D&D 5E Replacing Darkvision with other special senses

[Charlaquin]

In one of the threads about racial ASIs, the suggestion of beefing up other race features to compensate for their removal came up, and one of the suggestions was giving dwarves tremorsense. And I absolutely loved the idea.

Now, I don’t want this to be another thread about racial ASIs, so forget that element of the suggestion. What I want to focus on is the concept of replacing some or all races’ darkvision with other forms of special senses. Here are some possibilities I have been considering:

Dwarves - 60 ft. Tremorsense
Elves - “Low-light vision” a-la the Skulker Feat (dim light doesn’t impose disadvantage on your Wisdom checks that rely on sight), or Keen Sight a-la some monster stat blocks (advantage on Wisdom checks relying on sight, which would cancel out with the disadvantage from dim light). The latter would replace the Perception proficiency as well as Darkvision.
Dragonborn - 30 ft. Blindsight, 60 ft. Darkvision (I know they don’t usually have darkvision to begin with, but I feel they could use a boost anyway, and this would put their sensory perception in line with that of dragons, but at half the range)
Gnomes - 60 ft. Tremorsense, or 30 ft. Tremorsense and “low-light vision”
Half-elves - “Low-light vision”
Half-Orcs - maybe 30 ft. Darkvision and Keen Smell (advantage on Wisdom checks relying on smell) to tie in with their classic porcine association?
Tieflings - 60 ft. Devil’s Sight, a-la the Warlock Invocation (normal vision in darkness within range, including magical darkness, but no change to perception in dim light)
Drow, Duergar, and Svirfneblin - 60 ft. Darkvision and Sunlight Sensitivity on top of the special senses for their base race

Any thoughts on introducing such a change? Alternative suggestions? Complaints about balance issues?

 

[Xeviat]

I haven't really looked it over for balance, but I like the idea and differentiation.

One thing I'd like to see is making their senses different from humans, and not just better. Mutants and Masterminds has some sense tags that make this possible. Senses can be acute (can identify things with the sense), accurate (can target attacks), ranged, and radius, or some or none. For humans, you get this:

Sight: Ranged, Acute, Accurate
Hearing: Ranged, Acute, Radius
Smell: Ranged, Radius
Touch: none

What would be neat would be taking something away from some of the nonhumans, making humans senses stand out in certain ways against some creatures. Maybe dwarves have poor vision and their vision isn't accurate (poor depth perception or focal length); their tremor sense allows them to fight ground based opponents just fine, but they're at a loss against flying opponents so they prefer to fight on their turf and have truces with the Aarakocra because of that.

 

[Charlaquin]

One implication of these changes would be that stealth would be a much less effective tactic against dwarves, gnomes, and especially dragonborn. Even with invisibility, they would be able to detect would-be ambushers that come within 60 feet, which would make ranged attacks much more important for stealth-focused characters and monsters alike.

Also, I went with the 60 ft. base range for everything, but maybe I should halve the ranges balance out the fact that they’re potentially stronger than Darkvision?

 

[Charlaquin]

What would be neat would be taking something away from some of the nonhumans, making humans senses stand out in certain ways against some creatures. Maybe dwarves have poor vision and their vision isn't accurate (poor depth perception or focal length); their tremor sense allows them to fight ground based opponents just fine, but they're at a loss against flying opponents so they prefer to fight on their turf and have truces with the Aarakocra because of that.

I like this a lot in concept, but I worry that it would be difficult to sell players on the idea of such a trade-off if it was mechanically reinforced (e.g. giving dwarves disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures they can’t detect with their Tremorsense or something). As a bit of extra lore though, I think that would be awesome!

EDIT: Ooh, but what if Duergar were blind, but had Blindsight within their Tremorsense radius, which could be double that of other dwarves!

 

[Minigiant]

I am hoping for an official "Senses" option in a new book.

I would created Nightvision, and Lowlight Vision. And combine Superior Darkvision with Sunlight Sensitivity.

One for those with good sight. One for the nocturnal. One for the cave folk. One for those who nocturnal cavefolk.

Lowlight vision is "Dim light doesn't impose disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) bonuses made with sight."
Nightvision is "You see dim light as bright light.".

Thus...

Lowlight Vision - Half Elf, High Elf, Wood Elf, Forest Gnome, Rock Gnome
Nightvision- 60- Shifter
Darkvision 60' - Hill Dwarf, Mountain Dwarf, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Bugbear,
Deepvision 120' (Superior Darkvision 120" with Sunlight Sensitivity) -Drow, Kobold
Blindsense - Rogues
Tremorsense - None
Blindsight 10'- Dragonborn, Bugbear

Don't know where to put Half Orc, Orc,

 

[Charlaquin]

Lowlight vision is "Dim light doesn't impose disadvantage on Wisdom (Perception) bonuses made with sight."
Nightvision is "You see dim light as bright light.".

I don’t think there’s a functional difference between these.

Lowlight Vision - Half Elf, High Elf, Wood Elf, Forest Gnome, Rock Gnome
Nightvision- 60- Shifter
Darkvision 60' - Hill Dwarf, Mountain Dwarf, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Bugbear,
Deepvision 120' (Superior Darkvision 120" with Sunlight Sensitivity) -Drow, Kobold
Blindsense - Rogues
Tremorsense - None
Blindsight 10'- Dragonborn, Bugbear

Don't know where to put Half Orc, Orc,

Nice! I’d put orc in the Darkvision 60’ category and half-orc in the Nightvision category.

 

[Mortellan]

I love these suggestions. I did a blog post on this recently, here is my attempt: D&D: Alternate Vision Rules

 

[Charlaquin]

I love these suggestions. I did a blog post on this recently, here is my attempt: D&D: Alternate Vision Rules

Ooh! I really like the idea of elves not suffering range penalties! That gets across their superior vision and makes them naturally suited to archery in a way that feels biological and is useful to characters of all classes. Consider that idea stolen

 

[Minigiant]

I don’t think there’s a functional difference between these.

I

ese

you're right
I was trying to separate Elfsight and Night vision
What is the difference between elf vision and lion vision?

 

[Bacon Bits]

I have no interest in further differentiated senses. The last thing I want to do is spend even more time describing and relaying how the PCs perceive every new room or environment.

I'd be in favor of eliminating darkvision entirely, quite honestly.