Blind knight class or prestige class

[EverSoar]

I'm looking at playing a blind knight.

But im' interested if there is any blind knightly classes, or knightly classes that any of you have made up. Or even prestige classes.

 

[EverSoar]

*bump in the night*

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Salutations,

I have not seen any PrC like that, but you may (if you have not already) want to look up page 83 of the dmg. The penalties for being blind is very harsh.

The only way to balance that would be with feats, magic, and/or special abilities- to counter the blindness. But that waters down the point of being blind.

I am not sure what to suggest. Hmm, maybe offer to have some cursed blindness on the character- perhaps he can see nothing but creatures that are - undead/demonic/magical/whatever.

Good luck!
FD

 

[Crothian]

I don't think you need to balance blindness. It's too easily cured.

 

[Shalewind]

Come on guys. You don’t play a blind fighter dude because you can cure it easily, or because the penalties can be canceled out with feats. You play one cause it’s cool. You wanna be like that awesome demon in Ninja Scroll (yeah so he looked normal, but he was one of the six demons). Here is what I suggest. Feel free to change/edit/flame as needed.

Blind Swordsman (Need a better name)

Hit Die: d8

Base Attack Bonus: +4.
Feats: Blindsight, 5-foot Radius, Skill Focus (Listen).
Listen: 5 ranks.
Sense Motive: 3 ranks.
Special: Must be permanently blind (see below) for at least 2 years.

Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1 +1 +0 +2 +0 Superior Hearing
2 +2 +0 +3 +0 Uncanny dodge (Dex bonus to AC)
3 +3 +1 +3 +1 Improved Blindsight
4 +4 +1 +4 +1 Distant Ear
5 +5 +1 +4 +1
6 +6 +2 +5 +2 Uncanny dodge (can’t be flanked)
7 +7 +2 +5 +2 Superior Blindsight
8 +8 +2 +6 +2 Ethereal Ear
9 +9 +3 +6 +3 Ultra Hearing
10 +10 +3 +7 +3 Uncanny dodge (+1 against traps), Vibrant Ear

Permanently Blind: By some twist of fate, cure of the gods, or near fatal physical malady, the character has lost the power of sight and shall never regain it. Over two years (and with the blindsight feat) the blind swordsman has become accustom to his condition and no longer suffers the listed penalties for being blind. All objects within 5ft are perceived and accounted for. As a side effect of this condition, the character is no longer affected by invisible opponents or by gaze attacks. If the character is deafened or within a silenced area, he looses his positive Dex bonus to AC (if any), and grants all opponents a +2 to attack him. He also must move at half speed, but can still perceive objects around him with the use of blindsight.

Superior Hearing: A blind knight receives a +5 bonus to all Listen checks and is always considered to be taking 10 on all Listen rolls. This bonus increases by an additional +2 per level taken in blind swordsman.

Uncanny Dodge (etc etc)

Improved Blindsight: As Blindsight, but with a 20 foot radius

Distant Ear: The Blind Swordsman hears all sounds within 50 feet as though they were five feet away.

Superior Blindsight: As Blindsight but with a 50 foot radius

Ethereal Ear: The blind swordsman may now perceive objects in the ethereal and make listen checks even while in a silenced area.

Ultra Hearing: The Blind Knight hears all sounds within his maximum hearing range as though they were within 5 ft.

Vibrant Ear: The Blind Swordsman is immune to deafness.

 

[Shalewind]

In addition there is a Blind Assassin class in the download of Asgard Magazine that might be of intrest to you:

http://www.d20reviews.com/Natural20/asgard.html

 

[Thain]

Zaitoichi, Blind Swordsman

Wow, here I was just crusing the boords on my daily rounds, and thinking about creating a OA character based off of the popular japanese films about Zaitoichi.

Zaitoichi, for thoose of you unfamilar with the films, was born into a late Tokugawa era samurai family. He was born blind, but he learned the way of the sword anyway, and was a damn fine swordsman.

Now, Ichi wasn't much better with his sword than any other well-trined samurai, that is to say in game terms he and another hero would have equivilant BABs and such. What really made him amazing was that he could fight so well blind.

That said, there is many a scene where Ichi will slash and stab at empty air... Of course, in a samurai drama, fights are one-on-one, and only involve what woudl be in game terms low-level humans.

I think your PrC preserves this feel, but in a world where you go prancing through dungeons, battle oddities like Ogres is routine, and the guy in the funny hat next to you can cause an explsion with a small ball of guano and a funny soudnign word.

Kudos, I'm stealing this...

 

[Thain]

skills?

Occurs to me, something was missing form your PrC writeup...

A Blind Swordsman's class skills and the relevant ability modifier are: Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Wis), Iaijutsu Focus* (Cha), Jump (Str), Swim (Str), Listen (Wis), and Sense Motive (Wis).

Skill points per level: 6 + Int modifier.


* from Oriental Adventures and only appropriate in that setting. I include it because I am unashamed of my bias towards all things samurai...

Anyhow, what do you think? Fair skill spread? Given Fighter-like combat abilites, and a reduced HD, I thought more skills was fair, maybe 6 is high, should it be 4?

 

[Furn_Darkside]

Come on guys. You don’t play a blind fighter dude because you can cure it easily, or because the penalties can be canceled out with feats.

I said countered with feats and/or special abilities- which is exactly what your PrC does- invalidates being blind.

That was my point on not playing a blind character- you end up just being as if you were not blind anyway.

*shrug* I guess it is just personal preference.

FD

 

[Shalewind]

That was my point on not playing a blind character- you end up just being as if you were not blind anyway.

And that's my point. You do it for style...
I did I blind assassin back in 2nd Edition ::shivers:: Anyway, yes, I could almost always act like I could see, but the role-play aspect was awesome... I never could tell what color hair my love intrest had, nor could I determine beauty or vileness from a distance. The value of this class is not just in the stats (which can make you really neat with supernatural enhancments) but in the RP value. Well, that's my point of view. Take it as you will.

A Blind Swordsman's class skills and the relevant ability modifier are: Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Concentration (Wis), Iaijutsu Focus* (Cha), Jump (Str), Swim (Str), Listen (Wis), and Sense Motive (Wis).

Excellent. ::slaps self:: I can't believe I forgot skills.

I include it because I am unashamed of my bias towards all things samurai...

It's contagious, I know. I really need to get that book!