Bonus for blind character

[Jolly Giant]

Now I'm just wondering why a blinded character would take penalties to strength-based skills? Well, I guess it would be hard to jump accurately...

Climbing would also be more difficult for a blind person. Even swimming is a lot harder when you can't see the waves coming. Hmm... are there any other Str-based skills?

 

[Coredump]

I think he would be perfectly willing to live (or die) with his blindness. Anything I 'give' him will probably happen as he goes up in levels.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

In my opinion, give him double his wisdom bonus in Listen & Move Silently, to balance the penalties he gets in other skills.

 

[Bront]

If I gave him anything, it might be a +2 to listen. That's about all I would recommend.

I agree with that. I find myself that I can hear and distinguish things better with my eyes closed, so why not when blinded?

Seems minor, and fair.

 

[Mark]

HEIGHTENED SENSES MYTH – Many people are under the impression that when a person loses one sense that the others become better developed. This is only a myth—there is no scientific evidence of heightened abilities. Those affected, however, may appear to have better hearing or sense of touch, but what is really happening is that they have learned to use and rely on these other senses out of necessity, therefore, they attend more readily to these stimuli than those with all senses intact.

http://www.guildfortheblind.org/GFTB/guildfortheblind.org/programs/information/geninfo.htm

 

[Allandaros]

Don't give him any extra perks. The shaman's blind, and that's an end to it. However, I would say that you should consider giving him extra XP for being such a badass player. In 2e terms*, I'd suggest maybe 15 extra XP every time he comes up with a creative way to overcome his blindness or uses it to his advantage (like singlehandedly fighting a medusa, because he's invincible against 'em...or something. That wasn't a very good example, but I think you see what I'm getting at).


*I don't play 3.x e, and so don't have any familiarity with its XP scales.

 

[Coredump]

http://www.guildfortheblind.org/GFTB/guildfortheblind.org/programs/information/geninfo.htm

No one is saying that going blind turns you into Daredevil. But even the quote states that they get better at using their other senses. That seems to match getting a +2 to listen. Not because they have 'super-hearing', but because they are more used to using it.

 

[Celebrim]

OK, first, the penalties for being blind:

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.

That's some big penalties, and in particular note that he never has line of sight to any target, so all ranged spells automatically fail, but only agree to give him something in return if he agrees to play a character who is incurably blind, that is 'remove blindness' or 'regenerate' does him no good.

Suitable compensation might be to give him Skill Focus(Listen) and Blindfighting for free. In addition, he recieves a +2 circumstance bonus on all Perform checks in societies that are basically good aligned, as most good hearted people will be especially impressed by any talents he's displays having overcome such a hardship. He's also immune to any attack which effects vision, which in the long run is a pretty good thing. If you think that is too much, you might want to talk to your character about either dropping the free Skill Focus or else taking a small penalty on all saves vs. attacks with the sonic descriptor.

He'll still probably need to bump up WIS to 19 as soon as possible, in order to take Blindsight, 5' radius to overcome a good portion of the problems with being blind. Getting Blindsight, 5' radius means that he's not flatfooted when in melee, and opponents in melee don't have total concealment, he wouldn't have a -4 penalty on strength and dex based skill checks, and he'd be able to move his full speed and even Run in sufficiently unobstructed areas (not necessarily in a maze of twisty passages for example). He still would be effectively flat footed against missile attacks, but with enough ranks in Listen he'll at least be able to pinpoint where those attacks are coming from.

I would not advise allowing the player to overcome the difficulties with being blind above and beyond the free compensation you are giving except in special 'safe' circumstances. For example, the long term blind character can move at full speed but only in areas in which he is intimately familiar. The long term blind character gets no penalty on swim checks but only in calm water.

 

[Mark]

No one is saying that going blind turns you into Daredevil. But even the quote states that they get better at using their other senses. That seems to match getting a +2 to listen. Not because they have 'super-hearing', but because they are more used to using it.

They don't get better at using their other senses because they gain something in those areas that others who are sighted do not also possess. I feel the quote speaks to how the player distributes the points that any character would get regardless of the disability. I'd equate it with a player of a blind character putting Skill points he might have placed in Spot into Listen instead. A blind person doesn't have any advantage over a sighted person at becoming the world's best listener simply by virtue of being blind.

 

[wingsandsword]

Unearthed Arcana introduced the idea into d20 of Flaws, minor character defects you could take at 1st level to give you one bonus feat. They also included traits, a premade pair of a defect and a bonus. The idea of giving something for a permanent character flaw isn't foriegn to d20, even to WotC's own books, it's just not in the core.

So, what is to stop there from being a trait that has the drawback that your character is incurably blind, but has say Scent and Blind-Fight, or Blindsight 5' radius and Skill Focus (Listen). Being permanently blind is a major disadvantage, as listed above, sure having scent or a very short range blindsight is neato, but you're still paying a high price for that.

If a new character sub-race was created that was physically blind, but had some extra senses to compensate for it, would you complain that the race was imbalanced because he's getting something for being blind?

The way I see it, a character has a cool concept that is out of the normal stereotypical range, and he should be rewarded for creativity, not punished for playing a system that cannot support effectively characters with unusual flaws.

There is even a blind PC race in an official WotC d20 product, the Miraluka race for Star Wars (the Ultimate Alien Anthology). They resemble humans, but are physically blind. In exchange, they are all Force Sensitive and have blindsight through the Force. Of course, in balance terms this works a lot different from D&D, since this doesn't work in places where the Force cannot be sensed (near Yslimiri), or cannot see creatures that cannot normally be seen through the Force (Yuzzhan Vong), and being part of an entire race of force-users really is tough during the Rebellion Era. However, as a PC race, they are essentially humans who trade in their eyesight for blindsight, which is better in some ways and worse in some ways.