My players have asked if merely closing your eyes defeated the multiple chance to miss.
Say the spell caster is using Mirror image and gets five images. To make things easy, on a roll of 6 on a d6 you hit the real spell caster. But if you close your eyes, your chance of hitting goes from 1in 6 to 1 in 2.
Us this correct?
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Yes. You can't see the mirror images so you're not affected so you only get the 50% miss chance for total concealment. Easier to hit if you're not distracted by the flashy visuals. (Taking the Blindfight feat helps a lot here! It's very helpful for high-level martials with lots of tricksy foes.)
However, (a) a 50% miss chance is still pretty ugly, (b) you never hit and take out one of the mirror images so it never gets any better, (c) if you've got your eyes shut, everyone else trying to whack on you gets ugly bonuses (you get no dex, they get +2 to hit on op of that), and (d) you're effectively blind so you may not be able to see or perceive other enemies doing stuff, sneaking up on you, etc., etc.
This is correct.
Some people argue that after you attack you can open your eyes (free action) and suffer no penalty defensively.
Personally I think that if you are closing your eyes to make your attack(s) you should at least be flat footed during your opponents turns if not simply blinded, similar to closing eyes vs gaze affects.
Tonyz has a good take on it.
Beopere pointed out that some GMs allow a quick blink to neutralize part of the effectiveness of the spell but other GMs run it like Tonyz suggested.
Side note: closing your eyes does not make you "flat footed". In fact, almost nothing makes you "flat footed" except the start of combat - nearly everyone is "flat footed" at the start of combat until they move. There are a couple poorly-worded abilities that make someone "flat-footed" in the middle of combat (I personally think those are editing errors) but those are the only exceptions - closing your eyes makes you "blinded" while your eyes are closed; it does not make you "flat-footed".
I had completely forgot about blindness. I think I'll rule that way. Thanks for your help, guys. It's definitely going to be helpful with the adventure so arcane caster heavy.