D&D 5E The use of your Familiar's senses

[patwil]

A little background- in the campaign I'm running I will be introducing a Bladesinger who will start out as an enemy and hopefully become a valuable NPC ally.

His familiar is a bat, he wields a scimitar of quickness, and he has access to Riposte through a magical item.

My question is, he intends to cast darkness upon a small gem worn by his bat and then fight in the total darkness. So how does that work?

Based upon the RAW, it appears I could use my action to see via blindsense and then attack once with my bonus action and once with my reaction at advantage each round. However, if I want to use my full attack some rounds I would also be blinded.

However, since I am blinded only from the very second I attack, would I suffer the full penalty of blindness and attack at disadvantage or would I simply lose advantage or suffer some other penalty to attack (say -2)?

To make it more confusing, he can also cast haste. Could he use his additional action to see via blindsense and then use his attack option, bonus attack, and reaction?

What do you all think and how would you rule? Since I'm introducing him as an enemy, I don't want to over power him.

Thank you


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[Harzel]

Based upon the RAW, it appears I could use my action to see via blindsense and then attack once with my bonus action and once with my reaction at advantage each round. However, if I want to use my full attack some rounds I would also be blinded.

I'm not following this. What allows you to attack with your reaction every round?

However, since I am blinded only from the very second I attack, would I suffer the full penalty of blindness and attack at disadvantage or would I simply lose advantage or suffer some other penalty to attack (say -2)?

Nah, blind is blind. You attack at disadvantage (unless your target is also blind, in which case, RAW, you attack with neither advantage nor disadvantage).

To make it more confusing, he can also cast haste. Could he use his additional action to see via blindsense and then use his attack option, bonus attack, and reaction?

Except for the bit about the reaction which I don't understand, I don't see why not.

 

[patwil]

I'm not following this. What allows you to attack with your reaction every round?

Opportunity attacks or Riposte.

Nah, blind is blind. You attack at disadvantage (unless your target is also blind, in which case, RAW, you attack with neither advantage nor disadvantage).

Is that written somewhere that if both of you are blind there is neither advantage or disadvantage? I thought if you were blind you attack at disadvantage?


Thanks for your response


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[Yunru]

They are, but if your target's blind your attacks have advantage, which cancels.

 

[jaelis]

Personally, I would still make you have disadvantage if you are trying to attack a target you can only see from your familiar's perspective. Because that seems really hard to me.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Wow...I never realized that a scimitar of speed doesn't have the same "must use the Attack action" to get your bonus action attack that two-weapon fighting does. That makes it quite good.

 

[n0nym]

Just say he can see in Darkness and be done with it. He's got a Scimitar of Quickness, magic item of Riposte, etc... ? Just say he can attack 3 times and forget all this nonsense (unless you want him to die and the PCs to inherit his magic items).

It seems to me that you're just trying to create a player character for yourself (and I dare say, a "Mary Sue" type of character) and to follow the rules just to avoid criticism from the players. If I may give you some advice : do not do that. You're the DM, not a player.

 

[Corwin]

Since the material components of the spell are:

M (bat fur and a drop of pitch or piece of coal)

You should have the "small gem" be a small piece of coal. Got your components covered...

 

[patwil]

Just say he can see in Darkness and be done with it.

Honestly because I did not want to do that. I could have given him 2 levels of Warlock to get the Invocation Devil's Sight, but I wanted to create a character that has an amazing ability but doesn't get to use it each round.

He's got a Scimitar of Quickness, magic item of Riposte, etc... ? Just say he can attack 3 times and forget all this nonsense (unless you want him to die and the PCs to inherit his magic items).

All the characters in the group have magic items that advance with them. So instead of getting a +1 weapon, they have one that can cast Thunderwave a few times a day and as they level up will gain more powers. Often I like to include feats or parts of feats as the powers they gain. One character wields a large maul and one of its powers is the GWM feat that allows a -5 to hit for a +10 to damage. Essentially I like to create unique magic items and I don't limit them to just the PC's.

It seems to me that you're just trying to create a player character for yourself (and I dare say, a "Mary Sue" type of character) and to follow the rules just to avoid criticism from the players. If I may give you some advice : do not do that. You're the DM, not a player.

Actually most of the NPCs and big bad's they interact with I create as characters I would like to play in different groups. I find I enjoy it more if I have a connection to the character. It doesn't mean that I will play them as a player character in the group I'm DM'ing, just that they are ones I would find fun to play in other groups.

I asked my question to see how other people would rule, since a lot of DM'ing is making judgements on the fly. My first thought would be that the character would attack normally on the rounds he was not using his familiar's sense, but that he would know where the enemy was and so would not have to roll a dice to determine if he attacked in the right direction, something I would impose on the blinded person attacking back (as well as disadvantage). I understand that this is not RAW, but it makes more sense to me than 2 blind people being able to fight with no penalties at all. However, I realize not everyone thinks the way I do, so getting more opinions is valuable to me as it makes me aware of how my players might react.


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