chillybones
Villager
I agree that it's really, really dumb that dragonborn don't have darkvision. Dragons have it, kobolds have it, why not dragonborn?
Even stranger is that both half-dragons and drakes get darkvision too
I agree that it's really, really dumb that dragonborn don't have darkvision. Dragons have it, kobolds have it, why not dragonborn?
...
This discussion is about whether Elves and Dwarves should have the *same* kind of superior sight.
I also think there is no reason to remove or replace darkvision in elves, because darkvision is a DM's friend. Whenever a party is relying on darkvision, they are limiting themselves to dim light. This makes it much easier to spring hidden things upon them, including traps and ambushes. Dwarves moving through the underdark using darkvision is like humans moving along above ground under a full moon without any other light source, which is to say they're asking for trouble.
Even stranger is that both half-dragons and drakes get darkvision too
I love all of this. I might steal it.A bunch of stuff, and a Pratchett reference
I love all of this. I might steal it.
Everything and its dog has Darkvision in 5th Edition - it's ridiculous - a very foolish design decision. WotC have added to the mass of DV races by adding it in nearly every statblock. It's like a 'filler' ability these days.
The flip side of this is that "historically" darkvision removed the problem of darkness, but in 5e it doesn't -- even with darkvision, in 5e you suffer disadvantage on all perception checks.
That's huge, and even parties with darkvision need to use light sources regularly.
Darkvision only goes out to 60ft. You can do all of that in 5e.
I have ambushes in darkness all the time in my games. I also had to do the same things to accomplish that in older editions, because PCs always had to have light sources to move around in total darkness, and had trouble seeing in low light.
The drow assassins attack just before the torchlight reaches them, or in the space between when they can see their prey and their prey can see them using heir respective darkvision. It works fine.