Ridding Elves and Half-Elves of Darkvision

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

Yeah, if 5E didn't over simplify it to nothing but Darkvision, I could see ruling Elves with "low-light" and the underground races with Darkvision or something.

But, while simplifying things to an extend is good, I think they went overboard in 5E and oversimplified too many things IMO. I'll be giving it more thought, but regardless some races will be losing Darkvision in my games.

 

[Yaarel]

It seems possible to make ‘darkvision’ and ‘dimvision’ identical statistically, except that the dimvision requires at least some lightsource, no matter how small − even a single star would suffice.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

I went through my MM and found it interesting that out of the four fey I found (Dryad, Pixie, Satyr, Sprite), only the Dryad has Darkvision. So arguing that Elves have it because of their Fey connection isn't well supported. Since they do operate under twilight and moonlight conditions culturally, it makes sense for them to have something in game mechanics to compensate (i.e. Darkvision).

However, like a lot of you have mentioned house-ruling a return of Low-light Vision, I will probably give Elves and Forest Gnomes "Moonsight" (aka kind of like Low-light but it sounds more fantasy-ish). With Moonsight, the character can see in Dim light as if it were Bright light up. Moonsight does see in color, albeit slightly muted with a silvery edge, and it has normal range (normal vision distances). Elves and Forest Gnomes in Darkness cannot see and suffer from the condition as normal. Moonsight will not operate in magical Darkness.

Half-Elves do NOT have Darkvision or Moonsight. (Hey, they get enough IMO.)
Drow will retain Darkvision and as well as other Gnomes. Darkvision is mechanically RAW, but shows color that is tinged by heat (infrared) instead of just shades of gray.

In summary:

Dwarf: Darkvision
Halfling: Normal
Elf: Moonsight (Drow: Darkvision)
Human: Normal
Dragonborn: Darkvision
Half-Elf: Normal
Half-Orc: Darkvision
Gnome: Darkvision (Forest: Moonsight)
Tiefling: Darkvision

Pixie, Satyr, and Sprite have Moonsight as well.

 

[FrogReaver]

For playability, I think it should all be low light vision.

The only race I want to see with actual darkvision is drow.

 

[Prakriti]

In 1E, a character's eyes needed to adjust to the darkness before benefiting from Darkvision. So if your party was carrying around a torch or a lantern, then you didn't benefit from Darkvision. You just saw by the light of the torch, and if there were monsters skulking around just outside the torch-light, well too bad: you couldn't see them.

The current iteration of Darkvision is more like a super-power in that it's always on and it overlaps with all light-sources, so if you're carrying around a torch, you can see 40' from the light, plus another 20' from Darkvision. To me, that's just stupid, and I hate it, because that's not how eyesight works.

 

[WhosDaDungeonMaster]

I was already debating about making it a Move or regular Action to adjust vision-type. For the benefit of having Darkvision, it is a reasonable trade-off IMO.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well, it’s probably not intended to work that way. Logically speaking though, if you see in dim light as if it were bright light, and you see in darkness as if it were dim light (which you see in as if it were bright light), then what you’re left with is seeing in all conditions as if it were bright light.

I’m not sure why it would work that way, ever, tbh. Dim Light and Darkness are objective environmental conditions that exist outside of the perception of a given creature. When you are in darkness, it is darkness regardless of how you “treat it”, so you always treat it as Dim Light.

When you are in actual, objective, Dim Light, you treat it as bright light.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I was already debating about making it a Move or regular Action to adjust vision-type. For the benefit of having Darkvision, it is a reasonable trade-off IMO.

That seems much too restrictive, IMO. What purpose does it serve?

 

[Charlaquin]

I’m not sure why it would work that way, ever, tbh. Dim Light and Darkness are objective environmental conditions that exist outside of the perception of a given creature. When you are in darkness, it is darkness regardless of how you “treat it”, so you always treat it as Dim Light.

Which you treat as Bright Light.

The way these two abilities interact does not leave any room for a treatment of light within its radius as anything but bright.

 

[delericho]

Personally, I would give Dwarves, Half-orcs, and Tieflings low-light vision, give Elves advantage on Perception checks, and eliminate darkvision entirely.

But that's just me.