How does light effect interact with Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere?

Question

Let's say a vampire is trapped inside a Resilient Sphere, which says:

Nothing can pass through the sphere, inside or out, though the subject can breathe normally.

And now this vampire (and that sphere) is put under the natural sunlight.

Since "Nothing can pass through the sphere, inside or out", should I say this vampire can survive? If so, should I tell my PCs that "light and sound cannot pass through, so all you can see is a purely-black (or mirror-like, if it reflects all kinds of lights) sphere that you just created, and creatures trapped by it are also considered blind and deaf to the outside world"?

Answer 1

The vampire's safe from outside sunlight while it's inside the sphere

Unlike some force effects that call out the fact that they're invisible, the 4th-level Sor/Wiz spell Otiluke's resilient sphere [evoc] (PH 258–9) doesn't say that its globe effect is invisible but, instead, that its effect is a "globe of shimmering force." (Compare this with, for example, the 5th-level Sor/Wiz spell wall of force [evoc] (PH 298–9) that, in part, says, that it "creates an invisible wall.")

So while I had always imagined the resilient sphere effect as transparent—because, let's face it, it totally sounds like it's trapping a victim within a magical hamster ball—, the spell hasn't ever actually said that the force effect that it creates is transparent—or even translucent like the amber that's half of its material component (clear crystal is the other). To make sure, I went back and checked, and, sure enough, that part of the resilient sphere spell's description remains unchanged from the spell's original appearance in Gygax's "New Magic-user Spells" (Dragon #67 (1982) 57) through "the Player's Handbook (1989) for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition, and into Third Edition.

Before you asked this question, I would've ruled that the vampire was destroyed because the sphere effect is obviously transparent. However, now that you've pointed out that I've imposed my imagination on this spell for the last forty years, I'd rule that the vampire's safe, both sound and light (even the direct light of the sun) being unable to penetrate the resilient sphere effect.

Answer 2

A bit late, since this question already has an accepted answer, here are some arguments why we should think that...

The Sphere is transparent.

• Some force effects caused by spells are invisible (for example a Wall of Force), some are opaque (or partly opaque like Leomund's Tiny Hut which is "opaque from the outside" and "transparent from within") and some spells simply leave it to our imagination to decide whether their effects are translucent, transparent, opaque or invisible (for example Tenser’s Floating Disk). What "force" really is or means in game terms isn’t defined in the rules. Since – in real life - a force is something we cannot see, we do rather not expect a force effect created by a spell to be visible – unless the spell explicitly says so. "A globe of shimmering force" seems to describe something like a soap bubble. We can see that it’s there, it’s not invisible but we can look through it.

• With Otiluke's Telekinetic Sphere which "functions like Otiluke's Resilient Sphere" the sphere can also be lifted and moved. The caster can either be outside or inside the sphere. It doesn't seem plausible that the caster, in the latter case, should not be able to look outside and has to maneuver the sphere blindly.

• The spell Crushing Sphere (Lost Empires of Faerun, p 31) also builds on and "functions like Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, except that the sphere painfully constricts the target, hampering her movements and breathing". The illustration shows a troll captured in a transparent sphere.

• The Wizard's Spell Compendium Volume Three from 1998 has on page 644 an illustration of the spell Otiluke's Telekinetic Sphere showing two transparent spheres. This is, of course, the 2nd edition version of the spell but the decisive parts ("A globe of shimmering force", "Nothing can pass through the sphere, inside or out") did not change*.

So, if we assume that the sphere is meant to be transparent, the definition "nothing can pass through the sphere, inside or out" obviously cannot include light and vision.

Is the vampire in trouble? Probably. - Although it remains for the DM to decide whether the vampire inside Otiluke's Resilient Sphere is exposed to direct sunlight (which the vampire, due to it's vulnarability, has to be afraid of) or if the sunlight passing through becomes indirect sunlight that can't destroy a vampire. (Also see this Q&A here).

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*Note, that in the 1st and 2nd editon versions of Otiluke's Resilient Sphere the sphere could be moved like a hamster ball (which also wouldn't make much sense if you could not see which way you roll). For the 3rd edition the line "the globe can be moved physically either by people outside the globe or by the struggles of those within" was changed to "the sphere cannot be physically moved either by people outside it or by the struggles of those within". I suppose, it was simply too complicated to define how moving the sphere from inside and (possibly at the same time) from outside should work within the complex 3rd edition rules.