Fair enough, I would agree with that. The rule certainly could have been much better written in several different ways.
In a vacuum, I would agree that as written it's not clear-cut and there is some room for interpretation. But in my opinion the additional context that is provided by how the Glossary entry is written sheds a lot of additional insight into the intention of the rule -- that the concept of a Heavily Obscured area is simply an area within which objects are obscured from view. As for the actual object or effect which is causing this area to be obscured . . . whether or not that object or effect blocks vision in general is handled separately from this rule and is typically handled on a case-by-case basis. In the 2014 DMG, a few specific examples were given of objects or effects that block vision -- " . . . such as a stone wall, a thick curtain, or a dense cloud of fog . . .". An area of darkness was not mentioned as an example of an effect that blocks vision, although obviously that list is not exhaustive. Right now, I'm not sure how the 2024 DMG currently handles this concept.
Anyway, yes, it's true that this is not really a slam dunk, but in my opinion, there is a preponderance of evidence.
The type of person asking this question is the type of person that would be excused at Session 0 at my table.
It is so obvious what this rule is MEANING. Debating it or NEEDING clarification on something so obvious would render you useless at my gaming table. Get it together.
A Heavily Obscured area—such as an area with Darkness, heavy fog, or dense foliage—is opaque. You have the Blinded condition (see the rules glossary) when trying to see something there.
and while interpreting the second sentence as a definition for 'opaque' is not entirely implausible, it's not clear-cut.
In my opinion, that the second sentence isn't defining the term "opaque". Opaque simply means what the English dictionary says.
The second sentence is just adding you have the Blinded condition while trying to see something in a Heavily Obscured space.
A Heavily Obscured area—such as an area with Darkness, heavy fog, or dense foliage—is opaque. You have the Blinded condition (see the rules glossary) when trying to see something there.
and while interpreting the second sentence as a definition for 'opaque' is not entirely implausible, it's not clear-cut.
In my opinion, that the second sentence isn't defining the term "opaque". Opaque simply means what the English dictionary says.
The second sentence is just adding you have the Blinded condition while trying to see something in a Heavily Obscured space.
Seems like that part you quoted and that has the book text that clearly by game description defines darkness as an opaque heavily Obscured space.
Trying to equate mundane darkness, which by the way is considered Shadows and lightly obscured by design and descriptive information which fits IRL concepts of darkness, to magical darkness, which again is defined in the general both in specific terms and by it’s use in various spells and features, which are too very different types of darkness to each other is the reason why people don’t get it.
Magical darkness is like having a dark hood tossed over your head, and it’s so dark you can’t see anything.
When trying to look into a darkened heavily obscured area, anything in that area that can look out and see you has an advantage at attacking you, while you have to guess where to attack, a-la disadvantage.
This only applies to the ones looking into the darkness, and anyone in the darkness with the ability to look out or within the darkness gains only certain benefits depending on if the other party can gain any of the benefits aforementioned.
Those who try to claim magical darkness is the same as mundane darkness are incorrect in their assumption that there is not a significant difference between the two.
Clearly the rules define in their limited scope exactly how the game considers the difference between mundane darkness and magical darkness.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
Dim Light. Dim Light, also called shadows, creates a Lightly Obscured area. An area of Dim Light is usually a boundary between Bright Light and surrounding Darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also counts as Dim Light. A full moon might bathe the land in Dim Light.
Darkness. Darkness creates a Heavily Obscuredarea. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon, or in an area of magical Darkness.
A Heavily Obscured area—such as an area with Darkness, heavy fog, or dense foliage—is opaque. You have the Blinded condition (see the rules glossary) when trying to see something there.
and while interpreting the second sentence as a definition for 'opaque' is not entirely implausible, it's not clear-cut.
In my opinion, that the second sentence isn't defining the term "opaque". Opaque simply means what the English dictionary says.
The second sentence is just adding you have the Blinded condition while trying to see something in a Heavily Obscured space.
Seems like that part you quoted and that has the book text that clearly by game description defines darkness as an opaque heavily Obscured space.
Trying to equate mundane darkness, which by the way is considered Shadows and lightly obscured by design and descriptive information which fits IRL concepts of darkness, to magical darkness, which again is defined in the general both in specific terms and by it’s use in various spells and features, which are too very different types of darkness to each other is the reason why people don’t get it.
Magical darkness is like having a dark hood tossed over your head, and it’s so dark you can’t see anything.
When trying to look into a darkened heavily obscured area, anything in that area that can look out and see you has an advantage at attacking you, while you have to guess where to attack, a-la disadvantage.
This only applies to the ones looking into the darkness, and anyone in the darkness with the ability to look out or within the darkness gains only certain benefits depending on if the other party can gain any of the benefits aforementioned.
Those who try to claim magical darkness is the same as mundane darkness are incorrect in their assumption that there is not a significant difference between the two.
Clearly the rules define in their limited scope exactly how the game considers the difference between mundane darkness and magical darkness.
I'm in the group of people who consider magical Darkness to be different from mundane darkness.
@TarodNet Now take the quoted block of game text and swap heavily obscured and opaque and read it.
The text reverse defines what is considered opaque and defines it as a heavily obscured. So actually it is defining what the game considers as opaque.
And you can’t see into or through an opaque object or area unless you have special means to do so.
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" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
Trying to equate mundane darkness . . . to magical darkness . . . which are too very different types of darkness to each other is the reason why people don’t get it.
Magical darkness is like having a dark hood tossed over your head, and it’s so dark you can’t see anything.
. . .
Those who try to claim magical darkness is the same as mundane darkness are incorrect in their assumption that there is not a significant difference between the two.
Clearly the rules define in their limited scope exactly how the game considers the difference between mundane darkness and magical darkness.
Can you please quote something directly from the text which explains this? Because I am not seeing anything like this is the rules.
The only thing that I am seeing is that the magical Darkness that is created by the Darkness spell appears as Darkness instead of as Dim Light to those who have Darkvision and also that nonmagical light cannot illuminate it. Other than that, there is no difference between this magical Darkness and mundane Darkness. In fact, in the online version of the rules, the first appearance of the word "Darkness" within the Darkness spell description actually hyperlinks the user directly to the rules for mundane Darkness.
Trying to equate mundane darkness . . . to magical darkness . . . which are too very different types of darkness to each other is the reason why people don’t get it.
Magical darkness is like having a dark hood tossed over your head, and it’s so dark you can’t see anything.
. . .
Those who try to claim magical darkness is the same as mundane darkness are incorrect in their assumption that there is not a significant difference between the two.
Clearly the rules define in their limited scope exactly how the game considers the difference between mundane darkness and magical darkness.
Can you please quote something directly from the text which explains this? Because I am not seeing anything like this is the rules.
The only thing that I am seeing is that the magical Darkness that is created by the Darkness spell appears as Darkness instead of as Dim Light to those who have Darkvision and also that nonmagical light cannot illuminate it. Other than that, there is no difference between this magical Darkness and mundane Darkness. In fact, in the online version of the rules, the first appearance of the word "Darkness" within the Darkness spell description actually hyperlinks the user directly to the rules for mundane Darkness.
Then obviously you do not fully read both rules and thread as the relevant part of the quoted rules clearly states the difference between the two.
If you can not in good faith accept that there are defined within the rules that distinction between mundane darkness and magical darkness, then repeating the same old excuses for attempting to use the misunderstanding of the difference is a clear indication that you need to brush up on the rules.
The rules clearly differentiate the difference between the two forms of darkness.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
While any Darkness creates a Heavily Obscured area., it may be the effect of magic if not the absence of light determining the category of illumination.
I think WoTC hasn't found yet a way to properly handle them so each be ruled satisfyingly ever since they insist to have Darkness be Heavily Obscured.
Rules Glossary (PHB2024): Darkness - An area of Darkness is Heavily Obscured. Heavily Obscured - You have the Blinded condition while trying to see something in a Heavily Obscured space.
Exploration (PHB 2024):
A Heavily Obscured area—such as an area with Darkness, heavy fog, or dense foliage—is opaque. You have the Blinded condition when trying to see something there. Darkness. Darkness creates a Heavily Obscured area. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon, or in an area of magical Darkness.
Spell Description (PHB 2024: Darkness (2nd level spell): For the duration, magical Darkness spreads from a point within range and fills a 15-foot-radius Sphere. Darkvision can't see through it, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it.
No where is there any distinction made between regular darkness and magical darkness, it's like magical vs nonmagical bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage all that is different is the source of it, nothing different about how it works. So all darkness is opaque RAW, and if you are choosing to HB that it isn't you probably should be ruling magical & non-magical darkness the same, but HB is HB so rule however you wish. Honestly, it's like the Hiding rules - we all know how Hiding should work, but describing it without spending pages and pages on different situations is hard so the RAW isn't written all that well, and you should just run it in the way that it obviously make sense to run it.
this section starts by defining the difference between what is considered something that is considered lightly obscured, shadow’s ; light fog ; and nighttime on a moonlit night( aka mundane darkness, shadows that only partially block light, and sight), and heavily obscured, dense fog or foliage, and drakness.
After that it explains the difference in light terms because the difference between shadow and darkness is very much a factor.
In darkness not even dark-vision works but in shadow it’s all fair. ( remember dark vision is more like night-vision that can only show shades of grey in different contrast to define depth out to a certain range.)
Magical darkness is a region of darkness that only magical light of a particular level can illuminate. or a feature or ability that can allow a creature to treat magical darkness as mundane darkness that allows that creature to see into magical darkness also reinforces the concept that there is a distinct difference between the two.
So obviously the entire concept of the difference between mundane darkness and magical darkness is summed up in one relative segment of the rules.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
Rules Glossary (PHB2024): Darkness - An area of Darkness is Heavily Obscured. Heavily Obscured - You have the Blinded condition while trying to see something in a Heavily Obscured space.
Exploration (PHB 2024):
A Heavily Obscured area—such as an area with Darkness, heavy fog, or dense foliage—is opaque. You have the Blinded condition when trying to see something there. Darkness. Darkness creates a Heavily Obscured area. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon, or in an area of magical Darkness.
Spell Description (PHB 2024: Darkness (2nd level spell): For the duration, magical Darkness spreads from a point within range and fills a 15-foot-radius Sphere. Darkvision can't see through it, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it.
No where is there any distinction made between regular darkness and magical darkness, it's like magical vs nonmagical bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage all that is different is the source of it, nothing different about how it works. So all darkness is opaque RAW, and if you are choosing to HB that it isn't you probably should be ruling magical & non-magical darkness the same, but HB is HB so rule however you wish. Honestly, it's like the Hiding rules - we all know how Hiding should work, but describing it without spending pages and pages on different situations is hard so the RAW isn't written all that well, and you should just run it in the way that it obviously make sense to run it.
Btw, Silvered Weapons pg.148 of the 2014 PHB was the cheapest method of bypassing the non-magical resistances, but is a different topic.
The rules have always made a distinction between mundane and magical darkness, otherwise dark vision would work in magical darkness just as it works in mundane darkness. But yet magical darkness clearly works differently than mundane darkness, so obviously there must exist a difference between the two.
And it sits plain as day in the vision & light rules.
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
Rules Glossary (PHB2024): Darkness - An area of Darkness is Heavily Obscured. Heavily Obscured - You have the Blinded condition while trying to see something in a Heavily Obscured space.
Exploration (PHB 2024):
A Heavily Obscured area—such as an area with Darkness, heavy fog, or dense foliage—is opaque. You have the Blinded condition when trying to see something there. Darkness. Darkness creates a Heavily Obscured area. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon, or in an area of magical Darkness.
Spell Description (PHB 2024: Darkness (2nd level spell): For the duration, magical Darkness spreads from a point within range and fills a 15-foot-radius Sphere. Darkvision can't see through it, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it.
No where is there any distinction made between regular darkness and magical darkness, it's like magical vs nonmagical bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage all that is different is the source of it, nothing different about how it works. So all darkness is opaque RAW, and if you are choosing to HB that it isn't you probably should be ruling magical & non-magical darkness the same, but HB is HB so rule however you wish. Honestly, it's like the Hiding rules - we all know how Hiding should work, but describing it without spending pages and pages on different situations is hard so the RAW isn't written all that well, and you should just run it in the way that it obviously make sense to run it.
Btw, Silvered Weapons pg.148 of the 2014 PHB was the cheapest method of bypassing the non-magical resistances, but is a different topic.
The rules have always made a distinction between mundane and magical darkness, otherwise dark vision would work in magical darkness just as it works in mundane darkness. But yet magical darkness clearly works differently than mundane darkness, so obviously there must exist a difference between the two.
And it sits plain as day in the vision & light rules.
Please could you quote the bit that distinguishes them? I’ve read through the rules again and still don’t see it.
The rules have always made a distinction between mundane and magical darkness, otherwise dark vision would work in magical darkness just as it works in mundane darkness. But yet magical darkness clearly works differently than mundane darkness, so obviously there must exist a difference between the two.
And it sits plain as day in the vision & light rules.
Please could you quote the bit that distinguishes them? I’ve read through the rules again and still don’t see it.
There is no difference between magical and non-magical darkness per se, but the spells that create magical darkness can impose additional effects over just creating darkness.
For the duration, magical Darkness spreads from a point within range and fills a 15-foot-radius Sphere. Darkvision can’t see through it, and nonmagical light can’t illuminate it.
Alternatively, you cast the spell on an object that isn’t being worn or carried, causing the Darkness to fill a 15-foot Emanation originating from that object. Covering that object with something opaque, such as a bowl or helm, blocks the Darkness.
If any of this spell’s area overlaps with an area of Bright Light or Dim Light created by a spell of level 2 or lower, that other spell is dispelled.
Notice that the effect is described as "magical Darkness" but only the "Darkness" is hyperlinked? The Darkness is the same as any other, but the spell adds that Darkvision can't see through it and non-magical light can't illuminate it. Additionally the spell says that it can dispel equal or lower level spells that create light (even if light is not the primary purpose, such as Moonbeam).
Outside of additional effects added by the specific source, the only difference between magical Darkness and non-magical Darkness is that source is magical or not. This can be used to interact with other abilities, for example, a Warlock with the Devil's Sight Invocation can see normally in both types of Darkness (although Devil's Sight doesn't provide Darkvision so it wouldn't be blocked by the Darkness spell anyway) whereas any Darkvision that does not explicitly state it works in magical Darkness will not work in the area created by the Darkness spell.
By contrast, let's look at darkness effect of Hallow:
You touch a point and infuse an area around it with holy or unholy power. The area can have a radius up to 60 feet, and the spell fails if the radius includes an area already under the effect of Hallow. The affected area has the following effects.
...
Darkness.Darkness fills the area. Normal light, as well as magical light created by spells of a level lower than this spell, can’t illuminate the area.
Notice that this does not reference Darkvision? The Darkness doesn't block Darkvision and magical light from a lower level spell is not dispelled even if it can't illuminate the area.
Darkness being magical or not makes no difference, but the source may add additional restrictions beyond just applying Darkness to the area.
The problem is not so much that both mundane and magical Darkness is Heavily obscured but that the different category of illumination from the presence or absence of light obscure vision the same way any other sources do.
Fair enough, I would agree with that. The rule certainly could have been much better written in several different ways.
In a vacuum, I would agree that as written it's not clear-cut and there is some room for interpretation. But in my opinion the additional context that is provided by how the Glossary entry is written sheds a lot of additional insight into the intention of the rule -- that the concept of a Heavily Obscured area is simply an area within which objects are obscured from view. As for the actual object or effect which is causing this area to be obscured . . . whether or not that object or effect blocks vision in general is handled separately from this rule and is typically handled on a case-by-case basis. In the 2014 DMG, a few specific examples were given of objects or effects that block vision -- " . . . such as a stone wall, a thick curtain, or a dense cloud of fog . . .". An area of darkness was not mentioned as an example of an effect that blocks vision, although obviously that list is not exhaustive. Right now, I'm not sure how the 2024 DMG currently handles this concept.
Anyway, yes, it's true that this is not really a slam dunk, but in my opinion, there is a preponderance of evidence.
The type of person asking this question is the type of person that would be excused at Session 0 at my table.
It is so obvious what this rule is MEANING. Debating it or NEEDING clarification on something so obvious would render you useless at my gaming table. Get it together.
In my opinion, that the second sentence isn't defining the term "opaque". Opaque simply means what the English dictionary says.
The second sentence is just adding you have the Blinded condition while trying to see something in a Heavily Obscured space.
Seems like that part you quoted and that has the book text that clearly by game description defines darkness as an opaque heavily Obscured space.
Trying to equate mundane darkness, which by the way is considered Shadows and lightly obscured by design and descriptive information which fits IRL concepts of darkness, to magical darkness, which again is defined in the general both in specific terms and by it’s use in various spells and features, which are too very different types of darkness to each other is the reason why people don’t get it.
Magical darkness is like having a dark hood tossed over your head, and it’s so dark you can’t see anything.
When trying to look into a darkened heavily obscured area, anything in that area that can look out and see you has an advantage at attacking you, while you have to guess where to attack, a-la disadvantage.
This only applies to the ones looking into the darkness, and anyone in the darkness with the ability to look out or within the darkness gains only certain benefits depending on if the other party can gain any of the benefits aforementioned.
Those who try to claim magical darkness is the same as mundane darkness are incorrect in their assumption that there is not a significant difference between the two.
Clearly the rules define in their limited scope exactly how the game considers the difference between mundane darkness and magical darkness.
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
Dim Light. Dim Light, also called shadows, creates a Lightly Obscured area. An area of Dim Light is usually a boundary between Bright Light and surrounding Darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also counts as Dim Light. A full moon might bathe the land in Dim Light.
Darkness. Darkness creates a Heavily Obscuredarea. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon, or in an area of magical Darkness.
I'm in the group of people who consider magical Darkness to be different from mundane darkness.
@TarodNet Now take the quoted block of game text and swap heavily obscured and opaque and read it.
The text reverse defines what is considered opaque and defines it as a heavily obscured. So actually it is defining what the game considers as opaque.
And you can’t see into or through an opaque object or area unless you have special means to do so.
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
I just treat all Heavily Obscured areas as opaque except mundane darkness.
Can you please quote something directly from the text which explains this? Because I am not seeing anything like this is the rules.
The only thing that I am seeing is that the magical Darkness that is created by the Darkness spell appears as Darkness instead of as Dim Light to those who have Darkvision and also that nonmagical light cannot illuminate it. Other than that, there is no difference between this magical Darkness and mundane Darkness. In fact, in the online version of the rules, the first appearance of the word "Darkness" within the Darkness spell description actually hyperlinks the user directly to the rules for mundane Darkness.
I also don't let Lightly Obscured areas by Dim Light obscure vision into Bright Light.
Then obviously you do not fully read both rules and thread as the relevant part of the quoted rules clearly states the difference between the two.
If you can not in good faith accept that there are defined within the rules that distinction between mundane darkness and magical darkness, then repeating the same old excuses for attempting to use the misunderstanding of the difference is a clear indication that you need to brush up on the rules.
The rules clearly differentiate the difference between the two forms of darkness.
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
Where? Could you please quote the section that differentiates them?
While any Darkness creates a Heavily Obscured area., it may be the effect of magic if not the absence of light determining the category of illumination.
I think WoTC hasn't found yet a way to properly handle them so each be ruled satisfyingly ever since they insist to have Darkness be Heavily Obscured.
Here are all the rules I could find:
Rules Glossary (PHB2024):
Darkness - An area of Darkness is Heavily Obscured.
Heavily Obscured - You have the Blinded condition while trying to see something in a Heavily Obscured space.
Exploration (PHB 2024):
A Heavily Obscured area—such as an area with Darkness, heavy fog, or dense foliage—is opaque. You have the Blinded condition when trying to see something there.
Darkness. Darkness creates a Heavily Obscured area. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon, or in an area of magical Darkness.
Spell Description (PHB 2024:
Darkness (2nd level spell): For the duration, magical Darkness spreads from a point within range and fills a 15-foot-radius Sphere. Darkvision can't see through it, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it.
No where is there any distinction made between regular darkness and magical darkness, it's like magical vs nonmagical bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage all that is different is the source of it, nothing different about how it works. So all darkness is opaque RAW, and if you are choosing to HB that it isn't you probably should be ruling magical & non-magical darkness the same, but HB is HB so rule however you wish. Honestly, it's like the Hiding rules - we all know how Hiding should work, but describing it without spending pages and pages on different situations is hard so the RAW isn't written all that well, and you should just run it in the way that it obviously make sense to run it.
Free rules: Vision & Light.
this section starts by defining the difference between what is considered something that is considered lightly obscured, shadow’s ; light fog ; and nighttime on a moonlit night( aka mundane darkness, shadows that only partially block light, and sight), and heavily obscured, dense fog or foliage, and drakness.
After that it explains the difference in light terms because the difference between shadow and darkness is very much a factor.
In darkness not even dark-vision works but in shadow it’s all fair. ( remember dark vision is more like night-vision that can only show shades of grey in different contrast to define depth out to a certain range.)
Magical darkness is a region of darkness that only magical light of a particular level can illuminate. or a feature or ability that can allow a creature to treat magical darkness as mundane darkness that allows that creature to see into magical darkness also reinforces the concept that there is a distinct difference between the two.
So obviously the entire concept of the difference between mundane darkness and magical darkness is summed up in one relative segment of the rules.
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
Btw, Silvered Weapons pg.148 of the 2014 PHB was the cheapest method of bypassing the non-magical resistances, but is a different topic.
The rules have always made a distinction between mundane and magical darkness, otherwise dark vision would work in magical darkness just as it works in mundane darkness.
But yet magical darkness clearly works differently than mundane darkness, so obviously there must exist a difference between the two.
And it sits plain as day in the vision & light rules.
" Darkvision doesn’t work in Magical darkness, and if something is magical, Never Trust it acts the same way as a non-magical version of that same thing!”- Discotech Mage over a cup of joe.
Please could you quote the bit that distinguishes them? I’ve read through the rules again and still don’t see it.
There is no difference between magical and non-magical darkness per se, but the spells that create magical darkness can impose additional effects over just creating darkness.
For example, Darkness:
Notice that the effect is described as "magical Darkness" but only the "Darkness" is hyperlinked? The Darkness is the same as any other, but the spell adds that Darkvision can't see through it and non-magical light can't illuminate it. Additionally the spell says that it can dispel equal or lower level spells that create light (even if light is not the primary purpose, such as Moonbeam).
Outside of additional effects added by the specific source, the only difference between magical Darkness and non-magical Darkness is that source is magical or not. This can be used to interact with other abilities, for example, a Warlock with the Devil's Sight Invocation can see normally in both types of Darkness (although Devil's Sight doesn't provide Darkvision so it wouldn't be blocked by the Darkness spell anyway) whereas any Darkvision that does not explicitly state it works in magical Darkness will not work in the area created by the Darkness spell.
By contrast, let's look at darkness effect of Hallow:
Notice that this does not reference Darkvision? The Darkness doesn't block Darkvision and magical light from a lower level spell is not dispelled even if it can't illuminate the area.
Darkness being magical or not makes no difference, but the source may add additional restrictions beyond just applying Darkness to the area.
How to add Tooltips.
The problem is not so much that both mundane and magical Darkness is Heavily obscured but that the different category of illumination from the presence or absence of light obscure vision the same way any other sources do.
A Lightly Obscured area by mundane Dim Light shouldn't obscure vision into Bright Light like Web, Insect Plague, patchy fog, or moderate foliage etc do for example.
A Heavily Obscured area by mundane Darkness shouldn't obscure vision into Dim Light or Bright Light like Darkness, Fog Cloud, heavy fog, dense foliage etc do for example.
I don't have TarodNet search fu Expertise skill all i was able to dig in terms of previous discussion on this topic is this for anyone interested :)
Summary of issues with 2024 vision, stealth, etc - Rules & Game Mechanics - Dungeons & Dragons Discussion - D&D Beyond Forums - D&D Beyond