Nonmagical light and Darkness spells

[TallerSpine]

Questions about magical darkness:


A PC with a light source is at the edge of a darkness spell. When they step inside the spell, they are within an area of shadowy illumination. What does the PC behind them see? Does the light source dim to shadowy illumination? Or since the second PC is outside the darkness spell, do they see normal light (as they are within range of the light source to see normally)?
Two PCs are standing twenty feet apart (within normal illumination from a torch). At least one of the squares between them counts as within the effect of a darkness spell, but neither PC is within the spell effect. One of the PCs has a light source. Can both PCs see each other? Or does the intervening darkness prevent the light from reaching the PC without the light source? Suppose the light source reaches at least 20 feet ordinarily.
The darkness spell reads that the spell creates an area of shadowy illumination, but it does not say what happens in complete darkness. Without additional information, this seems to have the wonky effect of producing light when ambient lighting conditions are less than shadowy illumination. I, however, rule (or perhaps house rule if you prefer) that a darkness spell cannot increase the light level. Suppose there is no light source, and we have the situation in (2) above. Would the PCs be able to see each other if they both had darkvision? Or does the intervening darkness basically look like a wall of the spell between them that completely blocks darkvision?
Without any light, would it make sense to apply the blinded condition to all characters within a darkness spell? Or should characters with darkvision still only have a 20% miss chance (rather than 50% from the blinded condition)?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

1. A light source within the area of the darkness spell is incapable of brightening it, and thus its light doesn't spread out from the darkness effect either. Taking a light source into the darkness will effectively cause that light source to no longer shed light at all while it's within the area of the spell.

2. You can see through/past the darkness, but not into it, it's not a fog effect. So the two creatures could see each other with no problems, as long as both are illuminated.

3. If you're relying on low-light vision or darkvision to see past it, it does block those so you can't see beyond the darkness. So if someone is on the other side, outside the darkness but within the range of your special vision, you can't see them.

4. "This spell causes an object to radiate shadowy illumination out to a 20-foot radius." It actually does illuminate total darkness. Like a torch radiates shadowy illumination at 20-40 ft., Darkness does radiate shadowy illumination and thus brightens an area of total darkness.


The solution is to hire an NPC spellcaster (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#spell) to use Continual Flame (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/continualFlame.htm), heightened to a 9th level spell, on an object you carry or even on your hair or similar (you can wear a hat to block the effect when needed). A 9th level spell at a caster level of 20th is 1,800 gp, plus the 50 gp material component, and being a 9th level [light] spell this will automatically overcome any darkness effect of 8th level or lower, and will counteract any 9th level darkness effects 1:1 allowing all other lighting to function normally where the areas overlap.