Every time I get breathed on by a dragon with fire, My screen gets all dark and I can't see where I'm going or what I'm hitting. Is there an option besides raising the brightness to get rid of this? Brightness does not seem to work.

Step away from the fire? Does this occur most at night or day?

While it may not be helpful to know, the screen going black simulates the temporary blindness that occurs while your eyes readjust to normal lighting conditions. I doubt there is any easy way to circumvent that, unless you/re good at hex editing.