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View Full Version : Light Sensitivity: How to counter?



GimliFett
2008-01-28, 10:29 AM
I thought I read about something along the lines of sunglasses for the orcs of the Shadow Marches in Eberron, but I can't seem to find the reference.
Could someone help me out?

I'm also interested in any other counters to Light Sensitivity. I know Forgotten Realms has a Daylight Adaptation feat, but I dunno if it's been updated to 3.5 or if it's available anywhere other than FR books...
Thanks, y'all!

Project_Mayhem
2008-01-28, 10:49 AM
I got away with riddick-style black tinted goggles for my Eberron Kobold artificer:smallcool:

Lord Lorac Silvanos
2008-01-28, 11:01 AM
Races of the Dragon has the equivalent of Kobold sunglasses.

GimliFett
2008-01-28, 11:09 AM
Races of the Dragon has the equivalent of Kobold sunglasses.

Sundark Goggles. Thanks, Lord Silvanos!

@Project Mayhem: Riddick the Kobold? Scary! :smallbiggrin:

Ninja Chocobo
2008-01-28, 02:36 PM
You could use Iron Heart Surge.
That'll either remove your Light Sensitivity or extinguish the sun.

Theli
2008-01-28, 02:38 PM
Light Sensitivity doesn't have a listed duration. :p

So no... no badly worded light extinguishing for your kobold.

GimliFett
2008-01-28, 02:41 PM
I plan on havin' a Duergar character at some point. A rebel against the usual oppression. Just workin' on details so I know how to build him when the moment's right...

kamikasei
2008-01-28, 02:45 PM
You could use Iron Heart Surge.
That'll either remove your Light Sensitivity or extinguish the sun.

Or cause your eyes to 'splode...

Ulrichomega
2008-01-28, 02:56 PM
What exactly does that do?

And sunglasses should work. If your DM's a real fanatic, plan on suncreen too.

Prometheus
2008-01-28, 03:08 PM
Cast invisibility. Apparently the light rays are passing through you unaffected, so then how could they harm you?...*sigh* somehow that doesn't work for Spectres.

Enguhl
2008-01-28, 03:35 PM
Sundark glasses I believe. Prevents penalties due to sunlight and gives a -2 on spot.

Artanis
2008-01-28, 03:41 PM
I think it's in the ECS book, in the section about Orclandia (whatever they call it). It's been a while though, so I'm not 100%.

Jack_Simth
2008-01-28, 05:25 PM
You could also just pick up something to counter the penalties - it's just -1 on attack rolls, Search checks, and Spot checks.

The_Snark
2008-01-28, 05:47 PM
Sandstorm has sun lenses, which prevent you from being dazzled. You'll still be blinded when you first go outside, but that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Duergar with sunglasses. Fun.

shaggz076
2008-01-28, 05:48 PM
Ok you guys are making it way too tough here. Just take the feat Daylight Adaption. Problem solved.

The_Snark
2008-01-28, 05:51 PM
Ok you guys are making it way too tough here. Just take the feat Daylight Adaption. Problem solved.

Daylight Adaptation takes up a precious feat.

Sun lenses and sundark goggles take up 10 gp, and as a bonus you have an excuse for your D&D character to wear sunglasses at all times.

shaggz076
2008-01-28, 05:54 PM
Daylight Adaptation takes up a precious feat.

Sun lenses and sundark goggles take up 10 gp, and as a bonus you have an excuse for your D&D character to wear sunglasses at all times.

Until you get captured and have all your stuff taken away. Then your sitting in the cell saying damn I wish I had taken Daylight adaption... The sun through yonder window is F'ing bright!

SurlySeraph
2008-01-28, 09:23 PM
I plan on havin' a Duergar character at some point. A rebel against the usual oppression. Just workin' on details so I know how to build him when the moment's right...

Heh, I played a Duergar paladin in an Underdark campaign. He was fanatically loyal to his home city despite its evil and as non-angsty as you can get. Since he was useful against the Drow and never did anything illegal or even reprehensible except for annoying everyone, he didn't get exiled. Subversions of the Drizzt archetype are fun!

kemmotar
2008-01-28, 09:48 PM
Have you thought about blindfold of true darkness? It only costs 9000gp and it gives you blindsense 60ft...since your eyes are covered you don't get any penalties from light sensitivity and you can still spot and search within 60ft since you can still "see" ...ofc this also adds quite a bit of power..invisibility and illusions don't threaten you anymore...

Dullyanna
2008-01-28, 09:57 PM
@kemmotar:that sounds cool, but it costs 450 times as much as the fantastical sunglasses, thus it ain't a viable option at early levels.

Jack_Simth
2008-01-28, 10:17 PM
Have you thought about blindfold of true darkness? It only costs 9000gp and it gives you blindsense 60ft...since your eyes are covered you don't get any penalties from light sensitivity and you can still spot and search within 60ft since you can still "see" ...ofc this also adds quite a bit of power..invisibility and illusions don't threaten you anymore...
Yes, but archers or anyone who uses spells with a range of longer than "Close" (and even those, if they're Enlarged) in open terrain is targeting your flat-footed AC and getting a bonus to the roll besides (unless you've got Uncanny Dodge) as you're blind with respect to them.

LibraryOgre
2008-01-28, 11:14 PM
You could use Iron Heart Surge.
That'll either remove your Light Sensitivity or extinguish the sun.

That's hilarious. Not actually gonna work, but hilarious.

LibraryOgre
2008-01-28, 11:16 PM
You could use Iron Heart Surge.
That'll either remove your Light Sensitivity or extinguish the sun.

That's hilarious. Not actually gonna work, but hilarious.

Voyager_I
2008-01-28, 11:31 PM
Until you get captured and have all your stuff taken away. Then your sitting in the cell saying damn I wish I had taken Daylight adaption... The sun through yonder window is F'ing bright!

I think I'll take my precious, precious feat over a very minor and situational risk of being slightly penalized after having been imprisoned by the sunglasses collecting Wizard in the Dungeon of Airy, Spacious Architecture and Uncomfortably Bright Lighting. Heck, I'd rather take Spell Focus: Evocation.

They cost 10 gp. If you're that worried, just dump twenty of them in your Handy Haversack.

Voyager_I
2008-01-28, 11:36 PM
Until you get captured and have all your stuff taken away. Then your sitting in the cell saying damn I wish I had taken Daylight adaption... The sun through yonder window is F'ing bright!

I think I'll take my precious, precious feat over a very minor and situational risk of being slightly penalized after having been imprisoned by the sunglasses collecting Wizard in the Dungeon of Airy, Spacious Architecture and Uncomfortably Bright Lighting. Heck, I'd rather take Spell Focus: Evocation.

They cost 10 gp. If you're that worried, just dump twenty of them in your Handy Haversack.

The_Snark
2008-01-28, 11:58 PM
Until you get captured and have all your stuff taken away. Then your sitting in the cell saying damn I wish I had taken Daylight adaption... The sun through yonder window is F'ing bright!

If they've confiscated even nonmagical sunglasses, -1 to attack rolls is the least of your worries...

Ah, rebellious members of traditionally evil races. I had a drow character once who took to the surface because she preferred living in a place where most people weren't as cutthroat as she was. (Well, she originally left because of an incident involving the church of Lolth, but that was why she stayed on the surface.)

Talic
2008-01-29, 03:48 AM
Until you get captured and have all your stuff taken away. Then your sitting in the cell saying damn I wish I had taken Daylight adaption... The sun through yonder window is F'ing bright!

If you're trapped in a prison, I think that the -1 penalty is hardly your largest concern. :smallbiggrin:


They cost 10 gp. If you're that worried, just dump twenty of them in your Handy Haversack.

And let the Martha Stewart of prison design KNOW you're not adapted to daylight!? Tsk Tsk.

Leon
2008-01-29, 07:20 AM
Stay in the dark

Project_Mayhem
2008-01-29, 07:29 AM
For my afore-mentioned character, I just spoke to my DM and we agreed Kobolds were cool but a bit under powered, so he houseruled that if you spend a while outside, you get used to it.

I said, If you're going to let me get away with it anyway can I have free goggles instead.

He said, Yes, but if you start quoting Pitch Black, Dragons come and kill you

Yay. I've avoided temptation so far.

ZeroNumerous
2008-01-29, 07:55 AM
Ah, rebellious members of traditionally evil races. I had a drow character once who took to the surface because she preferred living in a place where most people weren't as cutthroat as she was. (Well, she originally left because of an incident involving the church of Lolth, but that was why she stayed on the surface.)

Sundark Goggles. Races of the Dragon. Equipment section. It's been mentioned, but they're infinitely cheaper than a feat to get rid of measly -1 to attack rolls.

Drow: This is why my drow(a xen'drik native) is still a murderous self-involved bastard. Because all other drow are Chaotic Good whiners. :smalltongue:

Riffington
2008-01-29, 08:05 AM
The sunglasses also require the DM to buy into something that makes no sense.

First off, glasses of any kind (even goggles) require you to lose a certain amount of peripheral vision. This is why fighter pilots can't need glasses. Wearing sunglasses should impose a -1 to melee attacks, AC, and spot checks (but get you out of the search and ranged attack penalties).

Second, for sunglasses to actually help implies that your problem is that your eyes can't filter out excess light. That you've evolved to use all the light you can get... in other words, that you have superb low-light vision. Yet the races with Light Sensitivity don't. They have Darkvision instead, which doesn't rely on light collection at all. If they've developed some vision flaws from millenia of light deprivation, why would this necessarily take the form of failure to constrict the pupils?

Third, why would you even bother putting a nonsensical disadvantage into your game, and then allow an obscure yet cheap-and-convenient cure?

Project_Mayhem
2008-01-29, 08:39 AM
Third, why would you even bother putting a nonsensical disadvantage into your game, and then allow an obscure yet cheap-and-convenient cure?

Errr... because it looks badass?

GimliFett
2008-01-29, 10:50 AM
Errr... because it looks badass?

Yeah. And as far as my duergar character goes, I didn't say he was a goody-goody whiner or anything like that. Just that he doesn't like the oppressive nature of his culture and has been exiled or outcast or left on his own (dunno which yet).

ZeroNumerous
2008-01-29, 10:57 AM
A Bunch of Stuff

Because the Sundark Goggle entry says it negates Light Sensitivity?

Theli
2008-01-29, 11:06 AM
Because the Sundark Goggle entry says it negates Light Sensitivity?

Some people need this little thing called "verisimilitude" as justification, rather than just accept everything that WotC publishes as valid. :p

Project_Mayhem
2008-01-29, 11:43 AM
Some people need this little thing called "verisimilitude" as justification, rather than just accept everything that WotC publishes as valid. :p

I see your point, but the way I look at it is; OK, it may not be entirely realistic to say that wearing a pair of darkened goggles entirely negates a species weakness to bright light without any penalties, but

1) It made the character more playable with less micro managing off ''well how bright is it now - how about now - now?"

2) It fitted with the character concept - he was an artificer with all sorts of little mechanical gizmos and creations

3) He looked badass

Theli
2008-01-29, 11:54 AM
Not saying I personally have a problem with it, though I might.

It might require some minorly magical shades to work properly, and I'm not familiar with the items provided so far.

Project_Mayhem
2008-01-29, 12:47 PM
meh, the point I'm making is that we just made something up and were done with it. No feat expenditure, no splat books, just ''yeah you can start with something like that''

Theli
2008-01-29, 12:49 PM
Again, I'm really not trying to complain. :p It's your game after all.

Devils_Advocate
2008-02-04, 11:10 PM
Second, for sunglasses to actually help implies that your problem is that your eyes can't filter out excess light. That you've evolved to use all the light you can get... in other words, that you have superb low-light vision. Yet the races with Light Sensitivity don't. They have Darkvision instead, which doesn't rely on light collection at all. If they've developed some vision flaws from millenia of light deprivation, why would this necessarily take the form of failure to constrict the pupils?
Because evolution tends to eliminate the unnecessary? A biological structure that doesn't perform a useful function just needlessly consume resources. Do you think that we don't have tails because they'd get in the way or something?

Granted, millennia wouldn't be nearly enough to account for this if D&D obeyed anything like the real world laws of biology. But then, it pretty clearly doesn't.

How are you arguing that specifically being sensitive to bright light wouldn't be negated by sunglasses? Isn't looking through sunglasses pretty much the same as the lighting being dimmer as far as what's actually happening to your eyes is concerned?


Third, why would you even bother putting a nonsensical disadvantage into your game, and then allow an obscure yet cheap-and-convenient cure?
I'm not seeing how it's nonsensical. I'd allow the cure because I don't think it's unbalanced, and it makes sense to me that light-sensitive races would develop it. I do not intuit that it should be easier to produce magical flaming swords than tinted goggles. Maybe it's just me.

Talic
2008-02-05, 01:21 AM
Because evolution tends to eliminate the unnecessary? A biological structure that doesn't perform a useful function just needlessly consume resources. Do you think that we don't have tails because they'd get in the way or something?

Three Words: Appendix and Tonsils.

Patashu
2008-02-05, 02:58 AM
Three Words: Appendix and Tonsils.

The appendix isn't useless enough to be selected against, I guess.

Theli
2008-02-05, 03:21 AM
Aye, the appendix seems to have had a use in helping people recover from serious destructive diseases. (Diseases which could absolutely destroy much of the bacteria that people need to efficiently digest food... The appendix supposedly serves to reintroduce this bacteria after such a disease has passed.)

raygungothic
2008-02-05, 06:05 AM
I don't mind partial disadvantage mitigation by equipment, in principle. Swapping Light Sensitivity for poor peripheral vision and a fragile piece of equipment seems almost harsh, in fact!

Starbuck_II
2008-02-05, 11:37 AM
Because evolution tends to eliminate the unnecessary? A biological structure that doesn't perform a useful function just needlessly consume resources. Do you think that we don't have tails because they'd get in the way or something?


That is actually not the whole story.
Evolution is just populations changing over time. It can add unneccesary just as easily as remove them: depending on who mates with who.

Evolution is not that focused to eliminate stuff.

It just so happens that humans didn't mate with tail humans so we don't usually have them (though some people do develop them).

The appendix is helpful: but with technology not as needed as before. But still needed biologically (biologial doesn't factor technology).