Darkness (ego)
| Name | Cloak of darkness |
|---|---|
| Size to wear | any |
| Armour Class | 1 |
| Encumbrance rating | +0 |
| Maximum Enchantment | +2 |
| Grants | +Inv |
| Time to Wear | 5 |
| When activated it hides its wearer from the sight of others, but also increases their metabolic rate by a large amount. |
Wearing a cloak of darkness grants you the Evoke Invisibility ability, allowing you to turn invisible at will. Although it requires a high Evocations skill to use reliably or for a long duration, there are no penalties for failing to evoke it, so even low-level characters can make some use of it. However, invisibility's benefits come with significant hunger and magic contamination costs, and are less dramatic than one might expect. See the Invisible article for details.
This cloak also grants its wearer the ability to become visible at will, a useful option when trying to minimize magic contamination.
Desirability
Although not without its uses, darkness is by far the least useful cloak ego. It provides no passive benefits, and its active ability is duplicated by a ring, a potion, wand, and a spell. Stabbers might use it until they find another reliable source of invisibility, but after that even a mundane elven cloak is preferable for its stealth boost.
