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Darkvision| What about Low Light Vision? What happened to it?
🕑 Added 2021-02-14 01:06:11 +0000 UTCSo, while I was working on some new content coming out here soon, I was thinking about darkvision as a mechanic and how widespread it is. Nearly every race in the phb has it except for dragonborn, halflings, and humans. All the goblinkin have it, kobolds, orcs, shifters, yuan-ti, etc. If you rolled a dice to see what race you wanted to play, you have at least a 50% chance to hit a race that has darksion. And I think that's really weird.
Back in older editions, there was a greater distinction in vision for PC's. You had darkvision and that's about what we have now. But there was also low light vision. Low light vision was just the first half of what we know as the darkvision mechanic within 5e and since it technically already exists, why do we only see just full darkvision now?
Personally, I like the distinction between the two because it allows those with proper and full darkvision to feel more powerful and special, but it doesn't really take much away from other races. In fact, it can be used to make them feel more interesting mechanically. Since darkvision is so strong, it takes up a lot of room on a race and what they can do. If you remove the ability to see in darkness, but leave the low light vision intact, it makes room for more mechanics and flavors the race subtly.
Hear me out. Elves live in forests primarily, yeah? But they are out in nature. You still have the moon and stars for light, high elves can absolutely get the dancing lights or light cantrips, and they are able to make fire as a sapient humanoid. Why do they need full darkvision? Drow do because they live deep underground. But your average wood elf or high elf? Nah, I don't think so. The low light vision still gives them a mechanical benefit and it tells you something about the race and what environment they come from.
Now, I do understand that the main reason this was probably dropped is because it makes it easier and faster for a dm to describe a scene. I'm sure every DM reading this has had to describe one thing to those with darkvision and another thing to another player. That can be tedious and it does slow things down. But I don't think it really warrants the simplification of this. I think you can gain more from having different vision types than by speeding up things a little bit.
TLDR: Darkvision is weirdly prominent amongst the races of dnd 5e and I don't think it should be since Low Light Vision technically still exists in 5e as part of the darkvision mechanic. Having the distinction between the two allows for more flavor to be added to existing races and makes players feel special when the 3 elves in their party cannot see in the dark and are relying on them to get them to safety.
