D&D 5E Moving while blind

clearstream · May 26, 2017

I cannot find any guidance in RAW about moving while blind? Is there any?

We use a grid for fights. At present I am thinking of ruling that - "Each 1’ moved while blind costs an additional foot of movement unless you have a guide you can reach and hear." Does that seem good?

The reason for that is I dislike my players choosing to dash on ground they know to be clear. For me that breaks suspension of disbelief. I considered introducing random veering, or chances to stumble, or some kind of displacement (you turn out to be not quite where your figure shows you to be). However, when I tested those things they felt cumbersome and didn't help as much as I thought they would. Thus I'm thinking of just imposing a straight-forward movement penalty. Effectively, being blind makes even clear terrain difficult for you. Partly of course because it would be rare for terrain to be quite as pristine, clear and flat as a combat grid! And even the smallest bump might trip you up if blind.

I'm aware of the other things blindness does. So I'd like to focus here on how it interacts with movement. Thoughts?

Shiroiken · May 26, 2017

There is nothing by RAW. I have blind characters treat everything as difficult terrain or roll Dexterity/Acrobatics to avoid falling prone. I also require Wisdom/Perception to determine direction, otherwise it's somewhat random (degree of error is based on amount failed by).

Rya.Reisender · May 26, 2017

Well, it's within your power as a DM to determine what constitutes difficult terrain. So yeah, I'd say ruling that for a blind person everything is difficult terrain would be within your RAW powers.

However, I personally like 5e because it's simple, so I'd rather not add additional rules on top of it just for the sake of realism. Hard enough for me to worry about light and cover already.

UngeheuerLich · May 26, 2017

Try a different angle:
Blind does not mean you see nothing, bit only very little. Enough to have a general feeling of your surrounding. Starlight for examle is treated as total darkness RAW.
I would assume coulour spray also just impairs vision qute heavily.
So you should ask in which situations you don't allow dashing in darkness... which actually is not that fast. Only fast for the average fully packed adventurer.
10ft per second is manageable as a fast pace.

jaelis · May 26, 2017

Could also say that you can move full speed when you can't see, but that if you encounter difficult terrain you have to make a Dex save or fall down.

Croesus · May 26, 2017

This is not RAW, but when a character is in darkness or blinded, I require a Perception roll to see if they head in the correct direction. (It's incredibly easy to get turned around in complete darkness.) I give advantage if they have a wall or some such near at hand. Whether they succeed on the Per roll or not, treat the terrain as difficult and no dashing. If they fail the Per roll, they tell me how far they are moving and I randomly roll their direction. Seems to work fine, as I impose the same problems on enemies.

clearstream · May 26, 2017

Rya.Reisender said:
Well, it's within your power as a DM to determine what constitutes difficult terrain. So yeah, I'd say ruling that for a blind person everything is difficult terrain would be within your RAW powers.

However, I personally like 5e because it's simple, so I'd rather not add additional rules on top of it just for the sake of realism. Hard enough for me to worry about light and cover already.

We're playing OOTA and with all those drow about, the Darkness spell is cast a lot. For me, suspension of disbelief is harmed by doing nothing. For example, some of my players have asked with a tone of incredulity if they can move unhindered when blind? Isn't treating clear terrain as difficult a simple rule? I kind of share your concern about adding complexity so I might leave it at only that.

Croesus said:
This is not RAW, but when a character is in darkness or blinded, I require a Perception roll to see if they head in the correct direction. (It's incredibly easy to get turned around in complete darkness.) I give advantage if they have a wall or some such near at hand. Whether they succeed on the Per roll or not, treat the terrain as difficult and no dashing. If they fail the Per roll, they tell me how far they are moving and I randomly roll their direction. Seems to work fine, as I impose the same problems on enemies.

That perception check could be worth a try. The question is whether it adds enough value to be worth remembering to call for the check? What did you think of @Shiroiken 's suggestion of a Dex check to avoid falling?

cmad1977 · May 26, 2017

I'd go with difficult terrain and of course disadvantage on attacks. Maybe advantage on attacks against?
My only 'concern' with perception rolls etc is the possibility that more and more dice will get rolled for limited gain.

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thethain · May 26, 2017

Honestly, PCs have a supernatural sense of the world around them as written. That is even part of why perception is called perception. Because it is all encompassing between sight, sound, feel, pressure, smell, ESP. I have much more of an issue with targeting while blind than travelling while blind.

PCs are heroes. They can regularly perform heroic actions which would be difficult to impossible for average people.

cooperjer · May 26, 2017

I'm with crowd that keeps it simple for something like this. I would leave it to the player to ensure they can role-play if their character is aware of the terrain. If you feel the player is role-playing In a way that is breaking your dis-belief, then ask the player about why they feel their character is aware of the terrain. The players answer may help you to better understand their point of view. Once you understand that point of view you can then logically use the same point of view for NPCs.

One additional thing to consider is creature passive stealth. The PH indicates a character needs to take an action to hide; however there is one creature that is troublesome to deal with in this way, the poltergeist. The poltergeist is invisible and has a flying speed. My best guess of perceiving this creature when the PCs enter the room is to compare the passive perception of the PCs to the passive stealth of the poltergeist. In the same way, when you have a blind character you may want to compare the passive perception of the blind to the passive stealth of the surrounding creatures. If the blind cannot perceive the breathing, swish of clothing, clearing of throat, step of shoes, or other things creatures do when moving then the blind would not be aware of the creatures.