Blind PC in combat

[renau1g]

Sorry, I think I wasn't very clear in my original post. If I had a blind character in my campaign, I would effectively give them blindsight or something close to it. I wouldn't want it to make the character ineffective in combat - it would be intended more as a roleplaying opportunity rather than a mechanical handicap. There would be some instances where the blindness would indeed be a handicap (there's no way the character could be a lookout on a ship or anything like that) but probably some situations in which it would help (no penalty for being blinded, immunity from gaze attacks). Deafness would then cripple the character almost completely, of course, and certain nasty enemies could try to take advantage of that, but I'm imagining a character who can't see but who uses other senses (and some magic) to make up for it.

Remember that you can HEAR (and maybe smell or feel) where your enemy is, and super-hearing could be ruled for flavor purposes to be about the same as normal sight.

Daredevil does it, I'd say go for it.

 

[MarkB]

One thing you haven't mentioned is that, barring the constant intervention of your team-mates, you have very little idea as to the layout of the battlefield around you. You won't know that if you try to walk directly west, you'll be heading into a patch of difficult terrain that'll slow your movement, or that there's a solid wall ten feet to your left and a sheer drop 15 feet to your right.

I really would be tempted to have the player sit away from the battlemap and base his actions more upon description than a tactical overview.

 

[Nahat Anoj]

1. You know the square of every combatant all of the time unless they attempt to be stealthy.

2. If they attempt to be stealthy, they must first beat your passive perception score before you lose them.

3. After that you can spend a minor action to get a perception check to find them again.

Even if you succeed at your perception check (or they don't stealth, or they don't successfully stealth) you have a -5 to hit them, you will grant combat advantage to them and you cannot flank (so you neither provide NOR receive flanking bonuses).

Good list - one other thing is that the blind character won't be able to make opportunity attacks.

 

[Prestidigitalis]

Roll up a new character, and preferably an effective one.

Why are you looking at me that way? You're blind, remember?

 

[Lord Ernie]

One possible way to prevent this from causing too much trouble, is to give the blind character some advantages compared to normally blinded characters, because yours has had to live and train with his condition his entire life. Examples:

• You don't take the -10 penalty to perception checks for being blinded. This is because, while you can't see, your other senses are fine-tuned beyond the range of most normal people.
• Naturally, you are immune to the blind condition. Due to being cautious about your movement for your entire life, you don't grant CA for being blind.
• You've practiced magic/archery while being blind most of your life, and thus have learned to overcome some of the limitations of your condition. If you are aware of another creature during combat (i.e. they're not succesfully hiding from you), you don't take the usual -5 penalty to ranged attacks.
• As a trained warrior, you have tremorsense 1 (think Toph from Avatar: The Last Airbender) or blindsight 1. Your senses are so powerful that, to a limited range, you can sense the disturbances in the air made by the movements of your foes, or feel the tiny tremors they cause when they shift their weight and move around, allowing you to predict their movements, and stopping them from catching you off-guard (in rules terms, you can make OA's, can flank, don't take the -5 penalty in melee, and don't grant CA).

As always, confer with your DM. If he/she likes using stealthy monsters a lot, and otherwise thinks a blind character can cause a problem, I'd recommend against it. Otherwise, have fun with your character .

 

[Ryujin]

This would certainly make for an interesting character, in the blind swordsman/blind monk genre. The problem is how much the mechanics of 4e would have to be bent, in order to accommodate such a character. While blindsight of a limited range would best model this sort of thing that power is only available at higher levels, and for limited ranges and durations.

The method of handling it would have to be very carefully considered, in order to avoid makign the blind character effectively more powerful than any other character in the party. Blindsight and tremorsense can give massive advantages in combat situations. Constant rolling of perception can slow combat down, needlessly.

A Wizard with non ally-friendly area attack powers would be a hilarious option for this

 

[Nichwee]

I think you could pull this off ok if you make sure the player comes out hindered but not too badly so.

So I'd negate the -10 to Perception (he still never gets to use "sight-based" percepetion anyway and would be used to compensating for simple 'Did you notice something?' situations, and hearing already has DC effects from range) and give +2 Perception to a pure "hearing" check (not a "Beat Stealth check" but something like "listen at a door").

I'd relagate the perminant Total Concealment to just Concealment (With the perk that invisable things only get Concealment)

I'd remove the auto Combat Advantage unless the attack is from greater than 5 squares (closer than that and he can here the twang of the bow/swish of an arm/etc).

And I'd insist the character has to carry around a weapon/stick large enough to reach the ground at all times or he treats all ground as difficult terrain (The blindman's cane effect or he has to move really slowly to avoid obsticles/ledges -- Might also impart a -1 on saves to avoid being pushed/pulled/slid into hazardous areas)

Give the player Blindsense 1 at paragon, immune to blinding and gaze attacks, and the Eyes In The Back Of Your Head feat for free (Well, the back of his/her head has as good a set of eyes as the front does).

And if he/she has an teleports then the player rolls a random d8 and d4 to get direction and distance from the intended target square (cutting the distance to the max allowed by the teleport). So if amingin for Square A in the following picture he/she ends up 1d4 squares away in direction set by a d8 as shown.
123
4A5
678

This set means the choice is, mechanically, 'a bad one' overall, but has some perks (No CA from flanking, etc) to make up for it a bit. It is no point removing all the net downsides as this removes some of the punch of the idea imo. Just remember to throw in some stuff to let the perks shine through once in a while, and remember to account for it in the less combat sitautions (like, are guards more likely to ignore/be less suss about a "old blind begger" than an adventurer?).

 

[Prestidigitalis]

I'm not sure at this point whether most of the comments are to the OP or to someone else, but I'm pretty sure the OP's character has NOT been blind since birth.

 

[OnlineDM]

I'm not sure at this point whether most of the comments are to the OP or to someone else, but I'm pretty sure the OP's character has NOT been blind since birth.

Yeah, that's my fault - most of the recent comments are in reply to my post about a character who's permanently blind. Sorry for hijacking the thread!

For what it's worth, I've put a post on my blog that gives more of my thoughts on what a permanently blind character might be like. My thoughts are generally similar to some of the ideas mentioned here. Nichwee and Ryujin said it well - I would want blindness to hinder the character and generally make their life more difficult, but to not make them useless in combat. It should give them some benefits that could be interesting, but not overpowered.

I love the suggestion that the character be required to carry a staff or cane or otherwise move at half speed - very flavorful and it makes sense. A staff fighter of some sort, or a staff wizard could be cool. My favorite idea so far is still the concept of a shaman who relies on the spirit companion to be his "eyes"; something similar could probably be done with a familiar for a wizard.

 

[Ryujin]

Yeah, that's my fault - most of the recent comments are in reply to my post about a character who's permanently blind. Sorry for hijacking the thread!

For what it's worth, I've put a post on my blog that gives more of my thoughts on what a permanently blind character might be like. My thoughts are generally similar to some of the ideas mentioned here. Nichwee and Ryujin said it well - I would want blindness to hinder the character and generally make their life more difficult, but to not make them useless in combat. It should give them some benefits that could be interesting, but not overpowered.

I love the suggestion that the character be required to carry a staff or cane or otherwise move at half speed - very flavorful and it makes sense. A staff fighter of some sort, or a staff wizard could be cool. My favorite idea so far is still the concept of a shaman who relies on the spirit companion to be his "eyes"; something similar could probably be done with a familiar for a wizard.

I'd likely go a different way. Perhaps an Infernal or Fey Pact Warlock with a cane (rod), and a familiar of some sort to act as his eyes.