Down with Darkvision!

[LostSoul]

Seriously, I have never understood why they did.

Elves have low-light vision because they are up for half the night. The 4 hour sleep trance thing.

Though maybe they only have that sleep cycle because they have low-light vision and only sleep when it gets dark...

 

[GreatLemur]

Elves have low-light vision because they are up for half the night. The 4 hour sleep trance thing.

I guess that works. Thanks.

Now can someone tell me why orcs, who are not subterranean, have light sensitivity? That's gotta make the long days of summer rough on them. Or do they just sleep for fifteen hours until twilight?

 

[WhatGravitas]

Now can someone tell me why orcs, who are not subterranean, have light sensitivity? That's gotta make the long days of summer rough on them. Or do they just sleep for fifteen hours until twilight?

Because Tolkien's orcs loathed the sun, being twisted beings, bred by Morgoth? Yeah, I think that's it - inspirational influence.

 

[Felon]

Giants are definitely supernatural. Trolls regenerate, ogre magi heal and turn invisible, fire and frost giants have immunities to elements, cloud giants and storm giants have spell-like abilities, Dusk Giants grown in size when they eat, ettins have two heads, etc. The least supernatural would be ogres and hill giants, which are simply big.

Yes, some giants are just big humanoids. Troll regeneration, btw, is not supernatural.

 

[Destil]

Just for kicks, here's a list of all the monster types that get darkvision or low-light vision by default:

• Giant - Low-light vision
• Monstrous Humanoid - Darkvision

• Note that the troll, ogre and giant examples being thrown around are all wrong, as all are giant type and have low light.
  
  Monstrous Humanoid is the biggest offender in they "Why?" category, I'd say.

 

[Choranzanus]

I agree with most posters on this topic, it seems glaringly obvious problem if you look at basic monster traits. I guess a lot of people just ignore lightning in their game (like Order of the Stick : http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0076.html).

When I want monsters to see in the dark, I just let their eyes glow ominously, so they can use low-light vision. But this way they are not completely invisible in the dark.

 

[Vocenoctum]

From personal experience, I can tell you that a lighted match can be seen four miles away on a dark night if there are no obstructions.

So, the real issue is that we need to develop a Continual Local Flame spell, which provides light equal to a torch, but which cannot be seen from outside 40'.

 

[GreatLemur]

Note that the troll, ogre and giant examples being thrown around are all wrong, as all are giant type and have low light.

I think it's still pretty reasonable to question why they've even got that, though. Just not seeing a connection between being really big and have good nightvision, here.

 

[Plane Sailing]

A rule that I like using about Darkvision goes as follows:

Not only does darkvision not show colour, it relies upon the surface relief of objects. Thus you can't read writing with darkvision. The exception to this is runes which have actually been carved into a surface... there is relief there, so they can be read. This is pretty time consuming though, so they just tend to be used in certain places to alert dwarvish/orcish/drow passers-by that it is worth putting a light on about now to read stuff.

This means that the subterranean races don't use lights when they are scouting, but they are very likely to have lights in their living areas or when they are near significant (rune-notified) junctions.

It seems to work quite nicely, and gives a flavour that I like.

 

[the Jester]

Up with ultravision!

Hell yeah!!