Blind enemy

[Atalius]

Here's the scenario. My Ninja is ten feet away from the target, I use a reach weapon to give my opponent the Blinded conditiom and it results in the enemy being blind for two rounds and can't be removed on the first round. After blinding the enemy I 5ft step diagnally back a square. On the enemy's turn the enemy's ally directs the blind guy to move 15ft (two squares forward and one to the right) to bring him directly in front of the Ninja. Then the blind enemy attacks the Ninja with a 50% miss chance as per usual.

My question is how should blind enemies be run in this scenario? Can an enemy free action direct the blind enemy where to go like that? My GM is not sure how he should run it, currently this is how he is running it (the example above).

[Pizza Lord]

It depends on the parties involved. Not every group is as functional as Seal Team Six or something, but it's not unheard of to have someone indicate a space (calling out steps and direction is not unreasonable). He still has a 50% miss chance. Also, he can't move more than half speed without an Acrobatics check (DC 10 is easy, but it is a Dex check so it's –4 and armor penalty applies) or just falls prone.

Also, he really can't avoid your AoO and even if he 5-foot steps, he can't avoid it, since you are considered invisible to him effectively. Plus you have reach, so just trip him or hit him with another inhibiting effect when he does get closer.

So, in answer to your question, I wouldn't allow such coordination among every opponent or group unless they were familiar and trusted each other, but it's not cheating. Have one of your allies mimic the helper's voice and give conflicting directions or deafen your target with your attack of opportunity.

[Kayerloth]

I think an ally can direct someone to a target/target space. Not sure I'd allow it as a free action though, but that would be my take I can certainly see arguments both ways. It just seems a bit too involved to give directions that specific. It feels more like directing or redirecting an active spell in terms of needed involvement, i.e. a move action on their part. Your not standing immobile in the space, the situation is dynamic even though it is portrayed in a step-wise way because it's a game and the ally needs to spend time sufficient to maintain his eye on your movements as well as how his companion reacts to his directions all while continuing to do his thing over the course of the turn.

[Atalius]

Pizza Lord wrote:

It depends on the parties involved. Not every group is as functional as Seal Team Six or something, but it's not unheard of to have someone indicate a space (calling out steps and direction is not unreasonable). He still has a 50% miss chance. Also, he can't move more than half speed without an Acrobatics check (DC 10 is easy, but it is a Dex check so it's –4 and armor penalty applies) or just falls prone.

Also, he really can't avoid your AoO and even if he 5-foot steps, he can't avoid it, since you are considered invisible to him effectively. Plus you have reach, so just trip him or hit him with another inhibiting effect when he does get closer.

So, in answer to your question, I wouldn't allow such coordination among every opponent or group unless they were familiar and trusted each other, but it's not cheating. Have one of your allies mimic the helper's voice and give conflicting directions or deafen your target with your attack of opportunity.

Thanks Pizzalord, could you elaborate on this part a bit more "he can't move more than half speed without an Acrobatics check (DC 10 is easy, but it is a Dex check so it's –4 and armor penalty applies) or just falls prone." The NPC is a goblin wearing leather armor.

[Pizza Lord]

Blinded wrote:

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.

Goblins have 30 foot movement normally, so he didn't need the check for the 15 foot of movement to reach you. If he tried to move more than 15 he would need a DC 10 Acrobatics check or he would fall prone (not sure at which point in his movement, that's a GM call). It's an easy DC, but Acrobatics is a Dex check, so it's –4 from blinded and has an armor check penalty (none for the goblin's leather). Can't take 10, since he's in a stressful situation (even if he wasn't in combat, I would call suddenly getting blinded stressful for a short period anyway).

Even without all that, rushing blind into combat is basically a death sentence unless this is one tough goblin or the situation is really desperate (you're attack their king or his family or there's nowhere to flee and you've made it clear you'll kill them if they surrender). Normal reaction would be to go Total Defense or stagger away from combat as best you can until you regain your senses (but that doesn't mean it's what every creature will do). –2 armor and no Dex bonus means he's probably gonna get hit, and the –4 to CMD means you're either tripping or disarming or smacking him again for whatever you want to do and that's even before counting sneak attack or other extra damage that you probably do as a ninja.
Note: Earlier I said he couldn't avoid an AoO from you if he 5-foot stepped since he's blinded, but rereading I don't see that mentioned in 5-Foot Step anymore. It is mentioned in the Withdraw action, so it's possible he can 5-foot step and still avoid them unless your GM calls it otherwise.

Also, like Kayerloth mentioned, while talking is a free action, it's not something that can be done as a conversation or back and forth with replies in combat. So technically, the helper would have to be holding their action at least (or say the instructions on their turn and hope no conditions or positions change on the battlefield between their turn and the blinded character's.) Since you can't reply or await replies, I would say he couldn't say "Go forward 10 feet", watch until the person went 10 feet, then say "Turn 45 degrees right and step forward and attack straight ahead!" At least, not as a free action. If it were just "Attack straight ahead!" or "He's 5 feet left of where you just attacked!" then that would be okay.

[Mike J]

Rules-wise, giving verbal instructions in the span of a out-of-turn free action is certainly pushing the limits of what you can do with a free action. But I don't think it violates RAW to allow the ally to direct the Goblin's movement. You can try this at home with a friend and learn just how ineffective it is to try to verbally direct a blind person who has no experience being blind. Or figure out if you have moved 15 feet while blind. Or figure out if you moved in the right direction while blind.

Regarding the Acrobatics check: while the Blinded condition doesn't specify, I think the way checks like that work is that you make them at the start of movement and if you fail, it is when you made the check. So the Goblin would fall prone in their current square if they failed the Acrobatics check for moving at more than half speed while blind. The Goblin would not have to make that check in the original scenario.

The Goblin (or any other creature, including the ninja) "can't take a 5-foot step in the same round that you move any distance." per Take 5-Foot Step rule (Core 189).

While Total Concealment says:

"You can’t attack an opponent that has total concealment, though you can attack into a square that you think he occupies. A successful attack into a square occupied by an enemy with total concealment has a 50% miss chance (instead of the normal 20% miss chance for an opponent with concealment)."

I'd instead use what Ignoring Concealment says:

"Although invisibility provides total concealment, sighted opponents may still make Perception checks to notice the location of an invisible character. An invisible character gains a +20 bonus on Stealth checks if moving, or a +40 bonus on Stealth checks when not moving (even though opponents can’t see you, they might be able to figure out where you are from other visual or auditory clues)."

I'd have the ninja make a Stealth check at +20 (the ninja moved). Then the Goblin can make a Perception check on its turn against the ninja's result to determine if the Goblin can determine the location of the ninja. Success = the Goblin can make an attack with a 50% miss chance. Failure = the Goblin auto-misses the ninja.

While I don't think it is a violation of RAW to allow the original scenario, without skill checks it smells a little like metagaming. I think the "more correct" way (is there such a thing?) would be to use skill checks to determine if the Goblin can figure out which square to attack.

The upshot for the Goblin is that being blind sucks something awful. The good news is that the Goblin won't survive long and it will be over quickly.

[dragonhunterq]

I've allowed PCs to guide each other to certain squares verbally, it doesn't really require much back and forth, so I'd feel quite justified in allowing NPCs to do it.

Therein lies one of the keys to good GMing, consistency. In this instance the rules are subject to interpretation so in some respects it doesn't really matter which way your GM goes as long as you get to do the same as the bad guys. If you find yourself blind and the GM demands your allies need to take actions and/or skill checks to ID squares then I would call shenanigans.

Also goblin provokes an AoO - smack him with your pointy stick.

[Kayerloth]

Agreed, be consistent as generally that will also lend to being fair. Two very good hallmarks to strive for as a GM.

As for the original post to expand on my thoughts of allowing one character to guide another to a certain space:
Another thing to consider is what else is going on. Does this occur in the middle of a more generalized combat. If so then our guide also has to make sure to direct his ally in a manner that won't get him in deep doo and keep an eye out for how foes other than the Ninja are reacting etc.. If it's literally the 3 of them (our Ninja and his two foes) then I have easier time with it being a free action. But if there's several more foes (ally's of the Ninja) then it gets much more complicated to direct someone while still keeping your tabs on what the other foes are doing -->whose the Archer taking aim on, or the Spellcaster type, how about the raging Barbarian 20 ft away clobbering another ally and are there more sneaky Ninja's about who've yet to reveal themselves etc., etc., and that's when I start thinking about calling it a move action.