Being blind doesn't affect movement in any way, but may affect checks that arise because of moving. For example, you might automatically fail a passive perception check that relies on sight to spot a trapped floor panel.
Situationally, I could see blindness causing some terrain to be treated as difficult. That's a subjective call though as opposed to something designated in the rules.
Being blind doesn't affect movement in any way, but may affect checks that arise because of moving. For example, you might automatically fail a passive perception check that relies on sight to spot a trapped floor panel.
By RAW, yeah, you are 100% accurate. Unfortunately, there are a number spells that are ****** because of meta-gaming where a blinded creature can continue out of danger. Hunger of Hadar springs to mind. The terrain is considered Difficult, yet any char can Dash out of danger in a single turn. It is difficult for a DM to over-ride a player who says "I run in a straight line, then Dash".
But people should try running in a straight line when blinded. Go to some ball diamond that has basepaths. Start on 1st base, facing 2nd base. Close your eyes, then run towards 2nd base. Then see how far offline you are.
Being blind doesn't affect movement in any way, but may affect checks that arise because of moving. For example, you might automatically fail a passive perception check that relies on sight to spot a trapped floor panel.
By RAW, yeah, you are 100% accurate. Unfortunately, there are a number spells that are ****** because of meta-gaming where a blinded creature can continue out of danger. Hunger of Hadar springs to mind. The terrain is considered Difficult, yet any char can Dash out of danger in a single turn. It is difficult for a DM to over-ride a player who says "I run in a straight line, then Dash".
But people should try running in a straight line when blinded. Go to some ball diamond that has basepaths. Start on 1st base, facing 2nd base. Close your eyes, then run towards 2nd base. Then see how far offline you are.
Or join the Labyrinthe LARP club in the UK, where they play in some real caves. Then see what happens when you try to move in the dark at anywhere normal speed on uneven ground and in irregular caves :-)
As mentioned by pretty much everyone above, by RAW, being blinded doesn't affect movement. It's most definitely a mechanical balancing reason, to streamline effects and allow the DM freedom to rule situationally, making judgements in the specific scenarios that the broad strokes of the rules can't cover.
But on that, rule in a way you feel is right, but just be careful about the balance. You don't want Fog Cloud to suddenly have all of the power of a spell that halves movement.
Here is a house rule idea that is technically RAW legal: if a blind creature tries to move at full speed, have them roll acrobatics to not trip (skill checks can be called any time, for any reason at DM discretion). It isn't RAW required though.
Here is a house rule idea that is technically RAW legal: if a blind creature tries to move at full speed, have them roll acrobatics to not trip (skill checks can be called any time, for any reason at DM discretion). It isn't RAW required though.
This is a good idea, and a great way of utilising skill checks in a tense situation. Drama!
5e is a streamlined game and not everything is in the RAW. It's the DM's job to interpret the situation and describe what happens. Although it's true that technically the game does not impose and speed penalty for being blind, the DM is absolutely right to describe to the player what is happening if he tries to move through an area while being blind. And in particular to have the character move somewhere else than where the player intends.
And I have done LARPS in caves, castles and forests at night, and I can tell you that when you are completely in the dark, strange things happen. Like going south on a path at a crossroad, moving a bit and, thinking that you went straight, came back exactly to that same crossroads 2 minutes later. Or trying 17 times to cross a clearing to get to the other side to always find yourself exactly on the same spot as the one you started from.
It's also almost impossible to move silently in the dark, as soon as there are things on the ground that you can see.
But, of course, you can always try running full tilt, indeed, your potential speed is not affected. But your likelihood to survive is extremely small, just running at top speed into a wall would at least stun you very badly.
Dude you're not a legendary warrior and this... Once again.... Has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Blindness doesn't do much beyond inflicting the Blinded condition and nothing more. Just use the condition to let you know what effects are in play.
5e is a streamlined game and not everything is in the RAW. It's the DM's job to interpret the situation and describe what happens. Although it's true that technically the game does not impose and speed penalty for being blind, the DM is absolutely right to describe to the player what is happening if he tries to move through an area while being blind. And in particular to have the character move somewhere else than where the player intends.
And I have done LARPS in caves, castles and forests at night, and I can tell you that when you are completely in the dark, strange things happen. Like going south on a path at a crossroad, moving a bit and, thinking that you went straight, came back exactly to that same crossroads 2 minutes later. Or trying 17 times to cross a clearing to get to the other side to always find yourself exactly on the same spot as the one you started from.
It's also almost impossible to move silently in the dark, as soon as there are things on the ground that you can see.
But, of course, you can always try running full tilt, indeed, your potential speed is not affected. But your likelihood to survive is extremely small, just running at top speed into a wall would at least stun you very badly.
Dude you're not a legendary warrior and this... Once again.... Has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Blindness doesn't do much beyond inflicting the Blinded condition and nothing more. Just use the condition to let you know what effects are in play.
Boom done!
It has long been established what the RAW is on movement while blind.
But for you to suggest that just because a char is a "legendary warrior" means they circumvent the basic inner ear issues that humans have when running blind, is just silly. You can put the finest human athletes you like on a start line for the 100 metres, and if you blindfold them, they will most certainly veer out of their lanes when sprinting. If someone wants to establish house mechanics to handle blind movement, especially when Dashing in Difficult Terrain, more power to them. This is in the same category as the ludicrous Falling, Grappling, and Jumping rules.
5e is a streamlined game and not everything is in the RAW. It's the DM's job to interpret the situation and describe what happens. Although it's true that technically the game does not impose and speed penalty for being blind, the DM is absolutely right to describe to the player what is happening if he tries to move through an area while being blind. And in particular to have the character move somewhere else than where the player intends.
And I have done LARPS in caves, castles and forests at night, and I can tell you that when you are completely in the dark, strange things happen. Like going south on a path at a crossroad, moving a bit and, thinking that you went straight, came back exactly to that same crossroads 2 minutes later. Or trying 17 times to cross a clearing to get to the other side to always find yourself exactly on the same spot as the one you started from.
It's also almost impossible to move silently in the dark, as soon as there are things on the ground that you can see.
But, of course, you can always try running full tilt, indeed, your potential speed is not affected. But your likelihood to survive is extremely small, just running at top speed into a wall would at least stun you very badly.
Dude you're not a legendary warrior and this... Once again.... Has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Blindness doesn't do much beyond inflicting the Blinded condition and nothing more. Just use the condition to let you know what effects are in play.
Boom done!
It has long been established what the RAW is on movement while blind.
But for you to suggest that just because a char is a "legendary warrior" means they circumvent the basic inner ear issues that humans have when running blind, is just silly. You can put the finest human athletes you like on a start line for the 100 metres, and if you blindfold them, they will most certainly veer out of their lanes when sprinting. If someone wants to establish house mechanics to handle blind movement, especially when Dashing in Difficult Terrain, more power to them. This is in the same category as the ludicrous Falling, Grappling, and Jumping rules.
Trying to add real world logic to a game where I can Polymorph a guy into a fish is pretty silly to me.
The game is meant to be streamlined and adding this kind of stuff just makes combat cluttered and inconsistent.
RAW they know where they are going. I stumble in the dark a bit but I just assume its handwaved by the fact combat is suppose to flow a bit quicker in 5e.
If they are deafened or the room changes dramatically (Like something exploding and sending things everywhere) they might need some acrobatics checks to avoid tripping over objects they can't see but even then I would have that be pretty rare.
Or it just muddies the water and makes things take 30x as long as they need to because no one knows where to move.
Honestly, you should know me better than that, I'm the one always arguing for streamlining of the game compared to heavy rulings and rolling dices, but not at the expense of total loss of suspension of disbelief.
I prefer my imagination being spend on things that actually matter.
Like what exactly ?
Pretty much anything else... What does it matter?
Natural darkness being an impediment so rarely occurs it's easier to just move on and focus on the rest of the combat.
No. Simply no. If you think it's the case, please point to me the exact section. And please remember that the standard of 5e is Theater of the Mind, so there is no such thing as "having a map" or moving a token. The only thing that RAW says (and I happen to agree) is that their speed is unchanged. After that, they describe what they do and the DM tells them the result.
They are Blinded:
Blinded
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.
Nothing states here that they do not know where to move. If they have to make an ability check that relies on sight (Like a perception check to see an obstacle) they would fail automatically but in the dark they may use extrasensory perception, smells, sounds, what have you to locate their way through.
Much as the original reply states it does not impose anything automatically. Because the condition does not state your sense of direction is affected you would still know how to move through a room...but if you may incite a check as you move through the darkness because you can't see.
If you as a DM want to make a character roll a check to find their way in the room you could have them roll perception I guess but seems a bit limiting to me considering even humans are somewhat used to walking around a room when its dark. Honestly I have not seen the need to do it myself as it seems less fun to me personally.
Or it just muddies the water and makes things take 30x as long as they need to because no one knows where to move.
Honestly, you should know me better than that, I'm the one always arguing for streamlining of the game compared to heavy rulings and rolling dices, but not at the expense of total loss of suspension of disbelief.
I prefer my imagination being spend on things that actually matter.
Like what exactly ?
Pretty much anything else... What does it matter?
Natural darkness being an impediment so rarely occurs it's easier to just move on and focus on the rest of the combat.
This thread is not about natural darkness but about being blind. You treat heavy obscurement as being blinded but it's certainly not the only case, and heavy obscurement can occur for many reasons in addition to natural darkness. So it's not that infrequent. And it's an interesting combat effect and condition, I see no reason to gloss over it more than over other combat effects.
Sure and RAW it's been answered so we can all move on.
For me if they can hear someone else in the room, see light somewhere else up the way, or can feel a wall or what not I give them full movement.
If they are full blind and are in a room alone with no wall or objects to help direct them....I guess they could roll something like perception but they would fail it automatically anyway so they would just run in a random direction? Would they fall? Its hard to say without exact examples but putting myself in the players shoe's I would find it rather unfun if I could do nothing for multiple turns simply because of the blind condition. Granted if they are by themselves its a bad situation to start.
Its just a weird situation that I would likely just handwave something to make it not be something that takes more than 10 sec to decide and do.
Ultimately it seems the rules allow you to do whatever you feel is needed as it does not have specific statements on what to do. Use your best judgement and run it how you think your players will have fun is my answer.
Blindness or Darkness if you have someone else who is around and yelling to get you to go towards them its much easier for me to see them getting full movement towards the sound. If there is an obstacle in the way they did not see before they went blind/dark then they would roll to see if they run into it.
If they have a wall they can touch then full movement likely no checks as they have a point of refence.
Nothing in the condition limits the amount of movement they have so I would always give full movement but really how useful that is to them is the question. You can run full speed while blind but it might not be a good idea if you have no frame of reference.
Nothing in the condition limits the amount of movement they have so I would always give full movement but really how useful that is to them is the question. You can run full speed while blind but it might not be a good idea if you have no frame of reference.
Which is exactly my point, as in most situations in the game, the limitation is not technical, and it's in the hands of the DM and the player to roleplay this properly. If a player of a character who has gone blind tells me "I run at full speed" towards the entrance of a room while being more than a few feet away (in which case there would be no need to run at full speed), I would certainly decide that, unless he is very lucky, he will hit the doorframe, and most certainly injure himself.
Sure seems per the book that makes sense if you want to do that. Likely I would not but it appears that was their intent to allow different DMs to do what they think is right.
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Greetings All,
Does being blind effect movement at all? I can't find any rules about it anywhere.
Being blind doesn't affect movement in any way, but may affect checks that arise because of moving. For example, you might automatically fail a passive perception check that relies on sight to spot a trapped floor panel.
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Situationally, I could see blindness causing some terrain to be treated as difficult. That's a subjective call though as opposed to something designated in the rules.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
By RAW, yeah, you are 100% accurate. Unfortunately, there are a number spells that are ****** because of meta-gaming where a blinded creature can continue out of danger. Hunger of Hadar springs to mind. The terrain is considered Difficult, yet any char can Dash out of danger in a single turn. It is difficult for a DM to over-ride a player who says "I run in a straight line, then Dash".
But people should try running in a straight line when blinded. Go to some ball diamond that has basepaths. Start on 1st base, facing 2nd base. Close your eyes, then run towards 2nd base. Then see how far offline you are.
Or join the Labyrinthe LARP club in the UK, where they play in some real caves. Then see what happens when you try to move in the dark at anywhere normal speed on uneven ground and in irregular caves :-)
As mentioned by pretty much everyone above, by RAW, being blinded doesn't affect movement. It's most definitely a mechanical balancing reason, to streamline effects and allow the DM freedom to rule situationally, making judgements in the specific scenarios that the broad strokes of the rules can't cover.
But on that, rule in a way you feel is right, but just be careful about the balance. You don't want Fog Cloud to suddenly have all of the power of a spell that halves movement.
Here is a house rule idea that is technically RAW legal: if a blind creature tries to move at full speed, have them roll acrobatics to not trip (skill checks can be called any time, for any reason at DM discretion). It isn't RAW required though.
This is a good idea, and a great way of utilising skill checks in a tense situation. Drama!
Dude you're not a legendary warrior and this... Once again.... Has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Blindness doesn't do much beyond inflicting the Blinded condition and nothing more. Just use the condition to let you know what effects are in play.
Boom done!
It has long been established what the RAW is on movement while blind.
But for you to suggest that just because a char is a "legendary warrior" means they circumvent the basic inner ear issues that humans have when running blind, is just silly. You can put the finest human athletes you like on a start line for the 100 metres, and if you blindfold them, they will most certainly veer out of their lanes when sprinting. If someone wants to establish house mechanics to handle blind movement, especially when Dashing in Difficult Terrain, more power to them. This is in the same category as the ludicrous Falling, Grappling, and Jumping rules.
Trying to add real world logic to a game where I can Polymorph a guy into a fish is pretty silly to me.
The game is meant to be streamlined and adding this kind of stuff just makes combat cluttered and inconsistent.
Or it just muddies the water and makes things take 30x as long as they need to because no one knows where to move.
I prefer my imagination being spend on things that actually matter.
RAW they know where they are going. I stumble in the dark a bit but I just assume its handwaved by the fact combat is suppose to flow a bit quicker in 5e.
If they are deafened or the room changes dramatically (Like something exploding and sending things everywhere) they might need some acrobatics checks to avoid tripping over objects they can't see but even then I would have that be pretty rare.
Pretty much anything else... What does it matter?
Natural darkness being an impediment so rarely occurs it's easier to just move on and focus on the rest of the combat.
They are Blinded:
Blinded
Nothing states here that they do not know where to move. If they have to make an ability check that relies on sight (Like a perception check to see an obstacle) they would fail automatically but in the dark they may use extrasensory perception, smells, sounds, what have you to locate their way through.
Much as the original reply states it does not impose anything automatically. Because the condition does not state your sense of direction is affected you would still know how to move through a room...but if you may incite a check as you move through the darkness because you can't see.
If you as a DM want to make a character roll a check to find their way in the room you could have them roll perception I guess but seems a bit limiting to me considering even humans are somewhat used to walking around a room when its dark. Honestly I have not seen the need to do it myself as it seems less fun to me personally.
Sure and RAW it's been answered so we can all move on.
Dayvid already handled it.
For me if they can hear someone else in the room, see light somewhere else up the way, or can feel a wall or what not I give them full movement.
If they are full blind and are in a room alone with no wall or objects to help direct them....I guess they could roll something like perception but they would fail it automatically anyway so they would just run in a random direction? Would they fall? Its hard to say without exact examples but putting myself in the players shoe's I would find it rather unfun if I could do nothing for multiple turns simply because of the blind condition. Granted if they are by themselves its a bad situation to start.
Its just a weird situation that I would likely just handwave something to make it not be something that takes more than 10 sec to decide and do.
Ultimately it seems the rules allow you to do whatever you feel is needed as it does not have specific statements on what to do. Use your best judgement and run it how you think your players will have fun is my answer.
Blindness or Darkness if you have someone else who is around and yelling to get you to go towards them its much easier for me to see them getting full movement towards the sound. If there is an obstacle in the way they did not see before they went blind/dark then they would roll to see if they run into it.
If they have a wall they can touch then full movement likely no checks as they have a point of refence.
Nothing in the condition limits the amount of movement they have so I would always give full movement but really how useful that is to them is the question. You can run full speed while blind but it might not be a good idea if you have no frame of reference.
Sure seems per the book that makes sense if you want to do that. Likely I would not but it appears that was their intent to allow different DMs to do what they think is right.