Dungeons & Dragons is fixing cats, at least in terms of an important ability missing from its 2014 rules. The 2024 Player’s Handbook will give cats darkvision, an ability that allows them to see in the dark. Given that cats can actually see in the dark (due to their large pupils), it would make sense that cats would indeed have darkvision in the ruleset. However, the 2014 ruleset actually omitted this ability from the cat’s ruleset, a fact that has frustrated countless Wizard, Warlock, Ranger, and Druid players with a cat familiar.ย
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Given that many players use their familiars to scout ahead, it’s long become a point of contention that summoning a cat won’t help in a dark and gloomy dungeon, unless they encounter something with a particularly strong odor (cats had Advantage on making Perception checks using their sense of smell.) Ironically, the tabaxi (a species of anthropomorphic cat people) had darkvision when they were first introduced in Volo’s Guide to Monsters.ย
Speaking at a D&D press event at Gen Con where the “news” was first announced, D&D game architect Chris Perkins explained that the omission was due to his aunt’s cat, who apparently could not walk up and down the stairs at night without a nightlight.ย
The small but notable change was given as an example as to how almost every part of the Dungeons & Dragons Core Rulebooks were touched in some way. The 2024 Core Rulebooks features numerous revisions to everything from character creation rules to how weapons function in combat to spells to….the abilities that a cat has.ย
The new Player’s Handbook will be released on September 17th.ย
