The party had a run-in with some flameskulls last session. Now, for those who don't know, flameskulls rank among this edition's more jaw-droppingly "what the..?" monsters. High initiative, high speed, high stealth, and a high-damage bomb that each can drop once per encounter with a high chance of hitting makes for an over-the-top alpha striker. But none of that actually was the problem. It was what they have left once they've used up the big blast: an at-will ranged attack that blinds (save ends).
We had to familiarize ourselves quickly with the rules for fighting invisible foes. The PHB2 has some errata that, irksomely enough, redirects the reader back to the PHB. The way we read it, you can locate an invisible creature with a perception check opposed by the creature's stealth check. Now, if you're blinded, every creature is effectively invisible, so we just used passive stealth, since having roll stealth constantly would be tedious. Seemed pretty reasonable until the DM observed that the blind condition also imposes a -10 on perception checks. This made for perception checks that would fail even on a 20. So, being blind means you really want to have a clsoe attack on-hand or you're fairly hosed. At least the party's invoker got some payback by blinding them with his attack (not an at-will, let it be noted).
DId we msis a beat on how we applied the rules?
We had to familiarize ourselves quickly with the rules for fighting invisible foes. The PHB2 has some errata that, irksomely enough, redirects the reader back to the PHB. The way we read it, you can locate an invisible creature with a perception check opposed by the creature's stealth check. Now, if you're blinded, every creature is effectively invisible, so we just used passive stealth, since having roll stealth constantly would be tedious. Seemed pretty reasonable until the DM observed that the blind condition also imposes a -10 on perception checks. This made for perception checks that would fail even on a 20. So, being blind means you really want to have a clsoe attack on-hand or you're fairly hosed. At least the party's invoker got some payback by blinding them with his attack (not an at-will, let it be noted).
DId we msis a beat on how we applied the rules?