Our campaigns use Electrum as a mean joke. "You find five-thousand gold points of coins in the loot purse. They look kind of weird though. . . When you try to spend them, the vendor gets confused. He's never seen these before. . . The banker says they're Electrum. She'll store them, but you won't earn interest and you can't withdraw them like currency. There'll also be a storage fee." Stuff like that. It's all in fun.

Be me a forever DM Starts adding annoying rules like carrying capacity and encumbrance to try not be DM anymore turns out my players loved the realism and now I will never not be the DM

Use electrum as an "ancient currency" Like when your players search ancient ruins they would find electrum. No shop would accept it but some collector or historic would trade it for even more than it's worth in the PHB

"No one has heard of Electrum." I have, way back in 1st edition. It had the exact same problems back then.

I can understand everyone's dislike of electrum but it makes perfect sense if you know a little bit about what it's made of. It's an alloy of gold and silver so it makes perfect sense that it would be a halfway point between the two.

Our archer goes through 3-6 arrows PER ROUND. The quiver holds 20. The bag of holding takes a FULL ACTION to retrieve another bundle of arrows and put them in the quiver. This makes strategy in even mid-length combats meaningful. (another character trained his monkey to refill the quiver. I allowed it!)

As a DM, I mostly dismiss encumbrance rules unless my players try to carry an unreasonable amount of stuff. Taking the bandit captain’s scale mail doesn’t mean a weight check, but trying to walk around hauling 12 sets of half plate, I had a player try to do that, means we pull out the calculator. I’ll make them track their money if they want to carry thousands of coins, but I also provide the option to buy a homebrew Magic Item called the Coinpurse of Holding. For just 1 pound of weight, all your coins and trade bars, I use those too, are tucked away in a convenient pocket plane. They can carry as much money as they want without getting encumbered and thieves are a lot more interesting NPCs to use.

The only time I've seen Electrum actually used was in Curse of Strahd in Barovia and our party decided that Strahd truly was an evil man for forcing his people to use that currency.

electrum is honestly something they should keep, just because of how it real how there's always one dumb thing breaking the pattern

If gold is twice as heavy (by volume) as silver and the coins weigh the same, I assume that gold is twenty times the value of silver by weight, so a gold coin is smaller than a silver.

5:45 I once had a character so poor that he just couldn't eat for days... I kept track at how long it would take him before he started gaining levels of exhaustion, so one day I had him boil and eat his own boots. Good thing he was a Goliath with good Con, so being barefoot was not much of a real hinderance. I then found out that like a single chicken is only a few copper each, instead of 5sp for a ration or something similar for inn food, so he finally could eat daily again and not starve in the middle of Waterdeep!

I was in a campaign that used encumberance as well as coin weight. It was miserable. The only person who wasn't constantly struggling with weight limits was the barbarian. Every 50 gold was a pound, which is also the cost per spell level for a wizard to copy a spell into their spellbook. The GM also ruled most places couldn't neatly exchange silver to gold, if at all, because most businesses operate using silver and copper (despite the fact almost everything you can buy in the 5e books costs at least 1 gold). So if you wanted to copy three 3rd level spells into your spellbook, you had to be lugging 90 pounds of silver pieces around with you while you searched for your spells of choice. Along with your 11 pound scholar's pack, 4 pound quarterstaff, 5 pound light crossbow, 4 pound robe, and 3 pound spellbook. Someone literally multiclassed into artificer so they could make a bag of holding to use as a glorified wallet because so much of the campaign became struggling with small change. Imagine carrying all of the dimes with you that it would take to afford a gaming laptop.

Darkvision in darkness only gives disadvantage to perception rolls that *require* sight. Remember, being invisible doesn't give advantage to stealth rolls. Being blind doesn't make you auto fail perception checks to notice enemies either, for the same reason. .

This has been the most real video I've seen on ignored rules. Some of them are so used to being ignored that you forget they are rules in the first place.

I like electrum pieces ever since I learned it's a real thing, it's a natural alloy of Silver and Gold that can be found in the wild. I also always keep track of my own ammunition amount, even if I never enforce my players to do so when I dm.

A rule that dm's forget is that a one is not a atimatic fail this kinda stuff makes a 1 a billion times worse than a 2

Fun fact, I actually made it through the _entire_ Tomb of Annihilation hardcover/module as an archer character tracking ammunition as per PHB, including recovery rules, as a sort of self-imposed challenge. I still ended up doing _crazy_ dps the entire time.

I've always used electrum as "tokens of favor" that a guild or crime ring might use rather than a currency. Think continental coins from John Wick. They aren't technically money but access to certain perks.

When it comes to lifestyle expenses, numerous spells and abilities make surviving for free absolutely trivial. On the other hand, it's also reasonable that most characters would want some kind of a lifestyle for the same reason you and I spent our money on computers and furniture instead of choosing to live in a cardboard shack.

Oh my friend, I use 'hardcore' currency, classic British standard rates: 12 coppers (pence) per silver (shillings), 20 silver per gold (pound). I typically don't bother with electrum still there, but I've used the traditional 2 EP per GP and a more flexible intermediate 4 EP per GP - they're just denominations of coins, after all, though I like to keep it simple. Fun fact - the later, more consistent denominations held the shilling coins at 1/20th of a pound (0.8 ounces), meaning that the gold pound coin was literally worth one pound of silver - hence Pound Sterling (Silver). Players usually are resistant to it initially having grown up with decimalized currencies, but usually find it easier to divide up amongst each other after a little bit of familiarization, since 240 (the number of coppers/pennies per gold/pound) is a highly composite number. It's really useful in parties of 3 or 4.

coins all being the same weight makes sense because they have different shapes and sizes. now, the illustrations of said coins don't make sense in like of real metal weights, since it seems like the standard coinage gets uniformly larger the more valuable the coin is. but if you ignore the screwups that Wizards makes, you can make it make sense

One of the many reasons I typically form parties around a ship is getting around tedious rules. Two tons of gold on the ship? No problem. Also some nice clothes when the mission calls for it. No need to haul several outfits in a huge pack. Plus you can bring your favorite NPCs along or leave them to wait in the ship.

I use electrum! The reason it messes up the order is that it's arguably the most important amount of currency to get actual stuff done. Small daily expenses (ale, bread) are usually silver and copper, big expenses (large objects, fancy things, expensive services) are gold, huge expenses (magic items, real estate) are platinum, but medium expenses (trip to the market, single handmade object) benefit from having their own denomination. Try to think of it like this: 1GP is one night in an inn and a meal. The closest modern equivalent I can think of is the various inns you'll find on pilgrimage routes. On the pilgrimage of Compostela, you can typically get a night for 20 to 30€ and a meal for 15. So 1 GP is about 40€. That would then mean that 1SP is about 4€. A gallon of ale (2SP) turns out to be about 8€, a mug (4CP) is 1€60, and a loaf of bread (80¢). That price for bread is about right for a loaf 3/4 the size of a baguette. That price is cheap for beer, but consider that it's not an industrially produced recipe fine-tuned with a dozen ingredients and drunk solely for pleasure. When you account for the ale being home made; not fermented for very long and quite weak; basically just a bucket of wheat, yeast, hops and water; often made as a means of reducing the risk of getting sick from drinking potentially tainted water; it makes sense that the ale is cheap. With that approximate value established, we know that 1 electrum is basically a 20€ bill, which is a very useful amount of currency. Once you start thinking of its value that way and think to use it, it pops up a lot. If there was no denomination between the 5€/$5 bill and the 50€/50$ bill, something would seriously be missing. Are you going to break a 50 to pay for 20€ worth of stuff only to end up with six 5€ bills in change? Yes it's slightly easier to ignore the EP when you're writing numbers on a character sheet, but when you think of it from the point of view of the characters, it makes way more sense to use EP and I think it's more immersive. You could also go a different route and use EP like $2 bills. They're an official denomination, but quite rare, and maybe there are Electrum Piece collectors who value them more than their face value. Maybe the ones from other kingdoms or specific years are worth more.

To your first point about Electrum: I use them specifically as the "magical" ingredient in comissioning magical items. Want to make an item instead of find it? Now you need its requisite cost in Gold PLUS a pre-determined (by me) amount of Electrum that will serve as the magical conduit and help bind the magic to your item. Makes Electrum actually *worth* something to the party, and explains its lack of common use and rarity.

Generally the only ammunition I track in my games is the magical kind, since they lose their magic after use and are often in shorter supply compared to the surplus of nonmagical ammunition those players have.

I somehow talked my parents into doing a one-shot at Christmas, and my dad loved pointing out at every opportunity that his character could see in the dark because he had darkvision. He was a bit disappointed when he realized that the other two players (my mom and my wife) also were playing characters with darkvision.

My favorite to ignore is spell-casting a S-component spell while wielding a sword & shield, or otherwise having both hands full.

DnD becoming streamlined and extremely appealing to the casual market via podcasts and shows makes it not surprising at all that some rules would be bent or outright not used at all. Trying to rule lawyer with a group of fresh players who only now have discovered that TTRPGs are a thing isnt going to be fun for anyone.

@Blaine - the reason Electrum is still there is because it goes back to BECMI/AD&D. There, it was 10 copper = 1 silver, 5 silver = 1 electrum or 10 silver = 1 gold, 2 electrum = 1 gold, and finally, 5 gold = 1 platinum. So you can see, it wasn't always a multiple of 10 even in the beginning. A lot of us groggnars always thought of it this way: 1 copper = 1 penny 1 silver = 1 dime 1 electrum = a half dollar 1 gold = a dollar 1 platinum = 5 dollars

Electrum probably got added to D&D because the stuff has been used in coins since the 7th Century BCE, so if it wasn't there, that's breaking our immersion. Also, it adds that bit of realism that most currency systems have were something just doesn't make any freaking sense, like Britain's traditional non-decimal coins and whatever reason the US has for trying to make dollar coins for the past 50 years that always turn out the same size as a quarter coin.

3:20 Had this exact thing happen to me and my party. Luckily, I was playing an artificer and took bag of holding for one of my infusions, as well as gauntlets of ogre power for increased carrying capacity. My character was easily the richest for the rest of the campaign.

We use all of these except living expenses, and I mean with the only downtime we get is like the occasional night at an inn in a small town where it's the only option other than camping outside there's no real opportunity for it. The same niche of rules in are very much used in the shadowrun game I use, so downtime for using karma is limited by having to keep up with the bills on top of trying to get more money to buy better toys.

One that people forget is that spellcasters need a free hand to cast spells with somatic components. Even Baldur’s Gate 3 ignores this rule because it’s kinda limited. You just have your staff and your spells, no dual-wielding or shield.

* Easy Solution For Ammo: Just keep a handful of pennies on hand. Every time you fire a shot, toss a penny back into whatever "don't use" box you've got. * Easy Solution For Encumbrance: Give each item a non-weight value of 0 (meaning the item must be in a certain amount to equal 1) to 10, and give each player a set of value boxes they could fill with tokens (think of it like the resident evil 4 weapon case, but a lot smaller). Your size determines how many columns you get, while your strength score determines how many rows.

I remember being in a game where my party got electrum in a loot pile and everyone started arguing about how to split it loot-wise From that moment I decided to never include it in my games

Rule that everyone ignores but that I think makes combat more fun: Interact with Object action

We mostly use lifestyle expenses... but the DM just told us that we are having a mandatory 6-month downtime, to which i asked, "I assume we will at least earn enough to live over that time... right?"

My table does keep track of money weight, but that's only because we use a VTT and the sheet automatically tracks that for us.

I've got another one for you: Social interactions. The DMG has a whole social interaction system that's actually really nice, but almost no one even knows it exists because it's in the DMG. It works on three "dispositions" which affect the DC for persuading someone to help you. You can determine through roleplay or through insight rolls (which makes insight actually USEFUL aside from being the "lie detector" skill) certain traits like an NPC's motives or desires which can help you to swing their disposition towards friendly. It's only THEN that you can make your persuasion/intimidation/deception roll to try and get them to help.

Electrum is historically correct - a naturally occurring alloy of silver + gold with traces of other metals such as copper. It WAS used in coins and jewelry during and before the Greek Empire. In my world, the empire south of the player's home country mints electrum coins. If handled correctly, the alloy is very immersive. It is also correct.

Oh my God, Electrum is the $2 bill.

Electrum was a hold over from earlier editions when gold was worth 20 silver, and electrum was 10 silver. Platinum was 5 gold, or 10 electrum. So you ended up with a decimal system except for the base coin, gold.

YAAAAAAAAS thank you for bringing more attention to the light rules!!!!! Nobody ever knows this and gets pissed off when you tell them like it’s your fault they didn’t read!

For the darkvision one this is why I like the warlock with devil sight. You can see completely normally in the dark, including color.

Downtime activities actually require a certain level of comfort to do. Running a business requires a modest living while working can be done at any level

5:02 - I don't forget either of these, in fact I had a puzzle with colored tiles. Entire party had Darkvision so they never carried any light. I described the puzzle as a set of black, white, and grey square tiles.

While coin weight can be annoying, it's not really obnoxious to keep track of. 50 coins = 1lb. Therefore each coin is 0.02 lb. Easiest way to keep track of it would just divide your coin count by 50 rounded down. Also the fact that coins all have the same weight still makes sense. Not only does it make them easy to weight, but the can just be different sizes to accomplish that. Fun fact; The US Dine and Nickel are almost the exact same weight, but the dime is like half the volume.

Electrum is just the $2 bill of DND, but only worth a half dollar. 10 Pennie’s for a dime, 10 dimes for a dollar, ap dollars in a $10 bill, ten $10 bills in a $100 bill. It’s just a half dollar, but with the historical reputation of a $2 bill

with money i remind people that gems trade at value, they are very light for their value, and as such they are probably what adventurers turn most of their wealth into for trade. coins are for making change. even gold coins.

To add on to the stuff about darkvision: On top of having disadvantage on perception checks, having disadvantage with perception also applies a -5 penalty to passive perception.

Legends Of Avantris (The DnD group with Chuckles the clown) has a hardcore DnD campaign called Icebound in which they very much do care about the weight of gold and wood and food, they use exhaustion rules if the crew hasn't eaten or slept for long enough, they count how much ammo the ranger has and she has to sometimes fletch more arrows when they have downtime, and the druid actually needs to have his specific components or he can't cast his spells. It's a great series and it feels like there's real stakes to every decision.

My dm tracks ammunition it allows us to get at least 50% back at the end of the encounter

4:12 - A fighter making 4 attacks per round can use all of his arrows in 5 rounds. I always have players track ammunition, and after each fight they can recover 1/2 of expended ammo from the battlefield. But I also don't charge them to replenish ammunition (when they return to town) as it is covered under player weekly/monthly upkeep costs. Proficiency in Woodcarver’s Tools can allow a character to craft 5 arrows per short rest (XGE p 85)

life style expenses last maybe the first 3 sessions of the campaign until the story starts. after that, the party is always on the move and just rent rooms at whatever tavern they are in and seem to just drop gold pieces like its candy for some reason.

3:48 I gave my party a bag of holding for each character because I like having lore reasons for my decisions when possible.

When my characters get paid in AL I always take it in platinum and gems with some gold and silver pocket change to pick up bar tabs, although I do play with encumbrance.

The "Darkvision doesnt let you see colors" thing is something I really want to play with. I want to have the solution to a puzzle be obvious with color vision but tricky without it. Also, I would love to include a send up to the Grue from Zork, a threat that simply does not apply if even a candle's worth of light is in the room.

My DM during Tomb of Annihilation did NOT forget about the Darkvision rule. And it bit us in the ass a few times (and why i ALWAYS pick Devil's Sight whenever possible) because we didn't see some differently colored tiles that mark where traps were.

The problem with Electrum is that it is a perfectly legitimate coin, but the lack of other denominations is what makes it so weird. In the current day we have three denominations for every 10 increment: 1, 2 and 5. Electrum is the 5. But there is no 2, nor are there 2 and 5 for the copper to silver and gold to platinum transitions. The weight of coins in 3rd edition was 1/50 of a pound. That meant every 50 coins weighed 1lb. This made calculations much easier.

Downtime activities were in the DM's Guide, Xanathar just expanded on them, modified them, and in some cases completely changed them. I know this because I did my research on crafting magic items for my artificer (Her whole reason for adventuring was to learn everything she could about every kind of magic item she could get her hands on so that one day she could create the kind of legendary magic items adventurers would seek out... and also obtain enough money to attend a top tier magic college), and my DM and I had a discussion about which version we wanted to use. We settled on Xanathar's because it just seemed the more complete version overall. I actually became the main supplier of magic items for my group, though the DM wasn't stingy about handing some out as well. I miss that campaign. Anyways, people ignore lifestyle expenses because they don't even know downtime activities exist, often because DMs kinda just start the next arc a few days after the last one concluded. I try to talk to my DMs about letting us just mess around in our base and hometown for a little while between adventures.

For strength I gave it a bit more use in the fact that if it is too big for you to carry to a degree, I will do a strength check to see if you can manage to haul something that's bigger than you. Otherwise, if its smaller feel free to carry it however you want.

I generally waive the low-light condition when running 5e because low-light vision doesn't exist anymore (it still does in Pathfinder and I absolutely use those rules there). That said, eliminating color vision makes for some really interesting stealth situations and I recommend that more DMs employ that part of the darkvision rule. Understanding that you're effectively trading the ability to see in color for stealth also makes your party more likely to invest in things like hooded lanterns and other light-emitting objects and spells that are easy to conceal.

At my table: The first magic item that appears in any characters inventory is always a bag of holding. Low magic setting? Plot hook, it is a heirloom and the player must hide the fact that it is magic. If starting from level 1 it is in the first dungeon or can be purchased for a low price from a passing merchant for the price of a pack mule. Bonus points if it latter turns out to be a sleeping bag of devouring.

I play online which will automatically track coin weight and has an option to ignore it, so I usually just say that you track it unless you have a bag of holding, in which case you can store it in there and some magical loophole ignores that weight because its too little. Basically you can ignore coin weight if you have a bag of holding or some similar item

Love the tumb art, ima go make a dnd charter bout her

I haven't seen the video yet, but I'm amazed that it appeared at the same time as it was posted. youtube knows me well, haha.

i personally run electrum as a material to smelt down into a silvered weapon replacement or a easy way to make a coating that deals lightning damage (1d4 usually) or i typically give it as a joke currency.

One i do know people tend to ignore is spell components. In my campaign we vaugely have the components (a jar of metal powder that we don't keep track of). Nobody is hunting spider webs for the web spell, but the dm usually enforces the real expensive stuff like 500gp gems

Electrum is cool if you make it the exclusive currency of a given location in a campaign. Force players find a way to get there hands on some or risk going without supplies for a given run. But don't tell them, just sprinkle some in here or there and see if they exchange it. Lol

different coins being the same weight makes perfect sense if you remember that coins aren't usually the same size

Oversized weapon rule. Most people either don't want to bother looking it up cause it's hard to find and not mentioned in places it should be, or DMs don't want players to get the full advantage out of spells and classes that are made to use it. Basically, for every size category above their normal size a character and their weapon is increased, the damage doubles. So a medium character with a 1d6 weapon going to large would deal 2d6, and going to huge would deal 3d6. This makes certain class features and spells every effective as it can be a great boost to a melee class's damage output. But without it without it they offer trivial benefit at best.

4:52 This is when things get juicy, you wait for every PC to have dark-vision, and stop using torches. Then you through the Shambler from Darkest Dungeon at them and they start appreciating torches.

As a Singaporean who actively uses 50 cent coins on a regular basis, electrum pieces sort of make sense to me. Believe me, buying notes for the class and having to chase my classmates for physical money because the one printing the notes does not accept electronic payment is one heck of a job I signed up for.

I had a player once insist on using Electrum for a campaign. I did not feel like the split currency, so I just made it where 10 Silver = 1 Electrum, and 10 Electrum = 1 Gold. The player then complained that they wanted to have the currency as written in the rules, because they were tired of DMs skipping things that are in the books... so I added coin weight and enforced keeping track of it. That player did not returned for subsequent campaigns.

Very true - 5e really laughs at martials and strength-builds. Literally, Wizards and Druids are the cream of the crop, with Clerics and Sorcerers bringing up a close second. Casters are just _that_ powerful.

I do kinda use lifestyle expense in my game. Basically, if you pay for a posh lifestyle continuously you get bonuses to your HP after resting in a place you can take advantage of it (in a town), whereas if you spend a number of days in lesser conditions you start taking penalties to your HP.

Electrum Pieces always being on the character sheet is actually kinda nice, in case you're playing Descent into Avernus. It's a neat way of tracking Soul Coins.

I once read that Electrum and Platinum were meant to be exotic currencies, or from a long-gone era. It makes sense to think of copper/silver/gold as one system and electrum/platinum as another, separate system. Plus it makes sense that looting some old ruin will land you some weird currencies that shops don't really use or accept and that don't fit in the current money system. I had some mod for Skyrim that added Dwarven Coins and Ancient Nord Coins, with value in Septims (gold), just to add some touch to the game, as Septims didn't make sense in old pre-empire ruins.

I used electrum as a resource for a warlock his patron was a ancient wizard who was locked sealed in a pocket dimension. The wizard valued history above all and in the campaigns lore electrum was the currency used by ancient civilizations. The warlock could give electrum to his patron to upcast one level on his next spell

I always love to play a character with an absurd amount of non-magical junk, and whenever dm gives me a side-eye, I give him propper calculations, of how much my character can carry. It's funny, especially when I find a bug repellent in my inventory, when fighting giant bugs.

my dm uses carring capacity, but also hands out bags of holding like it's candy

Coin bag of holding >.> Or for a rare one, a friendly (to you) mimic coin of holding.

I somewhat disagree with the coin comments. Yes, electrum isn't really providing any value, so I agree with ignoring it, but I think it still makes sense as a currency. If we imagine that 1cp is used roughly like we use $1 (which seems about right for the scale of expenses), then an electrum is a $50 bill, which is completely normal. By that logic there could also easily be a 5cp or 2sp valued coin (to match the $5 and $20). So it is one of those things that make sense to me for a world, but I agree is overly detailed for a game. As for gold and silver coins having the same weight: I just assume that they aren't the same size (like many real-world coins) and that "gold coins" probably aren't pure gold. And all coins having the same weight is again a simplification to make the math easier.

I liked the electrum rant.. it reminded me of a particular country's choice of the imperial system, when everyone else uses metric.. 😅

3:00 Yes, gold is heavier than silver but all that means is 1 gp is smaller than 1 sp.

Ammunition is something my tables generally do track, actually, typically because we're playing more 'intense' games at tier 1 where shopping isn't always ubiquitous and some rarer ammos are harder to come by. But yes, most tables that get into tier 3 and tier 4, I can see not bothering to track ammo at all at that point.

I used it as a prank. The party was being forced to complete a stupid quiz, and one of the questions was “how many electrum pieces is 10 gold pieces worth.” I had to explain the value of electrum pieces multiple times for the to figure it out

2:57, I adore doing this though, something about it feels so good...

I use Electrum as an exclusive currency for a homebrew class based on the Templar Knights. Making up the class (so-far DM exclusive) was my way of getting my Niece and Nephew safely between dystopian cities. My Templar is essentially a tour guide and banker.

Electrum is the currency given by dms to annoy the party after destroying our plans in the first 30 minutes lol

My group has frequently joked about Electrum being useless lol. Probably one of the few ACTUAL uses we got for it was to be used as treasure we could sell, found in temples and ruins of ancient societies that used it as their main currency (based on how IRL Electrum coins were the first to be used afik).

1:30 I went on Reddit for “what you guys post is the rules” Electrum is the only currency Giants deal in. Which was really fun figuring out why.

3:30 - I have players calculate encumbrance at level 1, and then maybe again if they start hoarding to much stuff. I also bring it up if players are trying to carry another character, etc.

Electrum is like the MAIN coin in Curse of Strahd we always joked about it.

I use Electrum as above platinum. In my world they are worth 10 Platinum - which also makes them incredibly rare - and they wash up on the shores sometimes or appear in random places, as they are from a sea-travelling empire that used to span the world before they just "mysteriously" disappeared.

Bag of holding is so clutch vs encumbrance and carry weight. I like it when they aren't so incredibly rare players dont manage to attain one, but putting abit of challenge for it is definitely needed

I once replaced the Electrum spot for an original currency that was used in a city wgich was in a demi-plane. Copper, Silver, and Gold were pretty useless there so they had to make due.

We need to make darkvision simpler with “it takes a round for your eyes to adjust”

In my campaign, various items have value for crafting purposes. The process of making electrum is a lost art and a lightning material. So at one point a really archaic character paid the party with electrum and later on they got the recipe from an ancient dragon. And the result was a huge flux in the economy of the world as the reintroduction of the ability to make electrum caused various denominations of currency to massively inflate or deflate based upon their perceived value towards creation of electrum which heavily includes a blend of gold and silver.

Personally I rule Darkvision as like the vision of a cat, you can't see if there's no light, so you don't have disadvantage on perception checks based on sight during night time and you can see in a pitch black room with almost no light coming through, but if you're in the depths of a dungeon 30 feet under ground with multiple doors blocking light, there is no light to allow you to see, so unless you got magic eyes you can't see.