Hey guys,
One of the melee characters in a game I GM lost his save against a blindness/deafness spell cast by the penultimate boss of a dungeon crawl. He was obviously not too pleased, as he felt this prevented him from doing anything. My initial attitude was, them's the breaks, but wanted to know if there was any suggestions I could give him as a GM to prevent him from giving up hope and hating his play time.
In particular, I was thinking if there was some sort of rules that govern giving instructions to a blind ally. (ie, move forward, strike to your left, with concealment still applying) If not, would he be able to pinpoint the boss in melee with another ally simply by sound, given the huge DC modifier to hearing the sounds of combat?
Thanks!
There is no reason a blind person couldn't be directed what square to attack into (technically blinded doesn't even mention that, but presumably it is the same as with invisible creatures.)
The 'sounds of combat' is the general din of battle, not one particular creature in the midst. Theoretically it would probably more in line with the bonus to stealth from invisibility in relation to that particular creature. However, usually in combat if only a single opponent can't see you, you probably aren't using stealth. In any event, the instructions from friends should suffice.
This is a lesson in making sure you have condition removal, usually on scrolls and/or empty spell slots.
Mmmh... Yes, Blinded can seem as a pretty severe condition but it doesn't mean you can't do anything...
As a reminder here is what the Blinded condition state (Core Rulebook, Darkness paragraph, p.442-443):
Creatures blinded by darkness lose the ability to deal extra damage due to precision (for example, via sneak attack or a duelist’s precise strike ability).
Blind creatures must make a DC 10 Acrobatics skill check to move faster than half speed. Creatures that fail this check fall prone. Blinded creatures can’t run or charge.
All opponents have total concealment from a blinded creature, so the blinded creature has a 50% miss chance in combat.
A blinded creature must first pinpoint the location of an opponent in order to attack the right square; if the blinded creature launches an attack without pinpointing its foe, it attacks a random square within its reach. For ranged attacks or spells against a foe whose location is not pinpointed, roll to determine which adjacent square the blinded creature is facing; its attack is directed at the
closest target that lies in that direction. A blinded creature loses its Dexterity modifier to AC (if positive) and takes a –2 penalty to AC. A blinded creature takes a –4 penalty on Perception checks and most Strength- and Dexterity-based skillchecks, including any with an armor check penalty. A creature blinded by darkness automatically fails any skill check relying on vision.
Creatures blinded by darkness cannot use gaze attacks and are immune to gaze attacks.
A creature blinded by darkness can make a Perception check as a free action each round in order to locate foes (DC equal to opponents’ Stealth checks). A successful check lets a blinded character hear an unseen creature “over there somewhere.” It’s almost impossible to pinpoint the location of an unseen creature. A Perception check that
beats the DC by 20 reveals the unseen creature’s square (but the unseen creature still has total concealment from the blinded creature).
A blinded creature can grope about to find unseen creatures. A character can make a touch attack with his hands or a weapon into two adjacent squares using a standard action. If an unseen target is in the designated square, there is a 50% miss chance on the touch attack. If successful, the groping character deals no damage but has pinpointed the unseen creature’s current location. If the unseen creature moves, its location is once again unknown.
If a blinded creature is struck by an unseen foe, the blinded character pinpoints the location of the creature that struck him (until the unseen creature moves, of course). The only exception is if the unseen creature has a reach greater than 5 feet (in which case the blinded character knows the location of the unseen opponent, but has not pinpointed him) or uses a ranged attack (in which case the blinded character knows the general direction of
the foe, but not his location).
A creature with the scent ability automatically pinpoints
unseen creatures within 5 feet of its location.
So in fact you can move half speed or even full speed with a simple DC 10 Acrobatic skill check, the difficulty is to pinpoint your foe, it's not that difficult to do if he is in a fight... And your friend can use the Aid action to help the poor blind character... ;)
You can use the Invisibility perception modifiers table to determine the Stealth DC of the ennemy (Core Rulebook, Invisibility paragraph, p.563) :
Invisible Creature is... Perception DC Modifier
In combat or speaking –20
Moving at half speed –5
Moving at full speed –10
Running or charging –20
Not moving +20
Using Stealth Stealth check +20
Some distance away +1 per 10 feet
Behind an obstacle (door) +5
Behind an obstacle (stone wall) +15
So even if you have a -20 perception check to pinpoint an ennemy this is negated by the -20 DC to perception if the ennemy is in a fight... Not so hard to pinpoint in this case...
The bigger issue is the total concealment with the 50% chance to miss... ;)
Oh... I almost forgot : If your player whine about a simple blindness try Hold Person or better Color Spray or Slumber and look at your player's face after that... Priceless ;)
My tetori monk (grapple build) was blinded in a dungeon crawl, and the rest of the party just pointed her at the bad guys and pushed. Half speed for her was still 30 feet a round, so the main issue was the 50% miss chance. It sucked, but she was far from "useless".
(The GM was nice and let her make her maintain checks without the miss chance; he reasoned that once she got her hands on someone and had them grappled, she was just holding on at that point instead of trying to "hit" them.)
Oh... I almost forgot : If your player whine about a simple blindness try Hold Person or better Color Spray or Slumber and look at your player's face after that... Priceless ;)
Except of course for the hole permanent thing.
Taking a player out of the fight, especially for a long time, is bad game play for a table that is heavily into fighting. When someone has to wait 1 week to 1 month to play their game and then just gets to sit and watch other people play it, it is a legitimate problem.
I always try to find a way to get the player back into the game as fast as possible. I also save spells like that until the end of the night where they can plan on ways to overcome it between games and not have to suffer through it at the table.
Except of course for the hole permanent thing.
Ouch... Yes I tend to avoid heavy permanent condition unless my players got the money/level to buy/cast a remove curse or a cure...
But a blindness spel is far from being permanent so in this case the player only miss some rounds of fight against the BBEG ;)This is a more common occurence at my table... :p
Duration: permanent (D)
It is pretty permanent.
Duration: permanent (D)It is pretty permanent.
Oh ! Sorry, my bad.
So, that's why I don't use it often, pretty powerful for a level 2 spell... :(
A permanent spell gives a really more high penalty on a character than on a monster... I tend to use them to make the party lose time (days to find the cure) not to make a character useless in a fight and certainly not in the boss fight, I would have substituted the Blindness spell for a not permanent one like Color Spray, Color Spray or Color Spray... :p