Darkness — Epic Spell Seed
Darkness is a third-party epic spell seed from the Dicefreaks Grimoire of Cosmic Entities Volume One. It creates persistent supernatural shadow around an object and interacts with the companion epic Light seed. It is not one of the official 3.5e SRD epic seeds.
At a Glance
| School | Evocation [Darkness] |
|---|---|
| Base Spellcraft DC | 14 |
| Components | V, S |
| Casting Time | 1 action |
| Range | Touch |
| Target | Object touched |
| Duration | 20 days (dismissible) |
| Saving Throw | None |
| Spell Resistance | No |
Seed Effect
The touched object radiates supernatural shadow through a 60-foot radius. Creatures in the area gain concealment, represented in the original rules by a 20% miss chance.
The effect is magical darkness rather than ordinary low light. Darkvision and low-light vision do not remove the miss chance created by this seed.
Where this darkness overlaps magical light created with the companion epic Light seed, the epic light is temporarily suppressed in the overlap and the underlying ambient light conditions apply there instead.
Edition Status
- 5.5e / 2024: no epic spell-seed subsystem; ordinary Darkness uses modern obscurity rules instead.
- 5e / 2014: no epic spell-seed subsystem.
- Pathfinder 1e: not a core Pathfinder epic seed.
- D&D 3.5e: compatible with the epic-spell framework, but this Darkness seed is third-party Dicefreaks material rather than an official SRD seed.
Using the Darkness Seed
This seed is suited to epic wards, cursed standards, fortress-scale concealment, relics that carry permanent shadow, and developed epic spells that need darkness as one component rather than as their entire effect.
Do not translate the original 20% miss chance directly into modern Advantage/Disadvantage without an explicit conversion. Modern D&D expresses darkness and visibility through different rules.
Source and Provenance
Source: Grimoire of Cosmic Entities Volume One
Authors: Eli Atkinson, William Church and Serge W. Desir, Jr.
Original concept: Serge W. Desir, Jr.
Publisher/community: Dicefreaks d20 Community
This is third-party epic material, not an official 5e, Pathfinder 1e or D&D 3.5e SRD seed.
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