Does anyone have a Blind Swordsman PrC or build? I’m well just honestly kind of bored so I thought I’d give it a try. Anyone care to point me in the right direction? I know it might seem a little cliché or cheesy, but what do I care it’s about fun.
Fizz
HELL NO!
I've had to deal with an uber-NPC (DM's pet character) that was a blind swordsman and he dictated the game for us. I will never allow or make a blind swordsman/axeman/spearman/blunt-object-man, period!
An NPC I am designing is sort of a Ninja master of blades who has been blind for a long time and is an extremley good swordsman. She is pretty cool. Haven't decided if she is good or evil yet...
not got my books right know but human fighter at 1st gets 3 feats blind-fighting takes away the -2 ac and u still get a dex bounes and makes your move 2/3rds not 1/2. that leaves 2/3rds move and a -4 to str and dex cheaks and 2 feats left.id prob go with skill focus listen and weapon focus...and id prob ask swap a skill out for listen sences that a key part for a blind fighter after all..thats just my thoughts hope that helped.
There's a feat chain in Sandstorm that eventually gives Blindsight to 10 ft. radius I believe (or maybe it was Tremorsense), which is perfect for a blind swordsman... Then you've just got to give him some way to be "aware" of ranged attacks so he can make use of Deflect Arrows.
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There's another slightly overpowered feat for Listen checks, I can't recall the name of it but it was directly after Quick Reconnoiter in one of the Complete books. (Quick Reconnoiter is also a good one, because it gives you a listen check every round as a free action. Normally, it takes a standard action to actively listen for something you failed the check to notice). The feat lets you discern information about enemies that you can hear but not see. How high your check is determines how much info you get. Low to high, you can tell the presence of an enemy, the number of enemies, the location of enemies, pinpoint location of enemies, enemy race, enemy race and subtype or template. I'll look around for it when I have more time.
This would be SOOOO cool. Or am I the only Usagi Yojimbo fan?
A 5 level PrC would work. FTR BAB, saves, skills, etc. Prereq- Must be blind, and have Wis 13+, and blind fight. Allow wis bonus to AC in place of dex, listen checks as an immediate action (stat out listening for arrow,s etc), tremorsense in 10' increments, out to a max of 30', remove dex and str penalties, maybe allow scent as a bonus feat?
How do ya'll feel about the Warblade with the diamond mind style? I'm not sure if I want to have a fighter with a PrC or Warblade.
Fizz
It would be snarky of me to point out that, if you just want a blind swordsmand build...
why not use a grimlock for your creature base, then take it into whatever classes you feel like. :D
It would be snarky of me to point out that, if you just want a blind swordsmand build...
why not use a grimlock for your creature base, then take it into whatever classes you feel like. :D
That was a bit snarky but hey it's all about fun on this build. I couldn't give a damn about power or how it's going to work in a real game. If it does work out great! I think it would be a cool thing to pull off.
Fizz
The problem with the Grimlock is that they aren't as cool as say a half elf blind swordsman.
The Quick Reconnoiter is in the Complete Adventurer.
The problem with the Grimlock is that they aren't as cool as say a half elf blind swordsman.
Yeah, that's... kind of why it was a snarky response. ;-)
anyhow, I'm working on putting together a 5-level PRC for the idea of a blind swordsman, so I'm really not all snark, I swear.
ok, here's try number one: In an attempt to make it more usable, I kept the abilities and prerequisites Vanilla SRD. I might try to make a chocolate SRD (aka, psionic) variant later.
My basic Idea was that an iconic blind swordsman is so in tune with his other senses that he begins to pick up on everything around him. I decided that in D&D, this translated out into sense motive / empathy. A supernatural awareness of the beings around him, combined with uncannily good hearing, would allow them to eventually gain blindsight.
I also wanted it to be a difficult prestige class - there's lots of blind beggars running around, but very few have the willpower, skill, and awareness to become a blind swordsman.
The builds that are gonna qualify easily for this are gonna include Rogues, though bards probably wouldn't have too hard a time of it either.
If you've got a character in play who is permanently blinded, but still wants to play their character, I'd be very kind to them, and allow the PHB2 skill/class/feat retraining in order to qualify for the class. you can use the long adaptation time and special training to allow for all the retraining, if it comes down to it.
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Prerequisites: BAB +5,
Skills: 10 ranks Listen, 10 ranks sense motive,
Feats: Blind Fight, Weapon Finesse, Iron Will.
Special: The character must have been blind for at least six months (adaptation time), and undergo a month's training with another blind swordsman. If a blind swordsman is willing to help with extra training, the adaptation to blindness can be accomplished in as little as two months. (the minimum time to become a blind swordsman is three months).
HD: d8
5 levels, Full BAB, low fort, low will, high Ref.
Skill points/level 2+int.
Class skills: Balance, Bluff, Jump, Listen, Sense Motive, Tumble.
No new proficiency with weapons or armor. A blind swordsman wearing medium or heavy armor loses all of his supernatural and extraordinary abilities.
A Blind Swordsman who regains their normal vision by any method loses all supernatural and extrordinary abilities of this class, as the addition of their sense of sight overpowers the long and difficult training it took to hone their other senses.
Abilities:
Uncanny Dodge (ex): Gained at first level.
Blindsense (ex): Gained at first level. The extraordinarily trained hearing of the blind swordsman grants them the ability to sense
Heightened reflexes (ex): At first, Third, and Fifth level, the uncanny awareness of a blind swordsman allows him to react more quickly than those who rely soley on sight. at first level, a blind swordsman adds +1 to his initiative rolls. this bonus increases to +2 at third level and +3 at fifth.
Empathy (su): At second Level, the blind swordsman begins to sense the emotions of any living creature nearby, giving him a +2 bonus on his sense motive checks. This bonus increases at level 4 to +4.
Uncanny Hearing (ex): At second level, the Blind swordsman adds his class level to all of his listen checks.
Heightened Awareness (ex): at third level, the blind swordsman reduces the miss chance against targets he attacks by 75%. In addition, the swordsman's heightened awareness allows him to move at 75% of his base speed (instead of the half speed for being blind).
Blindsight (su): Gained at fifth level. A BS's blindsight is a combination of both their uncanny hearing and their supernatural empathy. A silence effect nullifies this ability. The Swordsman can “see” creatures up to a range of 20'.
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ok, it's late and i'm tired. but, it's a rough draft outline of where the PRC could go. I'll look back over it tomorow and tweak it a some more.
The abilities look good, but there needs to be a better way than retraining for fighters to get into it. Just my $.02 :)
Your take on blind sword fighters looks interesting Windnight, but why has it been designed solely for lightly armored dextrous fighters? Why can't you have a blind knight in full plate or a blind barbarian with a greataxe and still gain the benefits? Being able to fight while blinded involves more than just having a high Dexterity and Wisdom.
This reminds me of Yojimbo of course, but also that old 80's movie Blind Fury, and the blind fighter in the second module of the slavers series back in 1st Ed. The one who had the helm with no eye-sockets and the ring of fire resistance, and hurled globules of flaming oil at the PCs.
I like it, but why the Weapon Finesse? I was thinking of a blind samurai or ronin ashamed of being blind, but not willing to commit seppuku thus more shame.
Fizz
Maybe because we are all thinking of Zaitochi we are unintentionally skewing this towards a samaurai type? Or is the dex based sword fighter the new dnd sterotype?
Does anyone have a Blind Swordsman PrC or build? I’m well just honestly kind of bored so I thought I’d give it a try. Anyone care to point me in the right direction? I know it might seem a little cliché or cheesy, but what do I care it’s about fun.
Fizz
Use the Miraluka from the SWRPG and replace Force Sight with Blindsense. Presto!...
I believe that the Dex-based blind swordsman was used with the idea that the best defense is not to be there. Most wisdom bonuses to AC are in the system already, and each is based on evading the incoming attack.
You might also wish to consider that the D&D fighting system is geared towards movement in battle. Positioning and tactical advantageous movement is a major part of it.
One way you can go for a blind knight sort of thing would be the mounted knight. Therefore you wouldn't have to see, your horse can. Of course this will not be as fun if your group is constantly going into dungeons or urban house parties where being mounted on a horse would be... awkward.
All right, that was not a practical solution. I'll scour my rules books and see what I can come up with for a heavily armored blind swordsman. Although one thing I will tell you now, there is no way he's having a helmet. Listening is a major part of how they will be able to position their enemy.
I wasn't just going for pure "swordsman" actually.
I personally like the stereotype of a blind monk too, and I think that probably bled through my efforts at late-night design.
as to why the lightly armored/dex based: well, in terms of spatial awareness, dexterity plays a huge roll in D&D. weapon finesse is all about body control (making a light weapon go exactly where you want it to go, and nowhere else) so I figured that the spatial sense and body awareness implied by it might help out.
Here's the trick of it - the dexterity basis all about bodily control - note three of the five skills that are class skills - balance, jump, tumble. again, bodily control.
The wisdom base is that way for two reasons: one, because sense motive is based on it, and sense motive is about the closes basis I can think of in D&D for actual empathy/personal awareness. now, It's true that the idea above would work best for a dex/light armor monkey. butthat doesn't mean he can't use a katana. (or a pair of ninjato, as the case may be... and two weapon fighting is a dexmonkey thing) ;)
oh, and did Zaitochi ever wear heavy armor? I don't remember any, but... I could be mistaken - it's been a long time since I've seen that one. The blindness penalties would stack with the heavy armor penalties, so you'd get a character who moved REALLY slowly, in D&D terms, if you stacked them up. I think an ability to mitigate this particular problem would probably replace hightened reflexes, in a heavy armor build. Not sure what to replace uncanny dodge with, though.
I'll think about it some more, and get back to this.
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oh, any more ideas you want taken into consideration, for attempt number two?
You could just 'say' the character is blind and roleplay it all out without using cumbersome game mechanics. Most blind characters from movies and such are still always able to 'see' except for those circumstances in which the plot demands they don’t. I let my friend play an old blind druid this way and it was pretty good. :)
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One of my first characters when I switched over to 3e was a blind monk. He was also one of my favorites, though we didn't make a PrC or anything for him, instead I told the DM that I was going to make him blind for flavor and was ready to start picking up things like blindfight and such, and the DM said that if I was going to take that penalty for flavor on myself he would give me the boost of blindsense out to 15ft.
It meant that I was great up close, but had to rely completely on listen for anything further away. I remember when my character first met up with the other players, they were already an established group and he was sitting in a tavern telling stories to children. Someone took offense at one of his stories and threw a bottle at him and he snatched it out of the air and casually tossed it to one of the players who was just gaping at him.
They brought him along as a 'guide' since he knew the area well, and they kept asking him if he was really blind. It was always amusing. He probably always will be one of my favorite characters.
I drew up a Blind Swordsman PrC once with a player in my group. Can't remember what I did with it.
The basic idea is that the blind swordsman starts out at least roughly equal to a sighted fighter, otherwise it's utterly weak. I think we made Blind-Fight a prerequisite for the PrC, gave him 30ft blindsense, and allowed him to ignore the miss chance against any opponent he had already struck or who had already struck him. He also could retain his dex to AC against opponents he couldn't see.
As levels progressed he gained true blindsight and additional insight, such that eventually he could sense opponents better than a normal-sighted person, "see" things just by hearing them and thus deflect arrows, and was immune to being surprised or flanked. Pretty tidy set.
if a npc is blind could a party us him against a gaze attack
for example say there is a medusa doing ( blah ) and there is a half orc monk with blind fighting could they hire him to kill the medusa?
it just brought up a strange thought.