Cooling down in the desert w/ darkness spell?

[EoNhOeKnOwS]

So we are put in the middle of an unnamed desert and my guy is a shadow caster and the ports can’t be seen on this side but the other side is one of the infinite planes of the abyss and there are 2 balors on the other side with one of our allies holding them off and well I’m already walking away and trying to find shade ... in the desert... will I cool down if I cast darkness on myself enough to survive, will the sun rays be blocked by darkness? I hear 80% of UV rays still penetrate a cloudy day ... so any thoughts? Thanks

[JNAProductions]

I'd say that'd work. It won't stop you from being hot, but it'll give you a chance to cool down a little.

Nice use of the spell!

[Bohandas]

It should keep the sun off of them but they'll stall have to deal wih the ambient temperature of the air

[Thurbane]

I've often wondered about this exact thing myself.

Sandstorm makes some mention of shade in the Natural Waste hazards section.

[XionUnborn01]

I don't think it would help. It makes it shadowy but there's still the heat emanating from the sand below you and air around you. Shade is usually shaded all day which is why it stays cool but just creating it doesn't help unless you sustain it for hours to let some heat dissipate from the ground.

Honestly though, that being said, if I was the DM I'd be inclined to give you some sort of bonus for the cleverness.

[Zaq]

I once helped a group of low-level NPCs (few, if any, real class levels among them, and enough bodies to be kind of obnoxious to keep safe) cross a desert by having a flying character hold on to an Eversmoking Bottle and a rope, then fly up high enough that the cloud of smoke created some nice shade. The flying character couldn’t see where he was going through the smoke, which is what the rope was for—someone on the ground, who was in the shade from the smoke but not in the smoke itself, used the rope to guide him along. He was basically a cloudy dwarf-kite. The shade wasn’t treated as, like, a full Endure Elements or anything, but it provided enough of a circumstance modifier to let us cross the desert with no casualties, so I’d say your trick is a similar sort of thing. You know, assuming your GM appreciates creative problem-solving.

This anecdote is, incidentally, the only time I’ve ever seen an Eversmoking Bottle solve more problems than it causes. That item is really stupidly designed.

[Psyren]

I don't think it would help. It makes it shadowy but there's still the heat emanating from the sand below you and air around you. Shade is usually shaded all day which is why it stays cool but just creating it doesn't help unless you sustain it for hours to let some heat dissipate from the ground.

Given that even opening a parasol helps against the heat (Sandstorm pg. 100) I would say a darkness spell should too. I would let it provide similar benefits.