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Is 5e Darkvision A Good Design?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheCosmicKid" data-source="post: 8001051" data-attributes="member: 6683613"><p>Even when they do run it that way (I do), disadvantage on Perception checks isn't enough of a penalty to offset the advantage of being able to function in complete darkness. That's just too valuable a capability. And it makes humans, halflings, and dragonborn a huge liability for the party in darkness: either they light a torch and blow stealth for the whole team, or they try to wander through blind.</p><p></p><p>I would much prefer for every PC race to have the same problem with total darkness and thus be on the same footing for the "Should we light a torch?" question. 3E-style low-light vision, which treats dim light as bright light and doubles the effective range of point light sources but is still blind in the dark, would have been a much more party-friendly way to model the eyes of elves and dwarves and the like. Maybe especially "dark-friendly" races like tieflings get a version of devil's sight on top of low-light vision: they can ignore magical darkness, <em>but still need light to do it</em>.</p><p></p><p>Once you get into class features and magical effects, I'm more okay with actual darkvision and devil's sight. Those are perks you earn. But the baseline assumption should be that everybody needs a torch or suffers the consequences for not having one together.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheCosmicKid, post: 8001051, member: 6683613"] Even when they do run it that way (I do), disadvantage on Perception checks isn't enough of a penalty to offset the advantage of being able to function in complete darkness. That's just too valuable a capability. And it makes humans, halflings, and dragonborn a huge liability for the party in darkness: either they light a torch and blow stealth for the whole team, or they try to wander through blind. I would much prefer for every PC race to have the same problem with total darkness and thus be on the same footing for the "Should we light a torch?" question. 3E-style low-light vision, which treats dim light as bright light and doubles the effective range of point light sources but is still blind in the dark, would have been a much more party-friendly way to model the eyes of elves and dwarves and the like. Maybe especially "dark-friendly" races like tieflings get a version of devil's sight on top of low-light vision: they can ignore magical darkness, [I]but still need light to do it[/I]. Once you get into class features and magical effects, I'm more okay with actual darkvision and devil's sight. Those are perks you earn. But the baseline assumption should be that everybody needs a torch or suffers the consequences for not having one together. [/QUOTE]
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Is 5e Darkvision A Good Design?
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