New guy with a few D&D 3.5 edition questions

[eyebreaker7]

Hello all. 1st post. Hope it's all OK.

D&D 3.5 edition questions

1: Is there any way to increase the range of your darkvision? (Most creatures say “Darkvision out to 60 feet.”. Drow & Duergar say “Darkvision out to 120 feet.”. Deep Dwarf says “Darkvision out to 90 feet.”. The 2 dwarves entry also say “Light Sensitivity: they are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.” and the Drow entry also says “Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds drow for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.” but I don't see any reason for the range to effect their light sensitivity. Also all dragons have “darkvision out to 120 feet.” but no light sensitivity like the other examples.

1.5: Why isn't your darkvision range the same as your normal vision?

2: What language is Terran? (Gargoyles speak Common and Terran.)

3: Any way to increase your flight maneuverability?

4: Is a vampire in gaseous form still effected in the same way with regard to sunlight and running water? “Gaseous Form (Su): As a standard action, a vampire can assume gaseous form at will as the spell (caster level 5th), but it can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.
“However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight disorients it: It can take only a single move action or attack action and is destroyed utterly in the next round if it cannot escape. Similarly, immersing a vampire in running water robs it of one-third of its hit points each round until it is destroyed at the end of the third round of immersion.”

5: Can any class use a rod, staff or wand? I don't see anything saying a cleric can't use a staff of power for example.
“Activation: wands/staffs/rods use the spell trigger activation method.” What is a “spell trigger”? Does that mean you have to normally be able to cast the spell?

6: Would it be dangerous or disrespectful to name your character after a god (yours or another)? {Scrubbed} How is it played in D&D?

I had more questions but they are opinion related and the RAW says not to ask them.

[Zarrgon]

1.Yes, there is a feat somewhere that increases your darkvision range, plus at least one prestige class has that ability too. Range has nothing to do with light sensitivity or darkvision.

2.As with most special abilities it has a limit.

3.Yes, again feats and prestige classes can do this.

4.Yes.

5.No. Both Wands and Staffs are spell completion magic items: your class must have the spell in question on their spell list to use. Rods are a bit more case by case, though many are anyone can use.

6.It's fine.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by eyebreaker7
2: What language is Terran? (Gargoyles speak Common and Terran.)

Terran is the language of earth elementals and other earth-related creatures. Gargoyles aren't actually made of stone, but apparently they're stone-ish enough to speak Terran.

For more on languages, take a look at p. 82 of the 3.5 Player's Handbook, aka the PHB.

[vasilidor]

1.yes, there are feats and prestige classes that do this very thing. a good place to look would be in lords of madness.
1.5 none that make sense to me, beyond archaic notions of "game balance".
2. terran is the language from the elemental plane of earth.
3. tentative yes, but i cannot think of anything offhand.
4. yes, it is still vulnerable to those things.
5. no, not without the skill use magic device.
6. it varies.

[Afghanistan]

Yes, Improved Darkvision (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#improvedDarkvision). It is a very bad feat, however you can take a look at this (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?287920-3-5-Max-Darkvision-Range) thread for additional resources.
Because it isn't? I'm not sure myself.
Terran is the language of Earth Elementals and Dwarves. You can learn more about Terran (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/speakLanguage.htm) here.
Yes, there are several feats and a magic item: Improved Maneuverability (Draconomicon), Improved Flight (Races of the Wild), and the Pectorals of Flight (Draconomicon).
A Vampire is still vulnerable to it's weaknesses while in Gaseous Form if memory serves.
You're going to want to look at the activation conditions for magic items. You can find that in the SRD (https://www.d20srd.org/indexes/magicItems.htm), however any class can theoretically use any magic item unless stated otherwise. For example, here are the rules for "Spell Trigger" items, per the SRD:

Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it’s even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell. (This is the case even for a character who can’t actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin.) The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.
However, you can get over knowing the spell by making a Use Magic Device (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/useMagicDevice.htm) check.
I imagine it would be just as weird if a person were named {Scrubbed}, something that is noticed the first time, met with a bit of confusion, and then treated as an everyday thing. So suffice to say, not weird at all. Name yourself Vecna Boccob-Kyuss Hextorschmidt, as long as your group and GM don't mind, you should be in the clear :smalltongue:

[eyebreaker7]

Thank you all. It's a great help :)

[tyckspoon]

.. Vecna Boccob-Kyuss Hextorschmidt,


Of the West Waterdeep Hextorschmidts, obviously. Very old and prestigious family, been raising double-digit level adventurers for nearly a year! Not like those nouveau-leveled Baldur's Gate Hextorschmidts. Barely had a level 20 for a month. I tell you you get one village farmboy slaying the shadowy spirit of a dark god and suddenly they think they can establish an adventuring dynasty.. bah!

[AvatarVecna]

1: Is there any way to increase the range of your darkvision? (Most creatures say “Darkvision out to 60 feet.”. Drow & Duergar say “Darkvision out to 120 feet.”. Deep Dwarf says “Darkvision out to 90 feet.”. The 2 dwarves entry also say “Light Sensitivity: they are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.” and the Drow entry also says “Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds drow for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.” but I don't see any reason for the range to effect their light sensitivity. Also all dragons have “darkvision out to 120 feet.” but no light sensitivity like the other examples.

1.5: Why isn't your darkvision range the same as your normal vision?

Okay so this is a few questions combined. Let's break it up a bit:

There's an epic feat (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/epic/feats.htm#improvedDarkvision) that doubles your darkvision range. The downside is, this isn't available to most characters since it's epic content. The upside is, darkvision range is measured in feet (a realworld measurement) so while the feat says it abides by the usual "two doublings is a tripling" rule 3.5 has about multipliers, that general rule doesn't actually apply in this case. It's still probably not worth spending an epic feat on, though.

There are some prestige classes, and some monster templates, that stack darkvision range, but they're generally obscure or costly to acquire.

The spell Ebon Eyes (from Spell Compendium) is a 1st lvl spell for Clerics, Sorcerers, and Wizards that lets you see normally in darkness (magical or otherwise) for 10 minutes per caster level, with no downsides like some races have. Yes, this means casters can just do this thing better than noncasters. Welcome to 3.5 that's kinda just how things are.

It's purely a matter of fluff, where the mechanics aren't selected due to balance reasons necessarily, but for story reasons. Many races (like dwarves and gnomes) live underground near the surface, and have adapted to see in the dark but are just fine out in the daylight. Some races naturally live further underground, so their darkvision is better but their eyes are extremely sensitive to light (some more than others).

And then some monsters can naturally see in the dark with no downsides, such as dragons. Yes, dragons are better than people. Welcome to 3.5 that's kinda just how things are.

No idea. It's probably to prevent people from just seeing super-far at night even if they have darkvision, so it's effectively a balance point, but it's a weird thing to balance around.


2: What language is Terran? (Gargoyles speak Common and Terran.)

Terran the language of Earth Elementals and similar creatures made of dirt/stone/mud/etc. There are similar languages for the other three classical elements: Aquan for Water Elementals, Auran for Air Elementals, and Ignan for Fire Elementals.


3: Any way to increase your flight maneuverability?

The feat Improved Flight (from Races Of The Wild) requires a natural fly speed, and improves your maneuverability by one step.

The feat Improved Flight (from Complete Adventurer) requires the ability to fly (naturally, magically, via shapechanging, or otherwise). It improves your maneuverability by one step.

The feat Improved Maneuverability (from Draconomicon) requires Hover, Wingover, and fly speed 150 ft. It improves your maneuverability by one step. Yes this means that by default it's kinda limited to dragons that specialize in flying because most creatures just don't have fly speeds that fast - most cap at 120. Yes, this means dragons are better than people. :smalltongue:

The spell Aerial Alacrity (from Races Of The Wild) is a 4th lvl Sorcerer/Wizard spell that improves maneuverability by one step, improves flight speed by 30 ft, and gives +1 AC/Reflex while airborne. It lasts 1 minute per caster level.

The spell Wings Of Air (from Spell Compendium) is a Druid/Sorcerer/Wizard 2nd lvl spell that improves maneuverability by one step for 1 minute per caster level.

The spell Greater Wings Of Air (from Spell Compendium) is a Druid/Sorcerer/Wizard 4th lvl spell that improves maneuverability by two steps for 1 minute per caster level.


4: Is a vampire in gaseous form still effected in the same way with regard to sunlight and running water? “Gaseous Form (Su): As a standard action, a vampire can assume gaseous form at will as the spell (caster level 5th), but it can remain gaseous indefinitely and has a fly speed of 20 feet with perfect maneuverability.
“However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight disorients it: It can take only a single move action or attack action and is destroyed utterly in the next round if it cannot escape. Similarly, immersing a vampire in running water robs it of one-third of its hit points each round until it is destroyed at the end of the third round of immersion.”

A vampire who is currently in direct sunlight is incapable of using their Gaseous Form ability. It stands to reason that, if they used the ability and then flew into a space lit by sunlight, they would be similarly indisposed.


5: Can any class use a rod, staff or wand? I don't see anything saying a cleric can't use a staff of power for example.
“Activation: wands/staffs/rods use the spell trigger activation method.” What is a “spell trigger”? Does that mean you have to normally be able to cast the spell?

"Spell trigger activation is similar to spell completion, but it’s even simpler. No gestures or spell finishing is needed, just a special knowledge of spellcasting that an appropriate character would know, and a single word that must be spoken. Anyone with a spell on his or her spell list knows how to use a spell trigger item that stores that spell. (This is the case even for a character who can’t actually cast spells, such as a 3rd-level paladin.) The user must still determine what spell is stored in the item before she can activate it. Activating a spell trigger item is a standard action and does not provoke attacks of opportunity."

The skill "Use Magic Device" lets somebody who couldn't normally operate such magic items attempt to use them.


6: Would it be dangerous or disrespectful to name your character after a god (yours or another)? {Scrub the post, scrub the quote} How is it played in D&D?

There's nothing wrong with playing a character inspired by, or even being a blatant expy of, a religious figure. At least not as far as the system and the general D&D community are concerned. Some people will have issue with it, some won't, and it's probably gonna be one of those things that you need to check with whatever group you're playing with (among other things).

However, you may wish to refer to the forum rules (https://forums.giantitp.com/announcement.php?a=1) to see if it runs afoul of this particular community's guidelines, and maybe ask about it in the Board/Site Issues (https://forums.giantitp.com/forumdisplay.php?25-Board-Site-Issues) sub-forum if you think what you're wanting to do would fall in a gray area.


I had more questions but they are opinion related and the RAW says not to ask them.

That stipulation is specifically about the RAW Questions thread. If you have a straightforward question about rules of the game and how they work by default without DM interpretation, the RAW Questions thread is the place to ask. If you have questions that are leaning more towards opinion (things like "is a mad scientist better built as a wizard or an artificer" or "does playing paladin really require me to be the fun police" or "monk doesnt suck change my mind") can be asked by making new threads.

[el minster]

1.5 The way things would work in real life, especially in regards to magic, is not the way things will work in game. You'll find more examples as you learn about the game.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Most creatures say “Darkvision out to 60 feet.”. Drow & Duergar say “Darkvision out to 120 feet.”. Deep Dwarf says “Darkvision out to 90 feet.”. The 2 dwarves entry also say “Light Sensitivity: they are dazzled in bright sunlight or within the radius of a daylight spell.” and the Drow entry also says “Light Blindness: Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds drow for 1 round. On subsequent rounds, they are dazzled as long as they remain in the affected area.” but I don't see any reason for the range to effect their light sensitivity. Also all dragons have “darkvision out to 120 feet.” but no light sensitivity like the other examples.

1.5: Why isn't your darkvision range the same as your normal vision?


Many races (like dwarves and gnomes) live underground near the surface, and have adapted to see in the dark but are just fine out in the daylight. Some races naturally live further underground, so their darkvision is better but their eyes are extremely sensitive to light (some more than others).

And then some monsters can naturally see in the dark with no downsides, such as dragons. Yes, dragons are better than people. Welcome to 3.5 that's kinda just how things are.
[...]
No idea. It's probably to prevent people from just seeing super-far at night even if they have darkvision, so it's effectively a balance point, but it's a weird thing to balance around.

The reason darkvision seems a bit inconsistent is that it's a 3e conversion of a different concept. In AD&D it was two related vaguely-scientific vision modes, Infravision (seeing into the infrared portion of the spectrum, which was spoiled by nearby heat sources giving off infrared light) and Ultravision (seeing into the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, which was spoiled by nearby magical light sources, which gave off magical radiation that produced ultraviolet light as a side effect).

Infravision was further broken up into passive infravision (the version possessed by most humanoid races, where you can just detect ambient heat, and exposure to strong heat sources would overwhelm your infravision but leave your normal vision unharmed) and active infravision (the version possessed by most monsters, where you emit your own heat and see with a sort of infrared LIDAR system, and exposure to strong heat sources would harm your normal vision as well because your eyes are extra-sensitive to low ambient light kind of like someone who got their pupils dilated).

Because all three versions relied on non-visible-light illumination rather than being just "you see everything in black and white because magic," your normal vision and infra-/ultravision ranges didn't line up, so 3e darkvision doesn't line up either. In general, races and monsters in 3e that have Darkvision + Light Sensitivity are those that previously had active infravision while those that just have Darkvision previously had passive infravision, with longer ranges correlating with active infravision and/or ultravision. It's not an exact correspondence--for instance, 3e dragons have 120-foot darkvision which would map to 120-foot active infravision and thus imply Light Sensitivity/Blindness, but 1e dragons only had 60-foot passive infravision and 3e just bumped their range up for whatever reason--just a holistic means of converting and condensing different modes, ranges, and quirks to 1e's standard set of abilities.

[nijineko]

The reason darkvision seems a bit inconsistent is that it's a 3e conversion of a different concept. In AD&D it was two related vaguely-scientific vision modes, Infravision (seeing into the infrared portion of the spectrum, which was spoiled by nearby heat sources giving off infrared light) and Ultravision (seeing into the ultraviolet portion of the spectrum, which was spoiled by nearby magical light sources, which gave off magical radiation that produced ultraviolet light as a side effect).

Infravision was further broken up into passive infravision (the version possessed by most humanoid races, where you can just detect ambient heat, and exposure to strong heat sources would overwhelm your infravision but leave your normal vision unharmed) and active infravision (the version possessed by most monsters, where you emit your own heat and see with a sort of infrared LIDAR system, and exposure to strong heat sources would harm your normal vision as well because your eyes are extra-sensitive to low ambient light kind of like someone who got their pupils dilated).

Because all three versions relied on non-visible-light illumination rather than being just "you see everything in black and white because magic," your normal vision and infra-/ultravision ranges didn't line up, so 3e darkvision doesn't line up either. In general, races and monsters in 3e that have Darkvision + Light Sensitivity are those that previously had active infravision while those that just have Darkvision previously had passive infravision, with longer ranges correlating with active infravision and/or ultravision. It's not an exact correspondence--for instance, 3e dragons have 120-foot darkvision which would map to 120-foot active infravision and thus imply Light Sensitivity/Blindness, but 1e dragons only had 60-foot passive infravision and 3e just bumped their range up for whatever reason--just a holistic means of converting and condensing different modes, ranges, and quirks to 1e's standard set of abilities.

And I recall it being a pain back in the day, since both infravision and ultravision had shorter ranges for playable races than for monsters... so they still spotted you first in the dungeons and caves and forests....

[PairO'Dice Lost]

And I recall it being a pain back in the day, since both infravision and ultravision had shorter ranges for playable races than for monsters... so they still spotted you first in the dungeons and caves and forests....

Yep, the default rule was that passive infravision had ranges of 60' or below while active darkvision was longer than 60'. There was one perk to passive infravision, though: the eyes of any creature using active infravision glowed a bright red to passive infravision, so if you were sneaky you could actually see monsters coming from that alone.