Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Dark Vision is OP or Normal vision is to Gimp

Darkvision only goes so far, most of the races with it only go up to 12. So ya, you are correct. I broke it down above, but truthfully it would of been easier just to do a small vid and post it : /

Can I make a mutant drow who lacks darkvision? Or do I have to resign myself that my character just wouldn't be drow?

If they let us at custom lineages, then yes, but if they don't, then no. Just make a different kind of elf, and open the full skin/hair/eye window to make them look like a Drow.

It depends ...
Are you able to write your own mod?

If I wrote a mod to allow myself to create a mutant drow, people wouldn't recognize my drow as a protected class. He'd just be different, abrasive, and within the context of the fantasy world, he could be accused of being racist against drow. Characters related to my drow may tolerate him, but people who don't have to care wouldn't like him.

First: There are enough Abilities to make Light or give yourself Darkvision. You dont need Racial Darkvision. (Though i agree its convenient)

Second: Baldurs Gate, Like DnD, is not really as intended to be balanced like a competitve shooter. If you wanna see op Bullshit make a Yuanti Pure Blood Paladin of the Ancients. Or a Kalashtar Totem Barbarian.


Or if you wanna be less overtuned: Half-Orc Champion Fighter is all PHB. Its gonna be in there at release and no other class will ever compete in terms of Damage.


i mean, they are already nerfing stuff. For Example Bears would normally attack twice each turn, but they guessed Druids are already to powerful anyway.... like they actually are. in Low Level. While Wizards are not even getting to their prime abilities in this game.....so jeah.... just enjoy the game and stop reducing it to "balance" .... because at the end explosive Barrels are the strongest weapon anyway..

Since mind flayers have darkvision, I don't think it would be too large a stretch to make it an effect of being infected with an altered tadpole, like Astarion's ability to tolerate sunlight. I'd much rather see that than have them mess with racials. If devaluing racials is a concern, the tadpole-induced capability could be not quite as good as that enjoyed by races who have it innately. Surface elves already possess darkvision a tier below that of drow, so degrees of darkvision are already a thing. Another way to handle it would be to follow the lead of BG 1 and add party infravision to the options menu. The option could be tied to eventual difficulty levels, if desired.

Removing concentration from the Dancing Lights cantrip would go a long way, too.

Ridiculous how Gale needs to gimp himself of all his concentration spells like Hex or his CC spells to not be gimped in darkness, and Wyll either gimps himself without Hex or has to use up his warlock level up perk for darkvision.

If the Dancing Lights cantrip were fixed to not use concentration, it would help a lot. Ditto for Mage Hand.

In general, Concentration should be deleted, it makes casters so one dimensional and gimps them a ton.

Really, your complaint isn't with BG3, so much as it is with DnD. Everyone having Darkvision has always been preferable for parties. I don't personally think it's a good design choice, but that's how DnD has always worked (except maybe 4E, and nobody played that anyway).

Helm or Ring of infra vision would do the trick. They existed in BG 1. Was one of those useless items you dumped the second anything else came along. I don’t know if they exist in 5e though. Personally, I say let the humans suffer in the dark. They are humans and have garbage dark vision. With that said, I think Drow should probably have a disadvantage in the day.

Well, there is the sunwalker's gift ring you can buy, so perhaps they'll add more such items as the story progresses in the underdark.

Some characters can also cast Darkvision, so there are several ways around not having natural darkvision.

It's a little difficult to tell if the ways around lack of darkvision are sufficient because the underlying mechanism for lighting in BG3 doesn't seem to be working very well right now.

Hey! I take offense to that, I play 4e... and still got darkvision in it which is preferable to not having it....
Also sometimes light cantrip or fire is preferable to dark vision due to circumstances or issues with penalties or such, but overall darkvision is better than not having it but also usually a race will have a feature to make up for that like Variant Human having a whole feat.

I think darkvision is op in the source material. A good way to prove it other than watching any episode of critical role in a cave or a dungeon is playing solasta as a human. This disadvantage is brutal

Darkness causing disadvantage on attack rolls isn't in the SRD, nor is the light cantrip not generating light.

Sunlight Sensitivity was in the game under Minthara's character sheet. It should be applied to any PC Drow characters as well.

It's no reason why Drow should have Superior Darkvision and then be able to fight outside perfectly in BG3.

Quite sure this is bug ...
This cantrip certainly generated dim light around the object in the past.

But, but, Tadpole Magic!!!!!

I agree that it'd be nice if drow has sunlight sensitivity, but then playing as a drow would be an absolutely terrible experience in BG3's perma-daytime. Given that decision, PC drows losing their sunlight sensitivity trait is probably for the best.

Can I just put it out there, that in my personal experiences...

Darkvision is not, and should not, be a big deal, especially in a combat-pillar focused game.

- Your adventurers should almost never be exploring in complete darkness; it hampers your perception and having darkvision Does Not Help that. If you're in actual darkness and the character with darkvision is asking what they can see, and Perception check they make is being made at disadvantage anyway, because that's what dim light does - and if you're in darkness, your darkvision characters are operating in dim light, within their darkvision range - further than that, and they're just as screwed as everyone else. (This is the biggest misinterpretation I see - darkvision characters making camp in darkness, or searching in darkness, and doing so without penalty 'because they have darkvision' - no! That's not how it works.) Darkvision or not, you still want lights when you're exploring - darkvision is just a fall-back.

- If you're in dim light, and the darkvision character can see ass though in bright (within their range), that Does Not Affect Combat in any way. Fighting in Dim Light does not hinder you in combat at all.

- Darvision range is a hard line, and it's usually 60ft for most races - this is far shorter than most ranged weapons and many spells; if the enemy is attacking you from darkness 65 feet away, your darkvision is doing nothing whatsoever, and they'll have as much advantage on you as on someone with normie-vision.

Ring of Darkvision (Infravision in original).