D&D (2024) What PHB races should have darkvision?

[Smackpixi]

I‘ll just go out on a limb and say Dwarf only, plus some but not all Elves. Dwarves All the time underground even if not Duregar. Elves are so diverse, so ok some, but not all unless, not fighting it, you just wanna rule elves magic eyesight.

All others I’d give darkvision to where background appropriate. I know people want Dragonborn to have cause Dragons do, but most Dragons shouldn’t really, other than that Dragons can do everything cause Magic Dragons all powerful.

 

[Lidgar]

I’d be in favor of limiting the range of darkvision for most races. Maybe give dwarf and orc 30’, and elves, gnomes, and tieflings 10’. Everyone else doesn’t have it.

 

[Smackpixi]

Also, I just wanna say that in my world, darkvision is useful but not essential. All intelligent monsters living underground have physically or magically illuminated their home places with low light. People always forget that darkvision just lets you see badly in darkness. That’s no way to live, constantly tripping over stuff in what’s essentially no better than moonlight. So they light up their areas or carry torches/magical illlumination for low light (bright light to them). Sure the places between civilized in the Underdark may be black, but even Duregar carry light when traversing them.

 

[Leatherhead]

What if attacking something in Dim Light was done at disadvantage, while attacking something in darkness had a bigger penalty (like say -2 as if they were in cover on top of the disadvantage) ?

Would that solve the "I want torches" problem?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

What if attacking something in Dim Light was done at disadvantage, while attacking something in darkness had a bigger penalty (like say -2 as if they were in cover on top of the disadvantage) ?

Would that solve the "I want torches" problem?

I use Dim Light and Darkness as ''concealment'' that works just like Cover. Dim light gives half-cover, Darkness gives 3/4 cover (not blindness).

It works well, IMO.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

As for the OP:

The only races with Darkvision are the ones who spend a great amount of time underground.

Its pretty simple: if you dont have Sunlight Sensitivity, you dont have Darkvision. Done.

Races known with supernatural eyesight gain other features instead.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As for the OP:

The only races with Darkvision are the ones who spend a great amount of time underground.

Its pretty simple: if you dont have Sunlight Sensitivity, you dont have Darkvision. Done.

Races known with supernatural eyesight gain other features instead.

I think requiring everyone who has darkvision to also have sunlight sensitivity would work, but it's clearly not the direction WotC is going, per Monsters of the Multiverse.

 

[CubicsRube]

I think no races should get darkvision.

A few should get other senses like dwarves getting permanent tremorsense, orcs getting enhanced smell (can smell living creatures), dragonborn having permanent detect magic.

It's too radical for most and will never happen, but that's the dream!

 

[Charlaquin]

Dragonborn haven’t always had dark vision. They don’t in 5E, for example.

Oh, right, sorry. I think the races that have historically had darkvision should continue to do so. I think dragonborn should gain Darkvision because dragons famously have it.

What did Ardlings ever do to you?

They’re just not very thematically cogent and feel like a poor choice for the PHB to me. If they wanted an upper-planes counterpart to Tieflings in the PHB I would rather they have gone with Asimar. If they wanted a generic anthropomorphic animal race in the PHB I would rather they not have tied them to the upper planes. Both are fine concepts but I don’t think they mesh well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think no races should get darkvision.

A few should get other senses like dwarves getting permanent tremorsense, orcs getting enhanced smell (can smell living creatures), dragonborn having permanent detect magic.

It's too radical for most and will never happen, but that's the dream!

That would make everyone use torches and lanterns (which I view as a good outcome) and also be wildly evocative. (What if dragonborn could also smell gold?)

But yeah, I think there's basically zero chance WotC would go for this.