Do you hear what I hear?

[IcyCool]

But again we are talking about someone born with the condition, not someone who "acquired" it.

How is that different?

 

[werk]

But again we are talking about someone born with the condition, not someone who "acquired" it.

Sorry, that doesn't matter.

Having worked with a lot of children at a school for the deaf some years back, deaf from birth usually carries other negative aspects as well, like other defects and/or retardation.

I really don't want to get yelled at for getting political or being offensive (I hope that I'm not) maybe you could send me a PM?

 

[IcyCool]

I really don't want to get yelled at for getting political or being offensive (I hope that I'm not) maybe you could send me a PM?

I don't think you are, but that line is pretty much invisible to me, so it's kind of a crapshoot anytime I post. Take my advice with a hefty grain of salt.

 

[Goldmoon]

First, let me state that I am refering only to the condition of being deaf; nothing else. That being said, someone who has had it all their lives has learned to function almost normally with it and has had years to compensate. Someone who "acquired" it has not.

 

[SlagMortar]

I would say deaf from birth would allow you to remove the initiative penalty from the deafened condition, and would increase the spell failure chance to 50% (or maybe higher), since you've never heard the correct pronounciation of the arcane words. You wouldn't want to play a caster, but could still play anything else including a psion. Maybe give the ability to read lips, which could come in handy now and again when you could see someone, but not hear them.

Passed low level, a character without ranks in Listen might as well be deaf anyway as far a Listen checks go.

 

[werk]

First, let me state that I am refering only to the condition of being deaf; nothing else. That being said, someone who has had it all their lives has learned to function almost normally with it and has had years to compensate. Someone who "acquired" it has not.

And I call BS on that statement, and bow out of this thread before I get myself in deeper.

Anyway, house rules is where you should be, I think. Good luck finding what you want and finding a DM that'll agree to it.

 

[IcyCool]

Good luck finding what you want and finding a DM that'll agree to it.

This bit is key. The folks here at EnWorld can usually help with mechanics, but if your GM doesn't like it, then you are still out of luck. I'm still trying to figure out how to do a Zatoichi clone in D&D. I suspect the numerous variables necessary for such a beast will never be aligned. I almost had a DM a while ago convinced that Blindsense 60' radius and the Blind-Fighting feat were an acceptable substitue for a Ranger's animal companion and spell-casting.

Just as well I suppose, because then I'd have to convince the players that my character was worth adventuring with, and wasn't going to get their characters killed because of his blindness.

I'll look over the deafened condition and a couple of feats, and pop in with some suggestions in your house rules thread.

 

[nittanytbone]

I might give the deaf individual a free feat, as in the flaws-for-feats system. I would let them use the Listen skill as a "lip reading" skill, similar to sense motive. I would also let them make a listen check DC 15+SL to ignore the SF chance when casting a spell (or maybe a concentration check). Shouldn't be too unbalancing as Listen isn't even in class for most casters.

Is being deaf a more potent flaw than some of the sample ones? Probably.

Is the crippled-from-birth hero a character concept you want to encourage in your game? Probably not.

Not saying there isn't anything wrong with it, but you don't need to go out of your way to encourage such flaws mechanically. I've found in the past that having "disabled" characters (3 INT half-orc fighters, crippled NPCs, children, blind people, etc) just increases the chance for offensive stereotypes and humor to be used at the table. Unless your group is really prepared to (A) be incredibly crass or (B) sensitively handle issues of disabled people in a mature manner, I'd steer clear of such concepts in my game, as a DM. D&D is not a system which encourages deep roleplaying, so I'd steer clear.