Infravision

[Almacov]

Whatever happened to infravision? I felt it added tremendous flavour to the demihumans in first edition D&D, and now I look at third edition, and it has all been torn up and replaced with "low light vision" which basically says that elves and whatnot simply have more sensitive vision than humans. I just wonder where along dnd's evolution infravision was lost. Having never played second edition, or even ADND for that matter, I can't track down when this change occured.

 

[Kugar]

It was hard to judge, and a smart party can use infravision too well.
Secret Door? I should see a variation in heat where it opens.
Tracking? I should still see faint fotprints.
etc.

 

[Almacov]

I know, but i was at least hoping for a subrace with infravision. With the coming of LA mechanics in third edition, it wouldn't have been hard. I just feel they sacrificed alot of flavour for balance.

 

[the Jester]

I always really liked both infravision and ultravision, and kept ultravision after 2e officially got rid of it and before they brought in back.

 

[Umbran]

Infravision, as defined in the game, was too much of a pain in the neck to ajudicate properly. It may have had flavor, but it was horribly ill-defined.

 

[Tsyr]

Pain in the neck for some, maybe. We (the people I know and game with) never had problems with it, and still continue to use it.

I wish the DMG had at least mentioned it as an option, but... noooooooo...

 

[WayneLigon]

It was too 'scientific' sounding, which led to a lot of house rules and twinky nonsense like 'Oh, you're near a torch; you're blinded for five rounds' or 'Hey, I'll try to tell if he's lying by reading his body temperature' or 'I'll flawlesly track him by looking at the ground and following the hot spots' etc, etc, ad nauseum. Yeah, it's easy to just say 'It doesn't work like that' but really, it just sounded silly.

 

[HellHound]

As an answer to the original post, Infravision was only killed from the game with 3.0, it was there in AD&D and AD&D2e.

 

[tzor]

1E Infravision (passive/active) / Ultravision
2E Infravision (passive/active) only
3E Darkvision / Low-light Vision

It's really hard to say which was better. Infravision had its good points and its bad points. Many of the bad points were removed by 3E darkvision. They include the abilty of darkvision to work with normal vision (infravision required a few minutes to adjust and didn't work near a light source, even if that light source was a shorter distance than the infravision distance) and the ability to see non living things in the dark.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Bah, I think the change was a great one. First off the idea that cavern dwelling dwarves and tree-hugging elves would have a similar kind of vision was ridiculous. It makes sense that dwarves can see in total darkness, but why would forest elves evolve to have it? On the flip side an elf in moonlight can see nearly as clear as day, whereas dwarves are no better off than a human at much of a distance. Also, if dwarves had infravision, how would they see anything at all in a cavern where the temperature is isothermic? Dwarves would have died out ages ago falling into chasms they could not see because there was no heat source nearby, or at least they would travel in groups and wait to see if the lead dwarf fell, then see how far he falls...just keep walking Gimli...No, really you go first... And what about creatures that don't radiate heat? No, this new way makes a lot more sense to me.