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Twice
2015-03-10, 08:11 PM
Hello everyone! This is something feeding into an idle curiosity of mine. I've seen conversation topics here and their about making blind characters, means to compensate for blindness, and homebrews in relation to being blind, but a question still persists for me due to my curiosity.

I know it's fairly common to go by backstory of curse or natural blindness, but those are personally sculpted by the player. By what means can one make a permanently blind character directly by the book(s)? Also, are there any written rules in regard to the line in blinded status in relation to long term blindness? "Characters who remain blinded for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them."

The means for permanent blindness may include spells, magical effects, and even feats and magical items that cause blindness; the main focus is natural born or inherited blindness of the character through injury or curse by rules.

LibraryOgre
2015-03-10, 09:43 PM
A lot depends on the system you're talking about; IIRC, criticals in both MERP and Hackmaster can result in blindness. The Blindness spell in 2e was permanent until dispelled with Remove Blindness.

Benthesquid
2015-03-10, 09:52 PM
In Pathfinder, this would be most easily accomplished by the Blindness spell (although this can be overcome with Remove Blindness).

goto124
2015-03-10, 10:41 PM
I would like to see a blind campaign. Everyone's blind, and the DM describes the surroundings purely in non-visual ways.

'The air feels damp. You smell ogres. Really smelly ogres. You hear an angey roar to your right, followed by the stomping of feet on stone. It's getting louder and louder, as if the ogre was running towards you...'

Any system that relies on battle grids will not work, for one thing. This sounds fun.

Twice
2015-03-11, 12:01 AM
From all that's said, I'm surprise there are not many diseases that cause blindness. I've personally found Faceless Hate in BoVD that causes a lose of sight, but it also directs the character toward the violent path of killing friends and family and all life for that matter. Mind you, you have blindsight 60ft and silent spell feat as a result.

Regardless, I think it would be fun to play a blind campaign. Nickname it "Blind Mice" or something like that. Still not quite at all what I'm after though.

Vrock_Summoner
2015-03-11, 12:35 AM
"Blind Mice," huh...?

Now I'm really tempted to do this for a Mouse Guard game.

Also, just throwing it out there that this, like many other character concepts, usually works best in a game that uses troupe-style play. Playing a blind character for an occasional session can be fun for everyone, but not consistently for an extended campaign/saga/etc. Thus, troupe-style play, where you have multiple characters that you play based on the RP appropriateness of them coming along for that particular session. So not just a blind character; maybe one time you try an insane character, one time you try a deaf character, one time you try somebody who gets scared really easily and is difficult to convince to stay in a fight. It'd be annoying for a constant character, but again, it can be spread out in between periods of playing reasonable characters, so people don't end up stressed out with it.

Geddy2112
2015-03-11, 02:10 AM
From all that's said, I'm surprise there are not many diseases that cause blindness.
Nickname it "Blind Mice" or something like that.

It'd be annoying for a constant character, but again, it can be spread out in between periods of playing reasonable characters, so people don't end up stressed out with it.


I am currently in a campaign with a blind ratfolk alchemist. He lost his sight as a child; a plague swept his village that struck him blind, and later infection have left his eyes all but gone. He is probably the most interesting and fun member of our party, because as we are all using sight, he uses everything but sight. He can smell and hear exceptionally well, and even knows where people are with senses in his whiskers. His smell has saved the party multiple times, and the only downside we have is that he is slow so the party travels a bit slower on long walks. Sometimes he mixes the wrong reagents together and makes a gas bomb over a fire bomb but it makes his character real. His blindness is also an easy explanation for fumbles.

Our DM has let him overcome everything but sight based checks, which he automatically fails but can pick up on other means. He knows every party member by voice and scent, and can identify a creature by smell as well as we can by sight. If you are going to play a blind character, play one that 1. Has been blinded for years and can overcome most of the penalties and 2. Is a race with the ability to get the scent.

In the real world, a fair amount of diseases can strike somebody blind such as encephalitus, scarlet fever, glacuoma, cataracts and several other bacteria/viruses. Seeking a divine cure for the blindess(or in the rat's case, new eyes) could be a great quest motivator.

Also, Oracles have to have a curse, and one curse is clouded vision, which renders them basically blind from birth and it cannot be cured short of a miracle spell.

RoyVG
2015-03-11, 04:04 AM
I remember in 3.5 the Shadow Sun Ninja prestige class from Tome of Battle having an ability in which you can willingly become blind and gain bonuses against targets that are blinded as well, including if they are only effectively blinded, such as a blindfold. You still take all normal penalties from blindness against those that are not blinded. It even adds in deafened as a bonus :smallbiggrin:. So it give power to a blind character, but only when your enemies are blind as well.

Lord Torath
2015-03-11, 08:53 AM
The Complete Gladiators' Handbook from 2E AD&D Dark Sun had rules for blind gladiators. They could spend weapon and non-weapon proficiencies to "see" in a given range: 0--5 feet, 5-15 feet, or 15 feet and beyond. I suspect this is somewhat like Daredevil's "sound vision," and could be eliminated with a Silence spell.

TheCountAlucard
2015-03-11, 09:13 AM
In Exalted, you can be blinded when someone puts out your eyes. :smalltongue:

You can also become blind by staring at the sun too long. Certain diseases, as mentioned above, can also cause blindness, as well as certain Charms (for instance, the Infernal Charm, "Tarnish Flash Technique," which has a chance of permanently blinding mortals, or the gods could strike you blind with a curse).

However, there are means of countering the penalties from being blind (like possessing hearing and touch sharp enough that you can read by feeling the ink on a page), or removing the condition altogether (there's an Abyssal Medicine Charm that can counter a crippling effect by replacing the relevant body part with that of a corpse, or a Solar one where you regenerate your eyes).

LibraryOgre
2015-03-11, 04:26 PM
From all that's said, I'm surprise there are not many diseases that cause blindness. I've personally found Faceless Hate in BoVD that causes a lose of sight, but it also directs the character toward the violent path of killing friends and family and all life for that matter. Mind you, you have blindsight 60ft and silent spell feat as a result.

Regardless, I think it would be fun to play a blind campaign. Nickname it "Blind Mice" or something like that. Still not quite at all what I'm after though.

In 1e's DMG, 6% of all diseases were of the eye. Of those, about 5% would result in permanent blindness in both eyes.

ellindsey
2015-03-11, 05:24 PM
Play Pathfinder, take the Oracle class, and choose the Clouded Vision curse? It's not full blindness, but your vision is impaired. As you level up, you gain blindsense and blindsight.

Twice
2015-03-12, 03:43 AM
That's a good on Geddy! If I remember, Lupin from Dragon Conpendium can do DC 10 Wisdom check to locate invisible in a 5-ft radius as a free action. As blindness causes go, I have to say diseases are my favorite.

I suppose Oracles do have a vision curse, but it's not particularly cumbersome. On that note, the bestow curse spell is flexible isn't it? It could easily create a disease or simple eye curse, but it's easy dispelled.

Kane0
2015-03-12, 03:56 AM
Well i did this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?231110-Resonance-Mage-(3-5-PrC-PEACH))a while ago, does that help?

Jormengand
2015-03-12, 11:36 AM
Pathfinder's Oracles choose a curse; this can be blindness.

EDIT: Ah, never mind. Didn't see that there. :smalltongue: