

[Troacctid]

There's also the Shadow Blend ability of the +2 LA Shadow template (or the 7th level Dark Moon Disciple substitution level for Monk), which gives you total concealment in any lighting conditions less than full daylight.

[Chewychunga]

The shadow blend is awesome I gotta figure a way to get that in a item or feat or something without la

[Ortesk]

If someone suggested this, I missed it.

you have HiPS, get darkstalker. Blind sense blows. so does all the other "lawl, only n00b hide past level X' stuff, like true seeing.

Take 2 level warlock dip. Darkness/Will, Devils sight/will. Go crazy, who needs magical items! (You still do, a daylight will leave you more exposed than building your house of glass"