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

[Davies]

I favor giving it to Orcs as their THING.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Why does everyone think tieflings need it? They’ve never been associated with the underground.

 

[Davies]

Why does everyone think tieflings need it? They’ve never been associated with the underground.

Outsiders (fiends, celestials, etc.) were universally given darkvision in 3e. This included aasimar and tieflings.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Outsiders (fiends, celestials, etc.) were universally given darkvision in 3e. This included aasimar and tieflings.

Tieflings aren’t outsiders. Anyway, I’m asking thematically.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Regardless I’d rather give cats darkvision than any phb race

 

[Hriston]

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.

Dragons are also known to lair in caves. Are dragonborn similarly depicted as subterranean dwellers?

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.

Yeah, I'd never heard of them and don't know what reason they might have had to not use aasimar for upper-plane touched people.

 

[Hriston]

Why does everyone think tieflings need it? They’ve never been associated with the underground.

For me, it's their association with the lower planes which, again for me, tend to have an "underground" character as well as being influenced by the negative energy plane, which I also think of as dark.

 

[Charlaquin]

Dragons are also known to lair in caves.

Umm… Dragons of different colors have different lairing behaviors…

Are dragonborn similarly depicted as subterranean dwellers?

Don’t matter, they’re reptilian.

Yeah, I'd never heard of them and don't know what reason they might have had to not use aasimar for upper-plane touched people.

You’d never heard of them because they didn’t exist until now.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

For me, it's their association with the lower planes which, again for me, tend to have an "underground" character as well as being influenced by the negative energy plane, which I also think of as dark.

When I think of Hell, I tend to think fire personally. I feel the need for tieflings to see in the dark is weak. Even weaker for Aasimar. Aasimar should be so luminous that they literally get rid of darkness merely by their presence.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Outsiders (fiends, celestials, etc.) were universally given darkvision in 3e. This included aasimar and tieflings.

Twenty years later, is that a compelling reason, though? 3E, as much as I loved it, has a lot of stuff in it that we've moved away from, flying off on our ghost half-dragon infernal dire eagle mounts.