I want to make a blind character for a campaign but idk what I should do, do I give them blindsight? I feel like I should but I have no idea if I should or not, I think that should give him blindsight because sone blind people can use echolocation of some sort by making a clicking sound with their mouth. I have no clue how to go about this and I can't find an answer anywhere; I feel like if they were blind I could give them blindsight but because they are blind maybe a disadvantage on stealth checks. I feel like something like that would be reasonable.
This comes up a lot. If you want to play a blind character then they would have the Blinded condition. That's it. No more no less.
If you start planning on giving them some form of Blindsight or Tremorsense then you're delving into superhero blindness - which is not the same thing at all - and typically pretty disrespectful.
Blindsight would allow you to see in all forms of darkness, even magical darkness. So is MUCH better than darkvision.
Perhaps Blindsight out to only 10 feet? But that would still negate all forms of invisibility that were being used against you.
Or just ask your GM if your character could be considered blind, but has some other sense that acts just like normal vision - so change to any rules at all.
Blindsight is incredibly powerful (Only weaker than truesight because it can see into the astral plane). Rogues get a limited form of 10ft blindsight at level 14. You are asking for a stronger ability at level 1.
Blindsight is a massive powerup, lets you ignore invisibility, lets you sense all sorts of things normal PCs cant.
Being blind is a massive handicap, making you unable to do lots of things PCs normally should.
They don't really "balance out" - if you make a PC that's blind-but-w-th-blindsight they'll bounce between horribly underpowered and horribly overpowered depending on how exactly it's adjudicated and the specific situation. So then it's up to the DM to make that balance out to "playable but not broken" over the course of the campaign. So talk to your DM! It's definitely doable, but requires work and buy-in from the DM to make it work, because they'll have to take it into account when designing encounters and making calls.
If you want to play a narratively blind character without the mechanical drawbacks, maybe say something like you can sense creatures' aura (we'll say invisibility erases said aura and illusions produce them).
You'll still automatically fail sight based checks, but in exchange you are immune to some very niche sight based abilities and blinded condition.
I feel the same way that Emmber does; there is no way to play a really blind character in 5e without making them a useless PC or making them "blind-not-blind superhero blind."
If you and your group are OK with that style of "blindness" (which is to say, mechanically equally capable to a non-blind PC) then you could just do that. But as an aside to that, I still wouldn't do it by giving them any super senses, you should make the character actually rely on other mundane senses, such as touch, hearing, and smell. "A point/creature you can see" could be replaced with "a point/creature you can touch" or "a creature you can hear or smell" without too much mechanical damage to the game; much less game impacting than handing out super-senses to PCs.
You could pull off blind with a familiar. It wouldn’t help much in combat, by RAW, since you need your action to perceive through them, but if your DM was nice and let you use a bonus action for that, you could still cast. If you’re trying to do a blind swordsman thing, using blindsight means you are still seeing, just in a different way. Effectively, you are no longer blind, so what was the point of the exercise?
In a larger sense, you can’t give your character blindsight. Maybe your DM can choose to give it to you, but by RAW, there’s no way, at character creation, to choose to have it.
Blindsight is incredibly powerful (Only weaker than truesight because it can see into the astral plane). Rogues get a limited form of 10ft blindsight at level 14. You are asking for a stronger ability at level 1.
In practical terms, it might even be more powerful than truesight since blindsight lets you "see" through fog and other obscurements. I mean, seeing into the ethereal plane is super powerful, but it might not come up as often in gameplay as dense foliage or fog.
The best approach I've ever seen is just to roleplay the character as blind, but for any combat purposes they effectively have normal sight. Just explain it as training or whatever, no need to change any rules. Half of D&D is roleplaying anyways, if you really want to sell it then just ignore any prompts to use investigation/perception unless there's a reason to.
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if I edit a message, most of the time it's because of grammar. The rest of the time I'll put "Edit:" at the bottom.
This is very easy if you are a human variant take magic initiate go wizard take the two cantrips and the first level spell find familiar you would have to ask your DM to tweak it a bit but I think it's not as OP as giving a character blindsight or tremorsence if not human will have to wait until you get your first chance to get a feat
Blindsight is incredibly powerful (Only weaker than truesight because it can see into the astral plane). Rogues get a limited form of 10ft blindsight at level 14. You are asking for a stronger ability at level 1.
And fighters, or anyone who takes the fighting initiate feat, can get it at first level by choosing the Blind Fighting feat.
one option might involve taking fighter and if allowed choosing:
Optional Class Features
Fighting Style Options
1st-level fighter feature When you choose a fighting style, the following styles are added to your list of options.
Blind Fighting You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn’t behind total cover, even if you’re blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.
This would still leave you unable to see at distance.
another option is to start as a varient human with an equivalent of the feat:
Magic Initiate
Choose a class: ... wizard. You learn two cantrips of your choice from that class's spell list. In addition, choose one 1st-level spell from that same list. You learn that spell and can cast it at its lowest level. Once you cast it, you must finish a long rest before you can cast it again using this feat.
Choose find familiar and, as needed, work with it's senses.
Yeah you can take the fighting style with just a feat Fighting Initiate, too. If a player wanted to play a blind character I'd just give them the feat/style for free and call it a day.
I concur - there are a handful of topics that have surfaced as of late. I would suggest also reading through the sentiment of these for a more comprehensive stance prior to making a decision:
I once had a human light cleric who was captured and blinded, so his god granted him the gift of sight whenever there was light around. Mechanically, he was no different from a typical human.
CAN you build a blind character? Yes but they are blind and effectively useless unless munchkined to death to create a superhero not a D&D character. Therefore, SHOULD YOU build a blind character? NO as I and others have stated it’s really an effort to create a superhero at L1/tier 1 not a standard tier 1 character. How are you overcoming your blindness? Seeing through the eyes of a familiar? Remember that takes your action so you are left with only a bonus action (if you have one) or a reaction (if you get one) now try fighting with someone giving you directions while your eyes are closed - welcome to disadvantage. Blindsight? What is it based on? If hearing, don’t be surprised when NPCs start throwing silence around now try fighting when you’re blindfolded and have your ears blocked. Tremorsense? Levitation or a wet surface should stop that and leave you complexly cutoff flailing around at disadvantage hoping to hit something. The only way to really play a blind character is to give it something that basically gives it back it’s vision and then it’s not a blind character anymore.
Well at least blind people are blessed to avoid that thick brick. The "should you" false question is always followed by my personnal opinion is the supreme one, and there arent even ashamed.
You don't need to overcome your blindness. The mind and evolution favor.ed vision for spatial representation, precise information and distance equals anticipation, but its absolutely not required. Some fishes species in dark water are blind, and they have functionnal survival mechanism against predators.
Sensoriality is a multi modal bayesian system. People can do whatever they want. Thx.
I want to make a blind character for a campaign but idk what I should do, do I give them blindsight? I feel like I should but I have no idea if I should or not, I think that should give him blindsight because sone blind people can use echolocation of some sort by making a clicking sound with their mouth. I have no clue how to go about this and I can't find an answer anywhere; I feel like if they were blind I could give them blindsight but because they are blind maybe a disadvantage on stealth checks. I feel like something like that would be reasonable.
This comes up a lot. If you want to play a blind character then they would have the Blinded condition. That's it. No more no less.
If you start planning on giving them some form of Blindsight or Tremorsense then you're delving into superhero blindness - which is not the same thing at all - and typically pretty disrespectful.
Mega Yahtzee Thread:
Highest 41: brocker2001 (#11,285).
Yahtzee of 2's: Emmber (#36,161).
Lowest 9: JoeltheWalrus (#312), Emmber (#12,505) and Dertinus (#20,953).
As a PC? Ask your DM. Blindsight is powerful but also extremely limiting at the same time. As an NPC, sure why not.
Blindsight would allow you to see in all forms of darkness, even magical darkness. So is MUCH better than darkvision.
Perhaps Blindsight out to only 10 feet? But that would still negate all forms of invisibility that were being used against you.
Or just ask your GM if your character could be considered blind, but has some other sense that acts just like normal vision - so change to any rules at all.
Blindsight is incredibly powerful (Only weaker than truesight because it can see into the astral plane). Rogues get a limited form of 10ft blindsight at level 14. You are asking for a stronger ability at level 1.
This is like that tremorsense discussion...
Blindsight is a massive powerup, lets you ignore invisibility, lets you sense all sorts of things normal PCs cant.
Being blind is a massive handicap, making you unable to do lots of things PCs normally should.
They don't really "balance out" - if you make a PC that's blind-but-w-th-blindsight they'll bounce between horribly underpowered and horribly overpowered depending on how exactly it's adjudicated and the specific situation. So then it's up to the DM to make that balance out to "playable but not broken" over the course of the campaign. So talk to your DM! It's definitely doable, but requires work and buy-in from the DM to make it work, because they'll have to take it into account when designing encounters and making calls.
If you want to play a narratively blind character without the mechanical drawbacks, maybe say something like you can sense creatures' aura (we'll say invisibility erases said aura and illusions produce them).
You'll still automatically fail sight based checks, but in exchange you are immune to some very niche sight based abilities and blinded condition.
That should be about as strong as darkvision.
I feel the same way that Emmber does; there is no way to play a really blind character in 5e without making them a useless PC or making them "blind-not-blind superhero blind."
If you and your group are OK with that style of "blindness" (which is to say, mechanically equally capable to a non-blind PC) then you could just do that. But as an aside to that, I still wouldn't do it by giving them any super senses, you should make the character actually rely on other mundane senses, such as touch, hearing, and smell. "A point/creature you can see" could be replaced with "a point/creature you can touch" or "a creature you can hear or smell" without too much mechanical damage to the game; much less game impacting than handing out super-senses to PCs.
You could pull off blind with a familiar. It wouldn’t help much in combat, by RAW, since you need your action to perceive through them, but if your DM was nice and let you use a bonus action for that, you could still cast.
If you’re trying to do a blind swordsman thing, using blindsight means you are still seeing, just in a different way. Effectively, you are no longer blind, so what was the point of the exercise?
In a larger sense, you can’t give your character blindsight. Maybe your DM can choose to give it to you, but by RAW, there’s no way, at character creation, to choose to have it.
In practical terms, it might even be more powerful than truesight since blindsight lets you "see" through fog and other obscurements. I mean, seeing into the ethereal plane is super powerful, but it might not come up as often in gameplay as dense foliage or fog.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
The best approach I've ever seen is just to roleplay the character as blind, but for any combat purposes they effectively have normal sight. Just explain it as training or whatever, no need to change any rules. Half of D&D is roleplaying anyways, if you really want to sell it then just ignore any prompts to use investigation/perception unless there's a reason to.
if I edit a message, most of the time it's because of grammar. The rest of the time I'll put "Edit:" at the bottom.
This is very easy if you are a human variant take magic initiate go wizard take the two cantrips and the first level spell find familiar you would have to ask your DM to tweak it a bit but I think it's not as OP as giving a character blindsight or tremorsence if not human will have to wait until you get your first chance to get a feat
And fighters, or anyone who takes the fighting initiate feat, can get it at first level by choosing the Blind Fighting feat.
one option might involve taking fighter and if allowed choosing:
Optional Class Features
Fighting Style Options
1st-level fighter feature
When you choose a fighting style, the following styles are added to your list of options.
Blind Fighting
You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn’t behind total cover, even if you’re blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.
This would still leave you unable to see at distance.
another option is to start as a varient human with an equivalent of the feat:
Magic Initiate
Choose a class: ... wizard. You learn two cantrips of your choice from that class's spell list.
In addition, choose one 1st-level spell from that same list. You learn that spell and can cast it at its lowest level. Once you cast it, you must finish a long rest before you can cast it again using this feat.
Choose find familiar and, as needed, work with it's senses.
Yeah you can take the fighting style with just a feat Fighting Initiate, too. If a player wanted to play a blind character I'd just give them the feat/style for free and call it a day.
I got quotes!
I concur - there are a handful of topics that have surfaced as of late. I would suggest also reading through the sentiment of these for a more comprehensive stance prior to making a decision:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/dungeon-masters-only/116675-visually-impaired-characters-as-opposed-to-blind
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/tips-tactics/113563-how-would-you-build-a-blind-pc
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/114793-playing-a-blind-character
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/11316-blind-character
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I once had a human light cleric who was captured and blinded, so his god granted him the gift of sight whenever there was light around. Mechanically, he was no different from a typical human.
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I just made a blind water genasi but I made it so that he can see as long as it is raining or he is underwater
CAN you build a blind character? Yes but they are blind and effectively useless unless munchkined to death to create a superhero not a D&D character. Therefore, SHOULD YOU build a blind character? NO as I and others have stated it’s really an effort to create a superhero at L1/tier 1 not a standard tier 1 character. How are you overcoming your blindness? Seeing through the eyes of a familiar? Remember that takes your action so you are left with only a bonus action (if you have one) or a reaction (if you get one) now try fighting with someone giving you directions while your eyes are closed - welcome to disadvantage. Blindsight? What is it based on? If hearing, don’t be surprised when NPCs start throwing silence around now try fighting when you’re blindfolded and have your ears blocked. Tremorsense? Levitation or a wet surface should stop that and leave you complexly cutoff flailing around at disadvantage hoping to hit something. The only way to really play a blind character is to give it something that basically gives it back it’s vision and then it’s not a blind character anymore.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Well at least blind people are blessed to avoid that thick brick.
The "should you" false question is always followed by my personnal opinion is the supreme one, and there arent even ashamed.
You don't need to overcome your blindness.
The mind and evolution favor.ed vision for spatial representation, precise information and distance equals anticipation, but its absolutely not required.
Some fishes species in dark water are blind, and they have functionnal survival mechanism against predators.
Sensoriality is a multi modal bayesian system.
People can do whatever they want.
Thx.