So, a PC wants to be a blind fighter...

[AshySimon]

One of my PCs has his heart set on making his character blind from the outset. He's a human raised by Dragonborn, and he has an elaborate backstory that the PC's really excited about.
I've told him that we could just run combat as if he could see, and that he could treat it more as a roleplaying aspect (which he loves), but it doesn't sound like a very creative thing to do with him. It would be nice to have that reflected in battle in some way as well, so his character is 'always' blind.

Perhaps rough terrain acts like a wall? For example. At the same time, I don't want to punish him either, since he should be a perfectly capable level 1 fighter.

Any clever ideas?

 

[EP]

I guess it depends on just how much detail you want to put into this and what, if any, cool bonuses you want to give him.

- he has to use a minor action each round to maintain his focus of else suffers a -2 penalty to speed until the start of his next turn
- has an aura of blindsense around him up to 1 square
- can make a Perception check once per round to detect opponents within a burst of 5

Anything else off the top of my head would require lots of penalties and feats to offset them. Still, just allowing him to be blind and not factor it in the dice works just fine.

 

[AshySimon]

Yeah, that's the sort of stuff I was looking for. I don't want to start making it epic-complicated since he's new (but not so new to gaming that he can't handle a couple extra 'complications').
I especially like the burst five idea, it feels like it fits right in, and I'll talk all these ideas over with him! I'd love to give him some kind of positive ability also to express his unique training, but this material's all really good, thanks! :j

 

[aka_taliesin]

Additionnaly you could also have him take the feat "Melee training (WISDOM)" to represent his unique fighting style and houserule his fighter power to key off WISDOM instead of strength (with STRENGTH secondary when relevant)

 

[AshySimon]

Hey, that's a good idea too. I'll also bring up this point as well!

 

[LostSoul]

Anything which does damage based sound or smell has a +5 bonus to hit!

Areas with loud noise will make him blind - like fighting under a waterfall.

He can't be affected by attacks that rely on sight, like medusa's gaze or a dread wight's horrid visage.

 

[Roger]

What I'd keep, modify, and get rid of:

BLINDED
* You grant combat advantage. -- Remove.
* You can’t see any target (your targets have total concealment). -- Modify; targets have only concealment, not total concealment.
* You take a –10 penalty to Perception checks. -- Remove.
* You can’t flank an enemy. -- Remove.



Cheers,
Roger

 

[AshySimon]

Lost soul - Nice points! As a DM I can pull that waterfall thing out one day (so long's he knows all this in advance of course) - That kind of thing will really interest him!

Roger - Agreed, concealment vs. total concealment noted.

 

[Garthanos]

I have a blind seer I am working on stating out...
of course that means he uses the presentient bard class
but I hadnt got very far beyond that.

I was even considering making many of his attacks
I throw a rock... it bounces off a branch the branch wiggles
and a bird dives in the enemies face.

Come to think of it I might have changed my mind and made him a lover/priest of Avandra (struck blind by divine radiance) yet simultaneously enabled... by her blessing.

 

[Mythlore]

EP always has some great ideas. Here's something I random-stormed.

Difficult terrain costs +1 additional space to travel through (so, 3 spaces rather than 2 for standard difficult terrain).
Trap terrain deals an additional +1d6 (per tier?) damage, due to not being certain how it's going to strike.

Cannot negate flanking from foes. Or when foes do flank, they gain +3 to hit, instead of +2.

May not be able to avoid opportunity attacks.
Lurker foes gain additional +2 to +5 bonus on Stealth check effects.
Hidden or invisible foes gain no bonus, particularly.
But moving silently foes might gain a specific bonus.

Perhaps gains Tremorsense 1/tier.

Grants combat advantage against ranged attacks only.