D&D 5E How Darkness helps the dungeon crawl experience immensely.

[Hussar]

Heh, drop a couple of baddies with the Skulker feat if you have parties that insist on relying on dark vision all the time.

 

[James Gasik]

I had a group that insisted on relying on Darkvision. Around the third trap they missed due to their passive Perceptions being lowered by 5, somebody asked the Sorcerer to cast Dancing Lights.

 

[Bill Zebub]

I know it's unpopular opinion, but I just can't seem to grasp how hard it is for some people to use light & darkness. While I play on a VTT, I don't have the nifty Dynamic Lighting (which is a paid feature, and I'm cheap). All I do is give the general description to the group, and the players know if they can see it or not based on their character's vision. It's not any different than when a Darkness spell is cast. Maybe I've been spoiled by good players? Of course, despite having darkvision, most of our groups use light sources anyway, since the penalty for dim light can be problematic.

I dunno. I guess that’s great and all that your players are willing to pretend they don’t know stuff is there, but I put it in the same category is pretending to not know about trolls and fire. I’d prefer that DMs give me monsters whose abilities I genuinely don’t know, just like I would prefer to genuinely not know what my character can’t see. I’d rather share the experience my character is having, than pretend to.

 

[iserith]

I had a group that insisted on relying on Darkvision. Around the third trap they missed due to their passive Perceptions being lowered by 5, somebody asked the Sorcerer to cast Dancing Lights.

Criminally underrated spell in a dungeon adventure in my view.

 

[Celebrim]

Agreed in principle, but in practice this one of the impossible things (along with for example, realistic currency, realistic linguistics, and large numbers of NPCs acting in the same scene). I've got like 100 hours experience in wild caves, and I care about these things but it's just so difficult to pull off.

The trouble is that light sources vary so much that it makes improvising the descriptions of areas very difficult. You have to work out what the players can see from their vantage in the room from any entrance they happen to have come in from. This becomes doubly impossible when, as is common, different characters have different visual acuity and different light sources. Generally speaking, darkness is present and it sometimes matters, but I can only make use of it fully when the area is so large that no one in the party can clearly see the full extent of it.

I think darkness is something best implemented in a cRPG or with computer tools.

 

[Azuresun]

Heh, drop a couple of baddies with the Skulker feat if you have parties that insist on relying on dark vision all the time.

Or just enemies with better darkvision. The drow and duergar can see you 60ft before you can see them.

 

[Shiroiken]

I dunno. I guess that’s great and all that your players are willing to pretend they don’t know stuff is there, but I put it in the same category is pretending to not know about trolls and fire. I’d prefer that DMs give me monsters whose abilities I genuinely don’t know, just like I would prefer to genuinely not know what my character can’t see. I’d rather share the experience my character is having, than pretend to.

The problem is that outside of a VTT with dynamic lighting and separate voice channels, that's pretty much impossible. You always have information your character would not, simply by hearing what a DM says to the other players. Besides, this seldom actually matters, as I explain below.

Outside of combat, the difference of seeing different things is no more than a 24 second delay (120 ft darkvision vs 5 ft candle). Having the DM describe it once to the group, then having each character experience that description at the appropriate in-game time is no different than everyone seeing it all at once. In the rare instance that your character can't get close enough to actually see it, presumably your companions would describe it to you (in which case their description simply matches what the DM says, unless they choose otherwise).

Inside combat, just because you can't actually see something, does mean you don't know it's there. If an ally with darkvision is fighting an enemy outside of your vision, unless it's Hidden you know where it is. There are limitations on your actions directed at them, but that's a part of the game.

 

[Ancalagon]

I've had no luck using dynamic lighting, I must be doing it wrong...

.... but in the meantime, what I have found that world reasonably well is fog of war and auras - the PC(s) with a source of light have an aura that shows me where there is light. rather useful if you ask me

 

[overgeeked]

If so many races didn’t have Darkvision, and it wasn’t so burdensome to implement in game I might agree on the use of more darkness in the game. As it is, it’s just an annoyance to the point all my dungeons are essentially prelit these days.

The thing everyone forgets is darkvision gives you dim light which is disadvantage on perception checks and renders your vision black and white. It’s not as awesome as most people think it is. The problem is cantrips like light. Ban that cantrip and follow the actual rules on darkvision and you’re 70% of the way there.

 

[James Gasik]

Ban light? That seems a bit extreme, a magical cantrip that saves you a little gold over the course of your career on torches? Should we ban lanterns next?