Right now, in any cavern and any area at night, no matter how dark, you can detect all monsters in range that are not behind closed doors by hitting tab. I use spot & listen rolls to figure out if my PC will notice them, and estimate the DC myself.
Experienced players can avoid areas littered with dangerous monsters. Novice players can avoid areas littered with monsters they haven't fought yet. Barring area transition deaths, everyone knows exactly what they will be up against, at all times, and can avoid problems accordingly.
They know if something is creeping up behind them, so they are not constantly on their guard.
They know if they will be attacked from all sides upon stepping into a large room, so they are not cautious.
They know that the howling noises come from a large humanoid wolf and not an aberrant, so they will charge at it.
They know that the person approaching them in the night is their good friend and not a vampire.
I wonder if there's a way to selectively conceal monsters in NWN to various players, or at least make everyone invisible when not around light sources. This would open the way to sending the players echoes (e.g. "something slithers nearby", "you hear shuffling noises") whenever in the vicinity of concealed creatures. Knowing what I know, it seems completely infeasible, but thought I would mention it to more experienced users of the Aurora toolset.
