Nypmh's blindess ability

[Vorput]

A Nymph blinded one of my players last night (well, their character ).

I ruled that it could be dispelled, cause being blind tends to limit one's fun (I essentially treated it as the spell blindness/deafness). But is that the right call by the rules?

Blinding Beauty (Su)

This ability affects all humanoids within 30 feet of a nymph. Those who look directly at a nymph must succeed on a DC 17 Fortitude save or be blinded permanently as though by the blindness spell. A nymph can suppress or resume this ability as a free action.

The save DC is Charisma-based.

(emphasis mine)

and

Supernatural Abilities (Su)

Supernatural abilities are magical and go away in an antimagic field but are not subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or to being dispelled by dispel magic. Using a supernatural ability is a standard action unless noted otherwise. Supernatural abilities may have a use limit or be usable at will, just like spell-like abilities. However, supernatural abilities do not provoke attacks of opportunity and never require Concentration checks. Unless otherwise noted, a supernatural ability has an effective caster level equal to the creature’s Hit Dice. The saving throw (if any) against a supernatural ability is:

10 + ½ the creature’s HD + the creature’s ability modifier (usually Charisma).

Would dispel magic work even though it's a supernatural ability? How about the spell remove blindness/deafness?

Vorp

Edit: I mistyped Nymph in the thread title and can't change it

 

[TessarrianDM]

It specifically states in the description of supernatural abilities that Dispel Magic spells will not work, even as counterspells. Remove Blindness will, as it is not dispelling the effect, but healing it.

 

[Herzog]

I also had it be removed by dispel magic once, but only because the characters had no access to remove blindness/deafness. (low magic world....) and I had missed the 'permanent' in the description.

However, on hindsight, since the encounter with the Nymph ended peacefully, I could also have had the Nymph Dismiss the effect (since the spell is dismissable, I assume the supernatural effect is also ) but I noticed the dismissable part only after having used the dispel...


As a rule, as long as remove blindness/deafness is available, use that.
If, for some reason, that specific spell is not available in your campaign (as it happened to be in mine) you should have a substitute. Dispel magic is then as good a replacement as any.