Eyes of the Cat

[Anonymous]

My thief just hit 2nd level and picked up Eyes of the Cat. I know that he can see clearly in shadowy rooms and in moonlit/dimly lit conditions. What exactly are the penalties for those without this feat?

In D&D these conditions grant concealment (20% miss chance) and gives characters the opportunity to make Hide checks without the need for cover (as far as I remember... I'm at work at don't have the SRD handy).

Is this the case in Conan? Also, how dim can the room be and still give no penalty to a character with Eyes of the Cat. I remember a story where Conan purposely douses the lights in a tavern, casting the room into darkness, so that he has the advantage in the ensuing melee. From the description, the room was pretty dark....

 

[Padre]

Ummm, I thought that Eyes of the Cat is for 1st level characters only. *checking* Yup, the book says so.

 

[J Harper]

Yeah, but Thieves receive it as a perk at second level. It's assumed that experience in skulking about in dark places has honed the character's senses so that he acquires the feat.

Taking two levels in Thief is the only way to circumvent the '1st level only' rule for Cat's Eyes.

Jeremy Harper

 

[Padre]

My mistake

 

[argo]

Conan does not reprint the rules for vision and limuniation so the assumption is to use standard 3.x Eyes of the Cat basically gives your character Low Light vision so it should work something like this.

Your DM decided what the lighting conditions are based on the strength of the light sources present and the relative position of the observer, the target, and the light source. Like everything else in d20 lighting is abstracted out for ease of play. There are only three lighting conditions: "brightly" or "clearly" lit, "dimly" or "shadowy", and "darkness". The sun clearly iluminates everything. On a clear, moonlight night you have dim ilumination. On an overcast night or a new moon you have darkness. Most light sources list a radius of ilumination, this is the radius at which they clearly iluminate the scene, beyond this they dimly iluminate the scene up to twice the standard radius. Thus a torch, which has a radius of 20', clearly iluminates everything within 20' and dimly iluminates everything from 20'-40', beyond 40' you have darkness.

For a character with low light vision the benefit depends on weither the lighting is caused by a point source (such as a torch) or an omnidirectional source (such as the sun). If a point source then you simply double the radius of each area of ilumination. So, if you are holding a torch you can see "clearly" out to 40' and "dimly" from 40'-80', beyond 80' you still see darkness. If the source is omnidirectional then the easiest thing is to simply upgrade your vision one step. For example, on a moonlit night everything is cast in shadowy light, there is no range at which it becomes "dark" (unless the DM decides to, which isn't a bad idea) so you simply upgrade your vision to "bright" and assume that you can see as easily as durring the day.

Note that low light vision does not allow you to see in "darkness" without some kind of light source somewhere. For that you need darkvision.




Now all we need is to wait for someone to make an "attack the darkness" joke.

 

[Coroleer]

Now all we need is to wait for someone to make an "attack the darkness" joke.

Not in this group... There's no magic missile spell.

 

[Anonymous]

So to clarify:

There are only three lighting conditions: bright, dim or shadowy, and darkness.

1] In brightly lit conditions, there are no penalties.

2] In dim or shadowy light characters have a 20% miss chance and characters may make Hide checks without cover.

3] In darkness you are considered blind. 50% miss chance, 1/2 movement rate, etc.

A character with Eyes of the Cat can see clearly in dim or shadowy light, negating the penalties for those lighting conditions. He is still considered blind in darkness.

Yes? No? Close?

 

[Murte]

Nail, hammer... you hit it on the head Tib