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Senses
Fundamental tasks -- noticing danger, finding hidden objects, and hitting an enemy -- relay heavily on a character's ability to perceive the world around them.
Vision and Obscured Areas
Creatures primarily perceive the world by sight. This is called vision. Creatures usually have secondary senses of hearing, smell, and touch that also allow them to interact with the environment, but vision is considered the "standard" primary sense.
Darkness and other effects that obscure vision can prove significant hindrance. Areas of darkness or other effects that interfere with vision are labels as either lightly or heavily obscured.
Lightly Obscured
In a lightly obscured area, such as dim light, patchy fog, or moderate foliage, creatures have disadvantage on Perception checks that rely on sight.
Heavily Obscured
In a heavily obscured area, such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage, a creature effectively suffers from the Blinded condition when trying to see something in that area. A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any skill check that requires sight. Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
Light Levels
The presence or absence of light in an environment is the common factor in determining whether an area is lightly or heavily obscured. The amount of light in a given area is measured by the following categories.
Sunlight
Sunlight lets most creatures see normally. It also has special effects on certain creatures with the Sunlight Sensitivity trait or similar features.
Bright Light
Bright light lets most creatures see normally. Even gloomy days provide bright light, as do torches, lanterns, fires, and other light sources within a short radius.
Dim Light
Dim light, also called shadows, creates a lightly obscured area. An area of dim light is usually a boundary between a source of bright light and surrounding darkness. The soft light of twilight and dawn also count as dim light. A full moon might also provide dim light.
Darkness
Darkness creates a heavily obscured area. Characters face darkness outdoors at night or within the confines of an unlit building or dungeon.
Magical Darkness
Magical darkness creates a heavily obscured area like darkness, but also obscures the vision of creatures who can see in darkness due to darkvision or similar abilities.
Special Senses
In addition to basic vision, creatures can have one or more of the following additional senses.
Darkvision
A creature with darkvision can see in darkness. Within darkvision range, the creature can see in dim light as if it were bright light and can see in darkness as if it were dim light. A creature can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
Keensense
A creature with keensense can perceive its surroundings using a sense other than vision. Creatures without eyes typically have this sense, as do creatures with echolocation or an extraordinary sense of smell. If a creature has no other form of sensing, it has a parenthetical note to this effect, indicating that the radius of its keensense defines the maximum range of its ability to perceive the world.
Tremorsense
A creature with tremorsense can detect and pinpoint the source of vibrations when it and the source are in contact with the same ground or substance. Tremorsense typically can't detect flying or incorporeal creatures.
Truesight
A creature with truesight can see in dim light, darkness, and magical darkness as if it were bright light. It also sees creatures and objects with the invisible condition, it automatically detects visual illusions and succeeds on saves against them, and it perceives the true form of a creature with the Shapechanger tag or a creature that is transformed by magic. Furthermore, the creature can see into the Cognitive realm within truesight range.
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