"target appears to be half as far from you"

[SangoProduction]

I know one of the items I saw in a book had the title's phrase, or at least said "twice as close"...can't remember where though.

But, just assume that phrase is on Magic Item X. With that wording, does that mean, as far as the target you're looking at is concerned, your dark vision / whatever-vision is double range while using MTX, due to it "appearing to be closer"?

[ExperimentAlpha]

I'd need to see the item entry itself, but IMO it doesn't say that it makes your darkvision, blindsight, etc any further, just makes things you see appear twice as close. In no way does that really extend your vision in my opinion, just lets you see the number of scratches the barbarian put on his sword hilt before he charges at you as opposed to after.

[Uncle Pine]

"T. rexes in the mirror are closer than they appear."

If they don't appear in the mirror (or in this case, on your retina) they can't look closer, because they aren't there.

[Necroticplague]

It doesn't intrinsically do anything. The item might have some other effect that clarified the benefits of that, but without such listing, there is none. Maybe a lessened spot check to see it (because the penalties for distance aren't as big), but nothing else unless it said so.

[nerghull]

Anyway, that would be the mundante spy glass.

[Jowgen]

It is the spyglass, and the most reasonable explanation I've heard for what it does is to reduce spot distance penalties to -1 per 20 ft, as opposed to -10 per 10 ft

[Duke of Urrel]

The drawback with spyglasses is that you have to point one in exactly the right direction and focus it at exactly the right distance before you can see something magnified. For example, if there's a buffalo way out near the horizon on an open plain, you can use a spyglass to see it clearly, but you have to point it directly at the buffalo first and then adjust it to see the buffalo clearly in focus. You basically need to spot the buffalo before you use the spyglass. Scanning the horizon with a spyglass focused at a random distance does little good, because if you don't know how far away the buffalo is and you focus the spyglass wrong, you'll see the buffalo only as a blur through it.

That's not to say spyglasses are useless. For example, once you've spotted a pirate ship on the horizon, you can use the spyglass to see how big it is and to estimate the size of its crew.

I'm not sure what effect this has, or should have, on Spot checks.