Darkvision: Keeps You Up at Night

Usable By: Artificer, Druid, Ranger, Sorcerer, Wizard

Spell Level: 2

School: Transmutation

Casting Time: 1 action

Range: Touch

Duration: 8 hours

Components: V, S, M (either a pinch of dried carrot or an agate)

You touch a willing creature to grant it the ability to see in the dark. For the duration, that creature has darkvision out to a range of 60 feet.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

I’m going to rip this Band-Aid off right at the beginning: Darkvision is going to be terrible at the vast majority of tables. You’re trading a 2nd level spell for a racial trait nearly half the race roster already has that mitigates a problem commonly mitigated by a copper costed piece of material in a myriad of adventuring packs. Beyond its actual practical applications, in games where it would matter, the reality of modern D&D is delving into utter darkness is becoming less and less common. Darkvision, as a racial trait, is looked at more as flavorful than functional. That comes down to a fundamental game design challenge RPGs have that can’t easily be changed: metagaming.

A party of four characters will usually have about two characters with racial darkvision assuming all races are picked randomly. When describing what player’s see, everyone is usually going to hear the descriptor of the environment because at least one other party member is receiving that information. They know the layout of the room they’re entering into because they have another person there that knows. This immediately causes internal problems that require people to think through the obnoxious process of “what would my character know, and how does knowing the environment affect how I perceive what they’re perception would be?” Commonly, player’s will just move forward as if they can see the space like the other characters with darkvision, and often that’s the DM’s preferred outcome. Darkness tends to be a thematic backdrop for setting mood or establishing danger. You still want the monsters in the dark to be the main event, and don’t really want to sit for fifteen minutes while player’s debate if lighting a torch is worth it when the enemies down here with darkvision can sense them regardless to navigate a space you’ve already established. You can get a lot of hassle for “great, now everyone sees the things I’ve already described as I described them”. Huzzah.

Darkvision the spell doesn’t really resolve or assist any of these issues- it just opens up the party to have one more character who can do the thing half the party already could do. Rarely you’ll come upon moments where a single character without darkvision has to delve alone into darkness, and care that the darkness remains dark. In those moments, Darkvision could be helpful. But that’s really the only situation where it's helpful.

I think the entire light system is aimed for games looking to replicate older methods of play that 5e is abandoning moving forward. Old style dungeon crawls where the expectation is to optimize every element of travel with distinct and complex tables and rules for being overseen, overheard, and the values and penalties of varying quantities of light levels are where this system has the most merit, and where Darkvision (the spell) could belong. In modern 5e, I can’t ever be excited to cast this, nor do I want to deal with the hassle of making environments specifically void of light that need to stay dark that justifies this spell’s use. All of these factors make Darkvision a spell that serves no real purpose, and isn’t ever going to be worth the 2nd level slot it requires.

5e Spells

Darkvision: Keeps You Up at Night