So when your character is blinded, whether it's from pitch blackness or the blindness spell, how do adjudicate targeting for ranged attacks? Do they target the opponent and get the concealment, or do they have to pinpoint the target?
This is more of a ruling question and less of a rules question, so it's really up to your DM as to how he does it. If you're a DM and looking for advice, I would say play it logically. One would need to have some reason to pinpoint a square of a target, so he can't just say, "I shoot at themonster's square" and be expected to hit. If he can't hear or somehow sense the monster, how is he going to do that?
There are a few ways to adjudicate it. You could use a perception check to target the right square, or simply allow him to shoot in a line and, if the line targets the opponent, he hits with the 50% miss chance. Up to you, really. Whatever makes logical sense.
I haven't seen any official rules on this, but blindness has come up a lot in both games I have GMed and played.
Most GMs I have played with rule this much more in favor of the blind creature than I do. I have seen some that let them act as if they can act completely normal but with a 50% miss chance, and I have had some that will make perception checks modified by something arbitrary to see if they can find the square they need to shoot into.
If am ruling it, I offer next to no chance of hitting. Something like lightning bolt that is a ray touch attack I have them tell me the direction they want to shoot and roll to see how far off the ray is from the line they wanted it to be; this is the best chance they would have of hitting with a ranged attack while blind. If someone is trying to shoot something like a bow at a creature, I modify the splash rules to figure out the square where the arrow would actually hit based the target; the desired square is just one of several squares it has an equal chance of ending up in. The farther away they are trying to shoot, the larger the potential number of squares they might shoot into.
They still have to beat the appropriate AC and 50% miss chance in both cases. I figure that if you are blind, you really aren't shooting dookie.
In RAW terms, however, adjudication of how the player locates the target he wants to shoot is up to the DM, but actual hitting of the target is just AC and 50% miss chance (or any other applicable modifiers).
Is attacking while blind that different from attacking an invisible creature? They're both situations where your eyes are useless, the difference is with one you can still appreciate the scenery. Much like attacking an invisible creature, you try to use other senses or some other clue to target, then there's still a chance you'll miss. A blind character is operating as though the world were invisible.
Being unable to have any reference can make it more difficult to aim, yes. For example, knowing something is invisible means you're still aiming 5 feet off the floor in *that* direction. When you can't see, that height can be more difficult to distinguish, and at greater ranges, even a small change in the angle of your aim will cause a large difference.
So, logically, yes, a little bit.
Mechanically, no, not really (for the purposes of aiming *only* not movement and other stuff).
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
If you have line of effect to a target but not line of sight, he is considered to have total concealment from you. You can't attack an opponent that has total concealment, though you can attack into a square that you think he occupies. A successful attack into a square occupied by an enemy with total concealment has a 50% miss chance (instead of the normal 20% miss chance for an opponent with concealment).You can't execute an attack of opportunity against an opponent with total concealment, even if you know what square or squares the opponent occupies.
Concealment isn't always effective. An area of dim lighting or darkness doesn't provide any concealment against an opponent with darkvision. Characters with low-light vision can see clearly for a greater distance than other characters with the same light source. Although invisibilityprovides total concealment, sighted opponents may still make Perception checks to notice the location of an invisible character. An invisible character gains a +20 bonus on Stealth checks if moving, or a +40 bonus on Stealth checks when not moving (even though opponents can't see you, they might be able to figure out where you are from other visual or auditory clues).
If a character tries to attack an invisible creature whose location he has pinpointed, he attacks normally, but the invisible creature still benefits from full concealment (and thus a 50% miss chance). A particularly large and slow invisible creature might get a smaller miss chance.
You can't make ranged attacks against anyone if you're blind. Everything is out of line of sight and therefore totally concealed. You can attack squares but you'd need a pretty good perception (listen-based) roll to figure out which footsteps were friend and which were foe.