Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 intently Oct 23, 2014 14:26:36	If I'm in a large lighted open space (e.g., a field, a stadium, a large banquet hall) and I cast a Darkness spell (15' radius globe of darkness) right in the center, what does it look like to someone outside the globe?   1. "Light" has no real effect unless it has something to illuminate, so is darkness similar? If there's nothing but air in the globe of darkness, is the globe even detectable to the naked eye?   2. If there's a person in the globe, would they appear darkened to viewers outside the globe? Presumably yes. But although they would appear darkened, the "background" on the other side of the globe (and outside it) would still be illuminated normally. So the person in the globe would appear as a silhouette?   3. Or would the globe from the outside look like an impenetrable ball of blackness?   4. The spell description says "a creature with darkvision can't see through this darkness" so does that mean that any ray of light that passes through the globe is negated?
#2 Ganymede425 Oct 23, 2014 14:49:06	1. Light and shadow are less absolutes and more the interaction of contrast. If someone were to cast the Darkness spell in an otherwise dark room, one would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the magical darkness and the normal darkness.   2-4. I imagine the area of effect would look like perfect flat black orb. I can only assume that any light that would come in contact with the orb would be absorbed, much in the same way light is absorbed by the color black in real life. As such, I assume you could cast Darkness in the middle of a narrow room, preventing a lantern on the left side from illuminating the right side of the same room.
#3 paulstrait Oct 23, 2014 14:57:54	If you aim a light at a wall, and the place a barrier that has two slits between the light and wall, and you then cast a darkness spell in such a way that it extends to one of the slits and not the other, what will the distortion pattern look like on the back wall?   #D&DPhysics   I think Ganymede is basically right, btw.  Darkness totally obscures.  Not sure if that means photons do or do not travel through the magical darkness.
#4 OoftaMeg Oct 23, 2014 16:32:05	intently wrote:
#5 Yunru Oct 23, 2014 16:48:12	Or a magical sphere of anti-photons (they exist, we've even made anti-photon lasers), without the energy release of normal matter/anti-matter reactions.
#6 BRJN Oct 25, 2014 12:41:41	Darkness breaks line-of-sight.  So you would see a black sphere, which may or may not look 'solid', based on if there was a light on the other side beyond it.  But you cannot see the light beyond it any more.  You can only see what is illuminated by a light on your side of it.   One of the upcoming fluff-my-character books will surely contain an Artificer who has invented Thomas Edison's dark bulb !
#7 intently Nov 03, 2014 10:49:37	Thanks for tour perspectives!