D&D 5E Replacing Racial Darkvision

[Eltab]

Let your players know before the campaign begins that they won't be trying to sneak around in the dark / be underground all the time. The other racial abilities will be useful too.
Be sure to set up situations (via discussing 'in the future' with the individual players away-from-table) where the other abilities DO prove useful.

My Scout (Monk/Rogue Wood Elf) can hide in the woods in broad daylight just as well as in a dark corner. Anybody can hide behind a tree or a boulder or by ducking down in the six-foot-tall grass.

 

[iserith]

The utility of darkvision will be entirely upon how the DM sets up the game. I prefer to do things like the DMG suggests (pages 104-105):

"Darkness is the default condition inside an underground complex or in the interior of aboveground ruins, but an inhabited dungeon might have light sources... even races that have darkvision may use fire for warmth, cooking, and defense."

So when I design my dungeons, I try to include light sources as above. Those creatures that don't require light for any of these purposes will tend to be undead, constructs, or the like. The PCs might not be able to get the jump on them if they are walking around with a light source, but this is evened out by all the light-using creatures they can get the jump on. It is therefore a wash in my opinion and not worth some other benefit if you take darkvision away. Sometimes it's a great benefit, sometimes it's not needed - it all depends on how the DM designs the challenges.

As an aside, the party in my recently-wrapped dungeon campaign made very good use of dancing lights in a mixed party of darkvision and non-darkvision races. It's sheds dim light in only a 10 ft. radius, so it's somewhat less obvious than an area of bright light as with a torch or light spell. I honestly never saw this spell used very much in the preceding 25 years of playing this game.

 

[Ath-kethin]

Just dump it. You don't need to replace it with anything. Losing Darkvision means that characters actually have to make some meaningful choices if they want to investigate underground or dark places. I've noticed that many players don't like having to actually make a meaningful choice.

All PCs are human in my games. It's amazing how much more interesting the game became for everybody after we took that route, and having to treat darkness as an actual obstacle was a larger part of it than we anticipated.

 

[Bacon Bits]

I agree with those saying you can remove darkvision without compensation. If you break down the racial designs, it's really clear that whether or not a given race has darkvision is left up entirely to flavor. It's just an outright benefit that most of the PHB races get without any costs. The designers clearly don't consider it an ability that's particularly powerful.

 

[LapBandit]

I have turned Darkvision into Low-Light Vision (see in dim light as in bright light) and Superior Darkvision into Darkvision for my campaigns. You cannot read without Light as well. This has made light much more of a factor and given that I use Roll20 for displaying maps with dynamic lighting has made for more immersive and exciting gameplay.

 

[DJCupboard]

Thank you for the feedback everybody


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[jgsugden]

My system adds a lot more vision types to the game:

• Vision Types:
o Darkvision - Characters with this ability generate a dim light that only they can see. It extends in all directions to the distance indicated for the ability. It is always active. It allows sight in shades of grey, only.
o Low Light Vision - Double the range of dim light from light sources. The original area of dim light emitted from a source is treated as bright light. It is always active.
o Infravision - You can see into the infrared spectrum at any distance, allowing you to see heat differentiation in the dark. The infrared range is hard to discern in normal light. Eyes glow red when the ability is used. The ability can be turned on and off.
o Ultravision - Mostly useless, as few things naturally show in the ultraviolet range that are not visible with normal vision, but some races make use of the extended sight range and use magical (and a few mundane) techniques to make use of the UV sight range (UV Writing, etc…). This vision can be turned on and off, but eyes glow purple during use.
o Diabolic Vision – Nearly everything that has ever been touched by a creature with a soul is infused with permanent soul light. Creatures with diabolic vision can see by soul light. Nearly everything emits soul light... except things that drain life. This is always active.
o X-ray vision - This allows you to see through light concealment as if it were not there. It is rare.
o True Sight - This gives all of the above because, well, magic. True sight has a spell level assigned to it and can only see through illusions of an equal or lower level.

• PC Race Visions:
o No Special Vision: Human, Halfling, Aarakocra, Goliath, Genasi, Warforged, Minotaur
o Darkvision: Dwarves, Tiefling
o Infravision: Half-orcs, Shifter, Fire Genasi*
o Low Light Vision: Elves, Half Elves,
o Ultravision and Low Light Vision: Gnomes
o Ultravision and Darkvision: Drow*, Duergar*, Svirfneblin*
o Ultravision and Infravision: Dragonborn

 

[Nawara]

I have turned Darkvision into Low-Light Vision (see in dim light as in bright light) and Superior Darkvision into Darkvision for my campaigns. You cannot read without Light as well. This has made light much more of a factor and given that I use Roll20 for displaying maps with dynamic lighting has made for more immersive and exciting gameplay.

I've done the exact same. If you look at the races and monsters that have Superior Darkvision, they're the ones that really need darkvision to survive. The list of characters with mere Darkvision, on the other hand, is basically just humans, halflings, and a few random monsters.

A world where almost every other sentient being has darkvision is not one in which humans and halflings should be two of the most dominant races. Everything just makes more sense when you say "Elves can see better in dim light" as opposed to "Elves can see in pitch darkness."

(Also, there's something deeply immersion-breaking when you realize that the shadowy, torch-lit dungeon is only shadowy and torchlit to a couple of characters... and the rest can see each room perfectly fine, albeit in grayscale.)

 

[Horwath]

Apologies if this has already been covered. What do we think would be a fair trade off if I was to house rule out racial darkvision? I want to make sure the races without darkvision don't end up more or less powerful accidentally due to the trade.

Thanks!


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I would say that darkvision is worth half a feat. So you can add one +1 to ability not al ready covered by racial bonuses or give them to pick "half feat" without the ability bonus they provide.

 

[mach1.9pants]

I have players choose dark vision races, because carrying a light source is so dangerous in a dungeon environment. You become the target, and are almost always surprised and ambushed by denizens. It's even hard to sneak in front of some one with a light source, you're often silhouetted by the light behind you. So for me the half feat idea seems about right. Dark vision is a very popular spell, too