Level
2nd
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
60 ft
(15 ft )
Components
V, M *
Duration
Concentration
10 Minutes
School
Evocation
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Control
Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot-radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around corners. A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it.
If the point you choose is on an object you are holding or one that isn't being worn or carried, the darkness emanates from the object and moves with it. Completely covering the source of the darkness with an opaque object, such as a bowl or a helm, blocks the darkness.
If any of this spell's area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.
* - (bat fur and a drop of pitch or piece of coal)
🎶 Hello darkness my old friend....
Does movement inside the darkness provoke an attack of opportunity?
Unless the attacking creature has a way of seeing through the darkness, no. "You can make an opportunity attack when a hostile creature that you can see moves out of your reach." - PHB page 195. If you can't see it, you can't AoO it.
" Not A" does not imply "Yes B" Just "Not A"
magic light dos,nt work, the spell specifically calls it out
i would'nt interprit it like that, i'd rule the light works like normal and unlit darkness is unafected
no
well said
thank you
A bit like asking if my superior matches will light under water. IMHO
My Shadow Magic Sorcerer casts darkness using sorcery points, so he can see through it. His enemies decide to cluster together, back to back, swords out, for safety, so my sorcerer next casts an AoE spell, Snowball Swarm.
Since this calls for a Dex save, would the targets automatically fail their saving throw because they can't see the spell, or would they suffer only disadvantage? Or, since I can't find any rules specific to the effect of blindness on saving throws, would it not affect them? And does it make any difference if I use a sorcery point to cast the spell without verbal component, so they are unaware that a spell is even being cast?
I think your interpretation of the spell is clearly wrong, though it's an interesting way to think about magical darkness outside of D&D.
"A creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness, and nonmagical light can't illuminate it".
This quote from the spell description indicates that magical darkness functions something like an opaque black cloud, at least because to see light on the other side of the darkness, one would have to see through the area which the darkness covers. But you clearly can't see through this darkness. Furthermore, in the hallway situation you imagine, the torchlight would have to illuminate some of the area covered by Darkness in order to reach one's eyes from the area further down the hallway. But clearly, nonmagical light cannot illuminate the aoe of Darkness.
Also, if your interpretation were the case, it becomes very difficult to me to picture how darkness would provide the mechanical benefits that it does, such as providing advantage/disadvantage on attacks (because creatures within the darkness cannot be seen). Imagine casting Darkness on a relatively flat, open battlefield, from a distance and at some height. If you did this, then the darkness does not overlap with you, so by your interpretation, creatures within the aoe should be able to see and shoot at you from within the area of darkness without trouble, just as they can see the torchlight further down the hallway. And similarly, you can clearly see the silhouettes of everything within the darkness, because you can see everything behind the area of darkness, like more ground, trees, and the sky. It's hard to see what benefits there would be to casting this spell if either of these consequences of what you said were true. The control that the spell would offer on the battlefield would be extremely limited, to the point that it would be a laughable choice.
I think part of what is going on here is that in D&D, darkness has to be more than the mere absence of light--there is a positive darkness, which is evoked through the casting of this spell (thus the evocation tag). If it were otherwise, I might expect this spell to be from the school of illusion (if one were simply creating a lightless image, perhaps, or because the Shadow spells are almost always illusion spells) or abjuration (to bar light from entering the aoe). What does this mean? What kind of substance is darkness? I don't know, but it sounds like something interesting to explore as a spellcaster in any setting.
Magical light can illuminate it as long as it is not from a spell of 2nd level or lower. which means that a magic item that creates light would illuminate the darkness.
a magical item that gives off light would illuminate the darkness. but not dispel it. and in order for the light spell to dispel the darkness, it needs to say it gets rid of darkness spells of 2nd level or lower. such as daylight.
the orb is opaque and blocks line of sight. you cannot see through an orb of magical darkness, and nonmagical light cannot pass through it. meaning that you cannot see what is on the other side of the orb of darkness.
any light created by a class feature or a magic item will illuminate, but not dispel, magical darkness of any level. RAW the only thing these spells accomplish is create heavily obscured areas that cannot be illuminated by the light cantrip (or higher, obviously) or seen through with darkvision
probably just to say that even with dark vision you can't see through it
That's not how it functions RAW. Magical items that generate light function as normal and illuminate their radius, EVEN if they are inside the radius of a darkness spell.
Warlocks say meh to 120’ of darkness or otherwise. Several creatures with blindsight also couldn’t care about a bit of darkness.
If you have devil sight you can see though it :)