Moonlit nights and low light vision


Rules Questions

Shadow Lodge

If your party is out on a moonlit night without some source of artificial illumination and someone has low-light vision do they just treat it as if it is bright light for the purposes of concealment and other effects?

Grand Lodge

Low-light doesn't let you see better in dim lighting, it just lets you see further than people without it. If everything in line of sight is the same light level, low-light vision won't do anything that normal vision wouldn't.

Low-Light Mechanics wrote:
Characters with low-light vision can see objects twice as far away as the given radius. Double the effective radius of bright light, normal light, and dim light for such characters.

All it does is double the light radius, not increase the light level.


Jeff Merola wrote:

Low-light doesn't let you see better in dim lighting, it just lets you see further than people without it. If everything in line of sight is the same light level, low-light vision won't do anything that normal vision wouldn't.

Low-Light Mechanics wrote:
Characters with low-light vision can see objects twice as far away as the given radius. Double the effective radius of bright light, normal light, and dim light for such characters.
All it does is double the light radius, not increase the light level.

Only it has some fluff bits that says it works in certain cases:

Low Light Vision Mechanics in the Special Abilities section of CRB wrote:

Characters with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light that they can see twice as far as normal in dim light. Low-light vision is color vision. A spellcaster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to him as a source of light.

Characters with low-light vision can see outdoors on a moonlit night as well as they can during the day.

Ostensibly, I guess that you could justify that since you are seeing twice the distance that the moonlight is covering...which would be from 1/3 of the world to 2/3 of the world. But the fact remains- moonlight=sunlight for them for most adventurous purposes.

Shadow Lodge

Jeff Merola wrote:

Low-light doesn't let you see better in dim lighting, it just lets you see further than people without it. If everything in line of sight is the same light level, low-light vision won't do anything that normal vision wouldn't.

Low-Light Mechanics wrote:
Characters with low-light vision can see objects twice as far away as the given radius. Double the effective radius of bright light, normal light, and dim light for such characters.
All it does is double the light radius, not increase the light level.

But how does that work for things like lions, tigers, and hyenas which naturally have night vision to help them hunt in the dark? I mean I assume they don't hunt blindly in the night and considering many of them only have low light vision and I assume it has to do something to help them.

Grand Lodge

lemeres wrote:
Jeff Merola wrote:

Low-light doesn't let you see better in dim lighting, it just lets you see further than people without it. If everything in line of sight is the same light level, low-light vision won't do anything that normal vision wouldn't.

Low-Light Mechanics wrote:
Characters with low-light vision can see objects twice as far away as the given radius. Double the effective radius of bright light, normal light, and dim light for such characters.
All it does is double the light radius, not increase the light level.

Only it has some fluff bits that says it works in certain cases:

Low Light Vision Mechanics in the Special Abilities section of CRB wrote:

Characters with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light that they can see twice as far as normal in dim light. Low-light vision is color vision. A spellcaster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to him as a source of light.

Characters with low-light vision can see outdoors on a moonlit night as well as they can during the day.

Ostensibly, I guess that you could justify that since you are seeing twice the distance that the moonlight is covering...which would be from 1/3 of the world to 2/3 of the world. But the fact remains- moonlight=sunlight for them for most adventurous purposes.

Hmm, you are correct. This is yet another example of Pathfinder having two different places for the rules for a single mechanic.


Jeff Merola wrote:
lemeres wrote:
Jeff Merola wrote:

Low-light doesn't let you see better in dim lighting, it just lets you see further than people without it. If everything in line of sight is the same light level, low-light vision won't do anything that normal vision wouldn't.

Low-Light Mechanics wrote:
Characters with low-light vision can see objects twice as far away as the given radius. Double the effective radius of bright light, normal light, and dim light for such characters.
All it does is double the light radius, not increase the light level.

Only it has some fluff bits that says it works in certain cases:

Low Light Vision Mechanics in the Special Abilities section of CRB wrote:

Characters with low-light vision have eyes that are so sensitive to light that they can see twice as far as normal in dim light. Low-light vision is color vision. A spellcaster with low-light vision can read a scroll as long as even the tiniest candle flame is next to him as a source of light.

Characters with low-light vision can see outdoors on a moonlit night as well as they can during the day.

Ostensibly, I guess that you could justify that since you are seeing twice the distance that the moonlight is covering...which would be from 1/3 of the world to 2/3 of the world. But the fact remains- moonlight=sunlight for them for most adventurous purposes.
Hmm, you are correct. This is yet another example of Pathfinder having two different places for the rules for a single mechanic.

not really, it doesn't mention that those characters would be able to see "as easily" in the night. just that they would be able to see in moonlight. Unclouded moonlight is dim light, so they'd be able to see their. certainly a lot better then normal eye's

The rules don't exclude one another, nor speak of actual differing mechanics, you can use either source. as they are mechanically the same


The reason a person with low-light vision can see twice as far as normal is because most sources of illumination have two distances. The first is normal, the second is low light. The second distance is almost always double the distance of normal light.

A creature with low-light has no issue seeing areas illuminated by the moon at night. It's areas that don't have illumination that are the problem.


Edit: Damn, posted in the wrong thread. Please disregard.

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