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The Darkness spell says (PHB 230):

…nonmagical light can't illuminate it.

it also specifies:

If any of this spell's area overlaps with an area of light created by a spell of 2nd level or lower, the spell that created the light is dispelled.

So my question is: what is considered magical light? is it only light from a spell or would light from a magical item (for example flame tongue sword) also be considered magical and, if so, what level would that light be considered?

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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ArtaSoral
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    Flame tongue is an interesting one... it's magical fire - but is it magical light? Or is it "natural" light created by the magical flames? – Adeptus Nov 01 '16 at 06:03
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    @Adeptus exactly. Currently its kinda ruining my drow campaign because a 80 ft magic light torch kinda nullifies drow darkness on any battlefield. – ArtaSoral Nov 01 '16 at 06:42
  • 20/20 hindsight I should have just asked this question directly about the flametongue sword – ArtaSoral Nov 01 '16 at 06:55
  • Probably means there's a second question worth posting! – SevenSidedDie Nov 01 '16 at 07:10
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    Reminder: comments are for clarifying content, not posting small or incomplete answers. Please use answer posts to submit answers instead. Prior comments containing answers have been removed. – SevenSidedDie Nov 03 '16 at 20:41

3 Answers3

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Non-magical light is light from a non-magical source: torches, lanterns, a bonfire, lava, the sun (assuming a physics basis for the sun in your world) etc. None of these penetrate the darkness.

Magical light is light from a magical source: spells, class powers that are magical in nature, magic items etc. The corollary of non-magical light not illuminating the darkness is that magical light does.

The fact that the darkness dispels spells of 2nd level or lower is a furphy - yes such spells are dispelled but higher level spells are not and neither are sources of non-magical light that are not spells.

A magic item that emits light as a non-spell effect is not a spell so it is not dispelled or affected in any way by the darkness. As a source of magical light it will illuminate the darkness. Of course, for magic items that allow you to cast a spell, that spell may be affected depending on its level - a spell is a spell whether innate to a class or from a magic item.

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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Dale M
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    Do you perchance have a source for this? – ArtaSoral Nov 01 '16 at 05:48
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    Oxford English Dictionary – Dale M Nov 01 '16 at 06:23
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    Dictionary doesn't help. From the quotes in the question: Nonmagical light doesn't illuminate it; Spells of high enough level do illuminate it; Items are not mentioned. In previous editions, you could work out the level of an item's effect. I'm not sure if 5e has the same. – Adeptus Nov 01 '16 at 06:26
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    @Adeptus No. Nonmagical light doesn't illuminate it. Low level spells are ended by it. Ergo magical light that is not a low level spell illuminates it. – Dale M Nov 01 '16 at 06:38
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    Here you go guys. Dale has this one precisely right. https://mobile.twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/722870799082721280 – Airatome Nov 01 '16 at 06:50
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    I don't want to clutter up the comments so further back and forth on this will have to happen in a discussion chat, but the clarification I'm looking for @DaleM is about whether the light from the magic item needs to be direct (ring glows) or does even indirect light (sword creates fire magically, the fire creates light) count as magical. – ArtaSoral Nov 01 '16 at 06:53
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    @ArtaSoral Unfortunately your original question didn't ask that. If you want to know if the light cast by the magical flames of a flametongue sword is itself magical light or mundane light, please ask a new question. Thanks! – SevenSidedDie Nov 03 '16 at 20:43
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    this is untrue and confirmed by Sage advice a light source is not magical even if coming from a magical source unless indicated in the rule as a magic light (ex.: light spell). for example the illumination made by a bonfire spell is NOT magical light. – KilrathiSly May 21 '22 at 09:57
  • @DaleM, thank you for bringing the word furphy into my world! But I fail to see how the fact that Darkness dispels spells of 2nd level or lower that create light overlapping its area is one -- that is exactly what Darkness does, and not a false report or rumor. – Nobody the Hobgoblin May 21 '22 at 13:24
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    "Magical light is light from a magical source: spells, class powers that are magical in nature, magic items etc. " Source needed for claim that light from magical items is, by definition, magical light. -1. – Kirt Jan 18 '24 at 17:19
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Any spell, spell-like ability or magical item that creates explicitly magical light as (one of) its main effect(s), creates magical light inside its target area. If they also suffice the demand to be of high enough level, they can break through Darkness.

Dancing Lights (phb 220), Light (phb 255), Faerie Fire (phb 239), Sunlight (phb 279) are the most common examples, but also their item-bound variants work (a sunrod for example). However, you need still to cast them as a high enough level spell.

Nobody the Hobgoblin
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Trish
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    Part of the question is, how do you determine level of an item? – Adeptus Nov 01 '16 at 06:23
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    Hi @Trish, while looking up how to spell spell like ability, I just learned that none such exist in 5e, thought it might be of interest – Nobody the Hobgoblin May 21 '22 at 13:11
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    @GroodytheHobgoblin in 5E only by casting a spell that you can create a magical light everything else is considered non magical light. The Sage confirmed a years ago. – KilrathiSly May 23 '22 at 13:41
  • @KilrathiSly thanks for sharing, that is good to know as it is not obvious. – Nobody the Hobgoblin May 23 '22 at 14:14
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    @KilrathiSly I am not finding anything like that in SAC - as far as I know, we have only an unofficial tweet from JC about that. Can you cite source? – Kirt Jan 18 '24 at 17:20
  • Re: "You still need to cast them as a high enough level spell". Note that SAC specifically disallows upcasting a lower level light-producing spell from dispelling darkness: "Can you cast darkness with a higher-level slot to end a spell of 3rd level or higher that creates light? No. The darkness spell can dispel only a light-creating spell of 2nd level or lower, no matter what spell slot is used for darkness. Similarly, the daylight spell can dispel only a darkness-creating spell of 3rd level or lower, regardless of the spell slot used." – Kirt Jan 18 '24 at 17:24
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All light sources from magical spells and effects can illuminate a Darkness spell and that includes light from items such as Flame Tongue (RAW).

Of course if light created by magical items can pierce if not dispel magical darkness we would need to calculate their level based on rarity, which to my knowledge is not present.

A good reference however is the Spell scroll conversion on page 200 of the DMG. In it rare scrolls (which are technically considered magic items) harbour spells from 4th and 5th level. Considering Flame tongue is a rare sword, it would be up to your discretion to choose whether to assign it a level of 4 or 5.

That said Jeremy Crawford's statement on twitter implies that only spells cast by characters illuminate magical darkness, which I think makes for more engaging encounters.

Matt Freeman: @JeremyECrawford Does light from a magic weapon’s characteristics (not via a spell) count as magical that can illuminate a Darkness spell?

Jeremy Crawford: Darkness cares only about light created by a spell. #DnD

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Ivan Ivanov Vulpe
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    It sounds to me like Crawford didn't fully read the question… – SevenSidedDie Nov 03 '16 at 20:45
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    @SevenSidedDie I'm not so sure about that, he could explicitly be saying that only light created by a spell counts as magical light – ArtaSoral Nov 04 '16 at 00:14
  • The 5e DMG states that spells cast by magic items are considered cast at their lowest level unless otherwise stated. It has nothing to do with rarity (though I know that's a popular home brew option). – TylerH Jul 09 '18 at 06:05
  • @TylerH the DMG section on creating magic items links rarity to maximum spell level that can be cast from the weapon – illustro Sep 23 '19 at 12:04
  • I think Crawford's response is talking about the "dispelling" part of the spell description (only lower-level spells that create light are dispelled by darkness), which doesn't entirely address the general question. Magical sources of light are magical. – V2Blast May 23 '22 at 18:02
  • But the flame tounge sword isn't casting the light spell. It's just on fire. – Mooing Duck Jan 19 '24 at 01:52