Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
I hate darkvision in 5e. Many have already stated the issues with it, with which I agree. But I would restate the problem in terms of the history.
Originally, "darkvision" was a really special ability. In fact, there is still a debate about it w/r/t dwarf and elf PCs in OD&D.*
*It is really stupid and technical, and involves Chainmail, Supplement 1, and a level of rules parsing that I refuse to participate in!
But taking AD&D (1e) as a baseline, we get an expansion of races, with the twin (bad?) ideas that pretty much every demi-human (sorry, non-Stout halflings) gets infravision**, but the game itself remains stubbornly humanocentric. Which makes some sense (giving special abilities to the non-humans in exchange for level limits, etc.), but created this historical divide we see today.
**They also include ultravision, which is a cool concept, but don't bother making it available to any PC races, for reasons. Even though ultravision would make a lot more sense for forest-dwelling elves.
So the two big issues are that infravision was explained really poorly. If you read the 1e PHB and DMG, it is kinda sorta like infravision, but not really? It is in black and white, and detects heat, but can be active infravision, but ... so it's pretty difficult to run correctly. This issue is largely corrected by simplifying "infravision" to low-light darkvision.
The second issue is that not having dark vision becomes a significant disadvantage. Either you just kinda of "meh" it away (the never-ending torch/lantern) or you realize that it's a great default ability to have; so great, in fact, that they pretty much lard it on to all races so you don't have to keep up with the bookkeeping.***
*** That's why, when you look at those 5e "point buy" guides to making races, you don't have to spend anything for darkvision. It's just assumed.
....Except humans. Because we don't see in the dark.
Originally, "darkvision" was a really special ability. In fact, there is still a debate about it w/r/t dwarf and elf PCs in OD&D.*
*It is really stupid and technical, and involves Chainmail, Supplement 1, and a level of rules parsing that I refuse to participate in!
But taking AD&D (1e) as a baseline, we get an expansion of races, with the twin (bad?) ideas that pretty much every demi-human (sorry, non-Stout halflings) gets infravision**, but the game itself remains stubbornly humanocentric. Which makes some sense (giving special abilities to the non-humans in exchange for level limits, etc.), but created this historical divide we see today.
**They also include ultravision, which is a cool concept, but don't bother making it available to any PC races, for reasons. Even though ultravision would make a lot more sense for forest-dwelling elves.
So the two big issues are that infravision was explained really poorly. If you read the 1e PHB and DMG, it is kinda sorta like infravision, but not really? It is in black and white, and detects heat, but can be active infravision, but ... so it's pretty difficult to run correctly. This issue is largely corrected by simplifying "infravision" to low-light darkvision.
The second issue is that not having dark vision becomes a significant disadvantage. Either you just kinda of "meh" it away (the never-ending torch/lantern) or you realize that it's a great default ability to have; so great, in fact, that they pretty much lard it on to all races so you don't have to keep up with the bookkeeping.***
*** That's why, when you look at those 5e "point buy" guides to making races, you don't have to spend anything for darkvision. It's just assumed.
....Except humans. Because we don't see in the dark.