The Phantom Fungus: A blind creature?

[Albions_Angel]

Hi all.

So reading MM I, and I encounter the Phantom Fungus. Cool little CR3 creature. Lives underground. Has greater invisibility that cant be dispelled. Bites people.

But something struck me as really weird. Its an underground creature. It lives in caves, or the underdark, or places like that. And yet it only has low light vision. Not even blindsence or tremorsense.

Now sure, the party it finds can, mechanically, kill it, and it can, 9 times out of 10, kill them too (they usually have some light source so it will see them).

But out of game, how the hell is it going to find food?! How does it even get around?! It just doesnt make sense.

[BowStreetRunner]

If it lives near creatures that possess bio-luminescence then they would create enough light by which it could see its prey. Seriously, these creatures weren't invented by any sort of biologists. Don't get too caught up in theses sorts of details if it is going to derail your ability to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy a game.

[Psyren]

It looks like Paizo agrees with you, because the PF version (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/plants/fungus-phantom) has blindsight and tremorsense.

They also got double HP and a climb speed. All for the same CR. Yikes! At least the invisibility was slightly nerfed.

[Albions_Angel]

I guess it could have some sort of dark vision that is functional enough for it to move around, but when it comes to combat (ie, rapidly changing situations and over distances of more than 10 feet) it has "functional low light". I think it should have blindsense though. I wont make it have it, but when the description says it has "sensory organs" and not "eyes", I think we can assume it doesnt see in the conventional way. (though the conventional way would open up a whole can of worms in the "can an invisible creature actually see anything if photons pass through it?")

[Psyren]

I guess it could have some sort of dark vision that is functional enough for it to move around, but when it comes to combat (ie, rapidly changing situations and over distances of more than 10 feet) it has "functional low light". I think it should have blindsense though. I wont make it have it, but when the description says it has "sensory organs" and not "eyes", I think we can assume it doesnt see in the conventional way. (though the conventional way would open up a whole can of worms in the "can an invisible creature actually see anything if photons pass through it?")

Considering that darkvision means there are no photons at all, is now really the time to bring up physics in D&D? :smalltongue:

[DrMotives]

Considering that darkvision means there are no photons at all, is now really the time to bring up physics in D&D? :smalltongue:

There's less physics than there used to be. Everything with darkvision in 3.x had "infravision" in previous editions, so that ability was specifically seeing heat. That made undead more dangerous in the Underdark, as even the native races couldn't find them without a light source.

[Psyren]

There's less physics than there used to be. Everything with darkvision in 3.x had "infravision" in previous editions, so that ability was specifically seeing heat. That made undead more dangerous in the Underdark, as even the native races couldn't find them without a light source.

Oh I'm aware, but that doesn't change anything now. 3.5 is what it is.