I find it really interesting to wonder what it is that creatures with Darkvision are actually seeing - like, do their eyes see frequencies we don’t? Like, is it infra-red or UV vision?
I love the simplicity of the rules compared to the spreadsheets of yore, but I kind of want to know a bit more of the biology of how Darkvision works! Is it that, say, gnomes can perceive the Weave enough to tell the shapes of things around them? Do Elves see colours we cannot? Does Dwarven darkvision come from their stone sense? I feel like it would add so much texture to the game to know this!
And I LOVE the idea above of substituting Darkvision 60’ to Blindsight (presumably 10’?) or Tremorsense for Dwarves. That would so change the tactics a group would need to use and give a real sense of the difference in biology between characters.
I find it really interesting to wonder what it is that creatures with Darkvision are actually seeing - like, do their eyes see frequencies we don’t? Like, is it infra-red or UV vision?
I love the simplicity of the rules compared to the spreadsheets of yore, but I kind of want to know a bit more of the biology of how Darkvision works! Is it that, say, gnomes can perceive the Weave enough to tell the shapes of things around them? Do Elves see colours we cannot? Does Dwarven darkvision come from their stone sense? I feel like it would add so much texture to the game to know this!
And I LOVE the idea above of substituting Darkvision 60’ to Blindsight (presumably 10’?) or Tremorsense for Dwarves. That would so change the tactics a group would need to use and give a real sense of the difference in biology between characters.
If I had to explain it, the creatures with DV probably have a higher density of rod cells on the retina. They are more sensitive to light and so allow us to see in dark conditions, but do not communicate the colour - you see in black and white, which is why colour becomes more muted in darkness. That would explain why when darkvision is at its limit, in darkness, the creature can only see in shades of grey (with certain flavouring exceptions).
Personally, I have two gripes with the lighting/darkvision mechanics.
1. It's too penalising. Darkness makes sense in an unlit cave or dungeon where there is no light, but on a moonlit night? I don't have the greatest of vision, but if someone was within 5ft of me, I could easily see them and not be affected much by the dark. It makes no sense to effectively have the blinded condition in that situation. Even without the Moon, I'd probably be fine. Obviously, at a distance or with cover, the situation is different, but a guy standing 5ft in front of me performing a haymaker attack with his sword? Please. It's too punishing.
2. The frequency of DV, which seems to do almost be done to counter that, makes the lack of it punishment rather than a reward if you do have it. Rime of the Ice Maiden on the surface seems to disqualify Humans and Dragonborn because it never gets brighter than dim. They'll always be at a disadvantage on perception checks.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Personally, I have two gripes with the lighting/darkvision mechanics.
1. It's too penalising. Darkness makes sense in an unlit cave or dungeon where there is no light, but on a moonlit night? I don't have the greatest of vision, but if someone was within 5ft of me, I could easily see them and not be affected much by the dark. It makes no sense to effectively have the blinded condition in that situation. Even without the Moon, I'd probably be fine. Obviously, at a distance or with cover, the situation is different, but a guy standing 5ft in front of me performing a haymaker attack with his sword? Please. It's too punishing.
I live somewhere with dark skies and only light pollution from the Northern Lights and I’d say that moonlight or starlight seem right for dim light, but full cloud cover is when you need a light source to function, and that’s as someone with decent night vision. But it really doesn’t take much IF you have a chance to adjust. But the game doesn’t seem to allow for adjustment time or how any light source messes with your ability to see properly on a dark night.
I'd agree with "dim", it is harder to notice things. It's easier to hide and not be noticed, so a disadvantage on a perception check is right. However, darkness is too far. You're not blind and fumbling around, unless you're in thick woodland or something.
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If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Are their too many races? No - while I don’t play most of them I’m fine with folks have lots of options. Are there too many races with darkvision? Not really - again, properly played it’s fine and the problems with some in party having it and others not is fine as well. Is darkvision as written good? NO! Let’s stop and think it thru - humans have normal color vision- we see several millions shades of color of light that leaves a source, bounces off objects in range and then hits our eye - note we are not the source of the light only the receiver. Night vision/Starlight scope/vision- distant/weak/faint light sources send out light that our eyes or the scope gather. In human night vision you have an extra large number of rods granting them increased vision in dim conditions. Starlight scopes have electronic photomultipliers to increase the the light intensity from what it receives to what it produces but it is generally black and white. In both cases the eye/scope is a receiver of light from an outside source. Infravision/thermal vision- the creature/device has receptors specially tuned to pick up thermal/heat/infrared radiation and convert it to an image - examples: some types of night vision goggles and the thermal pits of pit vipers. Again the eye is strictly a receiver. Ultravision: insect and some bird eyes are able to pick up some types of ultraviolet light but again the eye is strictly a receiver of light and if none is present then it is absolutely pitch black. This something you used to experience in photography when loading film into developing tanks. The loading room is truly dark - no matter how long you stay there you will never see anything, your eyes will never “adjust” because there is NO light present. The same is true if you are deep in a cavern - unless you have a light source you will never see anything because there is no light left to see by - it’s all been absorbed ( I can’t express just how happy I was to remember the little metal penlight I used to carry habitually when all 4 of my main lights died for one reason or another as I was exploring a lava tube in Hawaii alone (one of the dumber things I’ve done and survived) it was sturdy enough and the batteries lasted long enough to get me safely out.)
Darkvision: to be able to see in absolute darkness, even as if in dim light, your eyes MUST be producing their own light that then bounces off everything and back to the viewer. That means anyone else with darkvision should be able to see your eyes from a great distance much like sub captains looked for the glow of a crewman’s cigarette to locate ships on dark moonless/starless nights - the glow is visible as a point of light from over a mile away.
I can easily see permanent underground creatures and races developing echo location, heck there is even a blind guy in California that has learned to bike and avoid objects by echolocation. Developing a means of continuously generating even small amounts of light to use as a visual tool is much harder to see. I can see groups like elves, gnomes, etc having something like 3es infravision allowing them to see a twilight and at night on moonlight or even starlit nights as well as making out warm blooded races anytime. I can see groups like dwarves, Drow, having both a starlight/infravision and echolocation senses. I can even accept aberrations like I’ll it hides and especially beholders having a true darkvision with eye rays giving off energy that others aren’t perceiving as a means of seeing in the darkness. But darkvision as written makes no real sense to me - doesn’t mean I don’t use it and take full advantage of its rules as a player and DM but …..
Darkvision isn't balanced around reality, it's balanced around game mechanics.
60/120 makes sense, because when you look at most adventure modules that have dungeon crawls, caves, etc, most of them don't have areas or big stretches that are longer than 120 feet. Most of the time, less than 60. Yeah, there are exceptions, but it's done that way to also support grids. The chessex map most people is is 22 x 25 squares, which feet is 110 x 125 feet in game. 220 x 250 if you do each square as 10 feet. If its bigger than that from a table top perspective its hard to adjudicate.
The way it plays it makes sense. In dim light, sight based skills are at disadvantage. You can see, but you can't make out finer details. Makes total sense. Just because you could totally make a figure out and hit it with a sword doesn't mean you know what all of that figure is.
The issues we have with darkvision is just like this thread, everyone plays it differently and most don't play it RAW.
It's too penalising. Darkness makes sense in an unlit cave or dungeon where there is no light, but on a moonlit night? I don't have the greatest of vision, but if someone was within 5ft of me, I could easily see them and not be affected much by the dark. It makes no sense to effectively have the blinded condition in that situation. Even without the Moon, I'd probably be fine. Obviously, at a distance or with cover, the situation is different, but a guy standing 5ft in front of me performing a haymaker attack with his sword? Please. It's too punishing.
This is a DM problem. If its a full moon, outside should be considered dim light.
Dim light, also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area. An area of dim light is usually a boundary between a source of bright light, such as a torch, and surrounding Darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also counts as dim light. A particularly brilliant full moon might bathe the land in dim light.
The frequency of DV, which seems to do almost be done to counter that, makes the lack of it punishment rather than a reward if you do have it. Rime of the Ice Maiden on the surface seems to disqualify Humans and Dragonborn because it never gets brighter than dim. They'll always be at a disadvantage on perception checks
That's the thing though. Darkvision from a character playable race perspective ISNT that common, or at least it shouldn't be. The vast majority of all people in most realms are human, it's just humans are boring. No one wants to play a human. So they pick all of these fantastic races, and a great many of them have darkvision. My argument would be certain races just shouldn't have it. Elves/Half Elves(who aren't of the Drow/Dark persuasion) shouldn't have darkvision, they should have something called Superior Sight that allows them to make long ranged attacks without penalty in bright light or perception checks at distance without disadvantage. Dark Elves/Drow totally should keep it. I understand this is a hot take, and I'll be real, I'm not going to even humor a discussion on it Elves and Darkvision specifically, but I am using it to illustrate the point that I think there are too many races that have it.
Not a lot of modules in 5th really spend a lot of time speaking to how races react in the dark vs light either. There is some talk about surprise, but overall it doesn't do this. Since 5th really is a new bag for a LOT of people, it's something that shouldn't get glossed over. Combine it with mechanics that can be hard to adjudicate and it becomes an issue. It all starts with the DM though. If I'm throwing an enemy wizard/clerc at someone in a cave, they have the light cantrip. They just do. Even with darkvision, they have it. Make it a point to call that out too, that way players don't feel bummed out wasting a cantrip slot on utility, because now its not utility so much as its combat required. I played a human cleric in Rime, and just made sure to have light up all the time. I never felt like the game was out to get me, because my party took precautions around it.
Here is what I have printed and laminated for players:
Not sure if you meant before/after to mean with or without Darkvision, but a creature with normal vision see nothing in darkness while a creature with darkvision see everything as lightly obscured in shades of grey.
It's too penalising. Darkness makes sense in an unlit cave or dungeon where there is no light, but on a moonlit night? I don't have the greatest of vision, but if someone was within 5ft of me, I could easily see them and not be affected much by the dark. It makes no sense to effectively have the blinded condition in that situation. Even without the Moon, I'd probably be fine. Obviously, at a distance or with cover, the situation is different, but a guy standing 5ft in front of me performing a haymaker attack with his sword? Please. It's too punishing.
This is a DM problem. If its a full moon, outside should be considered dim light.
Dim light, also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area. An area of dim light is usually a boundary between a source of bright light, such as a torch, and surrounding Darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also counts as dim light. A particularly brilliant full moon might bathe the land in dim light.
"Particularly brilliant full moon might", pretty much all of those are key words. A full moon lasts one night a month, and only particularly bright ones count, so maybe 1% of nights count as a "dim".
"Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights)..."
So only special nights, which as your quote said is any full moon night (so around 1 in 28), and only particularly bright ones (I've estimated that to be at best 1 in 3 full moons, so 1 in 84 night, around 1%) at that are dim.
"A heavily obscured area—such as Darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the Blinded condition (see Conditions ) when trying to see something in that area."
On around 99% of nights, you have to guess where someone is that is a sword's swing away. If you look at SeattleGamer's second meme (for lack of a better word) two posts above this one, the bottom image is what the RAW claims most (even moonlit) nights should be like with the first being under DV. In my experience, the first should be what night is like and the second being perhaps too bright for DV. The vast majority of nights, DV is critical.
I'd be fine with ranged being penalised, but this is OTT. The vast majority of nights should, in terms of penalties, count as dim, with perhaps a disadvantage on the attack rolls on ranged Attacks added. Current Darkness rules should apply when looking at an additionally obscured area, such as foliage, heavily forested areas or long grass (which you should never go in! Brownie points if you get the reference). Most moonlit nights are quite different to an unlit cave or even a room. I'd propose a dim+ condition for most nights, with the addition of disadvantage on ranged attack rolls. It's much easier to sneak up on people and they find it harder to make accurate shots at you with ranged weapons, and vice versa if you don't have DV. I think that's fair and reasonable for night time.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Just showing how I let players understand how it works. Image is self explanatory. Feel free to use it for your players if there is any misunderstanding. Happy DM'ing
I think they're saying that either the "after" image should be full light and colour (if we're in dim light) or the "before" image should be pitch black (and, I guess, the "after" image be grey-scale).
The trick with Darkvision isn't so much what it does, as it is that there aren't any rules for how far away a light source can be seen from. It is a fact that in the total darkness you get out past the 50 mile limit from shore, the coal of a cigarette can be seen for miles. Ships at sea run without lights, and they have something called "light lockers" that work a bit like airlocks on space stations only they are meant to keep light from being seen from outside.
As near as I can figure, anything brighter than Dim Light can be seen from line of sight. Imagine trying to use Stealth if there was a light source behind you. The light would be seen from around the corner, and your shadow would project in front of you so your chance to surprise anything would be minimal. The entire party would need Darkvison or the game would be up. Those with superior darkvision really would rule the night. They could sneak up and watch you from beyond your field of vision for as long as they liked before attacking.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Devil's Sight. 120 feet in full color, bright as day in the pitch black of night, even through magical darkness. Combine that with superior darkvision, and you can see from twice as far as someone normally moves in combat as clear as day all the time no matter what.
Drow get +2 to Dexterity, +1 to Charisma, superior darkvision, and Drow Magic. A third level Drow Warlock with Agonizing Blast and Devil's Sight can start throwing Eldritch Blasts from twice as far as you can move during combat. Using one Dash action for a race with a 30 move speed only gets you half way. The few races or classes that get two Dash actions only cover 90 feet. To make it worse, the races that can dash twice tend to have a speed of 25. Two Dash actions for them is 75 feet.
The Drow Warlock can of course keep moving backwards, so they can kite people and keep blasting away for quite a while. Their Sunlight Sensitivity has no bearing at night or underground and that's part of why they rule much of the Underdark.
The few races that don't have Darkvision suffer a terrible penalty. The humble Torch lets those without Darkvision see clearly out to 20 feet, they have disadvantage on their vision for another 20 feet and are blind past that. The ones that have normal Darkvision see clearly to 60 feet. (I have a minor problem with how Darkvision cuts off like a razor at the specified range. I think it ought to have half again as much range where you see as if in dim light so you'd see clearly for 60 feet, have disadvantage on vision for another 30, and then be blind.)
Darkvision is okay as is but too many creatures possess it.
I find it really interesting to wonder what it is that creatures with Darkvision are actually seeing - like, do their eyes see frequencies we don’t? Like, is it infra-red or UV vision?
I love the simplicity of the rules compared to the spreadsheets of yore, but I kind of want to know a bit more of the biology of how Darkvision works! Is it that, say, gnomes can perceive the Weave enough to tell the shapes of things around them? Do Elves see colours we cannot? Does Dwarven darkvision come from their stone sense? I feel like it would add so much texture to the game to know this!
And I LOVE the idea above of substituting Darkvision 60’ to Blindsight (presumably 10’?) or Tremorsense for Dwarves. That would so change the tactics a group would need to use and give a real sense of the difference in biology between characters.
If I had to explain it, the creatures with DV probably have a higher density of rod cells on the retina. They are more sensitive to light and so allow us to see in dark conditions, but do not communicate the colour - you see in black and white, which is why colour becomes more muted in darkness. That would explain why when darkvision is at its limit, in darkness, the creature can only see in shades of grey (with certain flavouring exceptions).
Personally, I have two gripes with the lighting/darkvision mechanics.
1. It's too penalising. Darkness makes sense in an unlit cave or dungeon where there is no light, but on a moonlit night? I don't have the greatest of vision, but if someone was within 5ft of me, I could easily see them and not be affected much by the dark. It makes no sense to effectively have the blinded condition in that situation. Even without the Moon, I'd probably be fine. Obviously, at a distance or with cover, the situation is different, but a guy standing 5ft in front of me performing a haymaker attack with his sword? Please. It's too punishing.
2. The frequency of DV, which seems to do almost be done to counter that, makes the lack of it punishment rather than a reward if you do have it. Rime of the Ice Maiden on the surface seems to disqualify Humans and Dragonborn because it never gets brighter than dim. They'll always be at a disadvantage on perception checks.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
I live somewhere with dark skies and only light pollution from the Northern Lights and I’d say that moonlight or starlight seem right for dim light, but full cloud cover is when you need a light source to function, and that’s as someone with decent night vision. But it really doesn’t take much IF you have a chance to adjust. But the game doesn’t seem to allow for adjustment time or how any light source messes with your ability to see properly on a dark night.
I'd agree with "dim", it is harder to notice things. It's easier to hide and not be noticed, so a disadvantage on a perception check is right. However, darkness is too far. You're not blind and fumbling around, unless you're in thick woodland or something.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Are their too many races? No - while I don’t play most of them I’m fine with folks have lots of options.
Are there too many races with darkvision? Not really - again, properly played it’s fine and the problems with some in party having it and others not is fine as well.
Is darkvision as written good? NO! Let’s stop and think it thru - humans have normal color vision- we see several millions shades of color of light that leaves a source, bounces off objects in range and then hits our eye - note we are not the source of the light only the receiver. Night vision/Starlight scope/vision- distant/weak/faint light sources send out light that our eyes or the scope gather. In human night vision you have an extra large number of rods granting them increased vision in dim conditions. Starlight scopes have electronic photomultipliers to increase the the light intensity from what it receives to what it produces but it is generally black and white. In both cases the eye/scope is a receiver of light from an outside source. Infravision/thermal vision- the creature/device has receptors specially tuned to pick up thermal/heat/infrared radiation and convert it to an image - examples: some types of night vision goggles and the thermal pits of pit vipers. Again the eye is strictly a receiver. Ultravision: insect and some bird eyes are able to pick up some types of ultraviolet light but again the eye is strictly a receiver of light and if none is present then it is absolutely pitch black. This something you used to experience in photography when loading film into developing tanks. The loading room is truly dark - no matter how long you stay there you will never see anything, your eyes will never “adjust” because there is NO light present. The same is true if you are deep in a cavern - unless you have a light source you will never see anything because there is no light left to see by - it’s all been absorbed ( I can’t express just how happy I was to remember the little metal penlight I used to carry habitually when all 4 of my main lights died for one reason or another as I was exploring a lava tube in Hawaii alone (one of the dumber things I’ve done and survived) it was sturdy enough and the batteries lasted long enough to get me safely out.)
Darkvision: to be able to see in absolute darkness, even as if in dim light, your eyes MUST be producing their own light that then bounces off everything and back to the viewer. That means anyone else with darkvision should be able to see your eyes from a great distance much like sub captains looked for the glow of a crewman’s cigarette to locate ships on dark moonless/starless nights - the glow is visible as a point of light from over a mile away.
I can easily see permanent underground creatures and races developing echo location, heck there is even a blind guy in California that has learned to bike and avoid objects by echolocation. Developing a means of continuously generating even small amounts of light to use as a visual tool is much harder to see. I can see groups like elves, gnomes, etc having something like 3es infravision allowing them to see a twilight and at night on moonlight or even starlit nights as well as making out warm blooded races anytime. I can see groups like dwarves, Drow, having both a starlight/infravision and echolocation senses. I can even accept aberrations like I’ll it hides and especially beholders having a true darkvision with eye rays giving off energy that others aren’t perceiving as a means of seeing in the darkness. But darkvision as written makes no real sense to me - doesn’t mean I don’t use it and take full advantage of its rules as a player and DM but …..
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
This is a DM problem. If its a full moon, outside should be considered dim light.
Dim light, also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area. An area of dim light is usually a boundary between a source of bright light, such as a torch, and surrounding Darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also counts as dim light. A particularly brilliant full moon might bathe the land in dim light.
That's the thing though. Darkvision from a character playable race perspective ISNT that common, or at least it shouldn't be. The vast majority of all people in most realms are human, it's just humans are boring. No one wants to play a human. So they pick all of these fantastic races, and a great many of them have darkvision. My argument would be certain races just shouldn't have it. Elves/Half Elves(who aren't of the Drow/Dark persuasion) shouldn't have darkvision, they should have something called Superior Sight that allows them to make long ranged attacks without penalty in bright light or perception checks at distance without disadvantage. Dark Elves/Drow totally should keep it. I understand this is a hot take, and I'll be real, I'm not going to even humor a discussion on it Elves and Darkvision specifically, but I am using it to illustrate the point that I think there are too many races that have it.
Not a lot of modules in 5th really spend a lot of time speaking to how races react in the dark vs light either. There is some talk about surprise, but overall it doesn't do this. Since 5th really is a new bag for a LOT of people, it's something that shouldn't get glossed over. Combine it with mechanics that can be hard to adjudicate and it becomes an issue. It all starts with the DM though. If I'm throwing an enemy wizard/clerc at someone in a cave, they have the light cantrip. They just do. Even with darkvision, they have it. Make it a point to call that out too, that way players don't feel bummed out wasting a cantrip slot on utility, because now its not utility so much as its combat required. I played a human cleric in Rime, and just made sure to have light up all the time. I never felt like the game was out to get me, because my party took precautions around it.
Here is what I have printed and laminated for players:
Just an EXAMPLE of a little light offers for Darkvision, vs Lantern lights, vs no lighting in cavern:
Not sure if you meant before/after to mean with or without Darkvision, but a creature with normal vision see nothing in darkness while a creature with darkvision see everything as lightly obscured in shades of grey.
"Particularly brilliant full moon might", pretty much all of those are key words. A full moon lasts one night a month, and only particularly bright ones count, so maybe 1% of nights count as a "dim".
"Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face Darkness outdoors at night (even most moonlit nights)..."
So only special nights, which as your quote said is any full moon night (so around 1 in 28), and only particularly bright ones (I've estimated that to be at best 1 in 3 full moons, so 1 in 84 night, around 1%) at that are dim.
"A heavily obscured area—such as Darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the Blinded condition (see Conditions ) when trying to see something in that area."
On around 99% of nights, you have to guess where someone is that is a sword's swing away. If you look at SeattleGamer's second meme (for lack of a better word) two posts above this one, the bottom image is what the RAW claims most (even moonlit) nights should be like with the first being under DV. In my experience, the first should be what night is like and the second being perhaps too bright for DV. The vast majority of nights, DV is critical.
I'd be fine with ranged being penalised, but this is OTT. The vast majority of nights should, in terms of penalties, count as dim, with perhaps a disadvantage on the attack rolls on ranged Attacks added. Current Darkness rules should apply when looking at an additionally obscured area, such as foliage, heavily forested areas or long grass (which you should never go in! Brownie points if you get the reference). Most moonlit nights are quite different to an unlit cave or even a room. I'd propose a dim+ condition for most nights, with the addition of disadvantage on ranged attack rolls. It's much easier to sneak up on people and they find it harder to make accurate shots at you with ranged weapons, and vice versa if you don't have DV. I think that's fair and reasonable for night time.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Just showing how I let players understand how it works. Image is self explanatory. Feel free to use it for your players if there is any misunderstanding. Happy DM'ing
I think they're saying that either the "after" image should be full light and colour (if we're in dim light) or the "before" image should be pitch black (and, I guess, the "after" image be grey-scale).
Oh, sorry, here is a more thorough explanation to clarify any confusion.
:)
Right, but we're back to the same problem: if there's dim light, then darkvision is exactly like being in bright light (at least to 60 feet).
"You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light..."
Darkvison + dim light = bright light and colour (for some range).
The trick with Darkvision isn't so much what it does, as it is that there aren't any rules for how far away a light source can be seen from. It is a fact that in the total darkness you get out past the 50 mile limit from shore, the coal of a cigarette can be seen for miles. Ships at sea run without lights, and they have something called "light lockers" that work a bit like airlocks on space stations only they are meant to keep light from being seen from outside.
As near as I can figure, anything brighter than Dim Light can be seen from line of sight. Imagine trying to use Stealth if there was a light source behind you. The light would be seen from around the corner, and your shadow would project in front of you so your chance to surprise anything would be minimal. The entire party would need Darkvison or the game would be up. Those with superior darkvision really would rule the night. They could sneak up and watch you from beyond your field of vision for as long as they liked before attacking.
I'm surprised nobody mentioned Devil's Sight. 120 feet in full color, bright as day in the pitch black of night, even through magical darkness. Combine that with superior darkvision, and you can see from twice as far as someone normally moves in combat as clear as day all the time no matter what.
Drow get +2 to Dexterity, +1 to Charisma, superior darkvision, and Drow Magic. A third level Drow Warlock with Agonizing Blast and Devil's Sight can start throwing Eldritch Blasts from twice as far as you can move during combat. Using one Dash action for a race with a 30 move speed only gets you half way. The few races or classes that get two Dash actions only cover 90 feet. To make it worse, the races that can dash twice tend to have a speed of 25. Two Dash actions for them is 75 feet.
The Drow Warlock can of course keep moving backwards, so they can kite people and keep blasting away for quite a while. Their Sunlight Sensitivity has no bearing at night or underground and that's part of why they rule much of the Underdark.
The few races that don't have Darkvision suffer a terrible penalty. The humble Torch lets those without Darkvision see clearly out to 20 feet, they have disadvantage on their vision for another 20 feet and are blind past that. The ones that have normal Darkvision see clearly to 60 feet. (I have a minor problem with how Darkvision cuts off like a razor at the specified range. I think it ought to have half again as much range where you see as if in dim light so you'd see clearly for 60 feet, have disadvantage on vision for another 30, and then be blind.)
<Insert clever signature here>
I made that image for players to help contain their expectations: within a specified range (60 feet).
Note: 60 feet is super far - 20 yards - and here are some examples:
