Sanvael's suggestion is a good one - I forgot many DMs will let you just buy common magic items. A pair of ersatz eyes should run about 200gp at the "standard" rate for commons and solves the problem unless you deliberately stop it from doing so.
Thank you everyone for all the great ideas. I always wanted to do something like this more for role play aspects with healing/support class type of play. I do like alot of the ideas with using a druid, bard or even a warlock. If I am able to play this some time it just might end up being a npc for a game I run or a one shot. My whole idea from this has came from many fantasy movies with the old blind soothsayers and what not like 13th warrior as an example. Thank you again for all the great ideas.
Thank you everyone for all the great ideas. I always wanted to do something like this more for role play aspects with healing/support class type of play. I do like alot of the ideas with using a druid, bard or even a warlock. If I am able to play this some time it just might end up being a npc for a game I run or a one shot. My whole idea from this has came from many fantasy movies with the old blind soothsayers and what not like 13th warrior as an example. Thank you again for all the great ideas.
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
I've played a blind cleric of life for a full campaign, it was incredibly fun, she was also a pacifist, which actually helps cause with the dis caused by been blind, attacking ain't really an option anyway. Traps are also incredibly dangerous at first, but with the party help it was doable, and in the end, it was a char I loved playing!
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
Healing Light
At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel celestial energy to heal wounds. You have a pool of d6s that you spend to fuel this healing. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level.
As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you,
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?"
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
Healing Light
At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel celestial energy to heal wounds. You have a pool of d6s that you spend to fuel this healing. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level.
As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you,
And I already went through the pact invocation giving magical sight before
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
Healing Light
At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel celestial energy to heal wounds. You have a pool of d6s that you spend to fuel this healing. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level.
As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you,
And I already went through the pact invocation giving magical sight before
Then you are no longer blind.
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?"
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
Healing Light
At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel celestial energy to heal wounds. You have a pool of d6s that you spend to fuel this healing. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level.
As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you,
And I already went through the pact invocation giving magical sight before
Then you are no longer blind.
That seems to be how this goes, most people on these forums wanting to build a blind character don't want to actually deal with being blind.
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
Healing Light
At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel celestial energy to heal wounds. You have a pool of d6s that you spend to fuel this healing. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level.
As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you,
And I already went through the pact invocation giving magical sight before
Then you are no longer blind.
That seems to be how this goes, most people on these forums wanting to build a blind character don't want to actually deal with being blind.
I merely gave an example of how someone born blind could be a cool reason for going warlock, essentially being forced to staying with their patron or go back to being blind.
Don't see how your comment adds anything positive or constructive, merely trying to point out and add weight to your on idea about something unrelevant. Kinda salty too.
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
Healing Light
At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel celestial energy to heal wounds. You have a pool of d6s that you spend to fuel this healing. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level.
As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you,
And I already went through the pact invocation giving magical sight before
Then you are no longer blind.
I never said they were? I gave my opinion about being very careful before doing a blind character, I gave examples of blind characters dealing with it using familiars or wildshape, bad and temporary solutions that work for a while and then gave an example of a character concept that started out blind but made a pact to see instead, yes its not blind anymore, that's the point of the pact... It's selling your soul to see. I merely gave an example of a similar concept but without the heavily negative complications of being blind put on the group.its a suggestion that fits the theme to give ideas of how you could play, with a good roleplaying value reason for why they took a pact.
And, general thoughts and advice not just to the replied post here: It's not a "ask your dm to give you 30' blindsight to compensate" suggestion. Please read someones posts before nitpicking on specific parts of a comment. And don't add negative value to someone's comment that isn't there. It's rude.
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
Healing Light
At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel celestial energy to heal wounds. You have a pool of d6s that you spend to fuel this healing. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level.
As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you,
And I already went through the pact invocation giving magical sight before
Then you are no longer blind.
That seems to be how this goes, most people on these forums wanting to build a blind character don't want to actually deal with being blind.
It's less that they "don't want to actually deal with being blind," it's more that playing a character who is truly affected by the real life disability of being blind is completely unsuitable as a D&D character without the DM and other players refocussing huge parts of their energy onto the blind character's condition.
I am very pro inclusion. I am happy for players to want to play characters who represent people from all walks of life, but in this case the game is centrally based around the assumption that characters can see and that being able to see is essential to performing the majority of adventuring tasks. Characters with mobility issues, deaf characters, characters with ADHD are all easier to include. Interestingly, a character who requires a wheelchair is much easier to include without feeling like you're de-valuing the representation because people who can't walk already use mobility aids IRL. Technology for correcting full blindness isn't there yet, so it feels like "cheating" to correct the blindness.
Blind characters would be perfectly well suited in dating simulators, in RPGs based around playing music in an orchestra, or in any RPG where a character can perform a useful function whilst remaining in one location. But due to the specific types of task performed in DnD - combat and exploration in dangerous environments - they drastically change the nature of the game for the other players and put significant additional requirements on the DM. So it's only natural for players who are interested in the concept to try to find ways of including a representative character whilst enabling them to perform within the game.
Please read someones posts before nitpicking on specific parts of a comment. And don't add negative value to someone's comment that isn't there. It's rude.
I did read the comments. Most of them have to deal with a blind PC jumping through a bunch of hoops or asking the GM for favors in order to see.
If you do this then you are no longer blind so there is no point in having the hoops to jump through.
Either you're going to be blind and play as being blind or don't. Why go through all of the bendy bits when you can just create a PC that can see anyway because that's what you're making.
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?"
Please read someones posts before nitpicking on specific parts of a comment. And don't add negative value to someone's comment that isn't there. It's rude.
I did read the comments. Most of them have to deal with a blind PC jumping through a bunch of hoops or asking the GM for favors in order to see.
If you do this then you are no longer blind so there is no point in having the hoops to jump through.
Either you're going to be blind and play as being blind or don't. Why go through all of the bendy bits when you can just create a PC that can see anyway because that's what you're making.
A character that cna see only twice a day, while wild shaped is hardly able to see like you and me presumably do.
A character who relies on their familiar to see, with the advantages and mostly disadvantages that comes along with that isn't a really good work around either. You'd still have to deal with being blind most of the time and either way it's still limiting, just not as much as being 100% blind all the time.
In my eyes it gives a good enough reason without completely negating the disadvantages.. It's no way near the comparison with Daredevil for one, which would be more like being blind and begging the dm to get 30'+ blindsense which practically removes the blind part so it's really almost never an issue.
Besides, the assumption that everyone wants to build a blind character that can see is not only wrong, it's assuming things about people who you have no idea what they want, who have in no way expressed their will to play such a character. I for one would not like to play a blind character and like I said recommend against it in most groups. That doesn't prevent me from giving suggestions how the original poster, the one that did say they wanted to play a blind character, could play such a character and not limit the group completely if it's an issue, or even the warlock example which fits the theme but isn't blind anymore, perhaps they were blind their whole life but when the ttribe needed help they sold their soul to be able to see so they could help.
In no way did I say that I wanted to play such a character, especially not playing a blind daredevil (ie blind but seeing). I'm giving advice that could perhaps let the original poster get some ideas of how to play something that they wanted without hampering their party too much.
And besides, even if people WANT to play daredevil, to be blind but get 60' blindsense, so what? What's it to you? Why is their idea, their will wrong? So wrong you have to make negative remarks about it?
Perhaps the thread is better of without those kind of remarks. I mean we get it, you don't want to play that and you don't like the idea. The good news is you don't have to. But if someone else does, let them. Or give them good advice about how they could play something instead and see if they enjoy it. Don't try to shame them into playing the way you like.
I actually really like the idea of having a familiar that you constantly borrow sight from that sits on your shoulder....As far as I can tell, by RAW that works....here we go again, another character concept that I will never get to play.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
I actually really like the idea of having a familiar that you constantly borrow sight from that sits on your shoulder....As far as I can tell, by RAW that works....here we go again, another character concept that I will never get to play.
It'll work so long as you can devote your Action to it every 6 seconds. In combat that won't be a viable option.
I got 5 points on my account from making "casual" mention of a real world problem that upsets people. Using various magical ways to get around being blind is mildly disrespectful to the ones who have that problem. I'm not blind, but I have known people who were, and their lives are very difficult. I have a little trouble seeing, and that's limiting. It makes my head hurt when I try to read for too long, and I can only imagine how that would work out for a Wizard.
Honestly, in my own game, I wouldn't allow a character who was blind from birth. If someone wanted to play one, Lesser Restoration would repair whatever flaws they had with their eyes, and if they didn't have them, they'd grow some. I'm not sure if that's RAW, but this isn't the forum to debate such things. It's only a second level spell, there's lots of ways it can be cast on you, it only requires a touch and there is no save. So in order to stay blind in my game, you'd have to work pretty hard to avoid getting it cured, and how do you get away from people trying to help you if you're blind?
It's neat for NPCs. It's not really viable for player characters, there are ways around being blind, but almost all of them pretty much remove all the penalties, so all you are left with is that you're being mildly disrespectful to people for the sake of "flavor".
I actually really like the idea of having a familiar that you constantly borrow sight from that sits on your shoulder....As far as I can tell, by RAW that works....here we go again, another character concept that I will never get to play.
RAW, it doesn't really work at all. Seeing through your familiar requires your Action each turn. So as long as you're seeing through their eyes, you will be EXTREMELY limited in what you can actually do.
You can see through your Familiar's eyes all right, but can you interpret what you see? Keep in mind, this is a character that has never seen anything before, so it's very much like trying to explain color to them. They see all kinds of things, they see shapes, they see depths, they see colors, but how do they know the difference between two similar looking items? If they are told that the blonde girl needs healing they should be able to figure out which one is a girl, if they have been told the difference, or they are one, but if there are two females, which is the blonde one? The can see depth, but can they adjust for it? Those are all things you have to learn, they don't just come naturally.
Yes, they can see, but really, they are still as helpless as a baby, and they will need just about the same amount of time as it take for a baby to grow into a child before they're much use for anything. That's about what, four or five years in game?
This is an evergreen topic on D&D forums, but I don't think I've seen anybody claiming that a character using magic to see is disrespectful to blind folks before. I can see how it would seem that way. The game assumes a "normal" (barf) set of capabilities from its PCs, and sight is hugely important to these rules. A blind PC is effectively carrying a permanent version of possibly the best 2nd level debuff spell in the game. If you don't try to work around that, your PC will likely die, and since it's a team game, your party will too.
In this case I think it would be more fair to say that the game is disrespectful to blind folks, than to pin that accusation on players. Players are simply trying to play well.
Since D&D uses blindness as a tactical debuff, it naturally also treats it as curable. All it takes is a Restoration and you're free of this horrible curse! Back to "normal"! I'm not going to speak for blind people here except to say that not all of them would accept such a thing in real life.
People can argue that it Makes Sense™ that a blind person would be at a disadvantage fighting [description of scary monster here], but that's really not the point.
Anyway, what I'd do if I was going to play suchk a character is, I'd just turn it off in combat. That's what blind characters in your fictional inspirations do, basically: when the gloves come off, they fight like a sighted person, if not better. Just hack the lore to say that even though all the rules say you can see, you can't actually -- you're still susceptible to the 3 types of monsters I know of who use "look at me and die" effects, but if that's a deal breaker then your DM can probably just write those out.
Ok. They were blind at birth, so they have the Blind Condition permanently until it is cured somehow. If they don't want it to be cured, they will have to find a way, and that will be difficult because they still are Blind. So if they want something, the rules for Blind Fighting are right there in the book, so they can use it if they take it. The various work-a-rounds have been discussed, so if they play as a Druid, they can Wildshape into a blind animal. If they use a familiar, they spend their action every time they want to use a perception check, active or passive, with the Familiar's Perception score, and they won't know how to understand what they see any better than the Familiar does, and that would be a Wisdom check with the Familiar's Wisdom score. I say that it's nearly impossible to understand something you've never seen, so that's a DC 30 check.
If they want to use Blind Fighting, there are rules for that, and should work just fine. Just don't give the character themself anything they don't already have.
As for whether or not it is disrespectful, I have seen it mentioned before, so you have the choice; you can accept what I say, or you can go ask some blind people in the real world what they think, and make sure to explain the rules for each different option you want to check out. If they want to check the books out for themselves, make sure to bring copies of the books in Braille, because they're going to need that.
Sanvael's suggestion is a good one - I forgot many DMs will let you just buy common magic items. A pair of ersatz eyes should run about 200gp at the "standard" rate for commons and solves the problem unless you deliberately stop it from doing so.
Thank you everyone for all the great ideas. I always wanted to do something like this more for role play aspects with healing/support class type of play. I do like alot of the ideas with using a druid, bard or even a warlock. If I am able to play this some time it just might end up being a npc for a game I run or a one shot. My whole idea from this has came from many fantasy movies with the old blind soothsayers and what not like 13th warrior as an example. Thank you again for all the great ideas.
The celestial warlock is really strong as well, great healer with bonus action healing (best used like an improved healing word substitute, heal anyone down to 0 hp, using just a bonus action).
I've played a blind cleric of life for a full campaign, it was incredibly fun, she was also a pacifist, which actually helps cause with the dis caused by been blind, attacking ain't really an option anyway. Traps are also incredibly dangerous at first, but with the party help it was doable, and in the end, it was a char I loved playing!
Feel free to check out my hombrew: Magic Items, Spells, Monsters, Species, Feats, Subclassses, and Backgrounds. More detail in my Homebrew Compendium.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or ways to improve my homebrew, tell me, I'm always looking to improve!
Map commission Here.
Healing Light
At 1st level, you gain the ability to channel celestial energy to heal wounds. You have a pool of d6s that you spend to fuel this healing. The number of dice in the pool equals 1 + your warlock level.
As a bonus action, you can heal one creature you can see within 60 feet of you,
"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
And I already went through the pact invocation giving magical sight before
Then you are no longer blind.
"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
That seems to be how this goes, most people on these forums wanting to build a blind character don't want to actually deal with being blind.
I merely gave an example of how someone born blind could be a cool reason for going warlock, essentially being forced to staying with their patron or go back to being blind.
Don't see how your comment adds anything positive or constructive, merely trying to point out and add weight to your on idea about something unrelevant. Kinda salty too.
I never said they were? I gave my opinion about being very careful before doing a blind character, I gave examples of blind characters dealing with it using familiars or wildshape, bad and temporary solutions that work for a while and then gave an example of a character concept that started out blind but made a pact to see instead, yes its not blind anymore, that's the point of the pact... It's selling your soul to see. I merely gave an example of a similar concept but without the heavily negative complications of being blind put on the group.its a suggestion that fits the theme to give ideas of how you could play, with a good roleplaying value reason for why they took a pact.
And, general thoughts and advice not just to the replied post here: It's not a "ask your dm to give you 30' blindsight to compensate" suggestion. Please read someones posts before nitpicking on specific parts of a comment. And don't add negative value to someone's comment that isn't there. It's rude.
It's less that they "don't want to actually deal with being blind," it's more that playing a character who is truly affected by the real life disability of being blind is completely unsuitable as a D&D character without the DM and other players refocussing huge parts of their energy onto the blind character's condition.
I am very pro inclusion. I am happy for players to want to play characters who represent people from all walks of life, but in this case the game is centrally based around the assumption that characters can see and that being able to see is essential to performing the majority of adventuring tasks. Characters with mobility issues, deaf characters, characters with ADHD are all easier to include. Interestingly, a character who requires a wheelchair is much easier to include without feeling like you're de-valuing the representation because people who can't walk already use mobility aids IRL. Technology for correcting full blindness isn't there yet, so it feels like "cheating" to correct the blindness.
Blind characters would be perfectly well suited in dating simulators, in RPGs based around playing music in an orchestra, or in any RPG where a character can perform a useful function whilst remaining in one location. But due to the specific types of task performed in DnD - combat and exploration in dangerous environments - they drastically change the nature of the game for the other players and put significant additional requirements on the DM. So it's only natural for players who are interested in the concept to try to find ways of including a representative character whilst enabling them to perform within the game.
I did read the comments. Most of them have to deal with a blind PC jumping through a bunch of hoops or asking the GM for favors in order to see.
If you do this then you are no longer blind so there is no point in having the hoops to jump through.
Either you're going to be blind and play as being blind or don't. Why go through all of the bendy bits when you can just create a PC that can see anyway because that's what you're making.
"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
A character that cna see only twice a day, while wild shaped is hardly able to see like you and me presumably do.
A character who relies on their familiar to see, with the advantages and mostly disadvantages that comes along with that isn't a really good work around either. You'd still have to deal with being blind most of the time and either way it's still limiting, just not as much as being 100% blind all the time.
In my eyes it gives a good enough reason without completely negating the disadvantages.. It's no way near the comparison with Daredevil for one, which would be more like being blind and begging the dm to get 30'+ blindsense which practically removes the blind part so it's really almost never an issue.
Besides, the assumption that everyone wants to build a blind character that can see is not only wrong, it's assuming things about people who you have no idea what they want, who have in no way expressed their will to play such a character. I for one would not like to play a blind character and like I said recommend against it in most groups. That doesn't prevent me from giving suggestions how the original poster, the one that did say they wanted to play a blind character, could play such a character and not limit the group completely if it's an issue, or even the warlock example which fits the theme but isn't blind anymore, perhaps they were blind their whole life but when the ttribe needed help they sold their soul to be able to see so they could help.
In no way did I say that I wanted to play such a character, especially not playing a blind daredevil (ie blind but seeing). I'm giving advice that could perhaps let the original poster get some ideas of how to play something that they wanted without hampering their party too much.
And besides, even if people WANT to play daredevil, to be blind but get 60' blindsense, so what? What's it to you? Why is their idea, their will wrong? So wrong you have to make negative remarks about it?
Perhaps the thread is better of without those kind of remarks. I mean we get it, you don't want to play that and you don't like the idea. The good news is you don't have to. But if someone else does, let them. Or give them good advice about how they could play something instead and see if they enjoy it. Don't try to shame them into playing the way you like.
Cheers
I actually really like the idea of having a familiar that you constantly borrow sight from that sits on your shoulder....As far as I can tell, by RAW that works....here we go again, another character concept that I will never get to play.
“I will take responsibility for what I have done. [...] If must fall, I will rise each time a better man.” ― Brandon Sanderson, Oathbringer.
It'll work so long as you can devote your Action to it every 6 seconds. In combat that won't be a viable option.
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).
I got 5 points on my account from making "casual" mention of a real world problem that upsets people. Using various magical ways to get around being blind is mildly disrespectful to the ones who have that problem. I'm not blind, but I have known people who were, and their lives are very difficult. I have a little trouble seeing, and that's limiting. It makes my head hurt when I try to read for too long, and I can only imagine how that would work out for a Wizard.
Honestly, in my own game, I wouldn't allow a character who was blind from birth. If someone wanted to play one, Lesser Restoration would repair whatever flaws they had with their eyes, and if they didn't have them, they'd grow some. I'm not sure if that's RAW, but this isn't the forum to debate such things. It's only a second level spell, there's lots of ways it can be cast on you, it only requires a touch and there is no save. So in order to stay blind in my game, you'd have to work pretty hard to avoid getting it cured, and how do you get away from people trying to help you if you're blind?
It's neat for NPCs. It's not really viable for player characters, there are ways around being blind, but almost all of them pretty much remove all the penalties, so all you are left with is that you're being mildly disrespectful to people for the sake of "flavor".
<Insert clever signature here>
RAW, it doesn't really work at all. Seeing through your familiar requires your Action each turn. So as long as you're seeing through their eyes, you will be EXTREMELY limited in what you can actually do.
You can see through your Familiar's eyes all right, but can you interpret what you see? Keep in mind, this is a character that has never seen anything before, so it's very much like trying to explain color to them. They see all kinds of things, they see shapes, they see depths, they see colors, but how do they know the difference between two similar looking items? If they are told that the blonde girl needs healing they should be able to figure out which one is a girl, if they have been told the difference, or they are one, but if there are two females, which is the blonde one? The can see depth, but can they adjust for it? Those are all things you have to learn, they don't just come naturally.
Yes, they can see, but really, they are still as helpless as a baby, and they will need just about the same amount of time as it take for a baby to grow into a child before they're much use for anything. That's about what, four or five years in game?
<Insert clever signature here>
This is an evergreen topic on D&D forums, but I don't think I've seen anybody claiming that a character using magic to see is disrespectful to blind folks before. I can see how it would seem that way. The game assumes a "normal" (barf) set of capabilities from its PCs, and sight is hugely important to these rules. A blind PC is effectively carrying a permanent version of possibly the best 2nd level debuff spell in the game. If you don't try to work around that, your PC will likely die, and since it's a team game, your party will too.
In this case I think it would be more fair to say that the game is disrespectful to blind folks, than to pin that accusation on players. Players are simply trying to play well.
Since D&D uses blindness as a tactical debuff, it naturally also treats it as curable. All it takes is a Restoration and you're free of this horrible curse! Back to "normal"! I'm not going to speak for blind people here except to say that not all of them would accept such a thing in real life.
People can argue that it Makes Sense™ that a blind person would be at a disadvantage fighting [description of scary monster here], but that's really not the point.
Anyway, what I'd do if I was going to play suchk a character is, I'd just turn it off in combat. That's what blind characters in your fictional inspirations do, basically: when the gloves come off, they fight like a sighted person, if not better. Just hack the lore to say that even though all the rules say you can see, you can't actually -- you're still susceptible to the 3 types of monsters I know of who use "look at me and die" effects, but if that's a deal breaker then your DM can probably just write those out.
Ok. They were blind at birth, so they have the Blind Condition permanently until it is cured somehow. If they don't want it to be cured, they will have to find a way, and that will be difficult because they still are Blind. So if they want something, the rules for Blind Fighting are right there in the book, so they can use it if they take it. The various work-a-rounds have been discussed, so if they play as a Druid, they can Wildshape into a blind animal. If they use a familiar, they spend their action every time they want to use a perception check, active or passive, with the Familiar's Perception score, and they won't know how to understand what they see any better than the Familiar does, and that would be a Wisdom check with the Familiar's Wisdom score. I say that it's nearly impossible to understand something you've never seen, so that's a DC 30 check.
If they want to use Blind Fighting, there are rules for that, and should work just fine. Just don't give the character themself anything they don't already have.
As for whether or not it is disrespectful, I have seen it mentioned before, so you have the choice; you can accept what I say, or you can go ask some blind people in the real world what they think, and make sure to explain the rules for each different option you want to check out. If they want to check the books out for themselves, make sure to bring copies of the books in Braille, because they're going to need that.
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