D&D 5E Feedback on a Feat for Blind PCs -- Sightless Warrior

[MrGrenadine]

Reaching out to the Brain Trust for feedback --

One of the players in my home game created a blind monk character, (we're playing 2024 5e), and though I liked some of the ideas out there on how to do it, they didn't quite hit the mark, so I created this Origin Feat for them. We're a few sessions into the campaign, and it seems to be working, (I'm on the fence about the Advantage on Perception checks), but I'd love to see what other folks think. The goal was to make something that would start simple, and scale as the PC levels up. Too overpowered? Too complicated? Have I created any problems down the line?

Thanks in advance for your brutal honsesty!

Sightless Warrior
Origin Feat

Prerequisite: Blind



You have the Blinded condition, and have honed your senses to a supernatural level, allowing you to navigate your environment and detect creatures and objects by using all of your senses except sight.

If you are not paralyzed or petrified, you gain the following benefits:
• You gain blindsight with a range of 30 feet. You can not use this blindsight while deafened. 

• You have advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing, smell, and touch, and gain +5 to your Passive Perception for hearing, smell, and touch. 

• You may take the Search action as a bonus action. When you do so, you may only make a Wisdom (Perception) check that relies on hearing, smell, and touch. 


At lvl 1, this feat works as long as you are in contact with the ground or any other surface, but it only gives you information about corporeal creatures and objects also on the same surface to a range of 30’. (A wall and a floor are considered the same surface, since they’re connected. A floor and a floating platform above the floor are considered different surfaces, since they’re not connected.)



At lvl 5, your abilities are honed to where you can also sense corporeal creatures and objects in the air, or in contact with different surfaces, when you are in contact with any surface, to a range of 60’.



At lvl 10, you can sense corporeal creatures and objects while you are flying or levitating, to a range of 120’.



At lvl 15, you can all sense all corporeal and incorporeal creatures and objects to a range of 240’.

At all levels, a creature who is not moving and has Total Cover from you, or is actively hiding from you using Stealth, has the Invisible condition for you as long as the creature’s Stealth or Hide check is higher than your Passive Perception, Active Perception roll or Search check.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

That is extremely powerful for an Origin Feat. At level 1 it's already the Observant feat plus a buffed version of Blind Fighting. And then it scales to basically be Boon of Truesight epic feat.

Does that make it "too overpowered"? Only you and your table can answer that. Will other players feel jealous that this player gets a much more powerful Origin Feat than they do? Or will they love seeing another player get a cool and flavorful ability that lets the character do fun stuff? There's no such thing as too overpowered if your table is fine with it, particularly if you are doling out fun non-RAW abilities/items to the rest of the players to keep things even.

 

[MrGrenadine]

That is extremely powerful for an Origin Feat. At level 1 it's already the Observant feat plus a buffed version of Blind Fighting. And then it scales to basically be Boon of Truesight epic feat.

Does that make it "too overpowered"? Only you and your table can answer that. Will other players feel jealous that this player gets a much more powerful Origin Feat than they do? Or will they love seeing another player get a cool and flavorful ability that lets the character do fun stuff? There's no such thing as too overpowered if your table is fine with it, particularly if you are doling out fun non-RAW abilities/items to the rest of the players to keep things even.

That's great context -- I need to read up on the Boon Feats. Maybe it should be a chain of feats?

 

[Tonguez]

+5 is alot. Id just go with You get Blindsight 30

 

[Charlaquin]

Call me crazy, but I feel like always-on blindsight defeats the entire purpose of playing a “blind” character. I get wanting a feat or fighting style or something that gives you some other advantages to compensate for the disadvantages of the Blinded condition, but I would think part of the fun would be in coming up with creative ways to work around those disadvantages.

I’d go with something like: “You cannot see, and permanently have the Blinded condition. However, you have learned to compensate for your lack of sight using your other senses. As long as you can hear or smell a creature, you can determine its location, you don’t have disadvantage on attack rolls against it, and it doesn’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you. Additionally, you gain Proficiency with the Perception skill. If you already have Proficiency with the Perception skill, you gain Expertise with it instead.

 

[overgeeked]

Why penalize the character in the first place? Make the blindness a narrative element rather than one that's mechanically punitive which then forces you to create a feat to overcome those punishments.

One of the many things I absolutely love about Daggerheart is that it has four pages on playing disabled characters and none of it is mechanical penalties or bonuses.

 

[Charlaquin]

Why penalize the character in the first place? Make the blindness a narrative element rather than one that's mechanically punitive which then forces you to create a feat to overcome those punishments.

One of the many things I absolutely love about Daggerheart is that it has four pages on playing disabled characters and none of it is mechanical penalties or bonuses.

Personally, and I know others will feel differently, but making a disability strictly a roleplaying choice with no mechanical impact comes across to me as a kind of erasure. Like, is it really representation of a disability if it isn’t, well, disabling?

Not to shame anyone who does want to play a disabled character without it affecting that character mechanically. It just wouldn’t be my choice.

 

[MrGrenadine]

Call me crazy, but I feel like always-on blindsight defeats the entire purpose of playing a “blind” character. I get wanting a feat or fighting style or something that gives you some other advantages to compensate for the disadvantages of the Blinded condition, but I would think part of the fun would be in coming up with creative ways to work around those disadvantages.

I’d go with something like: “You cannot see, and permanently have the Blinded condition. However, you have learned to compensate for your lack of sight using your other senses. As long as you can hear or smell a creature, you can determine its location, you don’t have disadvantage on attack rolls against it, and it doesn’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you. Additionally, you gain Proficiency with the Perception skill. If you already have Proficiency with the Perception skill, you gain Expertise with it instead.

I love the idea of simplifying the feat, and Expertise with Perception is a better idea than Advantage! Thanks for that.

On the other hand, I wouldn't want to DM a character at level 1 that could "see" invisible creatures or hidden creatures. That feels like too much of a bonus, when compared to the other characters in the party.

 

[MrGrenadine]

Why penalize the character in the first place? Make the blindness a narrative element rather than one that's mechanically punitive which then forces you to create a feat to overcome those punishments.

One of the many things I absolutely love about Daggerheart is that it has four pages on playing disabled characters and none of it is mechanical penalties or bonuses.

I wasn't planning on picking up Daggerheart, but I'd love to read their take on that.

 

[jgsugden]

There is an underlying question here: Do they want to play a realistic blind monk, or do they want to play Daredevil? If the former, the advice to pull way back makes sense.

If this is an attempt to explore what it might be like to really be blind and try to go through what an adventurer does, with sensitivity, it is a difficult road. As the ability you described is not in line with this idea, I do not think this is your goal.

If your goal is to make a character that feels like Daredevil with superhuman senses - it won't break the game. As long as you understand that it can be offensive for some to see others 'play at' blindness, especially if it is a 'comic book' version, and are prepared to address someone that might be upset by the situation, you can go with whatever you want. Even giving a PC unlimited distance blindsight and tremorsense with automatic success on every perception role will not cause your games to inherently fail - but it will trivialize many challenges and reduce the obstacles in the game - and a big part of the game is overcoming obstacles.