I have put "against" in quotations as I'm not one for "DM's vs players", but anyone who's DM'd has to have noticed the prevalence of darkvision in the game. Perhaps a better way to word this is "how to reward players for using light".
One thing which I have just noticed is that in darkvision's description, it states that you cannot see colour, only shades of grey. This makes me think that someone clever could mix up 2 different colours of paint which look identical in the dark, to leave messages for those who are carrying a light and leave them unseen by people relying on darkvision by painting one on top of the other.
Another one is to put things over 60ft. away from the PC's so they cannot see them without a light
Do you do anything to reduce reliance on darkvision?
Darkvision only allows you to see in complete darkness as if it's dim light. So there's a lot of fun to be had with adventurers trying to read, seeing the insides of locks and noticing chokers, cloakers and other bad stuff on the ceiling. I generally find that's enough to make sure there's usually at least one Light spell on at all times.
Cases of mistaken identity? You observe a figure in the dead of night dressed in the butler's jacket, but without light you don't notice that their face is bright red and it seems to be a tiefling in a rudimentary disguise? That kind of thing?
Not many sources of light PCs have available will reach more than 60 feet either, so I don't think this penalizes players who rely on dark vision, it just creates a disadvantage for almost any players.
Daylight would work, but it's too high level of a spell to use unless you are expecting something to be there. And Dancing Lights could work if you swing them back and forth instead of just keeping them clustered around you.
I once watched a video about this topic and they gave a bunch of great examples. I think it was either DMLair or Dungeon Dudes, but can't find it right now. The examples you gave in OP is pretty close to some of what they had mentioned. The idea of spiderwebs, paint or chalk on a wall really isn't going to be something you can notice without light. Different textures like sand, water, ice, etc. might not be something you can notice while looking at it in dark vision alone either.
It's also worth noting that dim light provides disadvantage on perception checks, which subtracts 5 from passive perceptions as well. If your players are looking for things, remember to impose that penalty if they're not using light.
Generally, darkvision isn't too much of a problem- I actually usually enjoy having parties with at least a majority of players having darkvision because it keeps me from having to worry about thrusting the party into darkness and having them get stuck (because, yes, sometimes people do just forget to have a light source- if you start with gold instead of gear and don't buy torches, that's a real bummer). I actually tend to be a bit more generous and give players a bit of "freebie" vision range if I'm using a VTT because otherwise they can't see anything, though I impose some real strict penalties there if they try to use it in combat or for searching.
But, yeah, the above examples are also good. Textures, details, colors, and anything that can't be seen with darkvision RAW or will likely be hard to find because of the perception penalty are all good ways to remind people that darkvision does not mechanically replace light.
There could be secret passage that is harder or impossible to notice with darkvision alone due to depth or shadow masking it but that would be visible with a light source. Same thing for traps.
Remember that 60 is not a very long distance (seriously, measure it outside). It's actually kind of fun when you look at streams like critical role and the GM describes how huge things just appear 150 feet away without anyone having seen it before. :P
You know when in Dim light players have disadvantage on perception checks, and that actually translates to a -5 modifier to the pc's passive perception. So a party relying to heavily on darkvision will find themselves in a lot of surprise attacks in the dark. Want to make the dark scary? Have creatures surprise them every few nights when they aren't noticed until they're in range of the campfire
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I have put "against" in quotations as I'm not one for "DM's vs players", but anyone who's DM'd has to have noticed the prevalence of darkvision in the game. Perhaps a better way to word this is "how to reward players for using light".
One thing which I have just noticed is that in darkvision's description, it states that you cannot see colour, only shades of grey. This makes me think that someone clever could mix up 2 different colours of paint which look identical in the dark, to leave messages for those who are carrying a light and leave them unseen by people relying on darkvision by painting one on top of the other.
Another one is to put things over 60ft. away from the PC's so they cannot see them without a light
Do you do anything to reduce reliance on darkvision?
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Darkvision only allows you to see in complete darkness as if it's dim light. So there's a lot of fun to be had with adventurers trying to read, seeing the insides of locks and noticing chokers, cloakers and other bad stuff on the ceiling. I generally find that's enough to make sure there's usually at least one Light spell on at all times.
Puzzles that require light because colors are key to the solution.
Cases of mistaken identity? You observe a figure in the dead of night dressed in the butler's jacket, but without light you don't notice that their face is bright red and it seems to be a tiefling in a rudimentary disguise? That kind of thing?
Remember the wire cutting scene in The Abyss?
Not many sources of light PCs have available will reach more than 60 feet either, so I don't think this penalizes players who rely on dark vision, it just creates a disadvantage for almost any players.
Daylight would work, but it's too high level of a spell to use unless you are expecting something to be there. And Dancing Lights could work if you swing them back and forth instead of just keeping them clustered around you.
Unless someone knows Control Flames. That will give you 40/80 from a torch, 60/120 from a Lantern, Hooded, or a 120/240' cone from an Lantern, Bullseye.
I once watched a video about this topic and they gave a bunch of great examples. I think it was either DMLair or Dungeon Dudes, but can't find it right now. The examples you gave in OP is pretty close to some of what they had mentioned. The idea of spiderwebs, paint or chalk on a wall really isn't going to be something you can notice without light. Different textures like sand, water, ice, etc. might not be something you can notice while looking at it in dark vision alone either.
It's also worth noting that dim light provides disadvantage on perception checks, which subtracts 5 from passive perceptions as well. If your players are looking for things, remember to impose that penalty if they're not using light.
Generally, darkvision isn't too much of a problem- I actually usually enjoy having parties with at least a majority of players having darkvision because it keeps me from having to worry about thrusting the party into darkness and having them get stuck (because, yes, sometimes people do just forget to have a light source- if you start with gold instead of gear and don't buy torches, that's a real bummer). I actually tend to be a bit more generous and give players a bit of "freebie" vision range if I'm using a VTT because otherwise they can't see anything, though I impose some real strict penalties there if they try to use it in combat or for searching.
But, yeah, the above examples are also good. Textures, details, colors, and anything that can't be seen with darkvision RAW or will likely be hard to find because of the perception penalty are all good ways to remind people that darkvision does not mechanically replace light.
There could be secret passage that is harder or impossible to notice with darkvision alone due to depth or shadow masking it but that would be visible with a light source. Same thing for traps.
Attacked in the night by a gloomstalker ranger...
Remember that 60 is not a very long distance (seriously, measure it outside). It's actually kind of fun when you look at streams like critical role and the GM describes how huge things just appear 150 feet away without anyone having seen it before. :P
You know when in Dim light players have disadvantage on perception checks, and that actually translates to a -5 modifier to the pc's passive perception. So a party relying to heavily on darkvision will find themselves in a lot of surprise attacks in the dark. Want to make the dark scary? Have creatures surprise them every few nights when they aren't noticed until they're in range of the campfire