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<blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 8580605" data-attributes="member: 6877472">I think, pun intended, that Darkvision has a perception problem.&nbsp; It's not Darkvision, for one.&nbsp; Darkvision would imply you can see in the dark.&nbsp; That's not what Darkvision does.&nbsp; It would be more accurately be called &quot;Dimvision&quot;, because it lets you see in Dim light.&nbsp; Then it goes on to allow you to treat darkness as dim light.This really is a penalty, and I'm not sure why so many people go &quot;yeah, but, it's too useful and people don't need light&quot; despite the very serious issues of running around dangerous areas squinting because you can't see good.&nbsp; It doesn't need to be nerfed or changed or anything.&nbsp; Disadvantage is a huge penalty for a game with bounded accuracy.&nbsp; Lowering passive Perception by 5 is a huge penalty.&nbsp; You don't need to do anything more- you need to make Perception matter more while traveling.Now, to address player pushback on this- probably, when they pick a race and it says it has the special ability of &quot;Darkvision&quot;, they fail to realize what that means, and assume it does what it says it does.&nbsp; Then are annoyed when their &quot;special thing&quot; doesn't work as they thought it did.&nbsp; It's like the guy who tried to sue Hawaiian bread because it wasn't made in Hawaii, or the other guy who tried to sue Pop Tarts because Strawberry Pop Tarts don't contain much, if any, real strawberries.&nbsp; They fell for the advertising and didn't read the ingredients.You need to explain to them the reason WotC throws Darkvision around on so many races- it's a &quot;ribbon&quot; ability.&nbsp; It's not the big cool reason to play race X or Y.&nbsp; Darkvision is not the answer to lighting problems.&nbsp; Light is the answer to lighting problems.But DM's need to make sure this goes both ways- if you have some Bugbears creeping up on the party, they need to miss things too for not using light.&nbsp; I have seen DM's pretend that monsters have &quot;super darkvision&quot;, and it's annoying.Now is lighting annoying?&nbsp; Hell yes it is.&nbsp; Does keeping track of who can see what become irksome for DM's and players alike?&nbsp; Absolutely it does.&nbsp; If you want to throw lighting rules out the window, it will probably make your game better.But Darkvision as written is not, nor ever has been, some godlike ability in 5e.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="James Gasik, post: 8580605, member: 6877472"] I think, pun intended, that Darkvision has a perception problem. It's not Darkvision, for one. Darkvision would imply you can see in the dark. That's not what Darkvision does. It would be more accurately be called "Dimvision", because it lets you see in Dim light. Then it goes on to allow you to treat darkness as dim light. This really is a penalty, and I'm not sure why so many people go "yeah, but, it's too useful and people don't need light" despite the very serious issues of running around dangerous areas squinting because you can't see good. It doesn't need to be nerfed or changed or anything. Disadvantage is a huge penalty for a game with bounded accuracy. Lowering passive Perception by 5 is a huge penalty. You don't need to do anything more- you need to make Perception matter more while traveling. Now, to address player pushback on this- probably, when they pick a race and it says it has the special ability of "Darkvision", they fail to realize what that means, and assume it does what it says it does. Then are annoyed when their "special thing" doesn't work as they thought it did. It's like the guy who tried to sue Hawaiian bread because it wasn't made in Hawaii, or the other guy who tried to sue Pop Tarts because Strawberry Pop Tarts don't contain much, if any, real strawberries. They fell for the advertising and didn't read the ingredients. You need to explain to them the reason WotC throws Darkvision around on so many races- it's a "ribbon" ability. It's not the big cool reason to play race X or Y. Darkvision is not the answer to lighting problems. Light is the answer to lighting problems. But DM's need to make sure this goes both ways- if you have some Bugbears creeping up on the party, they need to miss things too for not using light. I have seen DM's pretend that monsters have "super darkvision", and it's annoying. Now is lighting annoying? Hell yes it is. Does keeping track of who can see what become irksome for DM's and players alike? Absolutely it does. If you want to throw lighting rules out the window, it will probably make your game better. But Darkvision as written is not, nor ever has been, some godlike ability in 5e. [/QUOTE]

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