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<blockquote data-quote="Obryn" data-source="post: 5024498" data-attributes="member: 11821">Once again, you're looking for simulation of reality in a game which fundamentally ignores simulation of reality.&nbsp; I'm not unhappy with saying, &quot;This is what's required for you to play X monster race.&quot;&nbsp; If you are unhappy with this, it's just one of those places where your preferences and the game rules diverge.If you must have some kind of evolutionary reasoning, I think there are plenty of examples of divergent evolution wherein &quot;useful&quot; traits disappear.&nbsp; Just as cave fish lose their eyes over generations because it's a wasteful feature, surface- or shallow-cave-dwelling kobolds may lose their darkvision.&nbsp; If you need an evolutionary reason, they're not hard to invent.Outside of that, and we're in house-rule territory - which is still wide-open and vast.&nbsp; But without some kind of kludgy rule like a level adjustment, you simply won't see it published.Kobolds' &quot;power&quot; doesn't come from darkvision.&nbsp; It mainly comes from one of their racial features which makes them annoying and ... well, kobold-like ... to fight.&nbsp; It's a feature which most enemy kobolds should have, but it's not a genetic trait by any means.&nbsp; (If there's a PC kobold race, I'd expect it to have a cost of some sort, either feat or power-swap.)I know you haven't been keeping up to date, but there are tons of ways for PCs to gain darkvision, for short or long times.&nbsp; There are several races with it, there are quite a few magic items that provide it, there are more than a few Utility powers which grant it, and there's even a way to pick it up with a feat if you're using the Spellscarred rules from Forgotten Realms.&nbsp; I have no doubt that a PC kobold race would, right now, have Darkvision.The 4e designers started out very conservative.&nbsp; That changed pretty quickly, though.-O</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Obryn, post: 5024498, member: 11821"] Once again, you're looking for simulation of reality in a game which fundamentally ignores simulation of reality. I'm not unhappy with saying, "This is what's required for you to play X monster race." If you are unhappy with this, it's just one of those places where your preferences and the game rules diverge. If you must have some kind of evolutionary reasoning, I think there are plenty of examples of divergent evolution wherein "useful" traits disappear. Just as cave fish lose their eyes over generations because it's a wasteful feature, surface- or shallow-cave-dwelling kobolds may lose their darkvision. If you need an evolutionary reason, they're not hard to invent. Outside of that, and we're in house-rule territory - which is still wide-open and vast. But without some kind of kludgy rule like a level adjustment, you simply won't see it published. Kobolds' "power" doesn't come from darkvision. It mainly comes from one of their racial features which makes them annoying and ... well, kobold-like ... to fight. It's a feature which most enemy kobolds should have, but it's not a genetic trait by any means. (If there's a PC kobold race, I'd expect it to have a cost of some sort, either feat or power-swap.) I know you haven't been keeping up to date, but there are tons of ways for PCs to gain darkvision, for short or long times. There are several races with it, there are quite a few magic items that provide it, there are more than a few Utility powers which grant it, and there's even a way to pick it up with a feat if you're using the Spellscarred rules from Forgotten Realms. I have no doubt that a PC kobold race would, right now, have Darkvision. The 4e designers started out very conservative. That changed pretty quickly, though. -O [/QUOTE]

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