Is there anything that can change the time of day?

Question

My question is: are there any spells/items/or anything really that can alter the time of day, from night to day, or the opposite?

Perhaps there's something that can create some sort of light source that acts as a sun and can block the moon light. And on the other hand, perhaps there's something that can block the sun, and act as a moon, giving less light.

Or, if we're going to mess with reality, perhaps something that can literally change the time of day and make the sun/moon appear.

Character Concept that needs this

I want to create a character with day disadvantage and night advantage. It has wolf traits, so during the day (or whenever there is no moon, for example if they are in a cave) they are weaker, and when the moon is visible (for example- in a forest during night) they are stronger. Also, during a full moon they go crazy.

I figured that I could use something that will make it nighttime when it's actually daytime to give them the advantage (assuming they're in a place where the moon is visible); or use something to make it daytime so they won't go crazy when there's a full moon.

Does a game feature, or item, that will do this exist in the published material?

Answer 1

A point that might be interesting to play with: the moon is, in fact, NOT up whenever the sun is down.
The phases of the moon are due to the moon's orbit being faster than the sun's, and overtaking it.
Full moon is when the moon is on the opposite side of the earth to the sun, so the side facing us is fully illuminated. So at full moon the moon WILL be up all night and down all day, and at its highest at midnight. On the day of new moon it's the opposite, the moon is next to the sun in the sky - you'll never see a very thin crescent high in the night sky, it will set shortly before or after the sun does.

So before new moon (waning moon), the moon is rising and setting before the sun does, so the moon will be at its highest some time in the small hours or in the morning, getting later each day.
At new moon, it's at its highest at noon.
After new moon (waxing moon), it's passed the sun and is now rising and setting after the sun does, at its highest in the afternoon or evening, and getting later each day as it gets nearer to full -
until full moon when it's rising and setting at the opposite times to the sun and is at its highest at midnight.

Which your character's powers depend on, night or moonlight, is up to you, but they're not the same (unless you want to fudge it for simplicity, which is also OK).
(Perhaps when the sun is up too it cancels out the effect of the moon, as you were thinking of doing with sunlight spells, hence the strongest effect being on the night of the full moon when the moon is highest and the sun is lowest, and that's why you don't get the same effect when the moon is up in the daytime? Or perhaps you do?)

Answer 2

Yes, there is!

The Nightfall Pearl, a legendary Wondrous item from "Explorer's Guide to Wildemount", came across for my warlock who only makes living dead at night. It can cause the area within a 10-mile radius of the activation spot to become night for 24 hours, with a 24 hour cooldown.

Answer 3

If the mountain won't go to you, you should go to it

Consider teleporting to a part of the world where it is the time of day you desire.

Cf. Does Faerûn have timezones?

If your world has Artic and Antarctic circles (above and below which there are more than a day's worth of daylight or darkness at a certain point of the year), you can target these locations.

The World of Greyhawk has two moons (Celene and Luna), increasing the chances that one of them is in the sky at any point in time (although one of them, Celene, has a cycle of 90 days, so the amount of time that it is full lasts more than three times as long as you might expect).

In the Feywild (DMG p. 49):

The sky is alight with the faded colors of an ever-setting sun, which never truly sets (or rises for that matter); it remains stationary, dusky and low in the sky.

We aren't told what that does for the moon. Perhaps that detail is in the Wild beyond the Witchlight, but I don't have that.

Answer 4

I don't believe there's anything in the rules that directly supports changing the time of day (like certain songs in Zelda titles might do). Messing with time or celestial bodies on command is dangerously powerful and probably not something you want to build into a character's abilities. However, effects that create sunlight or moonlight have precedent in the rules and might affect shapeshifters in various ways.

The spells Sunburst, Dawn, and Sunbeam all create sunlight (surprisingly, the spell Daylight does not).

For magic items, the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind creates sunlight, and a Moon-Touched Sword creates moonlight.

Since you're homebrewing this anyway, I would recommend giving the character an item similar to a Driftglobe (common magic item, description below) that has a limited capacity to emit sunlight or moonlight instead of normal light and building rules around that. Keeping the once-a-day limitation seems wise to prevent abusing the item against hostile shapeshifters.

This small sphere of thick glass weighs 1 pound. If you are within 60 feet of it, you can speak its command word and cause it to emanate the Light or Daylight spell. Once used, the Daylight effect can't be used again until the next dawn.

You can speak another command word as an action to make the illuminated globe rise into the air and float no more than 5 feet off the ground. The globe hovers in this way until you or another creature grasps it. If you move more than 60 feet from the hovering globe, it follows you until it is within 60 feet of you. It takes the shortest route to do so. If prevented from moving, the globe sinks gently to the ground and becomes inactive, and its light winks out.