A light to you in dark places

[Amiria]

So, in my 3.5 Night Below campaign the group just made it to 7th level after slaughtering the trolls for the svirfneblin. The Cloistered Cleric took her first level in Radiant Servant of Alintan (our god of life and the sun) and now has the radiance class feature and access to 4th level spells.

That means that she can cast Celestial Brilliance (BoED) on some object which last for a week and gives 120 ft. of bright light and 120 ft. shadowy illumination. She'll usually have Luminous Armor pepared as a backup spell. That's a pretty obvious but effective way to explore the underdark. The rules for seeing distant light in FR Underdark say that the party's light source will likely be seen from up to 1200 ft. away (DC 10 spot check), automatically from 600 ft away.

Mass Darkvision (SC) might be an alternative but would eat up one or two 4th level spell slots every day for our party's wizard. It also only reaches out to 60 ft. which is charging range for nasty critters if the cavern floor is smoots enough. Only two of the party of six (the dwarf and the whisper gnome) have darkvision. Items like belts of dwarvenkind or goggles of night are still a bit expensive.

Party consists of

Male human Ranger 2/Barbarian 4/Champion of Gwynharwyf 1
Female dwarf Rogue 4/Scout 2/Barbarian 1
Male grey elf Generalist Wizard 5 /Paragnostic Apostle 2
Female human Cloistered Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Alintan 1
Male human Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/Warblade 5
Male whisper gnome Bard 7

No multiclass penalties, fractional BAB and saves (+2 bonus only once per good save)

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1) With what methods of illumination/perception would you explore the underdark at this level (7) ? What about higher levels ?

2) How would underdark creatures react to such a bright light that's very unfamiliar, unpleasant, threatening to them ? Probably depends on various factors like i.e. level of intelligence, type, alignment, etc.

[SurlySeraph]

1. At your level, I can't think of anything better than what you've already planned. Light for now, items of darkvision or blindsight later.

2. Unintelligent creatures would probably flee or hide, moving back when it passed by. Creatures with 3 or higher but still low intelligence would likely flee or hide, but might try to destroy the source of the light if it got close enough to bother them. More intelligent creatures would investigate to see if there's any way to stop the light and anything they can gain from your party.

[Radar]

2) Stray monsters will most probably stay away from you, unless they are very strongly territorial. More inteligent and organised will observe you for a while and either ignore you or ambush you with enough force to wipe you.

1) It does depend on the surrounding - if you know about some settlements of dark elves or other organised baddies, then it would be unwise to draw attention. In completly wild enviroment it would most probably be better to go with the bright illumination - it would give you advantage in the figthts too, since underdark dwellers are in most cases sensitive to bright light.

Personally i would go with the Mass Darkvision option - it's more stealthy, so you pick your fight and not the other way around. Still keeping a few Celestial Brilliance powered item would be handy in a dangerous fight. There is also the fact, that in the underdark you will rarelly encounter straight areas 1200ft long, yet the glow will be visible across a corner or two anyway. If you go with the illumination option, make sure to send the dwarf Rogue to scout the area in front of the party.

[TheThan]

I like my party’s solution to light problems:

Sling shot
Light spell
Rubber ball.

You cast light on the rubber ball and fire it down the corridor with the sling shot.

[Yuki Akuma]

The best light source to use when you don't want to be noticed is a Darkness spell.

No, seriously. It creates shadowy illumination. Much better than pitch blackness.

[Forbiddenwar]

The best light source to use when you don't want to be noticed is a Darkness spell.

No, seriously. It creates shadowy illumination. Much better than pitch blackness.

This leads us back to DM attacking with ranged weapons (books, dice, pencils) so, no.

[Asheram]

Now where did we have that item/spell that made you invisible to darkvision?

*Searching...*

[Sophismata]

Party consists of

Male human Ranger 2/Barbarian 4/Champion of Gwynharwyf 1
Female dwarf Rogue 4/Scout 2/Barbarian 1
Male grey elf Generalist Wizard 5 /Paragnostic Apostle 2
Female human Cloistered Cleric 6/Radiant Servant of Alintan 1
Male human Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/Warblade 5
Male whisper gnome Bard 7

Hmmm. There is always a bard. It's odd, someone really needs to document the phenomenon.

[olentu]

Now where did we have that item/spell that made you invisible to darkvision?

*Searching...*

I think it is the ring of darkhidden or something like that in the magic item compendium.

[Amiria]

Yeah, now that seems very interesting, virtually all enemies down there have darkvision. I guess that at least our rogue/scout/barbarian should get one of these. If the whole party gets darkvision and these rings they wouldn't be able to see each other.

[Asheram]

It just affects darkvision.. so get something that shines ever so slightly, just so you won't stumble into eachother.

[woodenbandman]

Why do you not have a Duergar or a Drow or some other thing that can see huge distances in the dark?

I guess you'll just have to deal with the beasties.

[Belial_the_Leveler]

Change into a devil-or be posessed by one. They can see any distance in any kind of darkness.

Kind of extreme to just an exploration mission though.

[Amiria]

Hmmm. There is always a bard. It's odd, someone really needs to document the phenomenon.

In such a big group with three competent melee characters it really makes a difference. Even the damage output of the bard cleric and bard starts to hurt the enemies, although the two usually try to stay out out of melee and rather make potshots with ranged weapons.

It is often a +4 bonus to hit and damage, soon +5 (Song of the Heart, Inspirational Boost, Badge of Valor). After the 8th bard level the whispergnome will to take levels in Lyric Thaumaturge.

I made some restrictions/requirements about the party composition so that some events in the second half of campaign will hopefully bring forth some good roleplaying opportunities and to reduce the chances of TPK (minimum of one elf and two humans, maximum of two female characters, minimum of two hefty melee types, one primary arcane and one primary divine full caster, one skill/trapmonkey etc.). When all bases were covered the last "joker" slot practically screamed bard (or marshal or dragon shaman but we never tried those classes so far).