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Jamallo Kreen
Master of Realmslore
USA
1537 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Dec 2007 : 01:32:50
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I'm sure this has been hashed out many times before, but I don't know the answer, so: how do darkvision and low-light vision work together in a character who has both qualities? Is black and white low-light vision a subset of darkvision? I've looked in a half dozen 3E books and have found no definitive answer. Assistance, please!
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I have a mouth, but I am in a library and must not scream.
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KnightErrantJR
Great Reader
USA
5402 Posts |
Posted - 23 Dec 2007 : 02:22:22
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Darkvision only functions when there is no light at all to see.
Low light vision doubles the distance that the creature with it can see in starlight, moonlight, and torchlight. In general, if the moon is full or nearly full, they can see as well as someone outside during the day can.
If they have a torch, the radius of light provided for them is doubled. So instead of providing a 20 foot radius of light, it provides a 40 foot radius of light. And instead of having shadowy illumination from 20 to 40 feet, there is shadowy illumination from 40 to 80 feet.
If a character has both, darkvision only kicks in at a range beyond low light vision. For example, in the above example, a character would have to have darkvision that extended beyond 80 feet in order to gain any benefit from it. On the other hand, if that same character had a candle, the shadowy illumination would be up to 10 feet, and if they had darkvision beyond 10 feet, they could see up to the limit of the darkvision beyond the candle.
I could be wrong, but as I read this, only absolute darkness allows darkvision to work, so darkvision doesn't make shadowy illumination "clear." Your darkvision "rods" only work when you focus on an area with no light, and if you look into an area with shadowy illumination, you use your low light "cones."
When you focused on things withing your low light vision, you could see color, but once you looked further out, your darkvision would kick in and make it black and white.
Light doesn't spoil darkvision, but you need darkness for it to work. I would imagine that when the character looks farther out, colors wash out, and they kind of refocus as they look closer to them. They may not even fully notice the color fade (just as at twilight its kind of subtle that you have harder time picking out colors).
I imagine that there is, "in character" a second or so of refocusing if you go from darkvision to low light vision and vice versa, but its not a quantified period of time in the game and doesn't have a game effect. Personally, I'd describe things as being a little blurry for a second when a character switched back and forth, mainly as a "flavor" description.
Then again, this is just my interpretation based on what I've read, so I could be completely off. |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4702 Posts |
Posted - 23 Dec 2007 : 02:44:26
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| 3.5 messed with Darkvission some, but all in all what it should come to is best vission applies, lowlight does not interfer with normal or dark vission. Having all three just allows one to see the most in any situation (Okay blind sight allows another type of "seeing" though based on sound) |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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Darkvision and low-light vision together
