Taking advantage of darkvision

[Woas]

Remember gang, magical darkness also will hinder dark vision. So I think attacking at night, with natural darkness (and forests are real dark at night) would give them a huge advantage.

I'd have the drow sneak just to the edge of their dark vision distance towards the characters and climb some trees to fire arrows down from. The orcs dress as animals or something and get as close to the characters can and then bum-rush the characters and extinguish any mundane light sources they have, then go to town. If a spell casters makes magical light, try to nullify that too.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Of course if you are using MIC, and the PCs have Rings of the Darkhidden, then darkvision doesn't mean squat.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Remember gang, magical darkness also will hinder dark vision. So I think attacking at night, with natural darkness (and forests are real dark at night) would give them a huge advantage.

I'd have the drow sneak just to the edge of their dark vision distance towards the characters and climb some trees to fire arrows down from. The orcs dress as animals or something and get as close to the characters can and then bum-rush the characters and extinguish any mundane light sources they have, then go to town. If a spell casters makes magical light, try to nullify that too.

yes, the orcs would try to attack at night - but, if the PCs make their listen/spot checks, they'll be able to whip out that 0 level "light" spell pretty quickly. the 2nd level darkness spell will counteract that...

 

[Rechan]

1) Pyrotechnics. This spell will extinguish a campfire in a blast of sparks (ow!) or smoke, the latter of which would probably make the party members scatter.

2) Any person with the "Light" spell on their spell-list can counter-spell. Just have an orc shaman or a drow apprentice watching the mages, and then cast "Light" to counter-spell the wizard or cleric's light.

3) Ranged attackers are best put in a tree. Hard to get up in their face.

 

[xnosipjpqmhd]

Here's a past thread on a similar topic (not darkvision-specific, though).

 

[NewJeffCT]

1) Pyrotechnics. This spell will extinguish a campfire in a blast of sparks (ow!) or smoke, the latter of which would probably make the party members scatter.

2) Any person with the "Light" spell on their spell-list can counter-spell. Just have an orc shaman or a drow apprentice watching the mages, and then cast "Light" to counter-spell the wizard or cleric's light.

3) Ranged attackers are best put in a tree. Hard to get up in their face.

Thanks - I can see pyrotechnics causing panic among the party...

 

[JiffyPopTart]

Cloudy or Moonless Night: Check
Enemy Spellcaster casts "Create Water" on PCs campfire: Check
Enemy or two specifially set up to prevent spellcasting with range fire: Check

DS

 

[jmucchiello]

2) Any person with the "Light" spell on their spell-list can counter-spell. Just have an orc shaman or a drow apprentice watching the mages, and then cast "Light" to counter-spell the wizard or cleric's light.

What's the range on counterspell? I have no idea. If it's the spell's range this tactic isn't practical since light's range is touch.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Cloudy or Moonless Night: Check
Enemy Spellcaster casts "Create Water" on PCs campfire: Check
Enemy or two specifially set up to prevent spellcasting with range fire: Check

DS

Good one, since Create Water is 25 ft, plus 5 ft/2 levels in range... so, a 5th level cleric can cast it from 40 feet away.

 

[cougent]

(and forests are real dark at night)

If thick enough they are pretty dark in full daylight as well. If it is a cloudy day it can be almost totally dark under a tree canopy. Certainly enough that normal daylight vision could be reduced to 45 feet or even less due to reduced natural light.

Your Orc and Drow parties, while not wearing forest camo, probably are wearing natural clothing that would tend to blend in with the forest surroundings possibly offering the visual effects of partial concealment.

One or two very concealed archers (snipers) in tree tops could be devastating until they are detected and located. Even then they would be hard to reach but would be subject to party ranged attacks. However if the party is then involved with trying to evade or close on ground troops, they will probably not even have time to locate the tree archers.

While these may not be true answers to your darkvision question, they are "observation / detection" issues which is similar to your darkvision approach, offered for your consideration.