[RPG] How would adding a darkvision racial trait to Dragonborn affect balance

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Dragonborn, as I understand it, are considered to be one of the weakest, if not the weakest, playable race. Their flavour is cool, especially for people who like dragons, but their being sub-par in terms of balance can be off-putting.

Furthermore, dragons all have darkvision (by which I mean "true dragons", those listed under the "Dragon" section in the Monster Manual), whereas dragonborn do not, and this has always bugged me. I know that dragonborn are humanoids with dragon heritage, but if their heritage is strong enough to give them scales and breath weapons, surely they can see in the dark?

Anyway, the point of this is that I am considering adding a darkvision racial trait to the Dragonborn playable race (specifically, the standard 60 ft. of darkvision as per most of the other playable races). How would this affect balance? I doubt it would overpower them, since darkvision isn't that strong, but where does this see them when compared to other races?

I don't necessarily want a ranked list of all playable races, but would this change see the Dragonborn race still quite underpowered, about average and on par with some of the better balanced races, or does this push them into the above-average-but-still-not-overpowered, such as the Mountain Dwarf? In other words, I want to know if this makes the Dragonborn race more attractive to players without making them too much so.

Best Answer

It'd make them more balanced with other races

Detect Balance is a fairly popular guide for homebrewing races and determining whether they are balanced with one another. It includes scores for the official races and breakdowns of how those scores are determined. It also assigns values for various possible racial features.

The second tab of the sheet provides some info about the sheet and how it's meant to be used:

The average score for PHB and EE races by this scale is about 25.

The recommended score for new homebrew races is 24 to 27. Races should generally not eclipse 30 or fall below 20.

Values are approximate. If a race is few points higher than another that's not statistically significant. It doesn't mean it is better. Depending on circumstances it may not perform as well. Every campaign is different, what turns out to be useful will vary a lot.

The scoring unit is in quarters of ASIs, or Ability Score Increases. In other words a feature worth 4 is approximately equal in value as being able to raise an attribute by 1.

The third tab of the sheet has a graph comparing the official races at the top, followed by the individual breakdowns for each race. Dragonborn are listed first, being alphabetically the first of the PHB races. They're given an overall rating of 21 points. Their racial ability score increases of +2 (to Strength) and +1 (to Charisma), totaling +3, are obviously given a rating of 12 points. Their breath weapon is rated as 6 points and their damage resistance is noted as being worth 3 points, with the note:

The breath weapon and resistance are nicely balanced-- If you pick rarely resisted damage for your breath weapon, you likely have a resistance to an uncommon damage type.

These ratings generally match those described on the first tab of the sheet.

Now, let's look at the point ratings assigned to darkvision on the first sheet. 30 feet of darkvision is given a rating of 2 points, 60 feet of darkvision is worth 3 points, and 120 feet of darkvision is 4 points. If we add the typical 60 feet of regular darkvision to dragonborn, this brings their total point rating up to 24 points - still well in the middle of the usual range for most races.

By comparison, the various dwarf subraces (plus base race) have 29-30 points; the elves have 27-28; gnomes and halflings have 23-24; half-elves have 29; half-orcs have 24; and tieflings have 23 points. (Humans are outliers; regular humans have 17 points, while variant humans have 33 points.)

Dragonborn are normally on the lower end of the typical range, and adding darkvision brings them back to about average.

(Of course, any such rating doesn't mean much in a vacuum; certain low-rated races might be better for certain builds, and certain highly-rated races might be worse for other builds.)

Related Solutions

[RPG] How strong is the tiefling’s Infernal Legacy trait, and what should I consider when homebrewing a racial trait that replaces it

In Unearthed Arcana: That Old Black Magic (2015), they playtested a Tiefling Variant with an Abyssal Tiefling subrace. The Abyssal Tiefling gets this Abyssal Arcana trait instead of the original Infernal Legacy trait:

Abyssal Arcana. Each time you finish a long rest, you gain the ability to cast cantrips and spells randomly determined from a short list. At 1st level, you can cast a cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can also cast a 1st-level spell. At 5th level, you can cast a 2nd-level spell.

You can cast a spell gained from this trait only once until you complete your next long rest. You can cast a cantrip gained from this trait at will, as normal. For 1st-level spells whose effect changes if cast using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you cast the spell as if using a 2nd-level slot. Spells of 2nd level are cast as if using a 2nd-level slot.

At the end of each long rest, you lose the cantrips and spells previously granted by this feature, even if you did not cast them. You replace those cantrips and spells by rolling for new ones on the Abyssal Arcana Spells table. Roll separately for each cantrip and spell. If you roll the same spell or cantrip you gained at the end of your previous long rest, roll again until you get a different result.

Abyssal Arcana Spells

d6 1st Level 3rd Level 5th Level

1 Dancing lights Burning hands Alter self

2 True strike Charm person Darkness

3 Light Magic missile Invisibility

4 Message Cure wounds Levitate

5 Spare the dying Tasha’s hideous laughter Mirror image

6 Prestidigitation Thunderwave Spider climb

d6	1st Level	3rd Level	5th Level
1	Dancing lights	Burning hands	Alter self
2	True strike	Charm person	Darkness
3	Light	Magic missile	Invisibility
4	Message	Cure wounds	Levitate
5	Spare the dying	Tasha’s hideous laughter	Mirror image
6	Prestidigitation	Thunderwave	Spider climb

I would assume that homebrew could trust this list to be at least somewhat balanced as possible spell replacements, since it made it to UA. However, keep in mind that UA is not strictly canon, but rather playtest material from WotC game designers.

In that regard, the Infernal Legacy trait looks a lot like a Dragonmark (from Unearthed Arcana: Eberron (v1.1)) or the Magic Initiate feat (PHB, p. 168). You could also skin one of those feats into a racial ability, as a homebrew that wouldn't deviate too much from the rules.

And completely RAW, you could always do a Feral Tiefling with the Devil's Tongue trait (SCAG, p. 118), too.

[RPG] What would happen if I removed darkvision

If you remove Darkvision from PCs nothing much happens. If you remove it from monsters some encounter design becomes painful.

Well I haven't outright removed darkvision in any of my games it has bothered me for awhile. In 5e six out of the nine races have darkvision which, for my games, is ludicrously too common. For a bit over a year I've experimented with ways of limiting darkvision's effectiveness through area design. Some examples of things I've tried:

Various types of undead are invisible to darkvision which (in an undead heavy area) make it near useless from a PC perspective
Areas where darkvision's range is heavily limited
Lots of color based areas so characters relying on darkvision (as monsters do) would be lost whereas those with lights (hopefully good guys) would get clues

The end result has been that the players don't trust darkvision and use it only as a last resort. They carry lamps, the wizard casts light, they actually care if an area is lit or not, and then carry on as usual. They do have more issues scouting as a lamp gives away your position pretty quickly, but we consider this a feature not a bug.

For my part I get to describe moody forests and dark tombs without bothering about what the elf/dwarf/gnome/half-orc/tiefling/half-elf sees different. I see no reason why removing darkvision from PC races would be much different and likely will do so in the next iteration of my game.

An addendum: I won't be removing it from most monsters. I enjoy designing dungeons that are reasonably functional ecosystems and figuring out how all the monsters find their way around in the black is a headache I see no value in. This isn't a problem for me because, in for my game, I'm comfortable with monsters having access to abilities that the PCs don't. Monsters are... monsters, they're supposed to be different and for most being able to, "see", in utter-darkness is suitably terrifying.