Question about Blinded Condition

[beldar1215]

Hello All,
Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss something when it comes to the Blinded condition. It appears that it does not effect your movement in any way. Is this correct? It would seem that it should cause more problem with movement.

Beldar

[Blizzardb]

You didn't miss anything, as written it does not affect movement. If this bothers you, you could make a houserule that cuts the speed of blinded creatures in half, like in 3E. Personally I don't think this is necessary, although I find it a bit weird when a blinded character moves confidently through areas he has not even seen before

[Flipguarder]

I just think of blinded as sun-glare. That fixes my issues with the condition.

[beldar1215]

Originally Posted by Flipguarder

I just think of blinded as sun-glare. That fixes my issues with the condition.

I like your thinking! This will help it make a little more sense.

Beldar

[Camelot]

If you're fighting in a room and become blinded, you can probably judge where you are since you've seen the layout of the room, so movement doesn't become a problem.

If you are blinded for an extended period, however, and are travelling from room to room, then you probably have friends to guide you and shout (as a free action) where you are and where to move.

If you are alone and blind, then movement becomes an issue. But it's best left to be a roleplaying issue for the player.

The situation that movement when blinded would be an issue probably rarely comes up, which is why it was omitted from 4e.

[the Jester]

An interesting approach might be to not let the blinded player look at the Battlemat, but instead force him to navigate through the room based on what others tell them and their memory of the layout, i.e. "I'm moving forward 15'!" and someone else moves their mini.

[Skallgrim]

I use the perception checks that the character would make for locating the enemy, and make the player use them to locate "their path". The "passive steath" value I use is generated on the fly based on where they are trying to go.

Going directly away from the roaring monster? Pretty easy.

Moving between the stone columns, while a battle rages? Much harder.

If they fail the perception check, they move randomly (or semirandomly). If they were fighting a monster in melee, they know not to move that way, but they might not move to exactly where they wanted to be either.

[mshea]

You could probably make it as complicated as you want but the rules are pretty clear:

If you're blind, you take -5 to attack with melee and ranged attacks.

If someone attempts to hide with a stealth check, you have to guess their square, but this is rarely going to come up.

Really, it's just the -5 and that's enough for me.

[mostholy2]

An interesting approach might be to not let the blinded player look at the Battlemat, but instead force him to navigate through the room based on what others tell them and their memory of the layout, i.e. "I'm moving forward 15'!" and someone else moves their mini.

That is a hilarious solution. Or as soon as someone becomes blinded you could have him go to the other room with his character on a blank battlemat. Then he has to do movement and actions of his character based on what he thinks he remembers. If he makes perception checks, you could fill in the battlemap of allies and enemies around him.

[Dr_Sage]

My opinions about the conditions:

Conditions are not exact matches of their meanings in the common english language.

- Immobilized is not really immobilized. You can move your body and even attack.

- Slowed isn't really slowed in real life, considering your arms are unaffected. No attack penalty at all.

- Blinded is not really blinded. I like the sunglare idea, or just a temporary stuff in the eye. If not.. how could you use Blinding Barrage to Blind a Ghost?

My approach of REAL LIFE BLINDNESS, if somehow your character was completelty deprived of vision somehow:

-> Blind + Dazed + Slowed permanently.

[Flipguarder]

fighting in darkness imo shouldn't impose the dazed condition. I agree with slowed and blind though

[Mesh Hong]

It is true there is no RAW discussion of the secondary effects of blindness, you get your -5 to attacks and cannot make opportunity attacks.

In my game I try and apply a little common sense to the situation:

Monsters:

If the creature is in an enviroment it knows well it can move in a straight line reasonably confidently when heading towards a feature. (e.g. it knows where it was when it was blinded and it knows where a wall is, so it can head in that general direction.)

If the creature was blinded by an attack, or has been attacked this round it knows that there are enemies in those squares and can attack them (still taking the -5 penalty of course)

If the creature is disorientated (e.g. it has been pushed, pulled or slid since becomming blinded) or doesn't know its surrounds it can move in a straight line towards a feature it remembers, but would be hesitant so it would probably move at half speed, or maybe even shift and use full defence.

Blinded creatures can of course make Perception checks to try and locate enemies.

Blinded creatures might have allies that can shout it general directions, "he's in front of you KEEP HITTING HIM", or "back up to the wall" etc.

Players:

Can do whatever they like, usually including one of the above options. I would only step in if they tried to do something that was a little too unbelievable.