Arcane Eye

[Heathansson]

Arcane Eye doesn't let the caster see if the caster is blind, right?

[MurphysParadox]

Hmmmmmm... an interesting question. Ok, first, you have to be able to see in order to cast the spell as it says "You can create the arcane eye at any point you can see". So blind people cannot cast the spell.

As for going blind after summoning it. I dunno. Probably not? It is pretty vague in limitations, so we can take it at face value to say "well, if you were standing where the eye is what would you see? Nothing because you're blind!" or at least that's how I read it.

[Touc]

Don't see why not. The spell sends you "visual information" no matter where it goes, and it wouldn't cease to function if a person closed their eyes (which they would probably do thematically given that they would be visualizing two things at once otherwise, a headache). Spell wouldn't cease to function if someone turned out the lights in the room they're in while the eye is somewhere else in a lit area.

But yeah, it's a sight-based spell to cast in the first place, so some issues with that. I think they mean for it to be unlimited range to cast, but that's for some GM interpretation ("why can't I just drop it right by myself?")

[Heathansson]

MurphysParadox wrote:

Hmmmmmm... an interesting question. Ok, first, you have to be able to see in order to cast the spell as it says "You can create the arcane eye at any point you can see". So blind people cannot cast the spell.

I think that's what I was thinking. You can't see, you can't create the eye.

[MurphysParadox]

The difficulty is that most things I've seen (including the argument from my wizard player, who was a big fan of this spell) is that if you have darkvision or see invisibility, then those confer through the eye. So if good things do work through it, I'd think blindness would also apply and thus make it useless.

[seebs]

I would be inclined to assert that it does indeed do exactly what it says, which is let you see exactly as you could if you were there. If you are currently blind, that does not help you much.

[sunbeam]

This spell is incredible and it is not used very often.

The only downside is the long cast time. I've always taken it at face value, ie you can manifest the sensor at any place you can "see" and then move it.

So my interpretation is you can manifest it like 2000 feet in the sky and look around as if you were flying.

It is incredibly hard unless you are explicitly trying to hide something from a flyer. The artificial perception penalties due to range will bit you I guess, but take it from me trees and shrubs don't provide much cover when you look at them from above.

Then there is the utility of going through the crack underneath a door or just plain scouting out things before you get there.

Just an awesome spell.