D&D 5E Darkvision and Magical Darkness

[Maxperson]

I mean it had always been my assumption it works this way (magical darkness > darkvision) because it's been that way for so long in the game's history. But to my mind, it still seems backwards.

One line in Darkvision "this ability has no effect in magical darkness" would set the precedent and then you wouldn't have to keep repeating it with every ability that creates "magical darkness".

There just isn't any real reason to do it the way it's done in the rulebooks, hence my confusion.

Well, these are the same people that if you look in the index for Escape the Hoard, rather than using 2 characters and putting 93 to let you know which page to find it on, they'd rather use 21 characters and say See Defensive Tactics and make you now look somewhere else before you can know where to go. A lot of what they did with 5e are head scratchers.

 

[neqis]

The currently available Sage Advice says this:

Does all magical darkness block darkvision? Magical darkness blocks darkvision only if the rules text for a particular instance of darkness says it does. For example, the darkness spell specifies that it produces a magical darkness that obstructs darkvision. That obstruction is a feature of the spell, not of magical darkness in general.

Where RAW and RAI differ, the FAQs in Sage Advice mention intent. For example, questions about whether a wizard is supposed to read from their spellbook when casting a ritual, or whether the Tough feat affects a druid in beast form both discuss what's intended. The FAQ about magical darkness & darkvision doesn't discuss intent, so RAW and RAI regarding the topic are the same.