Modeling darkvision with dynamic lighting.

So suppose I have player running a dwarf. She has darkvision to 60 feet and, as a subscriber, I can use dynamic lighting. So what's the best way I would set that for the dwarf's token? I would I'd set it so that token has bright illumination to 60 fight with no dim fall off and then set that illumination in an arc of about 180 degrees and then finally set so no other players can see but that token, right?

That is how I handle it.

i'd just leave it at 360 degrees, there's no facing in PF or 3.5, but up to you. I'd also consider setting the light to 60 ft dim light, instead. Darkvision is black/white only etc, so there should be a difference to the actual torchlight.

I would do 360 degrees too, no facing. I would leave it as bright light, since there are no penalties for darkvision.

I use 60' dim 0' 120° to 240°, depending on armor level for light, and do not check the "all players can see" box. I have decided after about 100 hours of game time to leave vision at 360°, as people were constantly rotating their characters to see where the rest of the party was going.

I use 270° when I choose to enforce it.

I use an API to have a separate vision token follow my characters around. It makes this a lot easier to manage. It's like having a torch follow just that player around and only they can see the light. I think I got the idea from another API for having a torch token that follows the player. The difference is that I have 4 special vision tokens in my current campaign and I do other things like managing elf low-light vision since sometimes they are as blind as humans in total darkness. If you want the script or details, just PM me on these forums.

Roger, Quatar, John, Al and Michael, Yeah, as a 3.5 system user, I agree on the lack of facing rules. This is a good point so, I'll leave it as 360. And I'll leave it as bright since neither bright nor dim take colors away and darkvision has no falloff that I'm aware of. So the next question is how to model low-light vision?

al e. said: I have decided after about 100 hours of game time to leave vision at 360°, as people were constantly rotating their characters to see where the rest of the party was going. What a relief. That's one of my DM's, and I was one of those players constantly rotating my token in circles --- because RPG's are so much more fun when you can accurately simulate neck turning and eye movement..

i like the idea of dim light radius for dark or low light. that way it stays different from a torch or lantern. i'd keep it player specific and leave it up to the player to alert their companions if they spot something the torch users cant see yet.

Waerolvir'in said: i like the idea of dim light radius for dark or low light. that way it stays different from a torch or lantern. i'd keep it player specific and leave it up to the player to alert their companions if they spot something the torch users cant see yet. But that seems problematic to me. Suppose there is a human in the party carrying the torch and then there others who have low light vision who aren't carrying light sources at all? I mean, yes, I could double the radius of that torchlight--normally 20' bright/40' dim--to 40' bright/80' dim but that distance doesn't apply to the ordinary human shlub carrying the torch. To him that radius shouldn't be visible. It only should be visible and reveal things at that distance only to elven, gnomish, etc. eyes. See the problem here? I don't think the tool allows for that kind of functionality. So, instead, I should just double the radii and assume that the low-light vision characters are relaying everything to the human torch bearer.

Can you create a 'torch' token that has normal radius and give it control to all players and group it with a 'darkvision' torch that only specific characters control? Would that grouped torch token move together if the player only controls one? Alternatively, with some extra work by the GM; you can do this on the lighting layer and move the two sources around when people move.. As cool as dynamic lighting in, let's not forget that we would normally just trust the players to tell them 'you don't see them yet, but YOU do' and correctly expect them to behave accordingly.

Well, just to clear up some confusion here. In D&D 3.5 low-light vision and darkvision are two different things and work very differently. My darkvision issues are solved and we needn't concern ourselves over that anymore. It's the mixture of low-light and normal vision characters that are problematic for me. However, your suggestions and musing did give me an idea. I can set the human token, the torch barer, with normal torch light and set it as such. I can then create a low-light torch token, set it with the doubled range of light and set it only to the control of the characters of low-light vision and then make it their responsibility to move it. Is there a way I can hide it? Like putting it in the GM layer so the players can see it until I invoke it by sending it to the object layer? EDIT: Actually I answered my own question. Yes, putting the low-light torch into the GM layer renders it invisible to players. Good then I should be the one that moves it, invoking it when it's a situation that low-light vision matters.

Mr. Farlops , here you go: <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/59014/dynamic-li" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/post/59014/dynamic-li</a>...

Mr. Farlops said: I can then create a low-light torch token, set it with the doubled range of light and set it only to the control of the characters of low-light vision and then make it their responsibility to move it. That's sort of how I did it back then, when I actually bothered with it still. Except I used an API script to link the LLV token (an invisible one) to the torchbearing character and have it follow automatically.

Easier to just change the light level of the character carrying the torch, I put a yellow dot on the token, so I remember to turn it off.

Gauss and Quatar, Thanks, I think that pretty much thoroughly addresses the questions I had. Thanks!

Mr. Farlops said: EDIT: Actually I answered my own question. Yes, putting the low-light torch into the GM layer renders it invisible to players. Good then I should be the one that moves it, invoking it when it's a situation that low-light vision matters. actually, here is an interesting idea: make the low-light torch, move it to the GM layer, but group it with the player token. can this be done? the low-light player moves, and the hidden torch moves with him. he can see the low light range, but everyone else sees only the visible torch carried by the human. Edit: i tried to set it so the torch sat on top of the token, but then i couldnt select it individually to send to GM layer. if the torch is next to the token, you run the risk of having it clip through the dynamic lighting barrier or dungeon wall. i guess Gauss's work-around is the best option for now.