After 20', does light just fizzle out?

[reapersaurus]

I apologize if this is clear in the rulebooks, but I've looked and searched and not found the answer.

As I recall, light from like a torch is good for visibility up to 20', right?

So for combat purposes, you can fight with no penalties within 20' radius of whoever is holding a torch.

So what about 21'?

Does the light just fizzle away to nothing at 20', 1"?
I'm guessing there would be a penalty to fighting outside of the radius, but I can't find it.

any help would be appreciated - this has been a question in the back of my mind for a couple months now...

 

[Hypersmurf]

I can't see it stated explicitly, but I can make a suggestion.

Concealment, Table 8-10 of the PHB, p133.

Moderate darkness doesn't hamper a creature with low-light vision.

Since low-light vision lets someone see twice as far in poor light, this suggests that, for a light source of radius r, the zone between r and 2r is moderate darkness.

Extending this idea, between 2r and 3r is near-total darkness, and outside that is total darkness.

Use the concealment penalties from 8-10 to figure out the effects of fighting 25' from a torch for people with normal, low-light, and darkvision respectively.

-Hyp.

 

[Albereth]

I have always assumed that torch light etc is steadily decreasing until it reaches teh 20' mark. Anything past that point to a human or creature without darkvision or low light vision is quite dark. Every 5' outside of this range could provoke a range of concealment until total concealment is reached. The first 5' inside the circle is 0% then each 5' outside goes up 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%. This should probably only be for creatures who are moving about

 

[Vaxalon]

The way I handle it is to say that at each increment, the illumination level drops one step, so that the concealment increment rises one step.

 

[el Voz]

We make it simple and have everybody in 5' increments. We have a checkerboard map and every thing must be in a single square (or more for obvious reasons)

That means some at the 21' mark is considered 25' away.

Certain realistic rules are fun, but most just complicate matters.

 

[dafrca]

I have always assumed that torch light etc is steadily decreasing until it reaches teh 20' mark. Anything past that point to a human or creature without darkvision or low light vision is quite dark.

This is how I see it as well. When I drive out in the country side at night my headlights only illuminate out so far before they are useless. It's not that they are not sending light out further it is just only helpful so far. Thats how torch or candle light is. The amount of useful light only goes out so far. beyond that it becomes harder to see detail and thus starts to become useless.

dafrca

 

[AGGEMAM]

Okay, reapersaurus, here is a crash course in D&D physics:

The light from a torch is equilavent to a 0nd level spell (considered as half-a-level).

The speed of light is the same, roughly 300.000 Km/sec, or 3 Mm (Megameter, not millimeters (mm)).

20 feet is, roughly, 6 m, therefore the lightfoton from a Zero level spell cannot exist for longer than 0.2 mikroseconds, which is the squareroot of half a microsecond.

Therefore light from a 4th level spell, could reach (4 squared equals 16 microseconds times 30 meters per microsecond equals 480 meters) roughly 2000 feet.

Have fun calculating the spell level of the sun

 

[DMFTodd]

The light ends at 20 feet. At 20 feet you can see a target just fine, at 21' 1" the target is in total darkness. Not very realistic but those are the rules. All the other suggestions are house rules not actual rules and they don't seem worth the trouble to me.

Same thing goes for all other types of vision (Dark, Low-light). Up to the radius they can see fine. 1" past the radius you can't see anything.

 

[Hypersmurf]

The light ends at 20 feet. At 20 feet you can see a target just fine, at 21' 1" the target is in total darkness.

Although that doesn't fit with the Concealment rules.

If 21'1" is in total darkness, the low-light vision is of no use. Low-light vision can't see in total darkness.

If 21'1" is near-total darkness, then low-light vision treats it as half-concealment instead of 9/10 concealment, with a 20% miss chance. We know they don't have a 20% miss chance at 21'1", so it can't be near-total darkness.

If 21'1" is moderate darkness, then low-light vision has no trouble. We know that this is the actual benefit low-light vision provides at 21'1" from a torch, therefore it must be in moderate darkness. For those without low-light vision, moderate darkness is 1/4 concealment, or a 10% miss chance.

-Hyp.

 

[CRGreathouse]

The DMG description of darkvision explains it well enough: "fading inot an indistinct gray 60 feet away." (for 60 foot darkvision).

If you want more realism, you'd let creatures see beyond 20 feet, but not far; you'd also have to severely restrict vison within the 20 foot radius, though.

For example:

0-5 feet............No concealment
5-10 feet..........1/4 concelament
10-15 feet........1/2 concealment
15-20 feet........3/4 concealment
20-25 feet........9/10 concealment
25+ feet...........Total concealment

These would obviously be doubled for elves (and for gnomes and half-elves, quadrupled for dragons, and multiplied by five for giant eagles...)

To sum up, you can't give the player more abilities without taking some away, or balance goes out the window.