Questions tagged [vision-and-light]
For questions about the limits and ranges of visibility. (See also: the [blind] and [special-senses] tags.)
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Casting spells while out of hearing and sight
There are other questions addressing how casting attack spells while hidden blows your cover, but what if you are out of the range of perception for the target?
Some additional background: based on ...
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Is Continual Flame affected by the object's size?
A flame, equivalent in brightness to a torch, springs forth from an object that you touch.
If you cast Continual Flame on a Fine-sized object, like a ring, would it cast a very small amount of light ...
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Can you use an illusion to trigger the Warlock Invocation "One With Shadow"?
Can you use an illusion to trigger the Warlock Invocation "One With Shadow"?
One with Shadow makes you invisible in dim light or darkness – so if you cast a Silent Image or Minor Image of ...
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Will magical light sources that aren't explicitly created by a spell illuminate magical darkness?
Consider magical darkness like that created by the Darkness spell or by the Darkmantle creature's Darkness Aura. Both say that mundane (natural) light can't illuminate its darkness and that their ...
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Can mundane light penetrate magical darkness to illuminate regions outside the dark space? And can its source remain lit when inside the darkness?
Consider magical darkness like that created by the Darkness spell or by the Darkmantle creature's Darkness Aura. Both say that mundane (natural) light can't illuminate its darkness and that their ...
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How does light effect interact with Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere?
Let's say a vampire is trapped inside a Resilient Sphere, which says:
Nothing can pass through the sphere, inside or out, though the subject can breathe normally.
And now this vampire (and that ...
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House ruling Darkness Blindnes and Obscured [closed]
Background
I am DMing Curse Of Stradh - and there is a lot of Fog in Barovia. The party have characters with and without dark-vision. I am not really happy with how light, darkness and obscurement ...
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Items with adjustable light radius
I'm looking for official 5E items that shed light that the user can change/adjust/alter/choose the radius/size of the light. It does not have to be bright light or dim light specifically; any type of ...
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How to counter the Open Sea paladin's "Marine Layer" Channel Divinity option?
The Oath of the Open Sea paladin (a third-party subclass from Critical Role) gets the Channel Divinity option "Marine Layer" at level 3:
As an action, you channel the sea to create a thick ...
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If a character with darkvision stands inside the magical darkness from a Tricksy Fey Spirit, can they attack faraway enemies with advantage?
The Tricksy Fey spirit can create a cube of magical darkness. Summon Fey (TCoE, p. 112):
Tricksy. The fey can fill a 5-foot cube within 5 feet of it with magical darkness, which lasts until the end ...
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Does an invisible container subdue the light from a light source?
Suppose a small object has a light spell on it, causing it to emit bright light in a 20' radius in an otherwise completely dark area.
What happens if a creature under the effects of an invisibility ...
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Clarification on spells that require the caster to see the target vs those that don't [duplicate]
Some spells like Command specify that you need to see your target:
You speak a one-word command to a creature you can see within range.
Some other spells like Animate Objects don't specify that you ...
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How easy is it to pinpoint someone's location when you can't see them?
Let's say a Darkness spell is casted on a specific point:
Magical darkness spreads from a point you choose within range to fill a 15-foot-radius sphere for the duration. The darkness spreads around ...
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Can a Tricksy fey from the Summon Fey spell place a cube of darkness partially on an enemy, so allies can still target what’s visible at advantage?
The summon fey spell (TCoE, p. 112) summons a fey spirit marked by a chosen mood, which determines the secondary effect of its Fey Step bonus action (after teleporting 30 feet). For the Tricksy mood, ...
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Do the rules define the minimum area size for light intensity? [duplicate]
(The title gave me a bit of trouble, so if you have a better idea on how to title this question after reading it, feel free to suggest it or directly edit it.)
Light levels (bright light, dim light ...
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Can an immobilized character change their facing?
Some effects, such as that produced by the web spell, can immobilize a character or otherwise reduce its movement to 0. In these cases, are characters able to change their facing normally, or are they ...
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How would a creature without normal eyes look away (avert its gaze) from an umber hulk?
I'm wondering if a creature with no normal eyes, like a skeleton, who are not immune to petrify or other kinds of gaze attacks, could possibly "avert their gaze." How would a skeleton look ...
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How does Detect Magic interact with living bodies?
One player at my table is currently in a pretty specific situation, where he has a magic item inside his body.
I have looked at the Detect Magic spell, and at the internet but I did not find anything ...
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Does the 5e DMG discuss encounter distance?
As a DM, I am frequently unsure exactly where to start an encounter. Especially since most of my players have ranged characters and can often seriously harm an enemy before they get close to them. The ...
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A creature inside heavy obscurement attacking one outside
The rules for heavy obscurement state,
A heavily obscured area—such as Darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature effectively suffers from the Blinded condition (see ...
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Is there a way to beat Blindsight? [duplicate]
Blindsight allows creatures to see invisible creatures (p. 183 PHB):
A creature with blindsight can perceive its surroundings without relying on sight, within a specific radius.
We are currently ...
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Does the Fog Cloud spell work in conjunction with the Blind Fighting fighting style the way I think it does?
The description of the Fog Cloud spell says:
You create a 20-foot-radius sphere of fog centered on a point within range. The sphere spreads around corners, and its area is heavily obscured. It lasts ...
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Does the Light spell cast by a 5th level caster overcome the Darkness spell?
The Darkness spell says:
This also suppresses magical light of your darkness spell's level or lower.
Assuming it isn't heightened, this means Darkness is a 2nd level spell.
The rules for Cantrips ...
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Can Blindsight bridge magical Darkness?
If you are in an area of magical darkness, and you have limited range blindsight, you will be able to perceive normally within that radius, as per the definition of blindsight:
A monster with ...
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Who/what can see in the dark?
This question is for the first edition since the site tags do not yet differentiate between the two.
I am running a game, and part of it will take place underground. I can only find one reference in ...
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Do either truesight or x-ray vision see through a prismatic wall?
We were fighting Vecna himself, and at one point had a prismatic wall up between us and Vecna. The prismatic wall says it creates "a vertical, opaque wall."
Vecna's powers include truesight, ...
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Ethereal Vision/Spell casting confusion. Need as written, not opinions [duplicate]
**Need "As Written", as there are many "opinions" out there.
Ethereal confusion: A Night Hag, while in the ethereal plane, sees and touches someone in the material plane with the &...
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Is it balanced with other races to give Dragonborn short-range blindsight as an additional racial trait?
I use this homebrew rule for darkvision and add a new racial trait called low-light vision in my games:
Darkvision: The following player races have darkvision to a range of 60ft; Drow, Half-Drow, ...
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Does the invisible condition nullify the penalty of the Brightsoul feat?
The feat reads as follows:
Brighsoul
The fire inside you asserts itself as beaming, radiant light. Your body is naturally luminescent, glowing with the effects of a primal Light cantrip. A cantrip ...
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Is there any lore explanation in Forgotten Realms for the change from Infravision to Darkvision?
A long time ago, some races and monsters had the Infravision trait, which allowed them to see in the dark the heat traces of living creatures.
This had very interesting aspects. The drow's sign ...
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Does the genie warlock's Bottled Respite ability let you perceive what happens outside?
I haven't been able to find any information about this, so my understanding is that you are completely oblivious to what's happening outside of the vessel while you're in it.
But thinking about flavor,...
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What can disrupt the Sympathy effect of the Antipathy/Sympathy spell?
I am hoping the community can offer clarification on this spell. In my game tonight (I am the GM), an object was the target of the sympathy spell. Two PCs failed their saving throw and one succeeded....
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Can the Enormous Tentacle see?
My level six moon druid can wild shape into a CR2 beast. I checked the monster finder and discovered there's a monster called an Enormous Tentacle.
I noticed the monster's senses include "...
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What is the functionality of Eyes of the Eagle?
In the DMG (P. 168) there is an uncommon magical item called the Eyes of the Eagle that states:
These crystal lenses fit over the eyes. While wearing them, you have
advantage on Wisdom (Perception) ...
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Is Resilient Sphere opaque and soundproof?
The fourth spell level wizard's spell Otiluke's Resilient Sphere describes the sphere as
A sphere of shimmering force
I always envisioned this to kind of look like "ball of force", a maybe ...
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Invisibility and Aura of Vitality
During fight a party member tried to use Aura of Vitality while being invisible to stealthily top their HP. It was argued that auras give visual effects similar to light which would allow enemies to ...
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Is Darkness an effective spell for making someone's approach less likely to be noticed in a dark environment?
While brainstorming ways to sneak up on someone, one idea was to go at night and cloak our infiltrator (who can see through magical darkness) with the Darkness spell. The expectation was that being ...
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Does Guiding Bolt reveal a Gloom Stalker ranger in darkness?
The Guiding Bolt says:
A flash of light streaks toward a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. On a hit, the target takes 4d6 radiant damage, and the ...
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Does Nature's Mantle work with Pass Without Trace?
Nature's Mantle allows you to use the Hide action if you are lightly obscured.
While you are in an area that is lightly obscured, you can Hide as a
bonus action even if you are being directly ...
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Can you "avert your eyes" from any creature to avoid looking at it?
Many monsters have sight-based abilities that explicitly allow you to avoid the effect by averting your eyes:
Basilisk's Petrifying Gaze: A creature that isn't surprised can avert its eyes to avoid ...
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Can you "avert your eyes" away from the source of your fear to avoid rolling at disadvantage? [duplicate]
The Frightened condition gives the following penalty:
A frightened creature has disadvantage on Ability Checks and Attack rolls while the source of its fear is within line of sight.
Many monsters ...
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What English definition of Line of Sight is D&D 5e using?
I find the term "line of sight" to be a bit unclear. According to the Sage Advice Compendium, D&D 5e uses the English meaning of "line of sight":
Question: The frightened ...
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Can you see yourself when Invisible?
If you are invisible can you see yourself and things you are holding? For example can you use a scroll whilst invisible assuming you can't see invisible yourself?
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Can an Elven Monk use Shadow Step in dim light? [duplicate]
The monk's Shadow Step ability allows him to 'step' into "an unoccupied space you can see that is also in dim light" (PHB p.80). However, with Darkvision, an elf can see normally in dim ...
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Can See Invisibility and Dispel Magic detect a target affected by Sequester?
Sorry if it's dumb, but my reading of sequester (PHB, 274) suggests that it prevents any locate X spell (target) from detecting the target, as well as scrying (PHB, 273) and clairvoyance (PHB, 222) ...
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How much is darkvision worth compared to a skill pick?
In evaluating homebrew races for how balanced they are, you often have to compare features against each other.
One recommended approach that has been used several times for this is the Detect Balance ...
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What does the clause about seeing into the Ethereal Plane in True Seeing accomplish?
True Seeing's text states:
For the duration, the creature has truesight, notices secret doors hidden by magic, and can see into the Ethereal Plane, all out to a range of 120 feet.
Here is the ...
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Is Gloom Stalker overpowered?
Sharpshooter is considerered to be among the most overpowered feats in D&D 5e. Its gross damage boost is even more pronounced when one has a consistent source for Advantage.
Gloom Stalker has the ...
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Can I stop a spellcaster by sticking a bag over their head? [duplicate]
In a recent fight in my campaign, we were tasked with defeating a coven of hags. Not too difficult for our party of level 9 characters but we were held down for some time by their spellcasting. As is ...
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Can I target someone who I can see in a mirror?
Inspired by this question, I'm wondering what happens if want to cast a spell that requires me to see the target, I can see my target in a mirror, and have a clear path to them, but I don't have line ...
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