enhanced visions dark and lowlight

[biorph]

Okay I might be beating an already dead horse here, but I just found this site a little while ago. and something about the whole light visions thing has always confused me.

I have a light source, 60 foot radius.
I have a full elf rouge 60 foot lowlight
He becomes a Doungeon Delver 60 foot Darkvision.

How far can he see in a large open dark cave if he's holding the light source. 180 feet because the dark vision takes over after the lowlight ends, or only 120 feet because the two visions overlap.

What if he is standing 180 feet away from the light source (in the darkness)? 120?

If this topic has already been killed someone could just post a link and I'll keep my mouth shut.

 

[kreynolds]

Darkvision and lowlight don't stack. As to everything else, well, its time for lunch!

 

[Tiberius]

Well, this isn't a terribly good example, because your character in question would be able to see out to 120 feet in full color thanks to his low-light vision. A better example would be if you had a torch that shed 20' of light. In that case, you would have:

20' of vision due to the torch
another 20' of vision (total: 40) of full-color vision due to the low-light vision
Finally 20' of black and white vision due to your 60' darkvision. In short:

Low-light vision allows you to see twice as far as you normally could in the prevailing darkness conditions, so long as there is a light source. There is no set limit to low-light vision, so you don't have, say, low-light vision 60.

Darkvision has a set range (in this case, 60 feet), out to which you can see in black and white when there is no light. This is not ruined by light or low-light vision. If an dwarf is holding a torch, she can see 20 feet as normal and the remaining 40 in black and white.

Does this help?

-Tiberius

 

[Dr. Zoom]

Okay I might be beating an already dead horse here, but I just found this site a little while ago. and something about the whole light visions thing has always confused me.

I have a light source, 60 foot radius.
I have a full elf rouge 60 foot lowlight
He becomes a Doungeon Delver 60 foot Darkvision.

That's "rogue."

There is no such thing as "60 foot low-light vision." It's just low-light vision. It means you can see twice as far as the normal light source. For instance, if you are carrying a torch which gives light in a 20 ft. radius, an elf can see in a 40 ft. radius, twice as far. In your example, the elf can see in a 120 ft. radius.

How far can he see in a large open dark cave if he's holding the light source. 180 feet because the dark vision takes over after the lowlight ends, or only 120 feet because the two visions overlap.

The latter.

What if he is standing 180 feet away from the light source (in the darkness)? 120?

No, he just sees a light source 180 feet away, and those within its illumination. Perhaps he can see those within twice its normal illumination.

 

[AuraSeer]

Low-light vision doesn't determine how far you can see. It determines how much light you need, which is not quite the same thing.

For instance, say you're sneaking up on an enemy camp, centered around a big bonfire. If you're standing in the darkness you can see the bad guys, because they're lit. But if you're outside the radius of the light, they can't see you.

If the bonfire has light radius 60', and you're a human, you can spot an enemy who is 60' away from the fire. If you're an elf, you can spot enemies who are up to 120' away from the fire. It doesn't really matter where you are relative to the camp; distance applies a negative to your Spot check, but that has nothing to do with the lighting conditions.

Darkvision is a whole other animal, since it only works on things close to you. You can see things within 60' of you, period. The ability is unaffected by lighting conditions, and does not stack with low-light vision.

So to answer your questions:
When your dungeon-delver elf is holding that light source, he can see monsters 120' away. Darkvision never comes into play.

When the light source is located somewhere else, he can see in two areas: a circle with radius 120' centered on the light source, and a circle with 60' radius centered on himself. These areas may overlap.

 

[Hypersmurf]

When your dungeon-delver elf is holding that light source, he can see monsters 120' away.

... and monsters a whole lot further away than that can see him...

"I hide in the shadows!"
"Holding a bullseye lantern?"

-Hyp.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

... and monsters a whole lot further away than that can see him...

"I hide in the shadows!"
"Holding a bullseye lantern?"

-Hyp.

Right. Which is the main advantage of darkvision: you don't need a light source, and don't advertise your presence overmuch (I'm DM'ing an underdark campaign, and banned every character without darkvision, since they could as well shoot themselves...)

 

[biorph]

now wait a minute, some people are saying that lowlight doesn't have a range, if this is the case then how far can I see outside the range of torchlight, how far do low light conditions extend before the become total darkness?

 

[kreynolds]

...how far can I see outside the range of torchlight...

If I understand Dr. Zoom correctly, you can see twice as far as the light source you're standing in. A torch sheds light out to 20 feet. Although, I may not be getting his viewpoint right.

 

[AuraSeer]

now wait a minute, some people are saying that lowlight doesn't have a range, if this is the case then how far can I see outside the range of torchlight, how far do low light conditions extend before the become total darkness?

Low-light vision simply doubles the effective radius of a light source.

For instance, a torch has a light radius of 20'. A human can only see something normally if it's within 20' of the center. An elf, with low-light vision, can see things within 40' of the center.