I have a player who was attacked while in total darkness (he doesn't have darkvision). The darkness rules state, "A creature blinded by darkness automatically fails any skill check relying on vision." Is it possible to make an acrobatics check to avoid an attack of opportunity for leaving a threatened square, or does that rely on vision?
There is no mention of that use of acrobatics relying on vision, nor any modifier if the opponent that you are avoiding is invisible.
Remember that moving acrobatically costs double movement unless you increase the DC by 10. In addition, you have to make a separate DC10 acrobatics check if you want to move faster than half speed while blind.
It's not explicitly stated that he cannot.
There are two rules that can be used here. They're both very similar but slightly different:
In areas of darkness, creatures without darkvision are effectively blinded. In addition to the obvious effects, a blinded creature has a 50% miss chance in combat (all opponents have total concealment), loses any Dexterity bonus to AC, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and takes a –4 penalty on Perception checks that rely on sight and most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks.
Note the first sentence that I bolded. Effectively blinded. This means that you could just use the Blinded condition. The wording is rearranged but almost exactly the same, except for the last part, and the middle bit about all vision-based perception checks automatically failing.
The creature cannot see. It takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class, loses its Dexterity bonus to AC (if any), and takes a –4 penalty on most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks and on opposed Perception skill checks. All checks and activities that rely on vision (such as reading and Perception checks based on sight) automatically fail. All opponents are considered to have total concealment (50% miss chance) against the blinded character. Blind creatures must make a DC 10 Acrobatics skill check to move faster than half speed. Creatures that fail this check fall prone. Characters who remain blinded for a long time grow accustomed to these drawbacks and can overcome some of them.
Me, I choose to use the condition for two reasons:
1. Darkness says a character is effectively blinded (cannot see) and then says they take a puny -4 penalty on sight-based perception checks. That's nonsense. Are they effectively blinded or only slightly penalized? Pick one.
2. The condition has extra rules for what happens in the darkness when a blinded person stumbles around without being able to see where they're going. The Darkness description does not. So, per the Darkness rules, a character could run at top speed through a pitch black forest full of trees, bushes, roots, maybe even pits, and never run into anything. That makes no sense.
Since you can just apply the blinded condition, and since it makes more sense, I suggest doing that.
As to the original question, can the guy use acrobatics to leave a threatened square, I would say yes, but remember that blinded penalizes your DEX-based skills, so apply the penalty. Blinded also requires an acrobatics check to move faster than half speed, and avoiding AoOs also requires moving at half speed to avoid penalties, so the character must move at 1/4 speed or apply the penalties to his check (+5 DC from the acrobatics rule and +10 DC from the blinded condition if he moves full speed). Failure could not only mean provoking the AoO but also falling prone, as per the blinded condition.
Finally, make sure that his enemies can see this guy; if they cannot, then he has concealment from them and his movement won't provoke at all.
Excellent, thanks Blake. The monster did indeed have darkvision, which of course is important to mention, lol. I ended up letting him move quarter speed with an Acrobatics check to avoid the AoO with the -4 penalty.
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I don't think anything prevents you from taking the withdraw action while blind, so it's reasonable to use acrobatics to avoid AoO.
Blinded also requires an acrobatics check to move faster than half speed, and avoiding AoOs also requires moving at half speed to avoid penalties, so the character must move at 1/4 speed or apply the penalties to his check (+5 DC from the acrobatics rule and +10 DC from the blinded condition if he moves full speed). Failure could not only mean provoking the AoO but also falling prone, as per the blinded condition.
The DC 10 check to avoid falling prone is a separate check with its own consequences, and does not affect any other acrobatics checks you may make in your turn.
I don't think anything prevents you from taking the withdraw action while blind, so it's reasonable to use acrobatics to avoid AoO.
Blinded also requires an acrobatics check to move faster than half speed, and avoiding AoOs also requires moving at half speed to avoid penalties, so the character must move at 1/4 speed or apply the penalties to his check (+5 DC from the acrobatics rule and +10 DC from the blinded condition if he moves full speed). Failure could not only mean provoking the AoO but also falling prone, as per the blinded condition.The DC 10 check to avoid falling prone is a separate check with its own consequences, and does not affect any other acrobatics checks you may make in your turn.
Of course that's true.
You could just make the guy roll two separate acrobatics checks if he moves blindly and tries to avoid an AoO. In fact, that would be mathematically better. But with one of those being significantly harder than the other one, well, the easiest one is probably trivial enough to be basically redundant if you do it that way.
Or since it's the same skill and the two problems (blind, avoid AoO) seem to compound the difficulty, combining the roll into a single roll with a penalty makes more sense.
Here's an absurd but illustrative example:
Imagine a guy has +5 to acrobatics. He's not in combat so he can Take-10 on everything.
He wants to juggle. DC 15 (for example). No problem, Take-10 covers it.
He wants to walk on a tightrope. DC 15 again (it's a big rope). No problem, Take-10 covers it.
He wants to walk around blindfolded. DC 10. No problem, Take-10 covers it.
He wants to juggle, while blindfolded and walking on the tightrope. No problem, 3 Take-10's cover it.
Does that seem right? Or should the compound difficulty increase for doing those things together?
There are no exact rules for this, so it's every GM on his own.
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I can see why you would house rule in that manner, but given that this is the rules forum it's important to point out that you're advocating a house rule.
Also, adding the DCs together is probably excessive - juggling on a tightrope is not worth a DC 30. And because of the -4 penalty to Dex checks while blinded, if you're juggling blindfolded you'd need a +9 modifier to take 10 even without further DC adjustments.
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Actually, they don't, but it requires going through several layers of rules to see why:
Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +1 dodge bonus to your Armor Class.
A dodge bonus improves armor class (and sometimes Reflex saves) resulting from physical skill at avoiding blows and other ill effects. Dodge bonuses are usually not granted by spells or magic items. Any situation or effect (except wearing armor) that negates a character's Dexterity bonus also negates any dodge bonuses the character may have. Dodge bonuses stack with all other bonuses to AC, even other dodge bonuses. Dodge bonuses apply against touch attacks.
In areas of darkness, creatures without darkvision are effectively blinded. In addition to the obvious effects, a blinded creature has a 50% miss chance in combat (all opponents have total concealment), loses any Dexterity bonus to AC, takes a –2 penalty to AC, and takes a –4 penalty on Perception checks that rely on sight and most Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks.
Interestingly, while total defense also grants a dodge bonus, fighting defensively appears to grant an untyped bonus (possibly an error?):
You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 to AC until the start of your next turn.
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Nothing I posted was incorrect. Your previous post stated:
Using Combat Expertise, Fighting Defensively, or going Total Defense also work versus opponents you can't see.
If you cannot see an opponent (either because you are blind or they are invisible) that opponent ignores your Dex bonus to AC, and therefore any dodge bonuses. Thus Combat Expertise and similar abilities that provide dodge bonuses do not work against opponents you can't see.
It's true that you can benefit from dodge bonuses against a visible foe at the same time as an invisible foe bypasses those bonuses, but that wasn't your original claim, and nothing in my post disputed that.
Uncanny dodge does prevent the loss of Dex bonuses and therefore dodge bonuses when blinded, but that's a special exception to the rule.