Yaarel
🇮🇱 🇺🇦 He-Mage
The rules of illumination and obscurement, Blinded and hidden, unseen and guessing location, and Perception checks to notice or find, are somewhat complex.
5.5 needs to move all of these technicalities into one place in the Players Handbook.
Ways to simplify these rules are welcome. In principle, what should matter is something is either "Seen" or "Unseen": if Unseen, any roll that requires sight should be at a disadvantage or grant advantage against oneself, and some things are obviously impossible such as seeing the color of an unseen object. The rules for guessing a location work well and simply: whether one knows the location (such as from the sound of footsteps) or is wildly guessing, either way, an attack against an Unseen target at the correct location is at a disadvantage.
To track the radiuses of brightness and dimness for multiple light sources as well as for multiple creatures with darkvision ranges, burdens the DM. Such tracking especially interferes with theater of the mind. Many campaigns treat everything in an encounter as if having the same brightness, dimmness, or darkness. Relatedly, many campaigns forget or ignore the penalties of dim light of being a Lightly Obscured area.
A version of the slot 2 Darkvision spell is instead a cantrip, to make it more accessible without needing almost every race to have darkvision as a trait. It eschews ranges for darkvision and complications for dim light. Tentatively, it maintains the need for the DM to track areas of bright light. Perhaps if the DM only needs to track brightness, it is doable, and helps with narrative tropes. Tangible obscurement, such as an opaque smoke, can block any darkvision.
DARKVISION
Elemental, transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 10 feet
Components: S, M (nonluminous part of a flame)
Duration: 1 hour or until using an action to dispel it
You can see in the dark. While in darkness or dim light, you see as if in bright light but only shades of gray.
Actual bright light becomes blinding. An area of brightness is Heavily Obscured as if by a shining opaque fog that blocks line of sight.
When casting, it takes 10 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. Afterward your eyes glow a dim light from within, and you see in darkness. You can choose a color, such as your eyes glow red, then your sight becomes shades of this one hue instead of gray. If your eyes are seen within the darkness, you remain Unseen but your location is known.
You can grant Darkvision to a number of willing creatures upto your proficiency bonus. Each target can use an action to dispel ones own Darkvision effect. If you cast it again, any earlier casting is dispelled.
At Higher Levels. At level 5, you can cast Darkvision without glowing eyes. At level 11, you can see normally in full color regardless of any lighting conditions, whether bright or dark, magical or nonmagical. At level 17, you also see Invisible things normally.
5.5 needs to move all of these technicalities into one place in the Players Handbook.
Ways to simplify these rules are welcome. In principle, what should matter is something is either "Seen" or "Unseen": if Unseen, any roll that requires sight should be at a disadvantage or grant advantage against oneself, and some things are obviously impossible such as seeing the color of an unseen object. The rules for guessing a location work well and simply: whether one knows the location (such as from the sound of footsteps) or is wildly guessing, either way, an attack against an Unseen target at the correct location is at a disadvantage.
To track the radiuses of brightness and dimness for multiple light sources as well as for multiple creatures with darkvision ranges, burdens the DM. Such tracking especially interferes with theater of the mind. Many campaigns treat everything in an encounter as if having the same brightness, dimmness, or darkness. Relatedly, many campaigns forget or ignore the penalties of dim light of being a Lightly Obscured area.
A version of the slot 2 Darkvision spell is instead a cantrip, to make it more accessible without needing almost every race to have darkvision as a trait. It eschews ranges for darkvision and complications for dim light. Tentatively, it maintains the need for the DM to track areas of bright light. Perhaps if the DM only needs to track brightness, it is doable, and helps with narrative tropes. Tangible obscurement, such as an opaque smoke, can block any darkvision.
DARKVISION
Elemental, transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 10 feet
Components: S, M (nonluminous part of a flame)
Duration: 1 hour or until using an action to dispel it
You can see in the dark. While in darkness or dim light, you see as if in bright light but only shades of gray.
Actual bright light becomes blinding. An area of brightness is Heavily Obscured as if by a shining opaque fog that blocks line of sight.
When casting, it takes 10 minutes for your eyes to adjust to the darkness. Afterward your eyes glow a dim light from within, and you see in darkness. You can choose a color, such as your eyes glow red, then your sight becomes shades of this one hue instead of gray. If your eyes are seen within the darkness, you remain Unseen but your location is known.
You can grant Darkvision to a number of willing creatures upto your proficiency bonus. Each target can use an action to dispel ones own Darkvision effect. If you cast it again, any earlier casting is dispelled.
At Higher Levels. At level 5, you can cast Darkvision without glowing eyes. At level 11, you can see normally in full color regardless of any lighting conditions, whether bright or dark, magical or nonmagical. At level 17, you also see Invisible things normally.
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