Darkvision and Infravision

[Sornjss Lichdom]

Probably spelled wrong, but I was rereading Homeland, and noticed that the drow and everybody else used a heat sensing vision, is this in 2D or somthing, or was it just a made up thing that RA Salvatore did. He is kinda known for bre- hm bending the rules. ty in advance.

[Fax Celestis]

Infravision was an elven feature in 2e. It was replaced with Darkvision (or Low-Light Vision, I always get them confused) in 3e.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Infravision was an elven feature in 2e. It was replaced with Darkvision (or Low-Light Vision, I always get them confused) in 3e.
Elves have low-light vision (though Drow do have Darkvision, which makes more sense for their environment). But Infravision proper was replaced with Darkvision.

By the time I started playing with the revised 2e rules, they were downplaying infravision as "seeing heat," and it pretty much worked like Darkvision does in 3e. However, a good number of novels still referred to it as seeing heat.

[Matthew]

Yup, amusingly, if you have access to the 1e DMG and 3e DMG, you can compare the 'sample dungeon' (the 3e version being a direct update of the 1e version) to see the differences in several facets of the game. Torches spoiling infravision particularly stick out!

[goat]

I prefer infravision. It makes more sense than people being able to read without light.

[Matthew]

Heh, in terms of preferences, I prefer to dump the whole idea of Infravision and Dark Vision.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Darkvision makes better sense for still being able to hide from such creatures, and not having them simply read your heatsign.

Also, you had to "turn on" infravision, Darkvision is always on.

[goat]

Darkvision makes better sense for still being able to hide from such creatures, and not having them simply read your heatsign.

Well, to hide from a creature with darkvision, you need to find cover. Shadows can't work, you're in the dark after all. Depending on how accurate infravision is, thin cover might be enough to mask your heat signature.

Of course, it does raise issues about how warm various dungeon dwellers are. There'd be a distinct advantage to having cool skin if your caves were inhabited by heat-seeking predators.