5e Spell: Ebon Eyes

[Segev]

The 3.5e version of this spell is level 1 and lasts for ten minutes per level. Its wording is amazingly confusing, but essentially it lets darkvision work even in magical darkness. It also removes any penalties for dealing with shadowy illumination. I believe that, when the darkvision spell is upped from an hour per level in 3.5 to eight hours in 5e, the updated version lf this spell should lat for one hour.

The rest is where I am probably going for too much. Level remains 1. It remains a touch spell. Duration is one hour. Two possible ways to write it, and then variations on those that have more nerfs, perhaps.

1) "You touch a willing target and his eyes become pure black voids in the effect that gives this spell its name. While the spell lasts, dim lighting does not impede the target's vision, and the target gains Sunlight Sensitivity. Sunlight sensitivity imposes Disadvantage on attack rolls and Wisdom (Perception) checks when the target or the creature or object he is trying to attack or visually perceive is in direct sunlight.

"In addition, if the target has darkvision, he also gains Devil's Sight out to the same distance, letting him see normally in darkness and magical darkness."

2) As above, save that the second paragraph is worded, "If the target has Darkvision, then its Darkvision works in magical darkness of all kinds while the spell lasts."

Is giving full on Invocation-level Devil's Sight out to extant Darkvision range a bad idea, or reasonable to do?

[GeoffWatson]

So darkvision but better and only 1st level?

Can you use it to give an opponent Sunlight Sensitivity? That could be powerful, if situational.

[Segev]

So darkvision but better and only 1st level?

Can you use it to give an opponent Sunlight Sensitivity? That could be powerful, if situational.

No, it only gives you Devil's Sight out to the range of your existing Darkvision. So you'd need to cast darkvision on somebody who doesn't have it for ebon eyes to improve said Darkvision. If you cast ebon eyes on, say, a halfling who doesn't have any spells, items, or class features granting Darkvision, all it would do is impose Sunlight Sensitivity and let them roll Wisdom (Perception) in dim lighting without disadvantage (which, frankly, most tables forget to impose anyway, especially since most Wisdom (Perception) rolls use more than JUST sight, so the Disadvantage wouldn't apply in any case).

It is explicitly only usable on willing targets, so if you can use it on an enemy to impose Sunlight Sensitivity, it's because you tricked them into accepting it, somehow.

Cast it on a dwarf or elf, and their darkvision now penetrates magical darkness. Or is converted to Devil's Sight, per the Invocation, depending on which version is the final one. The latter is definitely stronger, granting color vision out to the range of darkvision and also not technically being darkvision for things that specifically interact with it (such as the Gloomstalker Ranger's invisibility to darkvision). A middle ground would be to take the wording of the Invocation and apply it as new rules to the darkvision of a creature under the effects of this spell. That would leave it as "darkvision," but still grant color sight out to that range AND penetrate magical darkness. Or it could use the wording of Devil's Sight from monster entries; imps, for example, can see into magical darkness with their darkvision, but it's still darkvision and still black-and-white.