Adjusting to long-term blindness.

[Arravis]

From the SRD:

Blinded: The character cannot see. He takes a -2 penalty to Armor Class, loses his Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), moves at half speed, and takes a -4 penalty on Search checks and on most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Spot checks) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) to the blinded character. Characters who remain blinded for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.

Any guess on how the mechanics are changed in characters with long-term blindness? I'd love there to be an "official" answer to this, but any help or suggestions on what it should be are welcome. Thanks guys!

 

[Crothian]

why would long term blindness be any different? Also, why not just cure it?

 

[Arravis]

Why? Because it's clearly written in the rules that long-term blindness is treated differently. I'm not exactly going out on a limb with some crazy house-rule here. It's something based on the WotC's SRD.

And the reason why not is because the campaign is set in a extremely low-magic setting. In this setting, if someone looses an eye, an arm, or their life... it's not getting undone.

 

[Crothian]

Since the rules don't say how the drawbacks are over come, just that they can. I just ignore that. A rule that doesn't list the actual rule is no rule at all.

 

[Arravis]

If it was meant to be ignored, why would they write it? That doesn't make much sense. It's your choice to ignore it, but that would be your own house rule.

 

[Crothian]

Maybe it's just harmless fluff.

To answer your question though, I would create some feats that allow a character to slowly overcome some of the negatives.

 

[Arravis]

The conditions section isn't exactly brimming with "fluff".

A feat might be a viable idea, but such a thing isn't supported in the rules. The condition statement of "Characters who remain blinded for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them." isn't reliant on a feat nor does it mention it (of course, it doesn't mention any specifics, so who really knows). I figure I'm already hosing a NPC (or character if things go wrong) with blindness, why add a feat expenditure on top of it when the rules don't require it.

Personally, I was considering simply halving the numeric minuses: -1 penalty to AC, looses half Dex bonus, moves at 3/4 speed, takes -2 on Search checks and Str and Dex based skill checks. Of course, all checks and activities based on vision would still automatically fail.

P.S.: Anyone know any rules on missing a limb? I've looked in the SRD and I can't find much on it.

 

[Bront]

I agree with Arravis's summary. That's partialy overcome. Adding a feat would work as well

And the idea is sometimes it's nice to play a handicaped character. I have a mute "barbarian" (ranger/Beastmaster), who has been interesting to play in a PbP game.

 

[Question]

Pull some RP related thing, to give them montolio-like blindsight....or such.

 

[cmanos]

long term blindless can be 'overcome' by the Blindfighting feat, along with pumping skill points into Listen. Skill Focus: Listen will give you a +3 bonus on that side of things.