Thanks all for the amazing ideas so far. Clearly this topic has also turned into quite the discussion point. So let me share part of my interest in wanting to play a blind character, and my two cents on some the issues brought up so far.
I am a self-confessed optimizer, who some might also label as a power gamer. But I also really enjoy role-play and character development. A DM once challenged me, saying that if I really wanted to develop my role playing skills, to try playing a character with a real handicap (not one that can just be hand-waved away). And I don’t even think he meant just a physical handicap, just a character who isn’t optimal.
Over the years, this concept has stuck in my head, especially as someone who doesn’t face any real disability in real life. It fascinates me how people can and do adapt. And how it forces me to take a different perspective on the world. I find that fantasy role playing is one way to explore those different perspectives, like knights in wheelchairs.
I also should acknowledge that I personally think the D&D system generally has a strong emphasis on combat, as do many of the setting specific campaigns written for it. HOWEVER, every game is different and there is no “right” way to play. So when I posted this question, I wanted to explore how someone blind might adapt, both in a high fantasy setting, but also within the rules of the games.
I also should say that I very much agree with those who posted about making sure the other players in the group are okay with it as well. I guess I consider myself fortunate to be part of a more role playing oriented group. But I should definitely get their buy-in first, because playing a blind character would change the dynamics of the game. but our past games haven’t just been about ‘winning’ or completing adventures.
So, back to the question. Playing a blind character is sub-optimal, and objectively a mechanical disadvantage in D&D — yes. But assuming there is no ‘right’ way to play, and that the players and DM are bought in, how might one be able to make it work?
I don't think D&D is the best system for handling handicaps like this, it's designed for being adventurers and if you're adding in disabilities, for characters to be relevant there needs to be a balancing upside, else wise your character is going to be a hindrance on the party. For example, Vampire the Masquerade has the ability to make blind/deaf/mute characters (at least in 20th anniversary, not played 5th edition) and the way it handles that allows you to get more benefits else where (in the form of freebie points), that (world of darkness) is also a lot lighter system in terms of combat and isn't compatible with D&D, but just referencing how another system handles such things, there is the ability to build a character who makes up for the disability in another way.
So on top of the question I pointed out earlier ("why can't this be healed via magic?"), You have to add on two more questions, "Why is a blind person working as part of the group/as an adventurer?" and "Why would the group want to work with a blind adventurer?" The answer should be more than, just because it's the character you created and these are questions that need to be answered in tangent with the DM and/or group.
Thanks all for the amazing ideas so far. Clearly this topic has also turned into quite the discussion point. So let me share part of my interest in wanting to play a blind character, and my two cents on some the issues brought up so far.
I am a self-confessed optimizer, who some might also label as a power gamer. But I also really enjoy role-play and character development. A DM once challenged me, saying that if I really wanted to develop my role playing skills, to try playing a character with a real handicap (not one that can just be hand-waved away). And I don’t even think he meant just a physical handicap, just a character who isn’t optimal.
Over the years, this concept has stuck in my head, especially as someone who doesn’t face any real disability in real life. It fascinates me how people can and do adapt. And how it forces me to take a different perspective on the world. I find that fantasy role playing is one way to explore those different perspectives, like knights in wheelchairs.
I also should acknowledge that I personally think the D&D system generally has a strong emphasis on combat, as do many of the setting specific campaigns written for it. HOWEVER, every game is different and there is no “right” way to play. So when I posted this question, I wanted to explore how someone blind might adapt, both in a high fantasy setting, but also within the rules of the games.
I also should say that I very much agree with those who posted about making sure the other players in the group are okay with it as well. I guess I consider myself fortunate to be part of a more role playing oriented group. But I should definitely get their buy-in first, because playing a blind character would change the dynamics of the game. but our past games haven’t just been about ‘winning’ or completing adventures.
So, back to the question. Playing a blind character is sub-optimal, and objectively a mechanical disadvantage in D&D — yes. But assuming there is no ‘right’ way to play, and that the players and DM are bought in, how might one be able to make it work?
“Making it work” is a relative term. As I’ve said, a character isn’t outright unable to function when Blinded, but barring a magic item that outright overrides the condition, there is no RAW way to materially and reliably negate the effects- familiars are gonna poof the first time they take damage and Blind Fighting is restricted to certain classes in ‘24 and has a very limited effective range otherwise. Offhand I couldn’t say how many spell don’t require sight, but frankly I expect pretty much anything not centered on yourself or touch to be out.
Your best bet is probably just to pick some high AC melee build like a sword and board heavy armor Fighter or Paladin and just focus on whacking what’s in front of you while tanking the ranged attacks coming at you with advantage. I can’t think of any other RAW ways to counteract blindness effectively, and if you start homebrewing solutions then there’s a substantial chance you’ll defeat the point of it being a handicap.
What do you do when characters sustain serious injuries?
Useless comment, /ignore
I have been playing D&D for over forty years. I have played in long form campaigns in which combat was secondary to other aspects of the game. And not every character would engage in it. So don't act as if you speak for the game.
We all play D&D in some form or another. There is no need for the gatekeeper-y attitude.
You are not the only one.
There is no gate keeping. I would suggest running World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Spycraft or something not combat centric if that is what they want. If they insist on D&D, let them know the penalties involved.
Would you tell someone coming to D&D with a history of trauma who would like to try the game but who rather there be little to no violence in it to go away and play something else? What would that make you?
Where is it that I said or hinted at that? I could easily run anything they want.
EDIT: The new PHB has a picture of someone who is wheelchair bound. Should that character "stay home" so as not to "nerf" the party?
That thread came and went months ago. Keep up.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Regarding why they are blind, yes, it would certainly need to be something that was 'easily' cured with magic. Perhaps a curse?
From a party role perspective, it seems that a support character would be most effective. Based on some of the discussion, here is what I'm thinking so far. Comments welcome.
CLASSES
Paladin 6
Include heavy armor and shield proficiency to tank all those arrows you won't see coming.
You can take the blind fighting fighting-style.
Find Steed for a mount when you need to be carried (instead of blindly walking) up that mountain pass, or led to water.
Most important, Aura of Protect just requires you to stand there. You don't even need to take an action to help the party.
Twilight Cleric 5+ (thought it admittedly is a bit unbalanced)
Twilight Sanctuary is another 30ft radius aura and doesn't require you to see or act.
Spirit Guardians seems like a great spell that also emanates from you and doesn't require targeting.
From what I could find on Spiritual Weapon, it allows you to make a melee attack without needing to see a target, though I guess it would still be at disadvantage.
RACE/SPECIES: Dwarf
Whomever suggest the new dwarf in the 2024, it is quite tempting with the tremor sense. Reminds me of Toph from Avatar.
FEATS
Magic initiate is tempting for the familiar spell, if you don't consider that cheating.
It’s not complicated to explain why in tiers 1&2 you can’t be fixed by accessible magic- while Lesser Restoration does remove the Blinded condition, it does not restore missing limbs and the like, so if your eyes were actually destroyed to the point they no longer function it’s fair to say that’s beyond the contextual capabilities of that spell and your best bet is probably the 7th level Regeneration, which is not something you can reasonably expect any old temple to provide at all, let alone gratis. It’s not hard RAW, but the trope that damage to muscle tissue and/or bones or infections are significantly easier to mend than damage or breakdown in other organ systems is quite prevalent in fantasy.
Blunt answer - Your character will not pull their weight and will be a liability. In a world without pedestrian crossings and smooth pavements and braille, blind is a staggeringly debilitating handicap.
That depends. Blindsight would mostly work for sight. Perception still applies unless sight is required, but the DM can still rule the PC knows where people are via perception, just like you know where an invisible character is even though they are invisible.
Yes, but if you have blindsight then you are not blind - you are Daredevil or Toph.
What do you do when characters sustain serious injuries?
Useless comment, /ignore
I have been playing D&D for over forty years. I have played in long form campaigns in which combat was secondary to other aspects of the game. And not every character would engage in it. So don't act as if you speak for the game.
We all play D&D in some form or another. There is no need for the gatekeeper-y attitude.
You are not the only one.
There is no gate keeping. I would suggest running World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Spycraft or something not combat centric if that is what they want. If they insist on D&D, let them know the penalties involved.
Would you tell someone coming to D&D with a history of trauma who would like to try the game but who rather there be little to no violence in it to go away and play something else? What would that make you?
Where is it that I said or hinted at that? I could easily run anything they want.
EDIT: The new PHB has a picture of someone who is wheelchair bound. Should that character "stay home" so as not to "nerf" the party?
That thread came and went months ago. Keep up.
So you could run a game in which combat rarely if ever takes place to meet the needs of a player who does not handle violence very well ...
... but wanting to play a blind character is just a "bad" idea because it would "cripple" a party because they won't be so effective in ... combat? Do you just make up whatever in the moment instead of being consistent? How do you reconcile these two things? And you did not answer my question about the wheelchair. A thousand threads could come and go. I want to know what you think if you think it's so unplayable for a character to have any kind of physical impediment.
Blunt answer - Your character will not pull their weight and will be a liability. In a world without pedestrian crossings and smooth pavements and braille, blind is a staggeringly debilitating handicap.
That depends. Blindsight would mostly work for sight. Perception still applies unless sight is required, but the DM can still rule the PC knows where people are via perception, just like you know where an invisible character is even though they are invisible.
Yes, but if you have blindsight then you are not blind - you are Daredevil or Toph.
You are still blind. You just perceive things without the use of vision. Much like actual blind people do.
As I said before: blind people have climbed Everest. There are blind fencers. You are showing your ignorance when you imagine blind people in real life who even live in total darkness do not rely on other senses. They often outclass non-blind people when it comes to hearing especially.
Instead of approaching this from what the "blind" character can or can't do, since the mobility issues are secondary, instead of think it's best to approach from the DM perspective
Keep in mind you are removing one of your 5 senses - you only have touch, smell, hearing, taste to work with - which makes things alot more difficult to navigate
How would you describe a location, npc, etc..
How does it impact story elements and interactions between the players characters
What type of adventure do you wish to play because being blind will limit the possibilities unless there's some handwaving of the condition or superhuman compensation to other senses - suggest first playing a character with sunlight sensitivity (minor visual issue) before progressing onto a blind character (major visual issue)
Blunt answer - Your character will not pull their weight and will be a liability. In a world without pedestrian crossings and smooth pavements and braille, blind is a staggeringly debilitating handicap.
That depends. Blindsight would mostly work for sight. Perception still applies unless sight is required, but the DM can still rule the PC knows where people are via perception, just like you know where an invisible character is even though they are invisible.
Yes, but if you have blindsight then you are not blind - you are Daredevil or Toph.
You are still blind. You just perceive things without the use of vision. Much like actual blind people do.
As I said before: blind people have climbed Everest. There are blind fencers. You are showing your ignorance when you imagine blind people in real life who even live in total darkness do not rely on other senses. They often outclass non-blind people when it comes to hearing especially.
Hi: actual blind person here... could you please stop?
YES: blind people are capable of many things; I myself ski, rock-climb, and even at one point bi-athalon training... but here's the thing: all of that was done using A) assistive technologies, and B) help from others. Being blind is a DISABILITY; it is a right pain in my back-side; there are things that fully sighted people can do easily that I struggle with or can't do at all. I will never drive a car; and everyone else on the road should be grateful for that. In a realistic, survival or combat scenario; there are almost zero situations besides total darkness where-in I would not be objectively "worse" for a team than a fully sighted person with equivalent skills, abilities and knowledge. Negotiating a doorway, stairwell, or uneven ground is not an issue for most fully-sighted and able-bodied people; it is for me. And if I lived in a fantasy world with magic items and restoration spells; I would do terrible, terrible things to be rid of this problem.
So you could run a game in which combat rarely if ever takes place to meet the needs of a player who does not handle violence very well ...
... but wanting to play a blind character is just a "bad" idea because it would "cripple" a party because they won't be so effective in ... combat? Do you just make up whatever in the moment instead of being consistent? How do you reconcile these two things? And you did not answer my question about the wheelchair. A thousand threads could come and go. I want to know what you think if you think it's so unplayable for a character to have any kind of physical impediment.
You are talking about multiple subjects. I can run a game for somebody that doesn't like combat. D&D is not the greatest for this. I can run a game of D&D with light combat. I can run a game for somebody who wants to play a blind character but will let them know it is a bad idea.
Are trying to say that the person who doesn't like violence is also blind or wants to play a blind character in a game with low fighting?
Again, D&D is not the greatest game for low violence. I can run a game that is not D&D.
Such a wheelchair would have certain qualities identifying it as magical. It would also probably levitate/fly a few inches off the ground or, as per another poster, have legs.
Why does it have to? Unless the person is adventuring solo these qualities are not a necessity. What about terrain? What about combat? It doesn't matter, the party will make it work. Focusing on the wheelchair is like tracking how many times your PCs go to the toilet.
I think the point is that the person wants to envision themselves in a way they see as heroic. No need to make up new rules or anything. One PC has two legs, one has a snake tail instead of legs, one is in a wheelchair, one looks like a frog. Whatever, let's go have an adventure!
If Professor Xavier can be the leader of the X Men and be pretty badass then I'm sure its ok for a disabled person to be portrayed in DnD... With that said... A Rogue or Monk in a wheelchair makes zero sense even in a "fantasy" setting. Inclusiveness is cool, but get creative and make it amazing.
You clearly have no idea how strong a person in a wheelchair is.
I also cannot fathom how a wheelchair would in anyway stop a Rogue from picking a lock, finding traps, moving quietly...
Also, as a table dynamics issue, there's the consideration of how one player being given a custom magic item will play out with the rest of the group; with respect to players who want to experience this particular character configuration, you do need to read the room a little if your approach is going to be along the lines of "my character needs special in-game treatment to fit the image I want"; I'm not saying this should never happen, but it's something I'd be more skeptical of if someone made the ask during a pick-up game at someplace like a convention or FLGS rather than if this was something one of the people in my regular group wanted to try in our next campaign. Again, not trying to categorically shut the concept down, but it's the kind of thing that needs some discussion at Session 0, and I don't think every Session 0 will be the right time and place for that discussion.
I have a hard time imagining a group not just handwaving assistance. Like a blanket statement that they will help the PC get around. Then play can continue comfortably as normal. The players just want to play and be treated like everybody else regardless of their condition.
Of course if you're designing this into play you've got options to account for the effort it takes; manually wheeling 20 miles will take more recovery time than someone walking the same distance, so build in additional recovery time. Play athletics checks with disadvantage, or with an additional negative modifier to account for the chair.
I'm not doing that in any of my adventures, present or future, because that's bullshit for D&D.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Thanks Wysperra for sharing quotes from the wheelchair thread.
if I play a blind character, it would probably be in for prewritten campaign. If I go for more of a face character approach, in which being blind is far less of an issue, it may leave the party at more of a disadvantage in combat, but may fill another role. Sadly, I do feel that D&D campaigns are often combat heavy. Either way, I think it would be important to get party buy-in.
Well, you could play a blind character who has a familiar and has to see through that (pretty sure this has already been said though) kind of like a support animal. However, you would take some penalty to Wisdom checks and probably would have disadvantage on initiative.
Is this just for flavor, or is it actually supposed to affect you? If it's just flavor, then maybe think about it like you are completely blind but are used to it by now, so you are essentially not blind, but still get the flavor of it. If you want an actual handicap, then maybe talk with your DM about giving you 30 foot tremorsense, blind sight, or other limited sightless sense.
Familiar: This one's sort of inspired by what others have said, but you could have a familiar the assists you, though it does not attack/scout/distract/help you in any other way.
I agree with the sentiment that a blind character will be a handicap to the group. The Blinded condition will make them very susceptible to a lot of things, and make them poor at combat.
I suspect that two of the best options would be a Cleric focussing on aruas and AOE's, and an Artificer. The Artificer would provide items to boost the rest of the party, and could go for Battlesmith for a defender who can see, thus commands like "Attack anyone who comes close" or "defend me" can work well.
Regarding the heated debate of whether blindness really is a handicap, yes it is. Yes, people who are blind can climb mountains and run marathons, but D&D isn't about situations you can take steadily. Think instead of the situation as a game of dodgeball. I guarantee that having a blind person on a dodgeball team is a handicap.
Disadvantage on initiative certainly seems to make sense in many cases.
The familiar idea could go one step further with a pack of the chain warlock. You could have a familiar with a bit more intelligence or that could communicate. I also really like the Artificer defender idea. The Defender could be a great help and guild, and act as a seeing companion in combat.
As for the other questions, I'm trying to see if I can make a character work with a real handicap. One who is actually blind, and has to deal with the game system mechanics around it, without handwaving magic that just lets him 'see' through other means. Meta-game wise, I'm interested in exploring concepts around hope, determination, and failure, when faced with adversity. But yes, I do think I'd want to get DM and party buy-in to the idea first. :)
I'm interested in playing a blind character. Not your stereotypical anima character who wears a blindfold, but can see/sense everything anyway. But with the actual in-game handicap of having the 'blind' condition. And I don't have a class or build in mind yet, so I'm looking for ideas and suggestions!
Obviously I don't want to be a liability for the party, and would like to still have the character pull her weigh in the party. Some ideas including building a character who relies more of auras or other more passive abilities. Spells that don't require sight may be a way to go as well, but a lot of spells would not be usable by RAW. Or perhaps a mounted character to help get around. The blind fighting fighting-style seems like it could be a no-brainer as well. Alternately, maybe the character can 'see' through other means, such as a familiar, or 'arcane eye' spell.
What other ideas can you think of? And how might you build a blind character? Any help would be welcome.
I would think wanting a character with a handicap would be detrimental to players completing certain missions.
If it was my character I think I would build a Berserker or Zealot Barbarian, for extra damage if to manage to land a blow. Reckless Attack and Danger Sense can somewhat help to mitigate the disadvantage that comes from not being able to see. I would focus on high constitution first in order to soak up in coming damage, rage helps with this. I would probably choose to be a Dwarf with the Tough Origin feat, Tremor sense would be nice to have in an important/difficult battle. Branching into Warlock at higher level for Armour of Agathys and a familiar could be fun.
I don't think D&D is the best system for handling handicaps like this, it's designed for being adventurers and if you're adding in disabilities, for characters to be relevant there needs to be a balancing upside, else wise your character is going to be a hindrance on the party. For example, Vampire the Masquerade has the ability to make blind/deaf/mute characters (at least in 20th anniversary, not played 5th edition) and the way it handles that allows you to get more benefits else where (in the form of freebie points), that (world of darkness) is also a lot lighter system in terms of combat and isn't compatible with D&D, but just referencing how another system handles such things, there is the ability to build a character who makes up for the disability in another way.
So on top of the question I pointed out earlier ("why can't this be healed via magic?"), You have to add on two more questions, "Why is a blind person working as part of the group/as an adventurer?" and "Why would the group want to work with a blind adventurer?" The answer should be more than, just because it's the character you created and these are questions that need to be answered in tangent with the DM and/or group.
“Making it work” is a relative term. As I’ve said, a character isn’t outright unable to function when Blinded, but barring a magic item that outright overrides the condition, there is no RAW way to materially and reliably negate the effects- familiars are gonna poof the first time they take damage and Blind Fighting is restricted to certain classes in ‘24 and has a very limited effective range otherwise. Offhand I couldn’t say how many spell don’t require sight, but frankly I expect pretty much anything not centered on yourself or touch to be out.
Your best bet is probably just to pick some high AC melee build like a sword and board heavy armor Fighter or Paladin and just focus on whacking what’s in front of you while tanking the ranged attacks coming at you with advantage. I can’t think of any other RAW ways to counteract blindness effectively, and if you start homebrewing solutions then there’s a substantial chance you’ll defeat the point of it being a handicap.
Useless comment, /ignore
You are not the only one.
There is no gate keeping. I would suggest running World of Darkness, Call of Cthulhu, Spycraft or something not combat centric if that is what they want. If they insist on D&D, let them know the penalties involved.
Where is it that I said or hinted at that? I could easily run anything they want.
That thread came and went months ago. Keep up.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Regarding why they are blind, yes, it would certainly need to be something that was 'easily' cured with magic. Perhaps a curse?
From a party role perspective, it seems that a support character would be most effective. Based on some of the discussion, here is what I'm thinking so far. Comments welcome.
CLASSES
Paladin 6
Twilight Cleric 5+ (thought it admittedly is a bit unbalanced)
RACE/SPECIES: Dwarf
FEATS
Other ideas welcome.
It’s not complicated to explain why in tiers 1&2 you can’t be fixed by accessible magic- while Lesser Restoration does remove the Blinded condition, it does not restore missing limbs and the like, so if your eyes were actually destroyed to the point they no longer function it’s fair to say that’s beyond the contextual capabilities of that spell and your best bet is probably the 7th level Regeneration, which is not something you can reasonably expect any old temple to provide at all, let alone gratis. It’s not hard RAW, but the trope that damage to muscle tissue and/or bones or infections are significantly easier to mend than damage or breakdown in other organ systems is quite prevalent in fantasy.
Yes, but if you have blindsight then you are not blind - you are Daredevil or Toph.
So you could run a game in which combat rarely if ever takes place to meet the needs of a player who does not handle violence very well ...
... but wanting to play a blind character is just a "bad" idea because it would "cripple" a party because they won't be so effective in ... combat? Do you just make up whatever in the moment instead of being consistent? How do you reconcile these two things? And you did not answer my question about the wheelchair. A thousand threads could come and go. I want to know what you think if you think it's so unplayable for a character to have any kind of physical impediment.
You are still blind. You just perceive things without the use of vision. Much like actual blind people do.
As I said before: blind people have climbed Everest. There are blind fencers. You are showing your ignorance when you imagine blind people in real life who even live in total darkness do not rely on other senses. They often outclass non-blind people when it comes to hearing especially.
Instead of approaching this from what the "blind" character can or can't do, since the mobility issues are secondary, instead of think it's best to approach from the DM perspective
Keep in mind you are removing one of your 5 senses - you only have touch, smell, hearing, taste to work with - which makes things alot more difficult to navigate
How would you describe a location, npc, etc..
How does it impact story elements and interactions between the players characters
What type of adventure do you wish to play because being blind will limit the possibilities unless there's some handwaving of the condition or superhuman compensation to other senses - suggest first playing a character with sunlight sensitivity (minor visual issue) before progressing onto a blind character (major visual issue)
Hi: actual blind person here... could you please stop?
YES: blind people are capable of many things; I myself ski, rock-climb, and even at one point bi-athalon training... but here's the thing: all of that was done using A) assistive technologies, and B) help from others. Being blind is a DISABILITY; it is a right pain in my back-side; there are things that fully sighted people can do easily that I struggle with or can't do at all. I will never drive a car; and everyone else on the road should be grateful for that. In a realistic, survival or combat scenario; there are almost zero situations besides total darkness where-in I would not be objectively "worse" for a team than a fully sighted person with equivalent skills, abilities and knowledge. Negotiating a doorway, stairwell, or uneven ground is not an issue for most fully-sighted and able-bodied people; it is for me. And if I lived in a fantasy world with magic items and restoration spells; I would do terrible, terrible things to be rid of this problem.
You are talking about multiple subjects. I can run a game for somebody that doesn't like combat. D&D is not the greatest for this. I can run a game of D&D with light combat. I can run a game for somebody who wants to play a blind character but will let them know it is a bad idea.
Are trying to say that the person who doesn't like violence is also blind or wants to play a blind character in a game with low fighting?
Again, D&D is not the greatest game for low violence. I can run a game that is not D&D.
Here is the wheelchair thread - https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/202225-wheelchair-bound-adventurers
Here are some of my posts:
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Thanks Wysperra for sharing quotes from the wheelchair thread.
if I play a blind character, it would probably be in for prewritten campaign. If I go for more of a face character approach, in which being blind is far less of an issue, it may leave the party at more of a disadvantage in combat, but may fill another role. Sadly, I do feel that D&D campaigns are often combat heavy. Either way, I think it would be important to get party buy-in.
Well, you could play a blind character who has a familiar and has to see through that (pretty sure this has already been said though) kind of like a support animal. However, you would take some penalty to Wisdom checks and probably would have disadvantage on initiative.
Roll for Initiative: [roll]1d20+7[/roll]
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Is this just for flavor, or is it actually supposed to affect you? If it's just flavor, then maybe think about it like you are completely blind but are used to it by now, so you are essentially not blind, but still get the flavor of it. If you want an actual handicap, then maybe talk with your DM about giving you 30 foot tremorsense, blind sight, or other limited sightless sense.
Familiar: This one's sort of inspired by what others have said, but you could have a familiar the assists you, though it does not attack/scout/distract/help you in any other way.
Overjoyed follower of Jeff, the Evil Roomba!
Excellent idea with the initiative disadvantage.
Overjoyed follower of Jeff, the Evil Roomba!
I agree with the sentiment that a blind character will be a handicap to the group. The Blinded condition will make them very susceptible to a lot of things, and make them poor at combat.
I suspect that two of the best options would be a Cleric focussing on aruas and AOE's, and an Artificer. The Artificer would provide items to boost the rest of the party, and could go for Battlesmith for a defender who can see, thus commands like "Attack anyone who comes close" or "defend me" can work well.
Regarding the heated debate of whether blindness really is a handicap, yes it is. Yes, people who are blind can climb mountains and run marathons, but D&D isn't about situations you can take steadily. Think instead of the situation as a game of dodgeball. I guarantee that having a blind person on a dodgeball team is a handicap.
Make your Artificer work with any other class with 174 Multiclassing Feats for your Artificer Multiclass Character!
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Thanks all. Some more excellent ideas.
Disadvantage on initiative certainly seems to make sense in many cases.
The familiar idea could go one step further with a pack of the chain warlock. You could have a familiar with a bit more intelligence or that could communicate. I also really like the Artificer defender idea. The Defender could be a great help and guild, and act as a seeing companion in combat.
As for the other questions, I'm trying to see if I can make a character work with a real handicap. One who is actually blind, and has to deal with the game system mechanics around it, without handwaving magic that just lets him 'see' through other means. Meta-game wise, I'm interested in exploring concepts around hope, determination, and failure, when faced with adversity. But yes, I do think I'd want to get DM and party buy-in to the idea first. :)
I would think wanting a character with a handicap would be detrimental to players completing certain missions.
If it was my character I think I would build a Berserker or Zealot Barbarian, for extra damage if to manage to land a blow. Reckless Attack and Danger Sense can somewhat help to mitigate the disadvantage that comes from not being able to see. I would focus on high constitution first in order to soak up in coming damage, rage helps with this.
I would probably choose to be a Dwarf with the Tough Origin feat, Tremor sense would be nice to have in an important/difficult battle. Branching into Warlock at higher level for Armour of Agathys and a familiar could be fun.
Danger Sense requires sight to work
Edit: Well, the 2014 version does