[A&E Guide] Blindfold of True Darkness

[Rugger]

In the Arms and Equipment Guide there is an item called the Blindfold of True Darkness.

It grants the wearer 60 ft Blindsight, but they are otherwise blind (and therefor immune to gaze attacks and other visual effects)

And it only costs 9000gp.

Thats a wee 1000gp or so more expensive than Goggles of Night (which grant 60 ft Darkvision)

Has anyone ripped into this things cost? It seems like it should be WAY more expensive....

-Rugger
"I Lurk!"

 

[Savage Wombat]

Well, first I'd say that Goggles of Darkvision should probably be cheaper. If Darkvision is something a starting character can have at 1st level, as a +0 ECL race, then it shouldn't be a 2nd level spell, IMO.

That said - I don't think anyone has actually reached a consensus as to how powerful an ability Blindsight is. So the cost in A&E would suggest that the writer felt it to be a minor ability at best.

On the other hand, if you're in a campaign where Invisible creatures are crawling out of the woodwork, or you fight creatures with gaze attacks all the time, Blindsight becomes a whole lot more useful.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Well, Darkness is a 2nd-level spell too, and the Tiefling (ECL +0) gets that, so there's precedent for it.

My thought is that the Blindfold is very, very underpriced. Blindsight negates hiding and moving silently, invisibility, and I believe many illusions. And functions as well as darkvision.

Bump that baby, says I!

 

[kreynolds]

Has anyone ripped into this things cost? It seems like it should be WAY more expensive....

You can't see colors or details. You can't read, so no activating scrolls. You don't know who's standing in front of you, or anywhere, for that matter. A guy with a ranged weapon will tear into your butt from more than 60 feet away. 9,000 sounds about right to me.

 

[kreynolds]

...the Tiefling (ECL +0)...

The tiefling has an ECL of +1.

 

[Caliban]

You can't see colors or details. You can't read, so no activating scrolls. You don't know who's standing in front of you, or anywhere, for that matter. A guy with a ranged weapon will tear into your butt from more than 60 feet away. 9,000 sounds about right to me.

Now put it on a rogue instead of a spellcaster: you can ignore just about any form of concealment, and you can sneak attack even in magical darkness.

It's about right for a spellcaster, but it's way underpriced for a rogue character, or a strong melee character (especially one who also has expert tactician.)

 

[Lord Pendragon]

The tiefling has an ECL of +1.

D'oh! I knew that.

 

[Orco42]

Either they are using new 3.5 rules for pricing items in A&E or this is the worst WotC book to date.

I noticed a huge amount of errors in the pricing of items. I checked the prices of every Staff in the book (because they are very easy to price) and most were not even close to being correct (I think the average was about 40% of from the rules cost).

I understand that sometimes you will eyeball a price but if you look at the staffs from the DMG most of them are within 5% of the rules cost.

I checked a few other items and some of the prices were almost 3 times too expensive, and others 3 times to cheap (there was one rod that paralyzes on touch (DC 25) along with other powers that was insanely underpriced).

 

[Murrdox]

Seeing as how having Blindsight won't really help a rogue all that much more than a Ring of Invisibility, and it requires your opponent to be blinded in order for you to sneak attack... I really don't get what the problem with this is.

 

[AuraSeer]

Seeing as how having Blindsight won't really help a rogue all that much more than a Ring of Invisibility, and it requires your opponent to be blinded in order for you to sneak attack... I really don't get what the problem with this is.

The problem shows up as soon as the rogue finds an ally to cast deeper darkness.

Inside the darkness, the rogue gets 100% concealment, which gives all the same benefits as invisibility. Even better, this effect doesn't go away after he attacks. The blindsight lets him spot and attack invisible creatures without a miss chance. Enemies who try to flee must move at half speed while in the darkness, while the rogue is not slowed at all. The major drawback is that the large radius of the darkness may prevent the rogue's allies from helping, but that goes away if they have their own blindsight.

A ring of invisibility costs 20k. This item gives all the same effects for less than half the price, plus one 3rd-level spell slot every week or two. (Deeper darkness lasts a day per level, so it probably won't need to be recast very often.)