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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Perun" data-source="post: 1723307" data-attributes="member: 6037">I'd say that the designers meant it to work just like the black-and-white film. The description of the darkvision is written very simply.This bit here is telling, I'd say. They're talking about limitations of darkvision. If darkvision wasn't meant to allow for reading, I'd say this is where they'd mention it, seeing how reading (texts, maps, glyphs, whatever) is rather important in adventuring. Not to mention you have a whole class that's generally useless if you don't allow for reading, at least once per day (wizard).Now that I mentioned it, I think wizards, and their spell-preparation method, provide an important clue. There are two darkvision-using races in the PH, dwarf and half-orc. Neither race is renwoned for its wizards, but still, if reading was impossible using only darkvision, I guess it'd have been mentioned in their racial descriptions, in Preparing Wizard Spells section of the Chapter 10: Magic (PH, p. 178), or in the darkvision description in the DMG. But it's not mentioned in any of those sources. OTOH, they did remember to mention that an elven wizard still requires for 8 hours of rest, even if he trances for only 4 hours.The Preparing Wizard Spells section says that the wizard preparing the spells needs "[...]sufficient light to read them [spellbooks] by". But, if one can read without light, then no light is sufficient for him.The final "clue" can be found in the description of Darkvision spell (PH, p. 216):Emphasis mine.It's another example of how sometimes you have to hunt for the rules (like the famous two-weapon fighting with crossbows). So, I'd say it perfectly sensible to assume that the official way darkvision wokrs is just like black-and-white films, in shades of grey, allowing for reading.Regards!</blockquote>

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