D&D 5E Just About Sick Of Darkvision.

[Staccat0]

RP and storytelling-wise I kinda feel like it DOES take the wind out of a lot of fun dungeons and scenarios.

 

[SkidAce]

I would suspect the drow add just enough light to their underground cities to make the prevailing light "dim".

That way they can see fine, but its still a dark spooky eerie drow city to others. (The few humans that visit, lol)

 

[aramis erak]

I would suspect the drow add just enough light to their underground cities to make the prevailing light "dim".

That way they can see fine, but its still a dark spooky eerie drow city to others. (The few humans that visit, lol)

That does fit with the AD&D 2E descriptions thereof.

 

[DaveDash]

As a DM, if you have a darkvision party that insists on doing all their dungeoneering without light sources, just throw some standard traps and trip-wires in the corridor. A tripwire requiring a DC 13 perception check to spot won't be noticed in dim light (ie what you get form darkvision in total darkness) until you have a passive perception of 18.

PCs should be making a choice — actually see what we're doing and not get killed by traps, hazards and other things that could care less how stealthy we are, or sneak around in the dark and not get noticed by the creatures that are looking for us.

A non human Rogue will likely have a passive perception of 16 from levels 1-3. Then come level 4 they'd likely have 18 (Our Rogue4/Ftr1 has 19), or possible even 23 if they took the observant feat. Once they start getting up a bit in levels, they can spot anything except the most carefully hidden traps even in dim light.

They can also carry around a hooded lantern for checking things out in a 5ft radius around them. If you follow RAW (not that you probably would) creatures can't see them since you can't see beyond range "through" darkness!
Even so ignoring the silliness of RAW, a clever/careful Rogue player could probably carefully check the area with a hooded lantern creep forward, preventing the light from traveling too far forward.

However, it's also perfectly acceptable to have a DC +5 to spot a trap using passive perception, so they get -5 (dim) and +5 to the DC, because it's carefully hidden. A few official modules use this rule from time to time I've noticed. If it's a pressure plate or pit under a rug, the DC for passives is generally +5, but the DC to investigation is normal. I use this a lot in my higher level game since their passives are 20+.

 

[Melba Toast]

I nixed darkvision from all races in my game except dwarves who I gave a weaker variation: low-light vision. My feeling is that torches make dungeons more exciting and eerie.

Elves were given something else I call ultra-light vision, which allows them to see magical auras eminated from magical objects and creatures. In my world magical auras radiate in the ultra-violet spectrum. Elves can't read by it or anything, its subtle even to their eyes.

 

[Tony Vargas]

I'm just about sick of Darkvision. Why is it that every single bloody race seems to have Darkvision now?

Tradition. Heck, in the 1e MM, /everything/ had "Infravision," just be virtue of being listed in it.

Not being able to see in the dark is prettymuch a disability suffered by humans and some halflings in D&D.

It was one of many things that made non-/demi- humans highly desireable at low levels, only to be balance by their level limits, giving the game to humans at high level.

 

[Unknowingly]

The darkness spell you have to have truesight to see through it. Dark vision don't see through it. Unless they have changed it.

 

[CapnZapp]

Tradition. Heck, in the 1e MM, /everything/ had "Infravision," just be virtue of being listed in it.

Not being able to see in the dark is prettymuch a disability suffered by humans and some halflings in D&D.

It was one of many things that made non-/demi- humans highly desireable at low levels, only to be balance by their level limits, giving the game to humans at high level.

No, the level of darkvision was much better in 3E.

5E fumbled this - in their effort to simplify, they removed the very useful low-light vision.

The result is what is discussed here.

 

[Steampunkette]

I go with a blend for my setting by creating Elfsight.

Elfsight is not Darkvision. But it's also not Low-Light Vision, exactly. Elfsight allows you to see twice as far as a human would in the same conditions. So it does provide low-light vision rather than darkvision, but it also means perception checks based on sight have double the range, as does their ability to see through a foggy or rainy environment.

Elves, Half Elves, and Drow all have Elfsight and Drow also get Darkvision 60ft.

Gravetouched get Darkvision 120ft
Pactborn and Dwarves get Darkvision 90ft.
Orcs/Half Orcs get Darkvision 60ft.
Gearharts get Darkvision 30ft.
Heiligschein produce Light in a 5ft radius.

6 races with Darkvision to differing degrees
3 races with Elfsight
4 races with Normal Vision

Though Gearharts and Gravetouched only really live in two small areas of the world, and Drow on the surface are very rare. And then Pactborn and Heiligschein are as rare as Aasimar and Tiefling.

 

[RangerWickett]

I appreciate this thread bump. In my ideal world, only drow and undead have darkvision, and light is a first level spell. Carry a torch, dammit.