Author Topic: How the hell does Darkvision work?  (Read 5272 times)

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woodenbandman

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How the hell does Darkvision work?
« on: October 07, 2009, 01:31:40 PM »
Can you still see shadows? Or are you immune to them? What about the monsters named shadows?

AfterCrescent

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #1 on: October 07, 2009, 01:34:35 PM »
Shadows don't exist without light, so they wouldn't exist when Darkvision kicks in.

As for shadow creatures, they're not pure darkness, so they'll be some shade of gray that Darkvision can see.
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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #2 on: October 10, 2009, 07:26:33 AM »
They look like areas of black and white I assume.

SorO_Lost

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #3 on: October 11, 2009, 02:47:11 PM »
Darkvision doesn't work in a logical way at first glance.

Nightvision works by enhancing light, no light no sight. But darkvision still works.
Infra-vision (what 2E used) is useless when dealing with undead on the like. Again Darkvision works fine.
Darkvision doesn't use sound else Silence would block it.
It does not use energy reading, like a shark or something, since it works on rocks. Nor is it psionic for the same reasons.
Darkvision cannot be based off collecting small particles that float in the air, that won't work on walls and we already have a Scent ability.
It also cannot be a form of tactile sense, since closing your eyes will block it.


They only possible guess to how Darkvision works it lasers.
Yes lasers. People with darkvision shoot laser beams out of their eyes, the returned signal allows them to read the area. Like sonar only light based. It requires LoS so you cannot see around corners and since it requires a returned signal it also explains why Darkvision has range limits.
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BowenSilverclaw

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #4 on: October 11, 2009, 06:25:48 PM »
Dwarves with friggin' lasers :lol
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TheBrood

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #5 on: October 11, 2009, 10:37:52 PM »
think a cat or dog they have dark vision
it picks up the light(even if theirs barely any) and how much your capable of picking up is the distance of your darkvision use humans have the min i would guess but a wolf which hunts at night id say has 120ft darkvision roughly this is just an example btw
darkvision is the light entering your pupils at night which gives that erie glow and allows you to see into the dark to a certain extent
:)

TheBrood

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #6 on: October 11, 2009, 10:39:10 PM »
also
it does not work in complete darkness btw
such as with spells/abilities
but natural darkness is fine :eh

Nanshork

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2009, 12:28:30 AM »
think a cat or dog they have dark vision
it picks up the light(even if theirs barely any) and how much your capable of picking up is the distance of your darkvision use humans have the min i would guess but a wolf which hunts at night id say has 120ft darkvision roughly this is just an example btw
darkvision is the light entering your pupils at night which gives that erie glow and allows you to see into the dark to a certain extent
:)

The rules disagree, since wolves have low-light vision and not darkvision.
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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2009, 01:10:21 AM »
Yeah, that's low-light vision. Darkvision explicitly works even in total darkness, IIRC. Infrared radar or something really DOES sound like the most plausible explanation.
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The_Mad_Linguist

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2009, 01:32:30 AM »
Seeing into the near infrared.  So no seeing through walls or stuff.
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altpersona

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2009, 02:11:30 AM »
if living things emit an energy similar to light but... different... then anywhere someone with darkvision went, they would have a source with them... and due to the weak nature of the transmission it would have a range limitation.. and if its specific characteristics were unique to the individual then no two peoples darkvision sources would overlap. it would work with undead and objects just fine as all matter reflects this dark energy as it would traditional light.
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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2009, 09:48:09 AM »
Lasers is a better solution.

Lasers is also why magic stops it, the magical darkness kills the emitted lasers as well as any normal light shone into the area.

veekie

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Re: How the hell does Darkvision work?
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2009, 10:28:54 AM »
I'm with the Infrared Laser solution, also because it'd penetrate light fabric, but not armor.

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