Blindsight
- Thread starter Dimwhit
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UltimaGabe
First Post
Steverooo said:
It was first in Sword & Fist, and it isn't an Epic feat. If it WAS in the Epic Level Handbook, it was one of the non-Epic feats.
Anyway, if I remember correctly, its prerequisites included Blind-Fight and Wisdom 19+, as well as possibly a BAB requirement. Either way, it hasn't been revised- with good reason. Blindsight is an extremely powerful ability (and whoever wrote it as a 2nd-level spell in the Underdark sourcebook should be shot), and this kind of mechanic just didn't really work well, in my opinion.
AFAIK there is no updated version of that feat. Blindsight tends to be an extremely strong ability, so it doesn't show up very often in 3.5, except on oozes and such. Most critters who had it (like dragons) now have blindsense instead.
Blindsense is less powerful, since it only allows the user to pinpoint a creature's location. It doesn't remove the miss chance for attacking an invisible target, nor does it prevent an invisible rogue from sneak attacking you.
Given those limitations, IMC I've allowed "Blindsense, 5' radius" as a feat. Prereqs are Blind-Fight and 10 ranks in Listen. In terms of balance it works out to be a moderate improvement over Blind-Fight, yet not as unbalancingly strong as the 3.0 Blindsight feat was.
Blindsense is less powerful, since it only allows the user to pinpoint a creature's location. It doesn't remove the miss chance for attacking an invisible target, nor does it prevent an invisible rogue from sneak attacking you.
Given those limitations, IMC I've allowed "Blindsense, 5' radius" as a feat. Prereqs are Blind-Fight and 10 ranks in Listen. In terms of balance it works out to be a moderate improvement over Blind-Fight, yet not as unbalancingly strong as the 3.0 Blindsight feat was.
UltimaGabe
First Post
Does anyone else agree that Blindsight (30 ft.) as a 2nd-level spell is the worst idea ever? In the last campaign I played in, we were using it (since it was in a WotC 3.5 book), and invisiblity and hiding became worthless to use because players (and enemies alike) could simply take an action to quaff a potion of Blindsight and have the ability for the rest of the battle. I was a player for most of the campaign, but at one point I was DMing and had the players encounter an insanely powerful Rogue/Shadowdancer with a Hide Skill of 60+, and they still managed to take him out in two or three rounds because his Hide in Plain Sight (despite his ridiculous Hide check) was worthless.
I think the blindsight spell ended up at 2nd level because of comparison to invisibility purge. IP is 3rd level and reveals nearby invisible creatures to everyone. A designer probably reasoned that, since blindsight only reveals invisible creatures to the spell subject himself, it must be a less powerful spell. He forgot that it has the side effects of granting darkvision plus infinite ranks in Spot.
It's not the worst spell idea ever (that distinction goes to miasma), but the level choice was definitely not well considered.
It's not the worst spell idea ever (that distinction goes to miasma), but the level choice was definitely not well considered.
UltimaGabe
First Post
AuraSeer said:
I've had this discussion on another board, and I must say that Miasma isn't nearly as bad as everyone is making it out to be. It isn't useful in any realistic situation, in my opinion, since although it kills without a save, it takes at least 20 rounds to do so to an average commoner (assuming he fails his Constitution check). Blindsight as a 2nd-level spell is FAR worse than Miasma, in my opinion.
Perun
Mushroom
The Blindsight, 5-ft. radius was converted to 3.5 in the SRD (look under Divine feats):
As for the Blindsight wild feat (from MotW), it was never officially converted. However, I play a druid with the feat, and my DM and I converted it:
The changes in the feat are primarily due to the changes to the (dire) bat in the MM. In 3.0, bats had very poor sight (limited to 10 ft., IIRC), but they compensated it with their excellent sonar (i.e. blindsight).
D&D 3.5 introduced the split between the blindsight and blindsence abilties, and gave normal (human-equivalent) sight to the bats. Bats now get blindsence 40-ft.-radius.
My druid has had the feat since 9th-level. It's a rather useful feat (hence the prerequisites), but not an overly powerful one, as you still have a 50% chance of missing your opponent in darkness (actually, it's less than 50%, since you roll twice in melee, due to the Blind Fight feat, which is a prerequisite).
The 'Special' bit is flavour only. I liked the idea of my character undergoing a slight physical change due to the development of the new ability.
Another option, if you're a druid and if your DM allows it, is to take the Dragon Wild Shape feat from Draconomicon. It gives you all the Su and Ex abilities of the dragon shape you assume, which includes superior low light vision, darkvision, and blindsence.
SRD said:
As for the Blindsight wild feat (from MotW), it was never officially converted. However, I play a druid with the feat, and my DM and I converted it:
The changes in the feat are primarily due to the changes to the (dire) bat in the MM. In 3.0, bats had very poor sight (limited to 10 ft., IIRC), but they compensated it with their excellent sonar (i.e. blindsight).
D&D 3.5 introduced the split between the blindsight and blindsence abilties, and gave normal (human-equivalent) sight to the bats. Bats now get blindsence 40-ft.-radius.
My druid has had the feat since 9th-level. It's a rather useful feat (hence the prerequisites), but not an overly powerful one, as you still have a 50% chance of missing your opponent in darkness (actually, it's less than 50%, since you roll twice in melee, due to the Blind Fight feat, which is a prerequisite).
The 'Special' bit is flavour only. I liked the idea of my character undergoing a slight physical change due to the development of the new ability.
Another option, if you're a druid and if your DM allows it, is to take the Dragon Wild Shape feat from Draconomicon. It gives you all the Su and Ex abilities of the dragon shape you assume, which includes superior low light vision, darkvision, and blindsence.
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