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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4906883" data-attributes="member: 82106">Blindness is a can of worms. Not only is it a condition which can be inflicted on characters in combat, it is also at the same time a natural consequence of environmental factors. In the combat sense it could in theory do anything you want it to do and you can rationalize it as "you can't see very well" etc. All of which is fine. However the problem is environmental blindness. When there is no light there really is no rationalizing much of anything. You can't see. Whatever you call that condition any realistic handling of it is going to be more severe or as severe as whatever the worst that a power can inflict. Beyond that it is pretty much going to be affecting the entire party and they won't have any way of ending it (if they did then it wouldn't be an issue). If you place really severe penalties on it then basically you have just placed a burden on the DM to make sure it never happens. A tool is taken from the DM tool box.Consider the OP's suggested handling. A party operating under these restrictions is ineffective. For a single PC in a situation where it will end on a save or after a turn it isn't  all that bad, no worse than dazed really, so I'd have no problem with that, but against the whole party? Not really a viable situation.Its a conundrum. As it stands blindness is certainly unrealistically mild. Making it harsher just doesn't seem to me to be a better choice. Then of course there are all the ugly meta-game implications, which the rules aren't really designed to address at all. Blank battlemats, nobody knowing where on the field their allies or enemies are, etc. It really is a whole can of worms and I've never seen any system handle it in a realistic fashion. Most just avoid mentioning it at all and hope it never comes up.</blockquote>

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