D&D 5E Just About Sick Of Darkvision.

[TornadoCreator]

I'm just about sick of Darkvision. Why is it that every single bloody race seems to have Darkvision now? It makes theming downright impossible; and makes stupid things like a lamp, or the light spell completely useless.

Considering the Players Handbook, Players Companion, and Dungeon Masters Guide there are the following races with and without Darkvision, that are currently playable.

Races with Darkvision (9, 14 if counting subraces):
Dwarves (Both Hill & Mountain) Elves (All 3; High, Wood, and Drow), Gnomes (All 3; Forest, Rock & Deep), Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Tieflings, Genasi (Fire), Eladrin, Aasimar.

Races without Darkvision (6, 9 if counting subraces):
Halflings (Both Lightfoot & Stout), Humans, Dragonborn, Aarakocra, Genasi (Air, Water, Earth), Goliath.

Remember also that Drow and Deep Gnomes have SUPERIOR Darkvision! Which let's them see 120ft in darkness and discern colour in darkness. What the hell?!

Considering the races without darkvision are considerably rarer (except Humans), than the races with darkvision, this means darkvision is the NORM! How is that right? Magically being able to see with your eyes, light sensory organs, in the absence of light... is NORMAL!? Why? What makes Human and Halfling eyes so utterly ?

Now maybe you're thinking, "Yeah, but it's because the players want to play cool races... the cool races probably have darkvision, but it's likely not the norm for everything", which couldn't be more wrong. When it comes to monsters that get darkvision, well it's pretty much every major monster you're ever likely to use...

Is your campaign set in a forest area, traditional D&D fare... well don't bother hiding in the dark because the following traditional staples all have darkvision: Goblins, Orcs, Kobolds, Gnolls, Bugbears, Ogres, Trolls, Hobgoblins, Troglodytes, Ettin and Gargoyles... (and this is not an exhaustive list).

Is your campaign set in a swamp, jungle, at sea, or around water; a chance to use those amphibious or water based monsters. Well darkness again means nothing as the following again all have darkvision: Sahuagin, Yuan-Ti, Merrow, Kuo-Tao (Frogmen), Slaad... the only major staple I could find that doesn't are Lizardmen.

Aaah, but maybe you're going for a more magic heavy campaign, based around traveling the planes and facing magical beings. Again, darkness is incidental: Every single breed of Angel, Demon and Devil had darkvision (most have superior darkvision) or truesight; so hiding is pointless. OVER 30 different variants of being and the ALL have darkvision. Then there's Genies, all 4 variants have darkvision. Constructs? All Golems, and pretty much every construct has darkvision. So do all Elementals, and all Mephits; so pretty much every creature a Wizard might summon.

OK, but what about going into the feywild? Well, all Elves and Eladrin already have darkvision, but then there's Nymphs, Formorian, Umber Hulk and Oni who all have darkvision too... so yeah, everything there has darkvision as well it seems, except Pixies for some reason, they get screwed over...

Well, what about deep dungeons, or more obscure creatures. Well, Gryphons and Yetis both have darkvision! Why? Who the hell knows but they do. Myconids are mushroom people, really cool monsters, with darkvision. Rakshasa are tiger-people and they have darkvision. All the old "Greek Legend" monsters, such as the Medusa, Hags, Minotaur etc. all have darkvision. Hell, even the damn Stone Giant has darkvision.

Well, maybe you're playing a cleric or paladin centric campaign and face a lot of undead... Bad news, literally every single undead I could find in the entire ing monster manual has darkvision. I mean literally everything: Death Knight, Ghost, Ghast, Ghoul, Lich, Mummy, Revenant, Skeleton, Vampire, Wight, Wraith, even the damn Zombie... they ALL have Darkvision.

So then the question remains, what about all the creatures from the Underdark and similar areas (dependent on setting), your Beholders, Mind Flayers, Duergers, Drow, Quaggoths, Deep Gnomes and more... well, they all have SUPERIOR Darkvision! Because that makes sense.

Considering the Dragonborn, Aarakocra, Genasi, and Goliaths are described as being rare; and only one of them is actually in the players handbook anyway. What we've got is a situation where Humans and Halflings are effectively blind. You may as well be playing a blind character. Every other major playable race and practically every monster or antagonist race you face has darkvision. Oh, yes, and let's not forget Dragons; this is Dungeons & Dragons after all. Yes, every single type of dragon has darkvision; even the bloody Half-Dragon has darkvision.

The only major races I could find that didn't have darkvision other than the ones above, are Merfolk, Lizardmen, Lycanthrobes, Pixies and Gith. THAT'S IT! And Merfolk are one of the few races that it would make sense for them to have darkvision because it's very dark in deep water.

Now am I the only one who thinks this is just a little bit excessive? Surely others agree that giving practically every race on the planet darkvision is pretty dickish. It screws over anyone trying to stealth, it makes spells like darkness pointless because almost everything that isn't a human can see though it. It destroys the point in having candles, lanterns, the light spell, and so many more utilities. It makes me question why any civilisation would bother having light when everyone bar Humans and Halflings can see in the ing dark. Are underground Dwarven holds pitch black? Do Elven buildings lack windows and any form of artificial light, after all, why bother when you can see fine in utter darkness? This strikes me as just so utterly stupid.

So do others agree, and if so, would you house rule a change to this?

 

[GameOgre]

Yes, and No

Yes you are 100% Right that Darkvision totally negates so many things. Some of these things were HUGE in early editions of the game. to make matters worse they give it out to every stinking race that comes around the corner regardless.

Why do Elves even have it? It's not like they evolved by hanging out in dark places ect like Dwarves. They have it cause well, they are Elves dang it! The have Super Hearing to!

Here is the thing though.

A LOT of people don't like keeping track of all that. The Rules SUCK on it and are or have been rather complicated and unless you grew up playing by the old way......most people just don't care. They want to play a D&D action movie not How Many Torches does it take to detect traps in 400 feet of Hallways?

If it's messing with your fun,Fix it!

 

[Corpsetaker]

Can I just say that Darkvision does not negate hiding. If they can't beat your Stealth roll then they can't see you. It's not about just standing in darkness or a shadow, it's about staying out if sight by whatever means necessary.

 

[Gadget]

Agreed. One thing I really liked in 4e is how it cut back on the darkvision and just had a lot of low light vision races instead. I guess they were trying to simplify things, ditched low light vision, and realized that every monster and it's sister would need darkvision, and went from there.

 

[TornadoCreator]

Yes, and No

Yes you are 100% Right that Darkvision totally negates so many things. Some of these things were HUGE in early editions of the game. to make matters worse they give it out to every stinking race that comes around the corner regardless.

Why do Elves even have it? It's not like they evolved by hanging out in dark places ect like Dwarves. They have it cause well, they are Elves dang it! The have Super Hearing to!

Here is the thing though.

A LOT of people don't like keeping track of all that. The Rules SUCK on it and are or have been rather complicated and unless you grew up playing by the old way......most people just don't care. They want to play a D&D action movie not How Many Torches does it take to detect traps in 400 feet of Hallways?

If it's messing with your fun,Fix it!

Yeah, but that's because people aren't thinking. First of all, you shouldn't be using torches AT ALL in a dungeon. You're not outside so a medieval bitumen torch (hell even a modern paraffin recreation), would stink and create so much smoke you'd all choke to death. You should be using a lantern... which will burn for hours on a single oiled wick or candle.

Then there's magic. 'Light' is a cantrip, and 5e is falling over itself to give every single class access to arcane magic so it's not like we're short of ways to create light.

I agree, it can be a pain to keep track of all these things sometimes, but surely it's more of a pain to be playing a rogue and NEVER be able to hide because it doesn't matter how dark it is, they can just see you anyway; and casting Darkness doesn't make any difference so that cool racial bonus that Tieflings get is little more than a parlour trick... it's not Darkness it's "wash out colours" the spell.

I'd rather just hand-wave the idea that the party has unlimited candles than give everyone Darkvision, but also, by not giving Darkvision to Humans and Halflings chances are we'll have at least one party member bumbling around in the dark, so we're not actually solving anything. There's still the need for torches that there was before.

 

[The Human Target]

Yes, and No

Yes you are 100% Right that Darkvision totally negates so many things. Some of these things were HUGE in early editions of the game. to make matters worse they give it out to every stinking race that comes around the corner regardless.

Why do Elves even have it? It's not like they evolved by hanging out in dark places ect like Dwarves. They have it cause well, they are Elves dang it! The have Super Hearing to!

Here is the thing though.

A LOT of people don't like keeping track of all that. The Rules SUCK on it and are or have been rather complicated and unless you grew up playing by the old way......most people just don't care. They want to play a D&D action movie not How Many Torches does it take to detect traps in 400 feet of Hallways?

If it's messing with your fun,Fix it!

I agree with this, but I'd rather dark vision get toned way down in frequency (4e style) and just let people who don't want to mess with lighting details (me a lot of the time) just ignore it.

Having tons of dark vision races but still requiring light sources for some races to function is the worst of both worlds.

 

[steeldragons]

Does darkvision pierce magical darkness in 5e? It never did before that I know of...or had noticed it would in 5e either. Do I have this wrong?

EDIT TO ADD: You asked for houserules.

In my homebrew, I use Twilight Vision [what was called in the past, I believe, just "Low Light Vision"]. Basically, take away the Darkness component. Simple. Say Dim light is seen as bright light, with color and everything. Darkness is still darkness.

Let dwarves have it, I guess, if you think it makes sense. I, personally, don't and prefer the image of great dwarven halls lit with huge elaborate rock-hewn sconces and fire pits. So all PC races I allow [drow and other underdark races are not permitted for PCs in my games] have Twilight Vision, not Darkvision.

I see no reason to change it when Iget a 5e game going.

Leave the Darkvision for Drow and Deep Gnomes [or other underdark or deep sea races] only.

 

[lkj]

Does darkvision pierce magical darkness in 5e? It never did before that I know of...or had noticed it would in 5e either. Do I have this wrong?

It does not pierce magical darkness.

AD

 

[Gadget]

Darkvision does not allow one to see through magical darkness, IIRC. There's just that one warlock invocation (Devil's sight?) that allows this. So Magical darkness is still useful.

 

[DaveDash]

We use Roll20 and dynamic lighting, and dark vision adds A LOT. One player who is a Drow can literally see twice as far as the other players, and conveys to them what is going on using Rarys Telepathic Bond. It adds another dimension to the game.

It also makes it very powerful. Races that do not have it are really disadvantaged the moment you step into a dungeon, especially given how surprise works now.

I agree though that when I first read the PHB I didn't like the races that had it, and didn't have it. Elves shouldn't have it IMO.