Darkness (DMG)

Sooner or later characters wind up blundering around in the dark. Normally they try to avoid this, but clever DMs and foolish players generally manage to bring it about. Perhaps the kobolds captured the player characters an stripped them of all their gear; perhaps the characters forgot to bring enough torches. Whatever the reason, those without infravision suffer both physical and psychological effects in the dark.
For the purposes of this discussion, "darkness" means any time the characters suffer from limited visibility. Thus, the rules given here apply equally well when the characters are affected by a darkness spell, blundering about in pea-soup fog, out on a moonless night, or even blindfolded.
Since one can't see anything in the dark, the safe movement rate of blinded characters is immediately slowed by the normal amount. Faster movement requires a Dexterity check (see Chapter 14 : Time and Movement). Characters also suffer a -4 penalty to attack rolls and saving throws. Their Armor Class is four worse than normal (to a limit of 10). Sight-related damage bonuses (backstabbing, etc.) are negated. However, darkness is not always absolute, and those DMs who wish to make distinctions between various levels of darkness can use Table 72 .
The blindfighting proficiency can lessen the effects of fighting in darkness as explained in the proficiency description in the Player's Handbook.
 Table 72: Optional Degrees of Darkness
Condition	Attack Roll Penalty	Damage Bonus	Saving Throw	AC Penalty
Moonlight
(Moderate fog)	-1 	Normal 	-1* 	-0
 	 	 	 	
Starlight
(No moon or dense fog)	-3 	Normal 	-3* 	-2
 	 	 	 	
Total darkness
(Spell, unlit dungeon or cave)	-4 	Negated 	-4 	-4
 	 	 	 	
:* The saving throw modifier applies only to saving throws involving dodging and evasion in these cases.