D&D 5E (2014) How strict are you with vision and illumination rules?

[mrpopstar]

I track positioning on a grid behind the screen, making it easy to also track the radius of any given light source when describing individually what each character sees on their turn.

Works for me!

 

[Oofta]

As someone who grew up in the boondocks (far enough away from city lights that we could see the milky way clearly) and has camped/backpacked extensively, unless it is cloudy at night you are not blind. In fact, it needs to be really, really cloudy for there to be so little light you can't see. I could read large print when there was anything more than a sliver moon. In the scouts they used to lead us through the woods at night with no flashlights. Humans can actually see reasonably well, even with minimal light.

So I ignore the rules on humans being blind at night, it's simply wrong. Darn city-slickers.

 

[iserith]

An upcoming challenge in my Planescape game involves the PCs making their way across a near-demolished area of the Infinite Staircase, a series of multiple damaged stone platforms, doors to strange places, with wrecked stairs joining them. In one section, a very long platform is dotted with craters and holes. The craters still burn with a glabrezu's recent rampage, casting light like a torch, whereas the holes are dark and anyone or anything unfortunate enough to fall into them drops to a likely demise.

Perched atop a stairway some 140 feet above the platform (and about 140 feet away from where the PCs might enter) is a manic chaos sorceress. She stands in darkness on a landing, keeping watch for anything coming by with a light source or anyone entering the areas illuminated by the smoldering craters. Anyone she can see is subject to her potent magic, mostly fire-based, including fireballs.

The craters are placed such that they run the length of the platform, with 10 to 15 feet between the areas of light, leaving a path by which someone could cling to the shadows if they wanted to. However, within the darkened areas there may be holes and an almost certain demise for any who fall into them.

So do you try to stealth your way past the sorceress and risk falling? Or do you stick to the light and face her fiery wrath? And if you stick to the shadows, how do you communicate to allies without darkvision in order to guide them safely and still remain stealthy?

It'll be interesting to see what they do.

 

[Satyrn]

So I ignore the rules on humans being blind at night, it's simply wrong. Darn city-slickers.

Is that even a rule, though?

 

[Oofta]

Is that even a rule, though?

Under Vision and Light
Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon or a subterranean vault, or in an area of magical darkness.

 

[Hriston]

"A creature in a heavily obscured area effectively suffers from the blinded condition (see appendix A) when trying to see something in that area."

I think the word effectively leaves some room for the interpretation that while the darkness of most nights imposes the mechanical effects of the blinded condition on humans, they are not in fact blind. For example, I would assume peripheral vision to facilitate movement outdoors on most nights.

 

[Satyrn]

Under Vision and Light
Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights), within the confines of an unlit dungeon or a subterranean vault, or in an area of magical darkness.

Well then.

Next time someone here accuses me of thinking 5e is perfect, I can bring up this. This is silly.

. . . unless I interpret it as meaning there will be places in darkness outside at night (in the shadow of a wall, beneath a forest canopy) but not all the outdoors is in darkness. Yeah, that works for me. Okay. 5e is perfect again!

 

[DEFCON 1]

The rule is your basic simple interpretation that someone completely unfamiliar with the game can run as-is and not have it be that big an issue (because really, how often is a party going to be travelling without a light source anyway?) And for the rest of us... we can find the granularity we want and make our own rulings as the need arises. "Moon is full and you are in an open field? We'll call it Dim Light out to 60' as the moonlight will reflect off of moving individuals."

 

[Oofta]

Well then.

Next time someone here accuses me of thinking 5e is perfect, I can bring up this. This is silly.

. . . unless I interpret it as meaning there will be places in darkness outside at night (in the shadow of a wall, beneath a forest canopy) but not all the outdoors is in darkness. Yeah, that works for me. Okay. 5e is perfect again!

Don't let CapnZapp here you say that!

 

[5ekyu]

"A creature in a heavily obscured area effectively suffers from the blinded condition (see appendix A) when trying to see something in that area."

I think the word effectively leaves some room for the interpretation that while the darkness of most nights imposes the mechanical effects of the blinded condition on humans, they are not in fact blind. For example, I would assume peripheral vision to facilitate movement outdoors on most nights.

I am always amused at how far folks go to pretend work "within" a rule as opposed to just owning up and changing it when it fails.

You can certainly rule as gm that "effectively" means "but not for peripheral vision" " as far as the explicitly stated "see something in that area" but the dance to say it's cuz thats what what "effectively" is for is to me is always a nice chuckle.