Price update for Blindfold of True Darkness

[Lasher Dragon]

Has anyone came up with or seen an updated price for that, out of the A&E guide? It's obviously broken, seeing that goggles of night are 12k in the DMG, bestowing 60 ft. darkvision, while the blindfold is 9k, and grants 60 ft. blindsight. It's become the must-have item for those without enhanced sight in our game - heck, even those with darkvision/lowlight grab it - blindsight is just so powerful.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

The blindfold may not be as overpriced as you think.

It grants 60' blindsight, yes, but it also completely removes any normal sight you have.

The goggles grant 60' darkvision in addition to your normal vision.

 

[Pyrex]

I beg to differ. We recently had a discussion about the Blindfold in our group and came to the conclusion that due to an editing mistake they dropped a 0 off the price.

The Blindfold is massively powerful. First it grants the most powerful sensory ability in the game (which makes you virtually immune to every defensive Illusion spell; IBNLT Invisibility, Mirror Image, Blur and Displacement), then it makes you immune to Gaze attacks on top of that.

The 60' limitation is pretty minor, especially for a melee focused character.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

So, do all your combats take place in 20' by 20' rooms?

If so, then, yes, the blindfold is much more powerful.

Out of doors, however, or in even slightly larger rooms, the inability to see past a certain distance at all is also a drawback.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The blindfold may not be as overpriced as you think.

It grants 60' blindsight, yes, but it also completely removes any normal sight you have.

The goggles grant 60' darkvision in addition to your normal vision.

That may be significant outdoors, but rarely matters. It is not like it is difficult to take the damn thing off.

It is trivial to build extremely powerful tactical synergies with Blindsight, e.g. Rogues with Blindsight fighting in a Sleet Storm.

Blindsight is comparable in power to True Seeing. I would knock 20% off the price because of the distance restriction while wearing the blindfold. 62,000 gp would be my opinion.

 

[Lasher Dragon]

Whew I thought the price was off, but I didn't think it was THAT off! LOL I was thinking somewhere around $30k, a bit more than double the goggles.

Speaking of how easy it is to take off, most of our PCs wear them like a headband, and just slip them down over their eyes as needed.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

That may be significant outdoors, but rarely matters. It is not like it is difficult to take the damn thing off.

It's at least a move action, and then you've got a magic blindfold in one hand. Another move action to store it (or free action to drop it, I guess).

Both of these actions would provoke, I believe.

What would be the consensus on altering it to blindsense instead of blindsight? More balanced at that cost?

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

So, do all your combats take place in 20' by 20' rooms?

So do all your combats take place outdoors or in 120' by 120' rooms?

If so, the blindfold is still worth more than 9k. That price is just plain wrong.

It is not as if the entire party is required to wear them -- as a general rule you can put item on or take it off as a MEA. It is actually very common that some PCs can see the enemy while other cannot, and it is not rocket science how to still be effective in those instances your PC has limited vision against a distant enemy. The distant enemy you cannot see is less dangerous than the nearby one you cannot see.

Forget about the distance restriction for a moment. What would be more useful, an item that gave Blindsight 60' or an item that gave True Seeing? If a bunch of PCs were given the opportunity to pick between the two of them, I would bet at least 51% would choose the Blindsight item.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Blindsense?

30' Scent would make an above average feat IMO. Blindsense 60' would be worth two feats easily then. Better range and info, but no tracking. 25k-30k as the base price, then some discount for the limitation.

I would rate it 20k-25k.

Comparable items: Belt of Strength +4 (16k), Stone of Good Luck (20k), Minor Cloak of Displacement (24k).

I think we are in the right ballpark.

 

[Saeviomagy]

So do all your combats take place outdoors or in 120' by 120' rooms?

If so, the blindfold is still worth more than 9k. That price is just plain wrong.

It is not as if the entire party is required to wear them -- as a general rule you can put item on or take it off as a MEA.

No. As a general rule, it's just like any other magical item, and you put it on or take it off as a standard action - or does the item itself specify something different?

In a dungeon - lots of corridors that are more than 60ft long. Lots of places where you can potentially see more than 60ft (like from room to room). Plenty of monsters with the ability to attack outside that range.

Plenty of visual cues that it cannot pick up - light flickering under doorways etc.

Also - blindsight cannot see through a gap less than a foot width. So the stock-standard "door with a small barred hole in it", or even "door slightly ajar" is a wall to someone with blindsight - to everyone else, it's just cover to the creatures on the far side. The same would go for something like a pothole in the ground - if it's less than a foot across, blindsight cannot see it.

Personally - I don't think the item is something you can afford to wear all the time. As such, a standard action to engage blindsight is not all that bad.