Hey, WotC: Give Dwarves their Darkvision Back

[Stalker0]

Definitely like this change:

My hope for 4e:

1) Normal Vision: Concealment in areas that aren't well lit.
2) Low-Light: No concealment unless in total darkness.
3) Darkvision: Vision in complete darkness.

No more counting squares of illumination. I just tell my players what the lighting the area is and go from there. Make darkvision and rare and powerful ability.

 

[Voss]

Very simple: to see PAST their darkvision range.

But... torches only provide 20' of bright illumination and 40' of shadowy. Its the same distance, and they can't see as well!

 

[vagabundo]

Definitely like this change:

My hope for 4e:

1) Normal Vision: Concealment in areas that aren't well lit.
2) Low-Light: No concealment unless in total darkness.
3) Darkvision: Vision in complete darkness.

No more counting squares of illumination. I just tell my players what the lighting the area is and go from there. Make darkvision and rare and powerful ability.

I think I might snag that and use it for my game right now, slightly modded:

1) Normal Vision: Concealment in areas that aren't well lit.
2) Low-Light: No concealment unless in total darkness.
3) Darkvision: Vision in complete darkness, concealment past the 60'/120' limit.

And I hope this is how they do Darkvision too.

 

[Bagpuss]

Then why do dwarven halls always have torches?

Because living in a black and white world is a little dull. Torches allow for colour.

 

[Bagpuss]

Definitely like this change:

My hope for 4e:

1) Normal Vision: Concealment in areas that aren't well lit.
2) Low-Light: No concealment unless in total darkness.
3) Darkvision: Vision in complete darkness.

No more counting squares of illumination. I just tell my players what the lighting the area is and go from there. Make darkvision and rare and powerful ability.

So does a single torch now provide enough light to illuminate a football field size cave underground? Or are you again counting squares to see where total darkness and area's that aren't well lit begin?

 

[Frostmarrow]

I guess most dwarves don't have twenty menthol Kools.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Darkvision seemed always have the same problem: How does it work? Is it infrared vision (in which case it has side effects not present in the rules). Is it magical (in which case it has side effects not present in the rules)

And why should Dwarves rely on sight anyway if they are so accustomed to living in the dark? Having ultrasound "vision" or at least super acute hearing would probably work a lot better. Scent might also be good (especially to smell dangerous fumes and gas)

Judging from underwater creatures, if they would want to rely on sight, they need to create their own light - bioluminscense. Underground creatures we know off usually don't rely that much on sight, either. Scent, Hearing, Tremorsense-like abilities, for sure.

Since they are pretty humanoid creatures, they probably just have better eyes than surface dwellers - Low-Light Vision fits this bill pretty well. Since they are capable of creating their own artifical light sources, that's sufficient.

 

[vagabundo]

So does a single torch now provide enough light to illuminate a football field size cave underground? Or are you again counting squares to see where total darkness and area's that aren't well lit begin?

Torch: A torch burns for 1 hour, clearly illuminating a 20-foot radius and providing shadowy illumination out to a 40- foot radius.

- SRD

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

It doesn't matter how far you are from the torch, you can see the area around it.

If the torches are placed 20 feet below the ceiling, every 40 feet along the walls, the ceiling is well lit, even for dwarves standing on the floor far below the vaulted ceiling and out of the actual radius of the torch.

Standing in the darkness, you can see into an area of light at a distance much greater than the radius of the light. For all practical purposes, that distance is infinite within the operational scale of the game, limited only by line of sight.

Hence the problem with sneaking while bearing a torch-- and the attendant problems folks have noted about how divisive it can be to the party.

Levelling the playing field for PCs and typical humanoid opponents is also a reasonable fix. The point is to make it possible to support an extremely typical, desired, and interesting behavior: The PCs trying to sneak up on an enemy in the dark.

 

[D.Shaffer]

I like the change, myself.

My friends used to joke that wizards should have just made Low-light/Darkvision the norm and humans should have 'Light Sensitivity' since they often seemed to be the ONLY race that didnt have some sort of vision enhancement.