Daylight: Pocketful of Sunshine
Usable By: Cleric, Druid, Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer
Spell Level: 3
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: 1 hour
Components: V, S
A 60-foot-radius sphere of light spreads out from a point you choose within range. The sphere is bright light and sheds dim light for an additional 60 feet.
If you chose a point on an object you are holding or one that isn’t being worn or carried, the light shines from the object and moves with it. Completely covering the affected object with an opaque object, such as a bowl or a helm, blocks the light.
If any of this spell’s area overlaps with an area of darkness created by a spell of 3rd level or lower, the spell that created the darkness is dispelled.
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
A golden corona wreathes the webbed ruin, blasting the half-spider monstrosities laying in wait with an explosion of light. The darkness burns away, like a perpetual flash purging the void, revealing each and every eight-legged hunter and exposing the group's opportunity to strike, countering the predicted ambush perfectly.
Daylight has an incredible look. You conjure a brilliant blast of light, a radiant explosion that rebukes all darkness. The problem is that’s kind of all Daylight does; it's a big, hour-long spotlight that acts as a super torch. And that’s rarely going to be worth a 3rd level spell slot.
In the underdark, when you’re going against long distance dark dwellers taking advantage of a party's inability to see, specifically in tight corridors where the light isn’t a beacon drawing every hostile, hungry hunter to you, I can see Daylight being a fine tool to mitigate ambushes and uncover non-magically hidden threats. It lasting an hour and not asking for you to concentrate on it makes it a pretty easy upgrade for your light source in the upper tiers when you’ve got a fair few spell slots to spare. It’ll be more a luxury there than an actual tool you’re getting a ton out of.
These situations aren’t typically majorly improved by Daylight, though. Most of the time a torch is still going to be good enough, and even torches aren’t going to show up in every adventure. A lot of Dungeons & Dragons involves enemies that need light, too. Daylight is just a dead spell in those environments.
Why this spell doesn’t come at least with a one round blind is beyond me; a spell that suddenly puts a beacon of light exploding out from a point not being able to blind creatures is bizarre to me. As is, I can see upper tier clerics and druids delving into the darkness considering this as an expensive, luxurious torch with some fine enough up-sides. At 5th level, this just isn’t going to routinely do enough to consider it.
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