So I have a cool idea for a character and I just wanted some tips and suggestions to help flesh this idea out.
premise; Protector Aasimar monk, to turn to a Fallen Aasimar as time goes on, standard stuff right? BUT I want to make this aasimar different in the sense that they are being completely guided by their angel, making them blind. Based off this post from Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/avlnqd/explanation_of_angels_vs_demons/, I want them to start guided by their celestial light guidance, making them blind? but slowly falling from their guidance and thus gaining sight. How would you recommend I start this out? What feats, abilities, whatever should this character have in order to be able to survive? How, mechanically, should I try to traverse this disability, and would it even be possible to play DnD with a blind character?
ah, i love that post. sounds like a really cool character idea. Unfortunately, from what I hear, playing a truly blind character can really suck and those who try tend to give up and re-roll out of frustration.
-A blinded creature can't see and automatically fails any ability check that requires sight.
-Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
but, there are obviously creative ways you can get around it. I myself have been playing with the idea of a blind subterranean race so i have been looking into this too. you have a few options here.
option one: if the angel has more direct control over the character, then perhaps outside of combat the character suffers from the blindness effect, but in combat the angel, who can see, takes over. the penalty to this would likely be that their agenda and your own will not always align. (you want to feed a healing potion to your unconscious friend but doing so will give the succubus you have been fighting time to escape and finish her ritual. you are compelled to leave your friend and stop her. or maybe your friend wants to take up a quest that rewards a clue to their missing parents, but your angel insists you complete the mission it gave you first, even if it means leaving the party.)
option two: talk to your Dm about having blindsight or tremorsense with a certain range on it. maybe even both, with blindsight acting as your long range and tremorsence acting as your short range. this actually comes with a few cool perks. you can sense invisible creatures but should still be immune to spells and effects that require the target to look at something in order for it to activate. but there are still drawbacks to consider. ranged attacks, especially against flying creatures, should still be at disadvantage. (even if you know where something is, you still need to see in order to aim.) you likely wont be able to see ethereal creatures like ghosts either, and would struggle if suspended in the air by something like a fly spell. Lastly, blindsight and tremorsence have a max range. usually 60 or 120 feet. while most players can assume that their character can see anything on the map that is in line of sight, you are still considered blind beyond your max range. its easy to shoot or ambush you.
there are some cool rp opportunists with this one though. imagine having both tremorsense and blindsight only to one day wake up and realize you dont have tremorsence anymore, because you ignored your angel. then you slowly start to feel your blindsight range shrinking. 120 feet, 100 feet, 80, 60, 30.... blindness. there is a terrifying period of blindness before you gradually start to gain real sight for the first time and you realize that the angel knowingly blinded you.
option three: lastly, you could consider multi classing or asking your dm about allowing you the Find Familiar spell. you can re-flavor it as your celestial messenger (since a familiar can already be classified as a celestial) and use its eyes to see. the perks to this one is you can still have normal sight, can read and can even change your familiar into other creatures for bonus dark vision and perception checks. the down side is if your familiar dies or cannot be with you for one reason or another, you are truly blind until it is re-summoned. you are also considered deaf when using the familiars sight but if you plan on having it on your head/shoulder most of the time that shouldn't be a problem.
I really like Option 3. I wouldn't play such a character, but it makes the blindness be more than a cosmetic feature while not totally crippling the effectiveness of the character.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Start off with a 2-4 levels of fighter, nab the blind fighting feat from UA (Blind Fighting: Being unable to see a creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it, provided the creature isn’t hidden from you), then go monk.
Use Passive Perception to locate creatures around you and nab the feat: Alert (bonus to initiative and immune to suprise/opponents dont get advantage on attack rolls as a result of being hidden from you).
That should pretty much take care of it without resorting to find familiar shennanigans.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
Hello fellow nerds!
So I have a cool idea for a character and I just wanted some tips and suggestions to help flesh this idea out.
premise; Protector Aasimar monk, to turn to a Fallen Aasimar as time goes on, standard stuff right? BUT I want to make this aasimar different in the sense that they are being completely guided by their angel, making them blind. Based off this post from Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/tumblr/comments/avlnqd/explanation_of_angels_vs_demons/, I want them to start guided by their celestial light guidance, making them blind? but slowly falling from their guidance and thus gaining sight. How would you recommend I start this out? What feats, abilities, whatever should this character have in order to be able to survive? How, mechanically, should I try to traverse this disability, and would it even be possible to play DnD with a blind character?
Thanks in advance!!
ah, i love that post. sounds like a really cool character idea. Unfortunately, from what I hear, playing a truly blind character can really suck and those who try tend to give up and re-roll out of frustration.
but, there are obviously creative ways you can get around it. I myself have been playing with the idea of a blind subterranean race so i have been looking into this too. you have a few options here.
option one: if the angel has more direct control over the character, then perhaps outside of combat the character suffers from the blindness effect, but in combat the angel, who can see, takes over. the penalty to this would likely be that their agenda and your own will not always align. (you want to feed a healing potion to your unconscious friend but doing so will give the succubus you have been fighting time to escape and finish her ritual. you are compelled to leave your friend and stop her. or maybe your friend wants to take up a quest that rewards a clue to their missing parents, but your angel insists you complete the mission it gave you first, even if it means leaving the party.)
option two: talk to your Dm about having blindsight or tremorsense with a certain range on it. maybe even both, with blindsight acting as your long range and tremorsence acting as your short range. this actually comes with a few cool perks. you can sense invisible creatures but should still be immune to spells and effects that require the target to look at something in order for it to activate. but there are still drawbacks to consider. ranged attacks, especially against flying creatures, should still be at disadvantage. (even if you know where something is, you still need to see in order to aim.) you likely wont be able to see ethereal creatures like ghosts either, and would struggle if suspended in the air by something like a fly spell. Lastly, blindsight and tremorsence have a max range. usually 60 or 120 feet. while most players can assume that their character can see anything on the map that is in line of sight, you are still considered blind beyond your max range. its easy to shoot or ambush you.
there are some cool rp opportunists with this one though. imagine having both tremorsense and blindsight only to one day wake up and realize you dont have tremorsence anymore, because you ignored your angel. then you slowly start to feel your blindsight range shrinking. 120 feet, 100 feet, 80, 60, 30.... blindness. there is a terrifying period of blindness before you gradually start to gain real sight for the first time and you realize that the angel knowingly blinded you.
option three: lastly, you could consider multi classing or asking your dm about allowing you the Find Familiar spell. you can re-flavor it as your celestial messenger (since a familiar can already be classified as a celestial) and use its eyes to see. the perks to this one is you can still have normal sight, can read and can even change your familiar into other creatures for bonus dark vision and perception checks. the down side is if your familiar dies or cannot be with you for one reason or another, you are truly blind until it is re-summoned. you are also considered deaf when using the familiars sight but if you plan on having it on your head/shoulder most of the time that shouldn't be a problem.
I really like Option 3. I wouldn't play such a character, but it makes the blindness be more than a cosmetic feature while not totally crippling the effectiveness of the character.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Whilst I would not recommend playing a blind character this does put me in mind of the character of Zatoichi (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuqwMQTc8cE)
Start off with a 2-4 levels of fighter, nab the blind fighting feat from UA (Blind Fighting: Being unable to see a creature doesn’t impose disadvantage on your attack rolls against it, provided the creature isn’t hidden from you), then go monk.
Use Passive Perception to locate creatures around you and nab the feat: Alert (bonus to initiative and immune to suprise/opponents dont get advantage on attack rolls as a result of being hidden from you).
That should pretty much take care of it without resorting to find familiar shennanigans.