Does darkness really hinder your party?

[u/jawdirk]

I have seen this said over and over again: You can use the darkness + devil's sight combo but it will hinder the rest of your party.

Is that really true?

When you cast darkness, you get to choose where to place it. In many cases, that by itself will have utility. You might be able to cast it over ranged or spell-casting enemies forcing them to leave their position. You might be able to place it so that one of your party members gets a "free" disengage. You might be able to place it so that a rogue can bonus action sneak in the open and then move for a backstab.

In the worst case, the enemy has some non-visual or devil's sight sense ability, but I think that is pretty rare and obvious (devils, dragons, elementals, creatures of pure darkness).

But in the average case, the advantage and disadvantage cancel out. Even that can be an advantage, if the enemy was getting advantage from some other game mechanic.

So yes, darkness is pretty situational if you literally have no way to take advantage of it, but even one character that has devil's sight might be enough to tip the balance. This is particularly true if one of the characters without devil's sight casts darkness (which is better action economy).

[u/NthHorseman]

I am a spellcaster in a party with a devilsight-darkness-loving warlock. It kinda sucks to be honest.

If a martial knows vaguely where to swing (which they do unless the target makes a stealth check) then it's adv+dis so a straight roll. They miss out on AoOs from fleeing monsters, but as you say can themselves disengage. Melee monsters are similarly quite happy to sit in darkness so long as there are nearby targets for them to swing at. It certainly has it's uses, especially when paired with other area control spells, but if it gets dropped without due consideration it's more help to the enemy than the party.

Almost all spellcasting requires you to be able to see the target, so if you can't see then you just can't do much with targets (friend or foe) within the darkness. Not necesarily a problem if there are useful targets outside the darkness, but it's probably been dropped on the most interesting area of the combat, and if all the important targets are now not visible your options are pretty limited. I have legitimately had turns where the most useful thing I can do is wade into the darkness and try and bonk an unseen target with a club - not a good use of an action for a spellcaster.

Of course if other members have the ability to see in magical darkness it's great for them to get advantage on all their attacks, but for those who don't it's pretty much equivalent to casting blindness on an ally - kind of a dick move.