What? Am I about to walk back everything I just said about infravision in my previous post? Am I about to engage in rambling hypocrisy? Nope. I still prefer to run D&D games without infravision as a character ability for demihumans like dwarves and elves. Nevertheless, I wasn’t being completely straightforward about infravision in OD&D. I didn’t lie, however. Infravision doesn’t show up, at least directly, as a demihuman ability in the three original booklets. However, a case can be made that demihumans were understood to possess infravision even in the three original D&D booklets. One just needs to refer to Chainmail.
Tag: Infravision
Personally, I don’t like infravision as a demihuman ability, and I haven’t run a game with demihuman infravision (or “darkvision”!) for years. But hey, that’s just me. There is, of course, nothing wrong with running a game using infravision. I’ve run and played in games with infravision and had a blast. However, in the original Dungeon & Dragons three booklets, the classic demihuman choices (dwarves, elves, and halflings) did not have infravision. Men & Magic contains no mention of this ability in the demihuman descriptions. The ability exists, but it is a 3rd-level magic-user spell.
Infravision: This spell allows the recipient to see infra-red light waves, thus enabling him to see in total darkness. Duration: 1 day. Range of infravision: 40-60′.
Dungeon & Dragons, Men & magic Vol. 1