D&D 5E devil's sight plus light source (light spell, torches etc)

[auburn2]

So I am figuring out how to combine devil's sight with some ambient light.

So the party has a light spell cast in a dark dungeon - bright light out to 20ft, dim light for 20 ft, darkness beyond that.

So how does someone will devil's sight function in this environment if they are standing right next to the light spell. The way I read it, if you have devil's sight, that charachter would see normally out to 20' (light spell), in dim light from 20'-40' (light spell) and normallly in darkness from 40'-120' (devil's sight) . So essentially said charachter will have a "dim light zone" from 20-40' and see normally everywhere else out to 120'.

A character with 60' darkvision and devil's sight would see normally all the way out to 120ft under the same circumstances - bright light from 0-20', dim light which they can see in as normal from 20-40', and darkness which they see in as normal from 40'-120'.

Am I interpreting this correctly.

 

[Shiroiken]

By RAW, your interpretation is correct that they would have a "dim light" zone. However, that's very counter intuitive and almost certainly not RAI. It's one of the weird things that slip through the cracks that require the DM to adjudicate using common sense. I would consider "dim light" to be a form of darkness that can be ignored.

 

[DND_Reborn]

We play it exactly as RAW, so there is the "dim light zone". It is one of the odd side-effects of devil's sight in that it creates a strange visual barrier in that range.

Now, if a DM ruled it makes dims light (a lesser form of darkness so to say) into bright light as well, I don't think anyone would revolt over it.

FWIW, you might want to note that each "devil" which has the devil's sight feature, actually reads: "Magical darkness doesn’t impede the devil’s darkvision." because they have darkvision 120 as well. With that understanding, I think the invocation was meant to mimic the devil feature and should effectively "grant darkvision" which would negate the RAW "dim light zone" effect.

 

[Al2O3]

Your interpretation is correct both RAW and RAI. There is a YouTube video where Crawford describes it. In that video, which I probably can't find, Crawford quotes a hypothetical warlock saying something along the lines of "douse the candle so that my patron grants me sight".

So yes, the dim light will make the warlock see worse. Yes, that's weird. It is also a feature, not a bug.