Taken as a whole, how valuable is Darkvision?
Now of course the immediate response is, "it depends", but that answer is boring, I'd rather go with more general impressions and also splitting hair impressions.
Having played D&D for around 30 years I've seen Darkvision be absolutely crucial at times. Without someone being able to see in absolute darkness the party would be screwed. The character that could see was able to to keep fighting effectively, or lead the rest of the groping characters out of the dungeon, or finding the character that was bleeding out and bind their wounds, etc.
Still, the overall impression I've got is that it's really important that someone in the party have it as a backup, but that in general the darkvision doesn't get used exclusively that often. Parties normally have someone who needs a light source and so when you go down in the dungeon you carry your torches, ever burning torches, or light spells aplenty to make sure that there is some illumination.
In these instances the darkvision tends to only get used in that those with darkvision get a spot check before imitative as they have a chance to see the monster farther down the corridor than the rest of the party. Most of the time it is the more elegant low-light vision in that you don't have to calculate out squares, shadowiness, etc.
Of course when a character is away from the party, such as a rouge taking point, then darkvision becomes very useful, but it is an isolated instance in which the character is well built for their particular role.
My overall impression is that unless the DM is blood thirsty, or just wants to give a twist to an encounter by creating situations where the lights go out, that Darkvision doesn't get used too often, that it's application on the meta-level of play is a bit diminished by the fact that the party generally needs light to function on a regular basis.
Like I said, there are a million instances in which darkvision was crucial for the party as a whole, but if you would somehow be able to collect the data of all the games of D&D ever played, I'd be surprised to hear it being used in a crucial way nearly as often as it just sitting in the party's back pocket waiting to be used either as a utility or emergency safety tool.
How do other feel?
Now of course the immediate response is, "it depends", but that answer is boring, I'd rather go with more general impressions and also splitting hair impressions.
Having played D&D for around 30 years I've seen Darkvision be absolutely crucial at times. Without someone being able to see in absolute darkness the party would be screwed. The character that could see was able to to keep fighting effectively, or lead the rest of the groping characters out of the dungeon, or finding the character that was bleeding out and bind their wounds, etc.
Still, the overall impression I've got is that it's really important that someone in the party have it as a backup, but that in general the darkvision doesn't get used exclusively that often. Parties normally have someone who needs a light source and so when you go down in the dungeon you carry your torches, ever burning torches, or light spells aplenty to make sure that there is some illumination.
In these instances the darkvision tends to only get used in that those with darkvision get a spot check before imitative as they have a chance to see the monster farther down the corridor than the rest of the party. Most of the time it is the more elegant low-light vision in that you don't have to calculate out squares, shadowiness, etc.
Of course when a character is away from the party, such as a rouge taking point, then darkvision becomes very useful, but it is an isolated instance in which the character is well built for their particular role.
My overall impression is that unless the DM is blood thirsty, or just wants to give a twist to an encounter by creating situations where the lights go out, that Darkvision doesn't get used too often, that it's application on the meta-level of play is a bit diminished by the fact that the party generally needs light to function on a regular basis.
Like I said, there are a million instances in which darkvision was crucial for the party as a whole, but if you would somehow be able to collect the data of all the games of D&D ever played, I'd be surprised to hear it being used in a crucial way nearly as often as it just sitting in the party's back pocket waiting to be used either as a utility or emergency safety tool.
How do other feel?
