What is a good example of dim light? One of the examples is outside with the moon in the sky, and that seems like a good amount of light to me. Not good enough to read fine print, but definitely good enough to make out someone moving around. It just seems weird to me that you get a 20% miss chance to hit someone in those conditions; that's only half as bad as being entirely blind. Maybe I'm just mis-visualizing a night of bright starlight. Links to pictures of what, I'm supposed to be envisioning here would be much appreciated.
Its not half as bad as being entirely blind. Most of the penalty for being entirely blind is not knowing what square to target. At least under moonlight if you swing at someone you know where to swing.
As I have been doing some night fighting myself in the past. (Melee fights with padded weapons mostly) I think the rule is ok.
You may see your enemy but keeping track of which part of him is where and how far away from you while moving is increasingly difficult with dropping lighting conditions.
When I was driving at dusk in the rain the other night, the cyclist dressed in grey with no lights definitely had concealment (although I was trying to not hit him).
Other examples of 20% concealment are this and this
Would you like the rule better if it's -4 to hit? Change it to be so, then.
Our brain's mental dissonance with maths make us to think that 20% miss chance is worse than -4 to hit, but the reality is not that. Unless you are hitting with 2+ even with the -4, or already hitting only with 20s, a -4 to hit is worse than 20% miss chance. If you hit with 11+, a -4 to hit is effectively a 40% chance of miss.
What is a good example of dim light? One of the examples is outside with the moon in the sky, and that seems like a good amount of light to me. Not good enough to read fine print, but definitely good enough to make out someone moving around. It just seems weird to me that you get a 20% miss chance to hit someone in those conditions; that's only half as bad as being entirely blind. Maybe I'm just mis-visualizing a night of bright starlight. Links to pictures of what, I'm supposed to be envisioning here would be much appreciated.
Pictures rarely capture the true nature of it. Just go out tonight, to a place devoid of artificial lights, and do a fake fight with a friend. You can see his shape well, but his quick movements may easily look confused or blurred. I practice martial arts, and I've done some sparring in the natural dark sometimes. The 20% miss chance is not that unrealistic.
This is dim light
That's far more in the range of normal light; torch illumination.
Ever driven a car at dusk where it's just light enough that your headlights do nothing to help you see, but its just dark enough to need them switched on?
That's dim light.
That's far more in the range of normal light; torch illumination.
Candles are dim light. I'm sure if you take out the effect of the camera's Flash, that place's light is dim light.
I imagine dim light to be that kind of light when you can still see but almost everything appears a shade of grey already.
If you can discern colors still then it would be normal light or better.
And if you can't see anything at all, then it's darkness.
Okay, so basically a normal night in a normal location. I don't know why last night, I felt like it was describing a clear night with a full moon. I guess, it's just me dredging up memories of such nights on beaches of white sand, going out at night helping my mom search for crabs.