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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 8872623" data-attributes="member: 93670">This is just wrong on a mechanical level & there are two reasons why.  Firstly the scale of one inch changed from 3.x on, secondly the presentation of infravisionBack in 2e a one inch square represented ten feet† .  For 3.x  that has been one inch to five feet.  Some of the values no doubt stayed the same and effectively doubled but most ranges were reduced accordingly to follow with the change from.  In 2e having a 60 got light source with a movement speed of...[spoiler=" 60-120 yards‡ "]MovementClosely related to time is movement.Clearly your character is able to move;otherwise, adventures would be ratherstatic and boring. But how fast can he move? If a large, greencarrion crawler is scuttling after Rath, is the redoubtable dwarffast enough to escape? Could Rath outrun an irritated butheavily loaded elf? Sooner or later these considerationsbecome important to player characters. All characters have movement rates that are based ontheir race. Table 64 lists the movement rates for unencum-bered characters of different races. A character can normally walk his movement rate in tens of yards in a single round. An unencumbered human can walk120 yards (360 feet), slightly more than a football field, in oneminute. A dwarf, similarly equipped, can walk 60 yards in thesame time. This walk is at a fairly brisk, though not strenuous,pace that can be kept up for long periods of time. However, a character may have to move slower than thispace. If the character is carrying equipment, he may moveslower because of the encumbrance, if this optional rule is used(see “Encumbrance” in Chapter 6: Money and Equipment). Asthe character carries more gear, he gradually slows down untilhe reaches the point where he can barely move at all. When a character is moving through a dungeon or similarsetting, his movement rate corresponds to tens of feet perround (rather than the tens of yards per round of outsideTable 64:Base Movement Rates Race Rate Human 12 Dwarf⸶ 6 Elf⸶ 12 Gnome 6 Half-elf⸶ 12 Halfling ⸶6[/spoiler]60feet on a light source is half the range that a human/elf/half elf can move in one round & equal for dwarf/gnome/halfling.Dark vision was called infravision in 2e & the rules for it were divided between the PHB as well as the DMG. The DMG said[spoiler="DMG160"]Infravision sThere are two definitions of infravi-ion that can be used in the AD&Dgame. The first is simple but lacksdetail. It is, however, a perfectly adequate definition forthose who don’t want to bother with the complexities ofinfravision. The second, optional, definition, adds anotherlevel of detail to the game. It allows the DM to create spe-cial situations in which the function of infravision becomesimportant, but requires the DM to keep track of more rulesand more details.Standard Infravision The easiest definition of infravision is that it allows charac-ters to see in the dark. Nothing more is said about how thisworks—it simply works. Characters do not see into the infaredspectrum or “see’’ heat or anything else. They just see in thedark as clearly as they do in normal light. However, since it isa somewhat magical power, the range is not that of normalvision—infravision ability extends only 60 feet. Beyond thisonly normal vision is allowed.Optional Infravision This definition is much more scientific and accurate towhat we know of physical properties of the real world. Toits advantage, this definition makes infravision very differ-ent from normal sight, with its own strengths and weak-nesses. To its disadvantage, it introduces a certain amountof scientific accuracy (with all its complications) into afantasy realm. According to this definition, infravision is the ability tosense or “see’’ heat. The best comparison is to thermal imag-ing equipment used by the armed forces of many differentnations today. This special sense is limited to a 60-footrange. Within this range, characters can see the degrees ofheat radiated by an object as a glowing blob translated intocolors like a thermagram. If this definition is used, there are several things thatmust be considered. First, large heat sources will temporar-ily blind characters with infravision just as looking at abright light blinds those with normal vision. Thus, thoseattempting to use infravision must make the effort to avoidlooking directly at fires or torches, either their own or theenemy’s. (The light from magical items does not radiatesignificant heat.) Second, the DM must be ready to statehow hot various things are. A literal interpretation of therule means that characters won’t be able to tell the floorfrom the walls in most dungeons. All of it is the same tem-perature, after all. The DM must also be ready to decide if dungeon doorsare a different temperature (or radiate heat differently) fromstone walls. Does a different color or kind of stone radiateheat differently from those around it? Does the ink of a pageradiate differently enough from the paper to be noticed?Probably not. Can a character tell an orc from a hobgoblin ora human? Most creatures have similar “thermal outlines”—somewhat fuzzy blobs. They do not radiate at different tem-peratures and even if they did, infravision is seldom so acuteas to register differences of just a few degrees. Be sure you understand the effects this optional definitionof infravision can have—there are dangers in bringing scien-tific accuracy to a fantasy game. By creating a specific defini-tion of how this power works, the DM is inviting his players toapply logic to the definition. The problem is, this is a fantasygame and logic isn’t always sensible or even desired! So, beaware that the optional definition may result in very strangesituations, all because logic and science are applied to some-thing that isn’t logical or scientific.OtherFormsof SightIf the optional definition of infravision isused, the DM has set a precedent forusing scientific laws to explain the ability.Some people, arguing that there are visualorgans that can apparently see into theinfrared spectrum (using infravision), willalso argue for other forms of sight able to see into otherranges of the spectrum. These can be included, if the DMdesires. However, before adding these to his game, theDM had best have a firm grasp of the rules and, maybe, ofphysics. For example, just what would a character or creature withultravision (the ability to see into the ultraviolet spectrum)see? Our eyes see objects because of visible light that isreflected off objects (except for a few objects, such as thesun, light bulbs, fires, etc., that emit enough visible light for usto see them). Infravision utilizes heat (infrared) energy emit-ted by objects, since almost everything emits infrared energy.The problem with infravision is that many objects, such asnormal weapons and rocks, without internal heat sources, areat or very near the temperature of their surrounding and thusare nearly indistinguishable from those surroundings whenusing infravision. Ultravision (and vision utilizing x-rays,gamma rays, or radio waves) is useless since only stars and afew other celestial objects emit significant amounts of energyin these regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. All wouldappear uniformly black with these forms of vision, except fora few objects in the sky.Darkness bSooner or later characters wind uplundering around in the dark. Normallythey try to avoid this, but clever DMsand foolish players generally manage to bring it about. Per-haps the kobolds captured the player characters andstripped them of all their gear; perhaps the characters for-got to bring enough torches. Whatever the reason, thosewithout infravision suffer both physical and psychologicaleffects in the dark. For the purposes of this discussion, “darkness’’ means anytime the characters suffer from limited visibility. Thus, therules given here apply equally well when the characters areaffected by a darkness spell, blundering about in pea-soupfog, out on a moonless night, or even blindfolded. Since one can’t see anything in the dark, the safe move-ment rate of blinded characters is immediately slowed by 1⁄3the normal amount. Faster movement requires a Dexteritycheck (see Chapter 14: Time and Movement). Charactersalso suffer a –4 penalty to attack rolls and saving throws. TheirArmor Class is four worse than normal (to a limit of 10).Sight-related damage bonuses (backstabbing, etc.) arenegated. However, darkness is not always absolute, and thoseDMs who wish to make distinctions between various levels ofdarkness can use Table 72. The blindfighting proficiency can lessen the effects of fight-ing in darkness as explained in the proficiency description inthe Player’s Handbook.[/spoiler]And the PHB said[Spoiler]="2ePHB155"]Infravision Some characters and monsters have thepower of infravision. This can mean oneof two things, depending on whether thestandard or the optional rule is used (this is discussed in detailin the Dungeon Master's Guide). The choice is left to the DM andhe must tell the players how he wants infravision to work.Regardless of how the power functions, the range of infravisionis at most 60 feet unless otherwise noted.[/spoiler]Also remember that 60 feet is half the move speed of an elf half elf & human or equal to that of the slow dwarf/gnome/halfling.From that a player with infravision who was told "its dark" could be 100% sure that they needed a light source. Either the heat wasn't useful for sewing in some way or there simply was not enough light of suitable spectrum to amplify.Now in 5e you can read just fine on a moonless cloudy foggy night in a locked chest sealed in a closet of a dark room with curtains drawn unless you are reading a coloring book. That's far too generous for the beowulf story to support a dungeon crawl & it gets worse when nearly every pc race has dark vision Yes it helped reduce the number of torches carried, but the pounds were quickly filled by other gear and coins.  carrying capacities were a meaningful thing back then.  A priest got second level spells at level 3, which took 3000xp† good discussion <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/433e8x/why_did_dd_switch_from_tenfoot_squares_to/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=14&utm_content=share_button" target="_blank">here</a>‡PHB157⸶This race had infravision but also had attribute requirements to even be one.</blockquote>

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