Value of low-light vision?

[bert1000]

I was looking through the vision and light section of the PHB, and the way portable light sources are depicted seems to limit the usefulness of low-light vision. Am I missing something?

Low light vision is good for things like:
- moonlight/dusk (most useful)
- low level glowing fungi and such
- indirect light in darkness (shafts)
- candlelight

But torches, lanterns, etc. all project bright light. As an example, the KoTS dungeons seem to be either lit by torches or dark. No advantage to the low-light races.

 

[JohnSnow]

Well, since I don't buy the notion of bright light hitting a wall of darkness, I've decided to extend the radius of any thing that throws "bright light" to that distance again with dim light.

Yes, that means a sunrod would throw bright light to a radius of 20 squares and dim light from there to 40 squares.

Personally, I like torches better than sunrods, and this makes them more useful to players.

I guess it's a houserule, but it's a super-minor one. And for me, it's easy.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

You could even make a ruling similar to how 3.0 did it: low-light vision doubles the radius of bright light, or even 1.5 times.

I like JohnSnow's idea better though - bright to X squares, dim to 2X squares.

 

[bert1000]

Yeah, looks like house rule time then. I'd prob rule that a typical room lit by torches or lanterns is usually dim light too, given that

- torches and oil lanterns flicker a lot
- chances are the typical room (particularly if currently unoccupied) has the light sources spaced out to save on cost

 

[Fkewl]

I would rather go with

sunrod
brightlight for 20squares, then 10squares of dim-light
(effect of light getting dimmer the farther away, it also increases the effective range of sunrods to 30 squares, going to 60 squares is alot imho)

In especially dark areas, i'd go 10squares bright-light and 10squares dim-light.

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

I think it's a good house rule, but under different light rules. The light sources are set for specific reasons, and if anything they have already taken into account that the light fades. There's no fading light rule though because they went for simplifying things. But if they were going to have it, then the light sources should be drawn in to half their distance for bright light, and double that ( up to what is listed as normal distance) for dim light.

None of the light sources are meant to be lighting up twice the distance they do, and effectively that is what they would be doing for low light races. That's why if you were to implement the house rule I think the normal light sources should be reduced.

Also it makes low light vision a MUCH larger boon then it is intended for race balance purposes.

 

[KarinsDad]

I think it's a good house rule, but under different light rules. The light sources are set for specific reasons, and if anything they have already taken into account that the light fades. There's no fading light rule though because they went for simplifying things. But if they were going to have it, then the light sources should be drawn in to half their distance for bright light, and double that ( up to what is listed as normal distance) for dim light.

None of the light sources are meant to be lighting up twice the distance they do, and effectively that is what they would be doing for low light races. That's why if you were to implement the house rule I think the normal light sources should be reduced.

Also it makes low light vision a MUCH larger boon then it is intended for race balance purposes.

Does it?

Your "half distance" revised rule goes against the "bigger dungeons" concept of 4E. What good is having bigger dungeons with several nearby encounters if there has to be 500 torches lit at all times in each, just so that most monsters can see too?

Remember, torches tend to be on walls where they only illuminate half of the area anyway. It's more rare to have a torch hanging from the middle of a room.

PS. Our second KotS game (first time in a dark cave), we encountered this same problem and used the same house rule that JS did. NPCs still fired at the PCs from out of the dark.

 

[lukelightning]

This is why kobolds always have candles... dim light they can see in. Let's go and take all their candles!

(or do they have darkvision? I forget....)

 

[hamishspence]

rare but should exist

Tall candlesticks I remember in Diablo 1. I do think that they are appropiate to some areas (not all)

Candles on walls are good for narrow passages.

 

[Lord Sessadore]

There's kobolds with candles on their foreheads in WoW too