Magical Darkness

[Drosta]

Hey all. I'm doing an honour mode run and I've been theorizing about ways to abuse Darkness for a mostly chill playthrough.

Let's get the obvious out of the way first. Devil's sight.

Now the question, are there any items or spells or anything in game that would perform functionally similar to devil's sight and allow me to hide within darkness while still being able to act?

Or is a two level dip into warlock the only way?

Thanks

[Raz]

There is a ring that gives you sight through darkness but it's in Act 2. it's in the morgue.

Other than this, a helmet or two but those are in Act 3 and I am positive currently do not work right. Shar's Spear of Evening gives you immunity to Darkness so if you're letting Shadowheart kill Aylin, then that is also an option but also Act 2.

[Angel]

yep there are items that let you see in the dark

[jonnin]

one of the spears in act 2 ending also but that may as well be in act 3.
also some enemy, esp act 2, may ignore darkness (I am not sure, but it seems like the shadow monsters at least would thrive in it, as well as the denizens of a certain temple in act 3).

The only dark spell that matters is hunger of hadar. That needs more than 2 levels of warlock :)

there should have been a true seeing spell that can see though it, but its MIA in Bg3.

[Raz]

Originally posted by jonnin:

also some enemy, esp act 2, may ignore darkness (I am not sure, but it seems like the shadow monsters at least would thrive in it

The plants, Shadow creatures (Mastiffs and Shades) all ignore Darkness but everything else can be blinded by it. So you're looking at maybe half your encounters it matters.

Originally posted by jonnin:

The only dark spell that matters is hunger of hadar. That needs more than 2 levels of warlock :)

Hella incorrect as you can camp inside Darkness itself and have free Advantage on enemies, have most projectiles not be targetable on you while you fling crap out from inside of darkness. Enables critical builds if decked in the Obscure gear. Turns into your own personal arena.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

The best part about Darkness is that it's a cloud based spell, so it stacks with surface based spells and object based spells.

For example, you can stack Spike Growth or Plant Growth with Hunger of Hadar and multiple Cloud of Daggers or Moonbeams, or just smash everything with Call Lightning.

[Drosta]

Originally posted by Raz:

Originally posted by jonnin:

also some enemy, esp act 2, may ignore darkness (I am not sure, but it seems like the shadow monsters at least would thrive in it

The plants, Shadow creatures (Mastiffs and Shades) all ignore Darkness but everything else can be blinded by it. So you're looking at maybe half your encounters it matters.

Originally posted by jonnin:

The only dark spell that matters is hunger of hadar. That needs more than 2 levels of warlock :)

Hella incorrect as you can camp inside Darkness itself and have free Advantage on enemies, have most projectiles not be targetable on you while you fling crap out from inside of darkness. Enables critical builds if decked in the Obscure gear. Turns into your own personal arena.

Yeah there's definitely a few encounters where the enemies ignore it. But it's mostly an incredibly effective spell.

I'm not sure if the above mentioned items affect magical darkness though do they? They just grant immunity to blindness. I'm not sure it's the same modifier is it?

[Raz]

Originally posted by Drosta:

I'm not sure if the above mentioned items affect magical darkness though do they? They just grant immunity to blindness. I'm not sure it's the same modifier is it?

Immunity to Blindness is treated as Immunity to magical darkness since it applies blindness. And yes, its the same thing. I use the ring frequently for Darkness builds.

[Favonius]

Originally posted by Raz:

There is a ring that gives you sight through darkness but it's in Act 2. it's in the morgue.

Other than this, a helmet or two but those are in Act 3 and I am positive currently do not work right. Shar's Spear of Evening gives you immunity to Darkness so if you're letting Shadowheart kill Aylin, then that is also an option but also Act 2.

Pretty much this.
Playing as Shadowheart with the night spear (which gives magical darkness AT WILL, plus the ability of a slashing darkness) and an open-hand monk with the anti-blindness ring, act 3 was a cheese 80% of the time.

Only noticeable exception was house of hope because devils do see in magical darkness. The steel watch is auto-blinded by this darkness for example, with no possibility to detect anything, so the town is yours.

[Drosta]

Originally posted by Raz:

Originally posted by Drosta:

I'm not sure if the above mentioned items affect magical darkness though do they? They just grant immunity to blindness. I'm not sure it's the same modifier is it?

Immunity to Blindness is treated as Immunity to magical darkness since it applies blindness. And yes, its the same thing. I use the ring frequently for Darkness builds.

That's awesome thank you.

[northernwater]

I did some testing.

1) Any character with Darkvision and the ring can range attack into magical darkness with advantage.
2) Any character without Darkvision and the ring can range attack into magical darkness with disadvantage. (though the blinded condition on the target cancels the disadvantage)
3) Any character with or without Darkvision cannot range attack into magical darkness.

[Drosta]

Originally posted by northernwater:

I did some testing.

1) Any character with Darkvision and the ring can range attack into magical darkness with advantage.
2) Any character without Darkvision and the ring can range attack into magical darkness with disadvantage. (though the blinded condition on the target cancels the disadvantage)
3) Any character with or without Darkvision cannot range attack into magical darkness.

Yeah I'm thinking of casting it on my own party and firing out at the enemies. So that they can't attack me except maybe with aoe spells. And I doubt the AI is smart enough to do that. It's interesting to me what you said about attacking into darkness with advantage though. It may be that what I should do is cast darkness in the enemy and then fire into them with advantage instead. Though I think in most cases they tend to be spread out a fair bit when the fights start. I might be able to cluster them up with minor illusion though. And then toss a create water puddle and freeze it so that they have a good chance of falling prone while inside the darkness to prevent them from simply walking out of it on their turn. I think in most cases though simply preventing attacks from penetrating into the darkness and firing out of it will be easier to do consistently.

[Raz]

Originally posted by Drosta:

Yeah I'm thinking of casting it on my own party and firing out at the enemies. So that they can't attack me except maybe with aoe spells. And I doubt the AI is smart enough to do that.

Yeah, I wouldn't bet on this. Darkness doesn't prevent things from falling on top of you and the enemy does make use of Javelins just falling on top of you if they have the elevation, or can get the elevation on you. I've also seen an enemy quite recently chuck a bomb near me just to hit me despite they couldn't throw it directly at me due to Darkness.

Now I am not saying they are always this clever but I have seen them be clever regarding me camping in Darkness.

Originally posted by Drosta:

It's interesting to me what you said about attacking into darkness with advantage though. It may be that what I should do is cast darkness in the enemy and then fire into them with advantage instead.

They will just Dash or Jump out of the Darkness and unless its a corridor where you can easily Repelling Blast their ass back in, not worth it to keep them in Darkness. When I typically cast Darkness on top of enemies, that Darkness is also sitting on top of a Plant Growth or Spike Growth to screw up their movement. In which case, its Hunger of Hadar for the Domain of Pain.

[Drosta]

Originally posted by Raz:

Originally posted by Drosta:

Yeah I'm thinking of casting it on my own party and firing out at the enemies. So that they can't attack me except maybe with aoe spells. And I doubt the AI is smart enough to do that.

Yeah, I wouldn't bet on this. Darkness doesn't prevent things from falling on top of you and the enemy does make use of Javelins just falling on top of you if they have the elevation, or can get the elevation on you. I've also seen an enemy quite recently chuck a bomb near me just to hit me despite they couldn't throw it directly at me due to Darkness.

Now I am not saying they are always this clever but I have seen them be clever regarding me camping in Darkness.

Originally posted by Drosta:

It's interesting to me what you said about attacking into darkness with advantage though. It may be that what I should do is cast darkness in the enemy and then fire into them with advantage instead.

They will just Dash or Jump out of the Darkness and unless its a corridor where you can easily Repelling Blast their ass back in, not worth it to keep them in Darkness. When I typically cast Darkness on top of enemies, that Darkness is also sitting on top of a Plant Growth or Spike Growth to screw up their movement. In which case, its Hunger of Hadar for the Domain of Pain.

Very good call.