The next version of DnD has an opportunity to fix the issues people have with Darkvision. But so far it doesn't look like that's in the plans. And even more characters will have it now. So I thought I world just share how I'd do it if I had the chance:
Low Light Vision - you can see in dim light as if it was bright light.
That's the whole rule. It's simple and easy to remember. I'd have it replace Darkvision on every species that has it except Drow, and maybe Dwarves.
- Every light source in the game is described with an area of bright light and an area of dim light. This would make all those characters still depend on torches and light spells like everyone else. They'd just see a little better in them (no disadvantage at the far end of lights).
- I would then also make it available through a 1st level Feat. You could use the feat to express a parent of a different species. Or a magical blessing. Or even just a mundane background. A human thief that grew up running the shadows of back alleys and sewers might be accustomed to seeing in dim light.
- You could give it to a lot of animals. All those poor cat familiars could finally see better. It feels more natural instead of magical.
Edit for an update - it might be better to present the rule as :
Low Light Vision - you do not suffer the disadvantage on Perception checks caused by dim light.
Mechanically it's the exact same thing. But I think writing it this way helps give a better mental image to maintain ambience in the game world. The light is still dim to these characters, they're just better at perceiving in it.
I would say the benefit of this as well is that you could just give creatures that can see in magical darkness "darkvision", and not have to constantly distinguish between magical and nonmagical darkness.
And it would make the darkvision spell way more useful if its text remains as is.
This would make all those characters still depend on torches and light spells like everyone else.
Characters with darkvision are still dependent on light. Treating darkness as dim light means they're still making visual Wisdom (Perception) checks with disadvantage. That's -5 if you're relying on passive scores. And they can't see in color, either. Think of all the ways a DM can mess with players, just by using colors they might be choosing not to see.
This would make all those characters still depend on torches and light spells like everyone else.
Characters with darkvision are still dependent on light. Treating darkness as dim light means they're still making visual Wisdom (Perception) checks with disadvantage. That's -5 if you're relying on passive scores. And they can't see in color, either. Think of all the ways a DM can mess with players, just by using colors they might be choosing not to see.
Yeah, I'm aware of all the nuances of Darkvision. Some tricks with color every now and then are fine, but you can't use them all the time without it being silly. And in practice none of it stops the problems that parties have because some have Darkvision and others don't. Players either make a whole party without Humans and Halflings. Or DMs just hand out Goggles of Night to the normal vision characters early on. Or the normal vision characters use lights and the darkvision characters either grumble, miss out on some of their ability, or split the party. Or in many cases it's better to 'go dark' to get the drop on monsters, leaving the humans effectively blind. It's just a mess in actual play and a common complaint. I would just rather have one decent ability that gives a slight advantage, but keeps everyone on the same page as a party more.
This would make all those characters still depend on torches and light spells like everyone else.
Characters with darkvision are still dependent on light. Treating darkness as dim light means they're still making visual Wisdom (Perception) checks with disadvantage. That's -5 if you're relying on passive scores. And they can't see in color, either. Think of all the ways a DM can mess with players, just by using colors they might be choosing not to see.
Yeah, I'm aware of all the nuances of Darkvision. Some tricks with color every now and then are fine, but you can't use them all the time without it being silly. And in practice none of it stops the problems that parties have because some have Darkvision and others don't. Players either make a whole party without Humans and Halflings. Or DMs just hand out Goggles of Night to the normal vision characters early on. Or the normal vision characters use lights and the darkvision characters either grumble, miss out on some of their ability, or split the party. Or in many cases it's better to 'go dark' to get the drop on monsters, leaving the humans effectively blind. It's just a mess in actual play and a common complaint. I would just rather have one decent ability that gives a slight advantage, but keeps everyone on the same page as a party more.
A character with darkvision can still see better with a torch or lantern than a character without.
And I, for one, would like to know why you think it's better to actively hinder members of your own party.
This would make all those characters still depend on torches and light spells like everyone else.
Characters with darkvision are still dependent on light. Treating darkness as dim light means they're still making visual Wisdom (Perception) checks with disadvantage. That's -5 if you're relying on passive scores. And they can't see in color, either. Think of all the ways a DM can mess with players, just by using colors they might be choosing not to see.
Yeah, I'm aware of all the nuances of Darkvision. Some tricks with color every now and then are fine, but you can't use them all the time without it being silly. And in practice none of it stops the problems that parties have because some have Darkvision and others don't. Players either make a whole party without Humans and Halflings. Or DMs just hand out Goggles of Night to the normal vision characters early on. Or the normal vision characters use lights and the darkvision characters either grumble, miss out on some of their ability, or split the party. Or in many cases it's better to 'go dark' to get the drop on monsters, leaving the humans effectively blind. It's just a mess in actual play and a common complaint. I would just rather have one decent ability that gives a slight advantage, but keeps everyone on the same page as a party more.
A character with darkvision can still see better with a torch or lantern than a character without.
And I, for one, would like to know why you think it's better to actively hinder members of your own party.
Hes pointing out that if lets say its a party of 5 1 without darkvision 4 with many times tactically it feels better to go in without lights to get a ambush off even though one player is left out. Which sucks for the player and everyone knows it so they then try to justify making the worse tactical choice.
Edit to add for your first point its pretty easy to get bright light out to 60 feet in 5e so for the most part dark vision can get nullified by a party. You are also a giant shining beacon seen from a distance but whatever.
This would make all those characters still depend on torches and light spells like everyone else.
Characters with darkvision are still dependent on light. Treating darkness as dim light means they're still making visual Wisdom (Perception) checks with disadvantage. That's -5 if you're relying on passive scores. And they can't see in color, either. Think of all the ways a DM can mess with players, just by using colors they might be choosing not to see.
Yeah, I'm aware of all the nuances of Darkvision. Some tricks with color every now and then are fine, but you can't use them all the time without it being silly. And in practice none of it stops the problems that parties have because some have Darkvision and others don't. Players either make a whole party without Humans and Halflings. Or DMs just hand out Goggles of Night to the normal vision characters early on. Or the normal vision characters use lights and the darkvision characters either grumble, miss out on some of their ability, or split the party. Or in many cases it's better to 'go dark' to get the drop on monsters, leaving the humans effectively blind. It's just a mess in actual play and a common complaint. I would just rather have one decent ability that gives a slight advantage, but keeps everyone on the same page as a party more.
A character with darkvision can still see better with a torch or lantern than a character without.
And I, for one, would like to know why you think it's better to actively hinder members of your own party.
Hes pointing out that if lets say its a party of 5 1 without darkvision 4 with many times tactically it feels better to go in without lights to get a ambush off even though one player is left out. Which sucks for the player and everyone knows it so they then try to justify making the worse tactical choice.
Edit to add for your first point its pretty easy to get bright light out to 60 feet in 5e so for the most part dark vision can get nullified by a party. You are also a giant shining beacon seen from a distance but whatever.
Right. A lot of parties make very strange decisions because of mixed vision types. It's a source of conflict, confusion, and weird almost meta play. Everyone ends up 'gaming' their vision in some way. I'm just saying we can resolve a lot of that, and make it feel more natural, to remove the 'dark' part of darkvision.
If everyone in the party needs light to see, everyone acts in a natural way. Some just see better in the same ring of light. It evens the field in a way that feels right. Some characters can still be sneaky in dim light if they are accustomed to it. But in utter darkness, everyone has the same problems. I just think it would stop so many odd interactions with characters, players, and their environments that didn't really add anything to the game.
The current Darkvision rules and distribution just takes people out of the story as they make decisions based on mechanics more than anything else. It funnels players into picking certain species for certain classes. It leaves characters out of certain scenarios. And it takes away from the feeling of delving into dungeons with only a torch separating you from the unknown.
I know Low Light Vision is not the answer to everything. I think it's a small change that could have a big benefit. But maybe that's just for some people. It is what I would prefer though.
3e and 4e both distinguished between low-light vision and darkvision; 3e made darkvision moderately rare, 4e made it quite rare (which was a deliberate design decision).
3e and 4e both distinguished between low-light vision and darkvision; 3e made darkvision moderately rare, 4e made it quite rare (which was a deliberate design decision).
Previous versions were what inspired the idea. I just tried to make it cleaner for the 5e style of play. I think the more intuitive we can make vision the better.
What, no love for a return to infravision? Ah, them's was the days.
Hot take (hot enough to be seen with infravision): darkvision and blindsight ought to be the same thing. If you're not using light to see, things that prevent normal light-based sight can't stop you from seeing.
Good thread. Keep demanding actual thought from the developers.
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J Great Wyrm Moonstone Dungeon Master
The time of the ORC has come. No OGL without irrevocability; no OGL with 'authorized version' language. #openDND
Practice, practice, practice • Respect the rules; don't memorize them • Be merciless, not cruel • Don't let the dice run the game for you
The problem I have with this is that "darkness" isn't really lack of light. It's lack of light in the visible spectrum. So darkvision, to me, allows you to see in darkness by using some other part of the electromagnetic spectrum. For this reason, you're still susceptible to anything that affects your eyes (such as invisibility or visual illusions), since you still need them.
Invisibility and visual illusions are also effects in the visible spectrum. Any wavelength that isn't particularly affected by lack of a light source will behave dramatically differently from sight, to the extent that you probably cannot do routine visual tasks such as reading written materials (infravision is possible but behaves a lot less like vision than AD&D liked to pretend).
There's really no means of getting something that behaves like darkvision other than magic; it makes absolutely no physical sense. By comparison, low light vision is something real creatures might actually have.
I wasn't claiming that darkvision is physically possible without magic. I know it isn't. What I'm trying to say is that darkvision still needs your eyes to work, but blindsight (from what I understand of it) does not.
"Needing eyes" and "visible spectrum" are mostly unrelated concepts, and in any case claiming that its behavior is dependent on the physical structures used to generate the effect is kind of bizarre, the only situation where it matters is if something covers or damages the eyes.
Or when you're in a heavily obscured environment like a fog cloud or cloudkill.
From what I recall, a number of creatures with blindsight are literally blind beyond the range of it because they have no eyes to see with.
Whether or not you have eyes is irrelevant to whether you can see through fog, it's just about what you're actually detecting. A number of creatures with blindsight lack vision and are thus blind beyond their blindsight range, but that's not about eyes per se, there are a few creatures that have blindsight and no discernible eyes but are not blind beyond their blindsight radius (for example, the elder brain and purple worm).
Fair enough. I still think darkvision and blindsight are distinct enough to allow for them to be separate, but I'll concede that it's best not to try to explain why the mechanics work the way they do.
They're distinct concepts -- darkvision is "You can see as if there was light, even if there isn't any", blindsight is "You can use a non-visual sense to gain effects equivalent to vision" -- but I can't actually think of any concepts that really demand darkvision, every creature I can think of that seems like it should be able to function in total darkness should also have blindsight.
The current Darkvision rules and distribution just takes people out of the story as they make decisions based on mechanics more than anything else. It funnels players into picking certain species for certain classes. It leaves characters out of certain scenarios. And it takes away from the feeling of delving into dungeons with only a torch separating you from the unknown.
This is excellent! I love horror scenarios so much and I really damn hate it that bloody everyone is effectively wearing night vision goggles and nobody cares about darkness at all! Uncertainty and obscurity are essential components of horror and suspense, and an environment that creates obscurity is the basis. So far, I had to resort to fog, blizzard, and tight streets of an abandoned city wiped out by the plague to limit visibility and create the sense of danger and isolation. But being unable to use something as simple as night irritates me so damn much. "People are vanishing in the night. Be careful, who knows what horrors lurk in the darkness..." - "Yeah I know, there's that vampire spawn right over there, can see her clearly".
I'm fine with subterranean species having darkvision, like dwarves or drow, but why do the rest have it, on what basis?
The current Darkvision rules and distribution just takes people out of the story as they make decisions based on mechanics more than anything else. It funnels players into picking certain species for certain classes. It leaves characters out of certain scenarios. And it takes away from the feeling of delving into dungeons with only a torch separating you from the unknown.
I've never had this problem, so please explain.
Sure! I'll start by saying that it's not the worst problem in DnD 5e. But it is annoying, and other people might have more complaints that I can't think of at the moment. Every time a new species gets Darkvision, the pool of characters without it gets smaller and more left out. I'll just share some examples from my games. Others might have more.
- A new player wanted to be a Kenku Rogue. It's a cool concept and a combination that naturally compliments each other. But Kenku don't have Darkvision and everyone else in the party did. The others never wanted to light a torch because they didn't need one and it would give away their position. So the Rogue was actually the character least able to sneak around alone. I ended up giving him Goggles of Night early on just to let him have fun. It's kind of lame all around if the answer to Darkvision is to just give it to everyone.
- Another player in a different game wanted to be a Ranger who specialized in scouting. He wanted to be Human, but picked Dwarf instead for Darkvision. He had to choose between the character he wanted from an RP perspective, and the mechanics. The mechanical penalty was so severe that it won in his case.
- A torch or Light spell sheds bright light in a 20' radius and dim light in a 20' radius. Darkvision is almost universally 60'. If the Human lights a torch, he can see 20' normally in all directions, and 20' more with disadvantage on Perception rolls. The Elf standing in the 5' square on his right can see 35' to her right with no penalty in full color, or another 25' in black and white. But to her left it's 45' in color or another 15' in black and white. They have overlapping visual fields with different rules. And if there is another torch on the wall, it's even worse. You can't track or visualize it easily on a map, or in your mind.
- If I want a dungeon to be completely dark, I end up setting the stage for arguments between characters over how they should approach them. By entering without light, the Darkvision characters have the advantage but those without it are blind. I can hide secrets using color, but the players don't know when that matters. So they just don't turn on the lights. It's a gimmick you use a few times maybe. Or everyone agrees on light, but the Darkvision characters have the extra weird ranges and feel suboptimal. For Darkvision characters, lights are a liability. For the ones without it, darkness is deadly. It's all or nothing, and each half of the party suffers from the other half's benefits. So they either argue, sacrifice something, or split up. And the non-Darkvision characters get left waiting while the Darkvision ones go do the cool stuff.
- The monsters have the same problems.
- There's no mystery. As soon as you describe a dark room or forest, the first thing you hear is 'I have Darkvision!.' Even if there is no color, the shape of everything is clear as day. Ambience is gone, along with all the storytelling tools that spooky lighting should bring. Technically even the absence of color is a benefit for Darkvision characters, since it ruins a lot of natural camouflage.
- Because of Darkvision, we have 3 types of visibility - bright light is normal. Dim light is disadvantage on perception. Then there is darkness which is mechanically the same as being blind. It's very dangerous, but only to those characters without Darkvision. Darkvision is like having Blindsight for most of the adventure. Because many character and monsters have it, they are all playing in a different game than the ones without it. You can have characters decimate monsters without Darkvision, and vice versa. While Humans, and those like them, sit it out or become the next meal.
Now I know there are solutions to all of these problems. Ways I might be able to handle some things better, or adjust some encounters to somewhat adapt to the issues of Darkvision. But I'm not going to tell a child that he can't play his cool Rogue idea without sucking at the thing he wanted to do, or playing every encounter like some kind of lighting themed combat simulation. I'm going to give him Goggles and let him have fun.
This isn't about how you can try to patch these issues. Because honestly it shouldn't require patches. Or giving up on cool story ideas. Or losing out on atmosphere. Or picking your species for mechanical reasons as silly as vision just to play a class half decent.
If we replaced Darkvision with Low Light Vision, it would solve so many problems so easily. Everyone's vision would be based on the source of the light, not the character. A dim cellar with a few torches on the wall would look and feel exactly like it's meant to. You can see the areas of safe light on the map. The characters would delve into lost dungeons huddled around their lanterns and spells. A burst of Dragon fire would light up a dark room. Monsters and characters alike would all follow the same rules. A light would be a comforting or warning glow of life. Moonlight could provide ambiance or suspense. And those rare monsters who could actually see in the dark world be truly terrifying.
Maybe it's just me. But that's why I brought it up. If I could have one wish for Darkvision, it would be changing it like this. So the dungeons are scary again. So lights mean something. And so the party can play like a team.
This is excellent! I love horror scenarios so much and I really damn hate it that bloody everyone is effectively wearing night vision goggles and nobody cares about darkness at all! Uncertainty and obscurity are essential components of horror and suspense, and an environment that creates obscurity is the basis. So far, I had to resort to fog, blizzard, and tight streets of an abandoned city wiped out by the plague to limit visibility and create the sense of danger and isolation. But being unable to use something as simple as night irritates me so damn much. "People are vanishing in the night. Be careful, who knows what horrors lurk in the darkness..." - "Yeah I know, there's that vampire spawn right over there, can see her clearly".
I'm fine with subterranean species having darkvision, like dwarves or drow, but why do the rest have it, on what basis?
Thank you! This is exactly the kind of thing I mean. I'm glad I'm not alone.
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The next version of DnD has an opportunity to fix the issues people have with Darkvision. But so far it doesn't look like that's in the plans. And even more characters will have it now. So I thought I world just share how I'd do it if I had the chance:
Low Light Vision - you can see in dim light as if it was bright light.
That's the whole rule. It's simple and easy to remember. I'd have it replace Darkvision on every species that has it except Drow, and maybe Dwarves.
- Every light source in the game is described with an area of bright light and an area of dim light. This would make all those characters still depend on torches and light spells like everyone else. They'd just see a little better in them (no disadvantage at the far end of lights).
- I would then also make it available through a 1st level Feat. You could use the feat to express a parent of a different species. Or a magical blessing. Or even just a mundane background. A human thief that grew up running the shadows of back alleys and sewers might be accustomed to seeing in dim light.
- You could give it to a lot of animals. All those poor cat familiars could finally see better. It feels more natural instead of magical.
Edit for an update - it might be better to present the rule as :
Low Light Vision - you do not suffer the disadvantage on Perception checks caused by dim light.
Mechanically it's the exact same thing. But I think writing it this way helps give a better mental image to maintain ambience in the game world. The light is still dim to these characters, they're just better at perceiving in it.
That's an awesome point, thank you!
Characters with darkvision are still dependent on light. Treating darkness as dim light means they're still making visual Wisdom (Perception) checks with disadvantage. That's -5 if you're relying on passive scores. And they can't see in color, either. Think of all the ways a DM can mess with players, just by using colors they might be choosing not to see.
Yeah, I'm aware of all the nuances of Darkvision. Some tricks with color every now and then are fine, but you can't use them all the time without it being silly. And in practice none of it stops the problems that parties have because some have Darkvision and others don't. Players either make a whole party without Humans and Halflings. Or DMs just hand out Goggles of Night to the normal vision characters early on. Or the normal vision characters use lights and the darkvision characters either grumble, miss out on some of their ability, or split the party. Or in many cases it's better to 'go dark' to get the drop on monsters, leaving the humans effectively blind. It's just a mess in actual play and a common complaint. I would just rather have one decent ability that gives a slight advantage, but keeps everyone on the same page as a party more.
I think this is a really good idea.
A character with darkvision can still see better with a torch or lantern than a character without.
And I, for one, would like to know why you think it's better to actively hinder members of your own party.
Hes pointing out that if lets say its a party of 5 1 without darkvision 4 with many times tactically it feels better to go in without lights to get a ambush off even though one player is left out. Which sucks for the player and everyone knows it so they then try to justify making the worse tactical choice.
Edit to add for your first point its pretty easy to get bright light out to 60 feet in 5e so for the most part dark vision can get nullified by a party. You are also a giant shining beacon seen from a distance but whatever.
Right. A lot of parties make very strange decisions because of mixed vision types. It's a source of conflict, confusion, and weird almost meta play. Everyone ends up 'gaming' their vision in some way. I'm just saying we can resolve a lot of that, and make it feel more natural, to remove the 'dark' part of darkvision.
If everyone in the party needs light to see, everyone acts in a natural way. Some just see better in the same ring of light. It evens the field in a way that feels right. Some characters can still be sneaky in dim light if they are accustomed to it. But in utter darkness, everyone has the same problems. I just think it would stop so many odd interactions with characters, players, and their environments that didn't really add anything to the game.
The current Darkvision rules and distribution just takes people out of the story as they make decisions based on mechanics more than anything else. It funnels players into picking certain species for certain classes. It leaves characters out of certain scenarios. And it takes away from the feeling of delving into dungeons with only a torch separating you from the unknown.
I know Low Light Vision is not the answer to everything. I think it's a small change that could have a big benefit. But maybe that's just for some people. It is what I would prefer though.
3e and 4e both distinguished between low-light vision and darkvision; 3e made darkvision moderately rare, 4e made it quite rare (which was a deliberate design decision).
Previous versions were what inspired the idea. I just tried to make it cleaner for the 5e style of play. I think the more intuitive we can make vision the better.
What, no love for a return to infravision? Ah, them's was the days.
Hot take (hot enough to be seen with infravision): darkvision and blindsight ought to be the same thing. If you're not using light to see, things that prevent normal light-based sight can't stop you from seeing.
Good thread. Keep demanding actual thought from the developers.
J
Great Wyrm Moonstone Dungeon Master
The time of the ORC has come. No OGL without irrevocability; no OGL with 'authorized version' language. #openDND
Practice, practice, practice • Respect the rules; don't memorize them • Be merciless, not cruel • Don't let the dice run the game for you
Invisibility and visual illusions are also effects in the visible spectrum. Any wavelength that isn't particularly affected by lack of a light source will behave dramatically differently from sight, to the extent that you probably cannot do routine visual tasks such as reading written materials (infravision is possible but behaves a lot less like vision than AD&D liked to pretend).
There's really no means of getting something that behaves like darkvision other than magic; it makes absolutely no physical sense. By comparison, low light vision is something real creatures might actually have.
"Needing eyes" and "visible spectrum" are mostly unrelated concepts, and in any case claiming that its behavior is dependent on the physical structures used to generate the effect is kind of bizarre, the only situation where it matters is if something covers or damages the eyes.
Whether or not you have eyes is irrelevant to whether you can see through fog, it's just about what you're actually detecting. A number of creatures with blindsight lack vision and are thus blind beyond their blindsight range, but that's not about eyes per se, there are a few creatures that have blindsight and no discernible eyes but are not blind beyond their blindsight radius (for example, the elder brain and purple worm).
They're distinct concepts -- darkvision is "You can see as if there was light, even if there isn't any", blindsight is "You can use a non-visual sense to gain effects equivalent to vision" -- but I can't actually think of any concepts that really demand darkvision, every creature I can think of that seems like it should be able to function in total darkness should also have blindsight.
I've never had this problem, so please explain.
This is excellent! I love horror scenarios so much and I really damn hate it that bloody everyone is effectively wearing night vision goggles and nobody cares about darkness at all! Uncertainty and obscurity are essential components of horror and suspense, and an environment that creates obscurity is the basis. So far, I had to resort to fog, blizzard, and tight streets of an abandoned city wiped out by the plague to limit visibility and create the sense of danger and isolation. But being unable to use something as simple as night irritates me so damn much. "People are vanishing in the night. Be careful, who knows what horrors lurk in the darkness..." - "Yeah I know, there's that vampire spawn right over there, can see her clearly".
I'm fine with subterranean species having darkvision, like dwarves or drow, but why do the rest have it, on what basis?
Sure! I'll start by saying that it's not the worst problem in DnD 5e. But it is annoying, and other people might have more complaints that I can't think of at the moment. Every time a new species gets Darkvision, the pool of characters without it gets smaller and more left out. I'll just share some examples from my games. Others might have more.
- A new player wanted to be a Kenku Rogue. It's a cool concept and a combination that naturally compliments each other. But Kenku don't have Darkvision and everyone else in the party did. The others never wanted to light a torch because they didn't need one and it would give away their position. So the Rogue was actually the character least able to sneak around alone. I ended up giving him Goggles of Night early on just to let him have fun. It's kind of lame all around if the answer to Darkvision is to just give it to everyone.
- Another player in a different game wanted to be a Ranger who specialized in scouting. He wanted to be Human, but picked Dwarf instead for Darkvision. He had to choose between the character he wanted from an RP perspective, and the mechanics. The mechanical penalty was so severe that it won in his case.
- A torch or Light spell sheds bright light in a 20' radius and dim light in a 20' radius. Darkvision is almost universally 60'. If the Human lights a torch, he can see 20' normally in all directions, and 20' more with disadvantage on Perception rolls. The Elf standing in the 5' square on his right can see 35' to her right with no penalty in full color, or another 25' in black and white. But to her left it's 45' in color or another 15' in black and white. They have overlapping visual fields with different rules. And if there is another torch on the wall, it's even worse. You can't track or visualize it easily on a map, or in your mind.
- If I want a dungeon to be completely dark, I end up setting the stage for arguments between characters over how they should approach them. By entering without light, the Darkvision characters have the advantage but those without it are blind. I can hide secrets using color, but the players don't know when that matters. So they just don't turn on the lights. It's a gimmick you use a few times maybe. Or everyone agrees on light, but the Darkvision characters have the extra weird ranges and feel suboptimal. For Darkvision characters, lights are a liability. For the ones without it, darkness is deadly. It's all or nothing, and each half of the party suffers from the other half's benefits. So they either argue, sacrifice something, or split up. And the non-Darkvision characters get left waiting while the Darkvision ones go do the cool stuff.
- The monsters have the same problems.
- There's no mystery. As soon as you describe a dark room or forest, the first thing you hear is 'I have Darkvision!.' Even if there is no color, the shape of everything is clear as day. Ambience is gone, along with all the storytelling tools that spooky lighting should bring. Technically even the absence of color is a benefit for Darkvision characters, since it ruins a lot of natural camouflage.
- Because of Darkvision, we have 3 types of visibility - bright light is normal. Dim light is disadvantage on perception. Then there is darkness which is mechanically the same as being blind. It's very dangerous, but only to those characters without Darkvision. Darkvision is like having Blindsight for most of the adventure. Because many character and monsters have it, they are all playing in a different game than the ones without it. You can have characters decimate monsters without Darkvision, and vice versa. While Humans, and those like them, sit it out or become the next meal.
Now I know there are solutions to all of these problems. Ways I might be able to handle some things better, or adjust some encounters to somewhat adapt to the issues of Darkvision. But I'm not going to tell a child that he can't play his cool Rogue idea without sucking at the thing he wanted to do, or playing every encounter like some kind of lighting themed combat simulation. I'm going to give him Goggles and let him have fun.
This isn't about how you can try to patch these issues. Because honestly it shouldn't require patches. Or giving up on cool story ideas. Or losing out on atmosphere. Or picking your species for mechanical reasons as silly as vision just to play a class half decent.
If we replaced Darkvision with Low Light Vision, it would solve so many problems so easily. Everyone's vision would be based on the source of the light, not the character. A dim cellar with a few torches on the wall would look and feel exactly like it's meant to. You can see the areas of safe light on the map. The characters would delve into lost dungeons huddled around their lanterns and spells. A burst of Dragon fire would light up a dark room. Monsters and characters alike would all follow the same rules. A light would be a comforting or warning glow of life. Moonlight could provide ambiance or suspense. And those rare monsters who could actually see in the dark world be truly terrifying.
Maybe it's just me. But that's why I brought it up. If I could have one wish for Darkvision, it would be changing it like this. So the dungeons are scary again. So lights mean something. And so the party can play like a team.
Thank you, I appreciate the support!
Thank you! This is exactly the kind of thing I mean. I'm glad I'm not alone.