Blindness & Orientation


Advice


If you are blinded, can't see at all, no blindsight, blindsense or darkvision either, be it from actual blindness or beeing in total darkness, you can move at half your speed, or at full speed if you succeed on a DC 10 acrobatic check, and if you fail the check you fall prone, but even if you can move how do you know where you are going if you're blind?

If you have a reference point, like if you are touching the wall of a room and you just got blinded, then I can understand if you want to move along the wall, but if you have no point on reference and you are in the middle of combat, I'd say it must be pretty difficult to know which way you're facing, unless you have the blind-fight feat or something.

If the blind player is specifically being attacked, attacking or fall's prone due a trip, it must be almost impossible to remember which way you are facing.

I don't like the idea of players or monster just moving normally at full speed with a simple DC 10 acrobatics check.

I'm thinking of something like rolling a 50% chance of the player moving the way he wants for every 5ft step of the way. If he fails, roll a random 1d8 direction he's moving until he comes across something else he can use as point of reference to start moving right again.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Think very carefully about the possible ramifications of your solutions to this issue.

For example, even blinded, you're capable of walking in a straight line. Do not adopt any houserule that makes it possible for someone to accidentally change direction mid-move. Your suggested fix creates a situation where someone could walk 5ft forward, then pivot 180 degrees and walk 5ft back the way they came, while thinking they've walked 10ft in a straight line.

That is ridiculous.

I suggest something like this: whenever someone moves, determine the intended final square, and then give them a percentage chance of arriving on-target, with failure getting them to a square adjacent to the final destination.

So if I want to walk 30 feet straight across the room, I might be a little off in my angle (landing in the space to the left or right of my target), or walk too short a distance, or some combination thereof. But I will never accidentally walk the opposite direct or suddenly turn 90 degrees halfway through my move.

Also, when determining the chances and severity of failure, remember that these are fantasy heroes, not Dan from over in accounting. If your method doesn't make PCs decidedly more skilled than you are, you're off target.

Hope that helps!

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