Vision and Light Question

[satin]

That point about wilderness is a good one. I've only thought of it in dungeon situations, which is one of the reasons I was thinking low light vision seemed a bit useless without rules about dim light.

 

[Mad Hamish]

That point about wilderness is a good one. I've only thought of it in dungeon situations, which is one of the reasons I was thinking low light vision seemed a bit useless without rules about dim light.

There are some dungeons with low light (some natural caves are given as examples) and there you can lag behind the rest of the group and try and hide but generally I don't think it's a bit plus in dungeons.

 

[Syrsuro]

Which brings us back to my approach.

Given: We want to see the players abilities be useful and make a difference.

Given: As written, low light vision is of minimal value, especially underground.

Given: As written, stealth is extremely difficult as the characters will almost always be in bright light (and thus find hiding more difficult) or in total darkness (and thus be unable to see). If there were areas of dim lighting (which are obscured terrain and thus can provide concealment) it would make stealthy characters better able to use their abilities.

Given: The rules for light in the game have been simplified to a point where they violate common experience with regards to lighting in dark areas (torches do not create a zone of bright light with an immediate drop off to total darkness outside of some radius).

Conclusion: It is logical to extend the zone of light surrounding a bright light out to create a region of dim lighting which extends some distance beyond the circle of bright light.

Result: There are areas of dim lighting which give those characters with low light vision a reason to have llv and an opportunity to use llv.
Result: There are areas of dim lighting which can be exploited by characters who wish to use stealth to approach their opponents.
Difficulty: This adds to the DMs workload in that the DM must determine who can see what.

I think the minor difficulty is worth the benefits gained. I also think that they went to far in oversimplifying lighting and in so doing made low light vision of marginal value.

Aside: Any area inhabited by humanoids with low light vision ought to be under constant dim lighting anyway. They don't need the benefit from bright light and would want to exploit their advantage.

Carl

 

[jtrowell]

Il already extend the radius of bright light, up to the base radius or 5 squares.

So a torch is 5 bright + 5 shadowy for normal vision.
For someone with low-light vision, it is the same as 10 bright.
With this rule, low-light vision do not allow a character to see more further that the others (so no need to describe different things), but it give the lowlight ability some needed help.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Il already extend the radius of bright light, up to the base radius or 5 squares.

So a torch is 5 bright + 5 shadowy for normal vision.
For someone with low-light vision, it is the same as 10 bright.
With this rule, low-light vision do not allow a character to see more further that the others (so no need to describe different things), but it give the lowlight ability some needed help.

I do this, but with this difference: I keep the existing radius, but the first half of the radius is bright, while the second half is dim. If the light source is dim to begin with (like a candle), the outer radius is not lit, effectively halving the lighting radius. For example, a campfire sheds bright light to 50', then dim light between 50' and 100'. A candle sheds dim light to 10' beyond its origin square, and nothing beyond that.

I do this because I find the existing lighting distances a little ridiculous. For example, anyone who's ever done any camping knows that a campfire doesn't shed bright light anywhere near 100'. Same with a candle shedding dim light up to 20'.