So, I've been wondering what it would be like to play a blind PC. I want to play a Toph-esque character that can actually interact with her surroundings and not suffer all the penalties coming from the Blinded condition. One thing I thought about was giving my character Blindsight or, at least, something very similar. I've seen a lot of people discussing this and I would think that the following features would be appropriate for making a blind character:
1. You can sense the shapes, movements, mass, and other features that don't require sight of creatures, objects, and structures to a radius pf 60 feet. You can't perceive color or detail.
2. You ignore bright, dim, or dark lighting, magical or non-magical.
3. Any actions you take against creatures or objects outside of your 60 ft. radius are made with a disadvantage.
4. Checks that are specifically sight checks automatically fail.
5. You can sense texture and basic detail by touching an object, creature, or other surface. In this manner, you can read writing if it is defined enough for your sense of touch to perceive, such as engraved or 3-dimensional writing. You must be proficient with the language you are attempting to discern to be able to read it, and it takes twice as long to read writing in this way.
I think more appropriate would be granting the fighting style blind fighting. Anything more than that and you start to get into the territory of not actually wanting to play a blind character, just wanting the aesthetics.
Also, why #6? People that aren't blind don't become frightened if blinded.
So, I've been wondering what it would be like to play a blind PC. I want to play a Toph-esque character that can actually interact with her surroundings and not suffer all the penalties coming from the Blinded condition. One thing I thought about was giving my character Blindsight or, at least, something very similar. I've seen a lot of people discussing this and I would think that the following features would be appropriate for making a blind character:
1. You can sense the shapes, movements, mass, and other features that don't require sight of creatures, objects, and structures to a radius pf 60 feet. You can't perceive color or detail.
That's poor vision, not blindness. But, like, you can nerf your vision as much as you want - if what you want is to play someone who's very, very nearsighted, rather than actually blind, I'm not here to tell you no. I'm just saying, you said "appropriate for a blind character", and this is wildly inappropriate for a blind character.
2. You ignore bright, dim, or dark lighting, magical or non-magical.
Well, effectively, if you're actually blind, you treat all light conditions as darkness (you don't actually do this, but it's close enough if you're trying to sus out what being blind would be like). So you don't ignore darkness, but you do "ignore" bright and dim light in the sense that both are darkness for you, and also darkvision, devil's sight, and so on won't do anything for you - it's not actually darkness, you're just blind.
3. Any actions you take against creatures or objects outside of your 60 ft. radius are made with a disadvantage.
What 60 foot radius are you talking about? There's no radius on blinded. All attacks you make will be at disadvantage, and curiously, ability checks will either work fine or automatically fail - being blinded doesn't allow for "mere" disadvantage on ability checks. Everyone attacking you will be at advantage.
4. Checks that are specifically sight checks automatically fail.
Yes, that's correct.
5. You can sense texture and basic detail by touching an object, creature, or other surface. In this manner, you can read writing if it is defined enough for your sense of touch to perceive, such as engraved or 3-dimensional writing. You must be proficient with the language you are attempting to discern to be able to read it, and it takes twice as long to read writing in this way.
That's up to your DM, but I'd make you roll an Investigate check, with a DC set by how easy to feel the letters are.
6. You become Frightened if you are Deafened.
What? Why? No. Just no.
Does that sound good?
Mostly no. But if you want to play a blind character, we just had a thread about it, and various solutions were proposed to make being blind suck less.
Incidentally, if you want to be like Toph, what she had was sight-grade Tremorsense - Tremorsight, if you will. That was why she could functionally "see" anything touching the ground, but nothing that wasn't. 5E doesn't have that, but since it would be blindsight-but-worse, I doubt your DM would object strenuously if you took the blind fighting fighting style and requested such a nerf.
So, I've been wondering what it would be like to play a blind PC. I want to play a Toph-esque character that can actually interact with her surroundings and not suffer all the penalties coming from the Blinded condition.
The second half of the sentence means you don't actually want to play a blind character. You want to play a regular character and just say they are blind.
So, if you really want to, just do that. Work with your DM and do it through role play. I'm a blind character, but I use tremorsense (toph) and/or echolocation (daredevil) so I can actually fight just fine. Its a lot less disruptive and doesn't require creating a set of custom rules for one character.
So, I've been wondering what it would be like to play a blind PC. I want to play a Toph-esque character that can actually interact with her surroundings and not suffer all the penalties coming from the Blinded condition.
The second half of the sentence means you don't actually want to play a blind character. You want to play a regular character and just say they are blind.
So, if you really want to, just do that. Work with your DM and do it through role play. I'm a blind character, but I use tremorsense (toph) and/or echolocation (daredevil) so I can actually fight just fine. Its a lot less disruptive and doesn't require creating a set of custom rules for one character.
This. A CritRole guest character, Shakäste, is blind but can see through the eyes of his hummingbird companion. Doesn't need any detailed mechanics and works just fine. Unless the DM wants to do something to make being blind become an effective hindrance in some way, it's just roleplay and characterization.
That said, termorsense would have some upsides and downsides that should be expected to come into play. The character can't be blinded completely, for instance, but also not read or see images. If it *is* tremorsense, particularly without and accompanying bending ability, it shouldn't work against inanimate objects, flying creatures, or while swimming. Toph may or may not get a few extra advantages from being an Earthbender, some things she can do aren't given an explicit reason for.
After doing some more research and looking at y'all's comments, I think I might have made it a bit too complicated for myself. Also, keep in mind that most of the things mentioned were suggestions that I wanted to offer up. I think what I'll do is just play a blind character that is mostly for flavor. Of all the suggestions I made though, I'll keep the automatic failure on sight checks and I'll do what somebody said and make it so that you need an investigation check to discern 3-dimensional detail and writing. And of course my character won't be able to see, and different levels of light won't have any affect on her vision, because she doesn't have any. So then my blind character is more like 75% flavor/25% game statistics and it is much easier to play. Let me just say, if I end up DMing and a player wants to play a blind PC, I'll use these statistics.
Makes sense. I think I'll make a blind character so that it's more like 75%flavor and 25% game statistics. I think tremorsense is a good idea and just maybe blindsight. I'm not looking to make a Toph replica, but she is my inspiration.
Makes sense. I think I'll make a blind character so that it's more like 75%flavor and 25% game statistics. I think tremorsense is a good idea and just maybe blindsight. I'm not looking to make a Toph replica, but she is my inspiration.
Couple of notes.
Take some of the things said here with a grain of salt. People telling you what you do and don't want to play don't understand what you want to play. They present their information as your personal truth, when the reality is, it isn't.
I did this recently, I did a warlock who was blind but used his familiars to perceive through them. Most of the time, he wasn't blind as he took the invocations to perceive through his familiars senses, but there were times where his familiars weren't available or were shot out of combat, and he was truly blind until he could summon them again. Toph for the most part when we are introduced to the character is not blind. She has perception far and beyond what normal people do, it's just different perception, but if her feet aren't touching the ground she is truly blind.
I think its a great way to explore a different aspect of roleplaying, and if it is what you want to do, that's fine. Just remember that it does come with mechanical disadvantages.
I did this recently, I did a warlock who was blind but used his familiars to perceive through them. Most of the time, he wasn't blind as he took the invocations to perceive through his familiars senses, but there were times where his familiars weren't available or were shot out of combat, and he was truly blind until he could summon them again. Toph for the most part when we are introduced to the character is not blind. She has perception far and beyond what normal people do, it's just different perception, but if her feet aren't touching the ground she is truly blind.
Just a note here, there is some debate over what the invocation actually does. My reading is that it extends the range you can communicate and share senses with your familiar without removing the requirement to use an action to do so. Consult with your DM before making a character that is completely dependent on one mechanic that may not work the way you want it to.
So, I've been wondering what it would be like to play a blind PC. I want to play a Toph-esque character that can actually interact with her surroundings and not suffer all the penalties coming from the Blinded condition. One thing I thought about was giving my character Blindsight or, at least, something very similar. I've seen a lot of people discussing this and I would think that the following features would be appropriate for making a blind character:
1. You can sense the shapes, movements, mass, and other features that don't require sight of creatures, objects, and structures to a radius pf 60 feet. You can't perceive color or detail.
2. You ignore bright, dim, or dark lighting, magical or non-magical.
3. Any actions you take against creatures or objects outside of your 60 ft. radius are made with a disadvantage.
4. Checks that are specifically sight checks automatically fail.
5. You can sense texture and basic detail by touching an object, creature, or other surface. In this manner, you can read writing if it is defined enough for your sense of touch to perceive, such as engraved or 3-dimensional writing. You must be proficient with the language you are attempting to discern to be able to read it, and it takes twice as long to read writing in this way.
6. You become Frightened if you are Deafened.
Does that sound good?
I think more appropriate would be granting the fighting style blind fighting. Anything more than that and you start to get into the territory of not actually wanting to play a blind character, just wanting the aesthetics.
Also, why #6? People that aren't blind don't become frightened if blinded.
I agree with Lunali, Blind means Blind. A generous DM could offer the Blindfighting feat, but anything else defeats the point.
Enhanced senses that effectively replace sight constitutes alternate vision, not blindness.
That's poor vision, not blindness. But, like, you can nerf your vision as much as you want - if what you want is to play someone who's very, very nearsighted, rather than actually blind, I'm not here to tell you no. I'm just saying, you said "appropriate for a blind character", and this is wildly inappropriate for a blind character.
Well, effectively, if you're actually blind, you treat all light conditions as darkness (you don't actually do this, but it's close enough if you're trying to sus out what being blind would be like). So you don't ignore darkness, but you do "ignore" bright and dim light in the sense that both are darkness for you, and also darkvision, devil's sight, and so on won't do anything for you - it's not actually darkness, you're just blind.
What 60 foot radius are you talking about? There's no radius on blinded. All attacks you make will be at disadvantage, and curiously, ability checks will either work fine or automatically fail - being blinded doesn't allow for "mere" disadvantage on ability checks. Everyone attacking you will be at advantage.
Yes, that's correct.
That's up to your DM, but I'd make you roll an Investigate check, with a DC set by how easy to feel the letters are.
What? Why? No. Just no.
Mostly no. But if you want to play a blind character, we just had a thread about it, and various solutions were proposed to make being blind suck less.
Incidentally, if you want to be like Toph, what she had was sight-grade Tremorsense - Tremorsight, if you will. That was why she could functionally "see" anything touching the ground, but nothing that wasn't. 5E doesn't have that, but since it would be blindsight-but-worse, I doubt your DM would object strenuously if you took the blind fighting fighting style and requested such a nerf.
The second half of the sentence means you don't actually want to play a blind character. You want to play a regular character and just say they are blind.
So, if you really want to, just do that. Work with your DM and do it through role play. I'm a blind character, but I use tremorsense (toph) and/or echolocation (daredevil) so I can actually fight just fine. Its a lot less disruptive and doesn't require creating a set of custom rules for one character.
This. A CritRole guest character, Shakäste, is blind but can see through the eyes of his hummingbird companion. Doesn't need any detailed mechanics and works just fine. Unless the DM wants to do something to make being blind become an effective hindrance in some way, it's just roleplay and characterization.
That said, termorsense would have some upsides and downsides that should be expected to come into play. The character can't be blinded completely, for instance, but also not read or see images. If it *is* tremorsense, particularly without and accompanying bending ability, it shouldn't work against inanimate objects, flying creatures, or while swimming. Toph may or may not get a few extra advantages from being an Earthbender, some things she can do aren't given an explicit reason for.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
After doing some more research and looking at y'all's comments, I think I might have made it a bit too complicated for myself. Also, keep in mind that most of the things mentioned were suggestions that I wanted to offer up. I think what I'll do is just play a blind character that is mostly for flavor. Of all the suggestions I made though, I'll keep the automatic failure on sight checks and I'll do what somebody said and make it so that you need an investigation check to discern 3-dimensional detail and writing. And of course my character won't be able to see, and different levels of light won't have any affect on her vision, because she doesn't have any. So then my blind character is more like 75% flavor/25% game statistics and it is much easier to play. Let me just say, if I end up DMing and a player wants to play a blind PC, I'll use these statistics.
Makes sense. I think I'll make a blind character so that it's more like 75%flavor and 25% game statistics. I think tremorsense is a good idea and just maybe blindsight. I'm not looking to make a Toph replica, but she is my inspiration.
Just play an Order of Scribes Wizard and perceive the world with your Manifest Mind thing.
Nugz - Kobold Level 4 Bloodhunter/Order of the Mutant - Out there looking for snacks and evil monsters.
Ultrix Schwarzdorn - Human Level 6 Artificer/Armorer - Retired and works in his new shop.
Quercus Espenkiel - Gnome Level 9 Wizard/Order of Scribes - Turned into a book and sits on a shelf.
Artin - Fairy Level 4 Sorcerer/Wild Magic - Busy with annoying the townsfolk. Again.
Jabor - Fire Genasi - Level 4 Wizard/School of Evocation - The First Flame, The Last Chaos. Probably in jail, again.
Couple of notes.
Take some of the things said here with a grain of salt. People telling you what you do and don't want to play don't understand what you want to play. They present their information as your personal truth, when the reality is, it isn't.
I did this recently, I did a warlock who was blind but used his familiars to perceive through them. Most of the time, he wasn't blind as he took the invocations to perceive through his familiars senses, but there were times where his familiars weren't available or were shot out of combat, and he was truly blind until he could summon them again. Toph for the most part when we are introduced to the character is not blind. She has perception far and beyond what normal people do, it's just different perception, but if her feet aren't touching the ground she is truly blind.
I think its a great way to explore a different aspect of roleplaying, and if it is what you want to do, that's fine. Just remember that it does come with mechanical disadvantages.
Just a note here, there is some debate over what the invocation actually does. My reading is that it extends the range you can communicate and share senses with your familiar without removing the requirement to use an action to do so. Consult with your DM before making a character that is completely dependent on one mechanic that may not work the way you want it to.
This is how I'd do it:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/story-lore/109909-rob76s-unused-character-idea-5-ichii-kachikoshi