Infravision through the ages: WotC's darkvision

Previously, we talked about infravision and how it was implemented during TSR's reign. It went from a simple power of seeing in the dark to black-n-white visibility to colour thermal imaging with complicated mechanics. In the end, this ability served a variety of gamers, from casual to crunchy. Towards the company's end, TSR attempted to embrace both mechanics, even though the complex one would gain more popularity. This era is also the one I'm most well-versed and feel more comfortable, since Basic and 2e were my starting editions. Me and my early group went through the trouble of incorporating heat vision mechanics, but soon abandoned it in frustration.

When WotC came along and designed the next edition with unified mechanics and modular character customisation in mind, the ability received an overhaul that resembled less the messy, scientific explanation of its direct predecessors and more the traits of its old relatives. Perhaps its biggest change was its name; as it had nothing to do with infrared vision anymore, the term felt redudant and was dropped in favour of darkvision, a new, catchy term that was carried over to our day.

D&D 3rd edition immediately presented this new term, and function, without too much of an explanation as to why. We did receive Sean Reynold's opinion on infravision, though, and why the previous system was such a mess that it begged for rewriting. Judging by the new edition's attempt to simplify and unify various rules and mechanics, I certainly see reason to this. Anyway, in Player's Handbook v3.5 (pg. 14 and 19), we read the following:

Dwarves [or half-orcs] can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and dwarves [or half-orcs] can function just fine with no light at all.

Returning to the roots of OD&D, certain creatures had the ability to see in dark just as if in normal light. D&D 3e went a step further, however, and also presented a new ability called low-light vision, that enabled a creature to see further than a human (twice, to be exact) in, you guessed it, low-light conditions. Most non-human PC races had low-light vision; only dwarfs and half-orcs had darkvision. Checking the Glossary of the same book (pg. 307), we get a line that denotes darkvision as an extraordinary ability that enables whoever possesses it to see in the dark. Extraordinary (Ex) would become one of the few categories of special abilities that were affected by certain abilities, effects and spells, so its definition as extraordinary wasn't chosen randomly. A similar description appears in Dungeon Master's Guide v3.0 (pg. 74-75), along with more details concerning invisible creatures and gaze attacks. For the first time, though, we get notified that the presence of light does not spoil darkvision, contrary to what held true with infravision. Also, we are presented with two neat images of normal sight and darkvision.

Lo and behold, darkvision, in all its glory

D&D 4th edition somewhat retains the ability of darkvision from 3e, but there's no definition as to how things are seen in darkness and, more importantly, up to how far. Moreover, rules in regards to light (or its absence) get crunchier. Now, we have three types of lit areas: brightly lit (daylight), dimly lit (shadowy areas, moonlight), and totally dark. What light condition you find yourself into may affect your character's abilities and functions, depending on which type of vision you employ. In Player's Handbook I (pg. 262) it is stated that only characters with darkvision can see in total darkness without penalty; by its wording alone, it is assumed that darkvision works as normal sight. What's interesting is that no core race now possesses darkvision; instead, they gain either normal or low-light vision, which has been changed to enable characters to see in dimly lit areas as if they were in normal light. That is quite a drastic change of rules, but one to accommodate the edition's new mechanics. Dungeon Master's Guide (pg 67) gives us a better, albeit brief, explanation of the three types of vision, which I quote:

Creatures that have normal vision see normally in areas of bright light. Areas of dim light are lightly obscured. Areas of darkness are totally obscured.

Creatures that have low-light vision see normally in areas of bright and dim light. Areas of darkness are totally obscured.

Darkvision lets creatures see normally regardless of light.

So a creature (not a character anymore) with darkvision can see normally in any light condition. Characters with normal vision can see fine in bright light, but have difficulties in dim light. Characters with low-light vision can see fine in both bright and dim light. All characters suffer penalties when in the dark, which necessitates the use of artificial light. Darkvision now isn't a special mode of vision that switches on whenever light fades away, nor is it hindered by any means of light (artificial or not). Creatures that use darkvision don't seem to notice any differences in light condition - now whether this adds a new twist that cunning adventurers can use to their advantage or not is beyond me, as I haven't yet found any info on such particular occurrence.

D&D 5th edition (the current, as of this writing) reverts back to D&D 3e in some way, regarding the way things are seen with darkvision. As for its function, it is once again overhauled, also adopting some of the rules for light conditions from D&D 4e. As we can read in Player's Handbook (pg 183-184):

Within a specified range, a creature with darkvision can see in darkness as if the darkness were dim light, so areas of darkness are only lightly obscured as far as that creature is concerned. However, the creature can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.

Darkvision gets limited in distance now, which implies that it's an ability activated whenever certain conditions are met. According to the rules, there are three types of light conditions: brightly lit, dimly lit (lightly obscured), and dark (heavily obscured). Creatures in heavily obscured areas cannot see a thing and thus are effectively blinded. Lightly obscured areas only seem to affect your Perception skill, and some abilities allow you to hide. Interestingly, there is no low-light vision any longer; instead, six out of the nine core races now possess darkvision.

As can be plainly seen, darkvision went a long way from when, as infravision, it was just the dividing factor between seeing or not seeing in darkness. It also gained a plethora of mechanics; especially in the two latest editions, light conditions received their distinct set of rules that would affect actions in any given situation. This matches with the perception of post-2000s editions being more technical and precise in their descriptions, most probably to avoid any misconceptions, vagueness, and of course rules abuse. One could notice that the ability of seeing in the dark has changed substantially over the editions but still persists as a trait for various nonhumans that gives them an extra advantage in the absence of light, over humans. Some find it too unrealistic an ability to exist at least amongst the playable races; others fully embrace it as either a gaming or narrative perk (or even both). Whether players like it or not, however, it serves a two-fold purpose: to better manage one's powers and abilities in an otherwise tricky situation (crunch) and to add to the mystifying and exotic nature of nonhumans (fluff). That's also the only common theme that can be perceived throughout all the editions.