Light Spells and Vision Penalties -- Spells and Exploits Contradiction
 

Exploits and Spells seem to contradict each other on the subject of what vision penalties (that would apply to vision and attack rolls) are.

Spells, p. 45, says that when magic is the sole source of illumination, there are Vision modifiers. For instance, Moonlight is -5, Torchlight is -3.

Exploits, p. 19, says that a light eliminates darkness penalties out to a certain radius. Moonlight is a radius of 1 yard, torchlight is a radius of 2 yards. Then, there is a penalty of -3 out to 3x the radius.

So, how does it work?

As examples: if I have a torchlight-strength Continual Light on a rock and throw that rock into a hex, (a) what is the vision penalty in that hex and all adjacent hexes (radius 2), and (b) what is the vision penalty out to a radius of 6 hexes? Spells suggests the answer to (a) is -3, Exploits suggests the answer to (a) is 0 and the answer to (b) is -3.

A second example: dos the spell Glow have a radius that it helps outside its area? Suppose I cast a Radius-2 Glow spell with torchlight strength. Exploits explicitly says that it eliminates penalties over its entire radius of effect, so there'd be a 7-hex region with no vision penalty. However, Spells says the penalty is -3. What's more, if we go with Exploits, can we actually say that the Glow spell eliminates penalties out to an additional hex (3-hex radius), given that all those hexes are within the right range of a glowing hex?

Re: Light Spells and Vision Penalties -- Spells and Exploits Contradiction
 

Aside: GURPS Basic Set agrees with the Spells interpretation. Torchlight still leaves you with a -3 penalty. Is this something that was simplified for DFRPG? If so, then probably that's an errata for Spells.

(Also, the question as to whether Glow gets a radius around its area of eliminated penalties would still apply.)

Re: Light Spells and Vision Penalties -- Spells and Exploits Contradiction
 

Bump. I'm hoping to get some sort of official ruling as to whether Spells or Exploits takes precedence on the light issue.

My preference (and what I'll use in games I GM if I get a chance to actually use this) is what's in Exploits. It's simpler, and means that simpler and cheaper light spells allow you to light up the combat and eliminate all those pesky darkness penalties. I'd also say that Glow eliminates penalties to adjacent hexes, as the hexes are glowing light torchlight.

Re: Light Spells and Vision Penalties -- Spells and Exploits Contradiction
 

Then you should PM one of the people able to deliver an official ruling - PK or Dr. Kromm, the line editors. The rest of us are just gamers and authors :)

EDIT: And when you get an answer, bring it back to this thread so other people can find out what it is!

Re: Light Spells and Vision Penalties -- Spells and Exploits Contradiction
 

This strongly suggests Exploits is just wrong and should be ignored, because that doesn't make any sense at all; it means casting Glow at different energies has no effect (alternately, just errata the cost of Glow so it only has a single cost).

However, the problem might be the interaction between Exploits and Spells. The original DF was specific about candles and torches eliminating darkness penalties out to a radius, and then -3 to 3x that radius, and that presumably was a simplification.