Thinking about the drow and Rage of Demons

[Rook]

Love to get some input on my thoughts below.

The drow have the at-will ability of Darkness. Looking at Appendix A in the PHB, the effect of the spell Darkness (in my estimation) would be blindness. Per the blindness description, the entity(s) within the darkness have disadvantage to their attack rolls and give advantage to their opponents.

So, if there are two combatants meleeing within the Darkness - how would you rule on how the combat would carry-out?

Also, what if the defender was within the Darkness and the attacker was outside the Darkness using a ranged weapon.

Please put on your tactical thinking cap.

Rook

[Nylanfs]

all attackers in the Darkness have disadvantage unless using something else other than sight for targeting.

Firing into would be the same as blind firing, not sure if that is in the 5e rules, but I would guess 25% chance to hit, then roll to see which melee combatant was hit if they were in melee in the darkness.

[Rook]

all attackers in the Darkness have disadvantage unless using something else other than sight for targeting.

Firing into would be the same as blind firing, not sure if that is in the 5e rules, but I would guess 25% chance to hit, then roll to see which melee combatant was hit if they were in melee in the darkness.

Consider the rule: "If circumstances cause a roll to have both advantage and disadvantage, you are considered to have neither of them, and you roll one d20. This is true even if multiple circumstances impose disadvantage and only one grants advantage or vice versa. In such a situation, you have neither advantage nor disadvantage."

So, if the Darkness Spell infers the BLINDESS effect to both combatants (assuming both are within the spell effect area) - then all advantage & disadvantage cancel out - leaving a single d20 roll.

I'm not saying that it makes sense, I'm just trying to think through the printed rules.

Rook

[Zacchaeus]

Darkness is Darkness and not Blindness. You'll find the rules for fighting in darkness on p194 of the PHB. Essentially attacking into darkness would be at a disadvantage assuming you were targeting the right location in the first place. Attacking out of darkness will have advantage. If both combatants are in Darkness then both would have disadvantage.

Whether the attacks were melee or ranged wouldn't affect anything.