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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7424422" data-attributes="member: 6796661">I'm fine with the 5e darkvision rules mechanically. But I do like thinking more about how exactly low-light vision and dark vision work.  I always assumed that darkvision is just "magic" vision. But I'm thinking of treating it more like other the other hightened senses being perceived as sight (more on this at the end, below). For those promoting using "low-light vision" instead of darkvision, how did that work in 3e (which I did not play)?  Underground caves are dark. Unless you add fantastical glowing fungi, etc., to help the players out, it will be pitch black.  An owl or cat will be just as blind as me or you. So with low-light vision should not help you underground. Well, I suppose you could use a very dim light source and get more out of it.  Also, with low-light vision, you should be able to see in color or some colors.  In the real world, many animals with low-light vision see color in almost complete darkness, including geckos, moths, bats, and lemurs (a primate! maybe that's where wood elves come from  ;-) ). Human color receptors stop working when we get to about 1/2 moonlight. At that point our eyes switch to using more sensitive, but color-blind rods. But the Aye-Aye, a nocturnal lemur that has been nocturnal for millions of years has eyes tuned to see blue down to near ultraviolet even in dim light. Other nocturnal lemurs have eyes tuned to detect green at very low light. Bats have red and blue color vision at night. Still, rods are more efficient than cones and the theory is that most species that spend all of their time in the dark (e.g. not active in twilight and bright moonlight) will eventually lose the ability to see color. Also, as impressive as the night vision of bats, lemurs, geckos, moths, and owls (who actually have mechanisms to capture light twice) is, all require some source of light. Well, bats have echolocation, but that is an entirely different ability. So, how would dark vision work?  By dark vision, I mean seeing in total darkness. Well, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/11/21/some-people-can-see-in-total-darkness-study-says/3669949/" target="_blank">50% of people can "see" their hands in total darkness</a>. Of course their eyes are not capturing the image of the hands. That is not how vision works. You need light for your eyes to work. But our brain combines information from different senses to create our perceptions.  So, perhaps dwarves, drow, etc. have evolved so that they are so sensitive underground to sounds, smell, touch, that they can perceive their surrounding as sight. What is neat about this, is that blindfolding a dwarf should not affect his dark vision. Or perhaps Darkvision is that, mixed with infravision. For most animals, infrared is not detected with the eyes. Even with mammals, like the vampire bat, most animals with infrared vision have a pit that collects infrared radiation and combines it with vision from retinas in the brain, so animals probably "see" the infrared information. Again, covering the eyes should not prevent infrared vision. So, elves, dwarves, and gnomes could have lip dents. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />Or its just magic. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />NOTE: most of the information about animals seeing color at night in this post comes from a the following very interesting BBC Earth article: <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141128-these-animals-see-colour-at-night" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141128-these-animals-see-colour-at-night</a>Interesting article on infrared vision: <a href="https://io9.gizmodo.com/under-the-right-conditions-humans-can-see-infrared-1665448040" target="_blank">https://io9.gizmodo.com/under-the-right-conditions-humans-can-see-infrared-1665448040</a></blockquote>

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