Talk:Variable Darkvision (3.5e Variant Rule)

Ratings

	Ghostwheel opposes this article and rated it 0 of 4.
	Having to calculate max see distance every time is a headache for the DM. Variants that make headaches for DMs aren't good.

So... how does this actually work in-play without being needlessly complex? --Ghostwheel (talk) 11:41, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

Seems easy enough :D. You just calculate your chance to spot someone if the light was normal, say they made a Hide check of 23 and your Spot is +9, so that's a 35% chance to spot them. Then you multiply that percentage by 60%, because your Darkvision is 60 feet, so you get a 21% chance to see them, and you roll that. Or wait, no, maybe that's not right, and you actually just change the distance penalties for Spot from -1 per 10 feet to -1 per 6 feet, it's a bit ambiguous since there is no "distance someone can see in normal light"... I feel like this is based on the text for Low-Light Vision described in the race entries, "An elf can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination", but the part of low-light vision's description that actually makes coherent sense is in fact "Double the effective radius of bright light and of shadowy illumination for such characters." --Foxwarrior (talk) 17:50, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

Yes, I wasn't that clear about the implementation method was I, sorry. Foxwarrior your second assumption was correct and I have now added the relevant text.--Amdillae (talk) 11:06, 13 July 2016 (UTC)

Well, that simplifies everything! [/sarcasm] --Undead_Knave (talk) 19:10, 14 July 2016 (UTC)

I did realise that the system is not the easiest to implement as I was writing but I was creating an option that, like normal vision, offered rewards and penalties for appropriate ranks in spot. Having played with two characters in a party with dark vision, one with full ranks in spot and the other with none both being able to see the same distance in darkness, but not in daylight was strange and seemingly unbalanced to me, hence the creation of this variant. Also quick question Ghostwheel if a spot check is not used to determine what can or can't be seen at a distance, what is? If it is just DM judgement could similar judgement not be applied to darkvision ? .--Amdillae (talk) 09:16, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

One can only hide anyway when one has cover or concealment. So Spot would apply to people with darkvision, making it relevant whether one has put ranks into it or not. --Ghostwheel (talk) 10:16, 15 July 2016 (UTC)