Feat to grant lowlight vision?

[Angel Tarragon]

I find myself in the dark quite often and find that I can function with the dimmest of light. So I am wondering if it would be unbalancing to allow a DnD feat that grants low light vision to someone that doesn't have it out to 30 feet. Thoughts?

 

[CRGreathouse]

1. While I don't really think it makes sense, it's probably OK for a feat.
2. Low-light vision doesn't have a range (unlike, say, darkvision); it has a multiplier. Elves have standard low-light vision, so it doubles their ability to see in the darkness relative to humans; dragons see 4 times as far as humans in the dark.

 

[Xath]

Wasn't there something similar to this in Unearthed Arcana?

I don't think it's a particularly unbalanced idea for a feat in and of itself, but I question its balancing effects amongst the races. LLV is one of the major benefits of being an elf, for example, and slapping it onto a human might make them a bit unbalanced. Why not write up what you specifically want in a feat?

While you may be able to see in the dark with dim vision, it still takes you eyes a moment or two to adjust to the transition into the new ambiance level. I think part of Low Light Vision is that that ambiance is still well within normal viewing paramaters, and thus requires minimal adjustment.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I don't think it's a particularly unbalanced idea for a feat in and of itself, but I question its balancing effects amongst the races. LLV is one of the major benefits of being an elf, for example, and slapping it onto a human might make them a bit unbalanced. Why not write up what you specifically want in a feat?

A human with this feat has three advantages over elves: +1 skill point per level, bonus language (any), and favored class (any). An elf has weapon proficiencies, an additional automatic language (Elven), elven search, +2 Listen/Search/Spot, sleep immunity, and +2 vs. Enchantment.

That doesn't sound bad. It also doesn't include the elven ability modifiers, but those can be good or bad depending on the character and rolling method.

 

[monboesen]

But it is a very bad deal for the half elf. Thats about the only advantage it has over humans.

And how can a human develop the ability to see in the dark. Its not being able to function, low-light vision is being able to see further in the dark than a human. So if you are in light conditions where you can see maybe 5-10 ft, and thus function an elf can see 10-20 ft. and function better.

Please don't bring up that old "but in real life humans can't cast fireballs either" argument. By RAW there is no precedense for feats to give magical powers.

Needless to say I don't think its a good idea. Buy some goggles if you want to see in the dark. Hell, buy a torch. But don't remove humans sole disadvantage.

 

[Aftersox]

Needless to say I don't think its a good idea. Buy some goggles if you want to see in the dark. Hell, buy a torch. But don't remove humans sole disadvantage.

I agree here. There are a whole lot of ways to get around seeing in the dark other than conjuring up a weird pseudo-magic feat.

 

[TheYeti1775]

Please don't bring up that old "but in real life humans can't cast fireballs either" argument. By RAW there is no precedense for feats to give magical powers.

Look in the Complete Arcane at the Communicator Feat, you can get spell like abilities there.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

And I do believe by the RAW that low-light vision is not a spell like ability. Anyway, I think a couple of people here are forgetting that in order to benefit from low-light vision that there has to be some level of ambiance.

 

[Roman]

I find myself in the dark quite often and find that I can function with the dimmest of light. So I am wondering if it would be unbalancing to allow a DnD feat that grants low light vision to someone that doesn't have it out to 30 feet. Thoughts?

I also find myself able to function rather well in very dim light, but that does not mean either of us can see under conditions of deficient light as well as say a cat... or an elf. Hence, I have a conceptual problem with such a feat. If it does not bother you conceptually, though, than I think mechanically speaking a feat granting low-light vision might be reasonably balanced.