Blind PC in combat

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I don't know how true you want to play to the trope, but you may want to be flexible as to what qualifies as a "cane" - for example, a swordsman may use the sheath of his sword as one (provided the sword itself is long enough for that to praticable, of course).

Additionally, if the character is a swordmage (which fits with the idea of a blind samurai), I would count the cane hand as "empty" for the purposes of the swordmage's warding ability - it makes sense that he/she would use the cane defensively in melee.

 

[Ruzak]

We had a blind 3.5 paladin, and it worked pretty well. He didn’t quite have blindsight, but could tell where a nearby foe was by touch/sound. We gave some penalty to attacks and defense before he had engaged in melee combat (CA and -2 to hit would work), but after that he attacked normally. Ranged attacks were out, but that wasn’t his thing anyway. There were other definite disadvantages that popped up in and out of combat, but I think immunity to blindness is a good benefit to make up for this. He definitely “felt” blind (and a little disadvantaged), but was also very playable.

 

[Dan'L]

I'm pretty sure the proper way to find your target in combat while blinded is to use a free action to yell "Marco!" and then aim at the responding voice(s) calling out "Polo!"

-Dan'L

 

[Mad Hamish]

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

Daredevil has radar sense and other enhanced senses which means that he's got very little reduction in ability (and in some ways he's well ahead).

If you give that level of ability out to a character for free then it's completely playable but you aren't really playing a blind person anymore.

 

[Mushroom Spore]

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.

Dragon 382, paragon feat "Sight of the Familiar." If you have a bat familiar, then as long as it's in passive mode (and thus indestructible) you have blindsight 5. The ooze from Dragon 374 would grant Tremorsense 5.

Given the line about "you can see through its eyes" a blind character could potentially "see" with any familiar depending on how your DM rules it. Familiars with low-light vision or darkvision would be useful too in that case.