If you’re looking for a Toph-style build (AKA Blind but can still see (Tremorsense or Blindsight)), you won’t find it. But, other blindness or darkness based builds are still possible, so consider carefully what kind of character you’re building.
I made a blind variant (rune knight) human fighter. Simply just gave him the blind condition all the time. I also said his eyes were destroyed in backstory so someone doesn't just go "hur-hur, I cast lesser restoration to remove blind condition" to mess with my character idea.
I didn't give any freebie abilities to compensate for it. I feel that if one is gonna play a character with a disability/status condition, then they should have to deal with that disability honestly like any other PC.
Instead I picked the Blind Fighting fighting style (for 10 ft blindsight) and the Alert feat (unseen targets past 10 ft don't get advantage) with my fighter's fighting style choice and variant human's level 1 feat choice.
I might go for other feats to help with stronger passive perception (gaining expertise or Observant) if DM is cool with that number helping to get general direction of people's presence beyond the BF fighting style's 10 ft of blindsight.
RP: My character does a lot of exploration of environment and asking party members which direction threats are in order to move towards it until blindsight kicks in. We're also doing Candlekeep Mysteries so he doesn't participate on most book reading checks unless another player is cool with saying their PC reads out loud for my fighter's benefit. I took Stone rune for the advantage to Insight checks (which also meant +5 to passive Insight) as I thought that would be neat for a blind character being more in-tune to someone trying to be deceitful (the 120 ft darkvision benefit is lost though). He has a heavy crossbow but doesn't really use it. It's more for intimidation purposes as a blind man waving a firearm/crossbow around is inherently scarier than a sighted one as he's a potential danger to everything.
Combat-wise: Stone rune's "when a creature you can see ends its turn within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction to invoke the rune and force the creature to make a Wisdom saving throw. Unless the save succeeds, the creature is charmed by you for 1 minute" ability is straightforward enough to just limit that 30 ft to 10 ft via blindsight. Cloud rune's "you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you is hit by an attack roll, you can use your reaction to invoke the rune and choose a different creature within 30 feet of you, other than the attacker." The initial 30 ft target getting hit will have to be within 10 ft for blindsight to work, but the subsequent 30 ft of new target of attack isn't limited by sight so can simply say "Instead of Gargoyle 1 hitting me me or my buddy next to me, the other Gargoyle X is the new target of attack. I don't know where they are since they're more than 10 ft away but I know we as a party are fighting it within 30 ft because party told me of them." I also too unarmed fighting style and benefiting from rune knight's Giant's Might ability to gain advantage on Strength checks to do grapple and shove to ground attacks. Keeps the target close in blindsight range and a benefit to the party.
It's selfishly crippling to your party. Don't do it.
Even if you think it's super cool, it is not.
I can't even begin to guess how fun you must be at parties.
Ah yes, the "fun at parties" rebuttal. A classic in internet discourse. It sums up so many incorrect assumptions so succinctly, that any meaningful reply has to be so long as to make the replier look insane. Did you know, I once ate a whole tub of cake icing by myself with a spoon? So don't even worry about my sanity. Let's proceed.
Consider: A single instance of shooting down a theoretically fun idea, vs a repeating instance of dealing with a theoretically unfun idea. One person's fun vs four other people's fun. Making other people party to your potentially insensitive depiction vs not doing that.
Also consider: This thread is not a game of D&D, or, indeed, a party. No one is obliged to make it fun, and if you're not having fun, there's no pressure on you to stick around. It's way better to tackle issues like this outside the game table, for the very reason you suggest, and that's exactly what's happening here.
The "fun at parties" response isn't doing anything useful here, and I would say it's actually doing the opposite by implying that the correct course of action is just to say yes to whatever a player wants without exception, without compromise, and without regard to the consequences, because nothing is worse than ruining the fun, which is the only alternative.
The concept sounds cool until you actually try being blind - I suggest the OP actually try being blind for ten minutes ( patches on the eyes and a bandana over the patches) of moving around trying to do things. I suspect they will change their mind. A Daredevil type hero only really works in comic books. ( or as an NPC).
Variant human/custom lineage for the alert feat. You get a substantial bonus to your initiative, and creatures won’t have advantage against you when you can’t see them. Pretty big since you blinded yourself, but this remedies that quite a bit. If you want to play a martial, blind fighting is available like many have pointed out. The caster part becomes a bit difficult as quite a few spells require sight of the target to work take effect, and this is true for most debuffs and buffs.
I can see this working well with a melee oriented martial. A caster or “shaman” may take quite a bit of research or a discussion with your DM.
hell that honestly wouldn’t be much different than any melee martial that exists.
I wonder if anyone’s made a comprehensive list of spells that actually require sight? It’s a very important part of casting.
Variant human/custom lineage for the alert feat. You get a substantial bonus to your initiative, and creatures won’t have advantage against you when you can’t see them. Pretty big since you blinded yourself, but this remedies that quite a bit. If you want to play a martial, blind fighting is available like many have pointed out. The caster part becomes a bit difficult as quite a few spells require sight of the target to work take effect, and this is true for most debuffs and buffs.
I can see this working well with a melee oriented martial. A caster or “shaman” may take quite a bit of research or a discussion with your DM.
hell that honestly wouldn’t be much different than any melee martial that exists.
I wonder if anyone’s made a comprehensive list of spells that actually require sight? It’s a very important part of casting.
To the caster/shaman part...
This can be done with Warlock pact of the chain, using your familiar to see through its eyes. Little does anyone know you have an invisible imp that you use for eyes with you at all times.
Variant human/custom lineage for the alert feat. You get a substantial bonus to your initiative, and creatures won’t have advantage against you when you can’t see them. Pretty big since you blinded yourself, but this remedies that quite a bit. If you want to play a martial, blind fighting is available like many have pointed out. The caster part becomes a bit difficult as quite a few spells require sight of the target to work take effect, and this is true for most debuffs and buffs.
I can see this working well with a melee oriented martial. A caster or “shaman” may take quite a bit of research or a discussion with your DM.
hell that honestly wouldn’t be much different than any melee martial that exists.
I wonder if anyone’s made a comprehensive list of spells that actually require sight? It’s a very important part of casting.
To the caster/shaman part...
This can be done with Warlock pact of the chain, using your familiar to see through its eyes. Little does anyone know you have an invisible imp that you use for eyes with you at all times.
It takes an action to use their eyes so if you are fine with only bonus action spells or reaction spells you’re golden
Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.
Variant human/custom lineage for the alert feat. You get a substantial bonus to your initiative, and creatures won’t have advantage against you when you can’t see them. Pretty big since you blinded yourself, but this remedies that quite a bit. If you want to play a martial, blind fighting is available like many have pointed out. The caster part becomes a bit difficult as quite a few spells require sight of the target to work take effect, and this is true for most debuffs and buffs.
I can see this working well with a melee oriented martial. A caster or “shaman” may take quite a bit of research or a discussion with your DM.
hell that honestly wouldn’t be much different than any melee martial that exists.
I wonder if anyone’s made a comprehensive list of spells that actually require sight? It’s a very important part of casting.
To the caster/shaman part...
This can be done with Warlock pact of the chain, using your familiar to see through its eyes. Little does anyone know you have an invisible imp that you use for eyes with you at all times.
It takes an action to use their eyes so if you are fine with only bonus action spells or reaction spells you’re golden
Additionally, as an action, you can see through your familiar's eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn, gaining the benefits of any special senses that the familiar has. During this time, you are deaf and blind with regard to your own senses.
get the keen mind feat. Do it every so often. It'd be like one of those picture flip books. Between that, and your other senses such as hearing and smell etc. you could still have a pretty good idea of how the battlefield goes down.
Now. to a... "the DM has to be generous" scenario....
Again, with the Keen Mind feat. You can try and convince the DM that because you are blind, and have the keen mind, you see that "snap shot photo" of the scene in your "minds' eye" But this would be 100% a homebrew thing the DM decides on to allow or not.
Edit: Overall - just providing an alternative to not eliminate the caster/shaman as a potential route.
Edit2:
Arcane Eye is achievable a few different ways for Warlock too.
If you’re looking for a Toph-style build (AKA Blind but can still see (Tremorsense or Blindsight)), you won’t find it. But, other blindness or darkness based builds are still possible, so consider carefully what kind of character you’re building.
I made a blind variant (rune knight) human fighter. Simply just gave him the blind condition all the time. I also said his eyes were destroyed in backstory so someone doesn't just go "hur-hur, I cast lesser restoration to remove blind condition" to mess with my character idea.
I didn't give any freebie abilities to compensate for it. I feel that if one is gonna play a character with a disability/status condition, then they should have to deal with that disability honestly like any other PC.
Instead I picked the Blind Fighting fighting style (for 10 ft blindsight) and the Alert feat (unseen targets past 10 ft don't get advantage) with my fighter's fighting style choice and variant human's level 1 feat choice.
I might go for other feats to help with stronger passive perception (gaining expertise or Observant) if DM is cool with that number helping to get general direction of people's presence beyond the BF fighting style's 10 ft of blindsight.
RP:
My character does a lot of exploration of environment and asking party members which direction threats are in order to move towards it until blindsight kicks in.
We're also doing Candlekeep Mysteries so he doesn't participate on most book reading checks unless another player is cool with saying their PC reads out loud for my fighter's benefit.
I took Stone rune for the advantage to Insight checks (which also meant +5 to passive Insight) as I thought that would be neat for a blind character being more in-tune to someone trying to be deceitful (the 120 ft darkvision benefit is lost though).
He has a heavy crossbow but doesn't really use it. It's more for intimidation purposes as a blind man waving a firearm/crossbow around is inherently scarier than a sighted one as he's a potential danger to everything.
Combat-wise:
Stone rune's "when a creature you can see ends its turn within 30 feet of you, you can use your reaction to invoke the rune and force the creature to make a Wisdom saving throw. Unless the save succeeds, the creature is charmed by you for 1 minute" ability is straightforward enough to just limit that 30 ft to 10 ft via blindsight.
Cloud rune's "you or a creature you can see within 30 feet of you is hit by an attack roll, you can use your reaction to invoke the rune and choose a different creature within 30 feet of you, other than the attacker." The initial 30 ft target getting hit will have to be within 10 ft for blindsight to work, but the subsequent 30 ft of new target of attack isn't limited by sight so can simply say "Instead of Gargoyle 1 hitting me me or my buddy next to me, the other Gargoyle X is the new target of attack. I don't know where they are since they're more than 10 ft away but I know we as a party are fighting it within 30 ft because party told me of them."
I also too unarmed fighting style and benefiting from rune knight's Giant's Might ability to gain advantage on Strength checks to do grapple and shove to ground attacks. Keeps the target close in blindsight range and a benefit to the party.
I can't even begin to guess how fun you must be at parties.
Ah yes, the "fun at parties" rebuttal. A classic in internet discourse. It sums up so many incorrect assumptions so succinctly, that any meaningful reply has to be so long as to make the replier look insane. Did you know, I once ate a whole tub of cake icing by myself with a spoon? So don't even worry about my sanity. Let's proceed.
Consider: A single instance of shooting down a theoretically fun idea, vs a repeating instance of dealing with a theoretically unfun idea. One person's fun vs four other people's fun. Making other people party to your potentially insensitive depiction vs not doing that.
Also consider: This thread is not a game of D&D, or, indeed, a party. No one is obliged to make it fun, and if you're not having fun, there's no pressure on you to stick around. It's way better to tackle issues like this outside the game table, for the very reason you suggest, and that's exactly what's happening here.
The "fun at parties" response isn't doing anything useful here, and I would say it's actually doing the opposite by implying that the correct course of action is just to say yes to whatever a player wants without exception, without compromise, and without regard to the consequences, because nothing is worse than ruining the fun, which is the only alternative.
The concept sounds cool until you actually try being blind - I suggest the OP actually try being blind for ten minutes ( patches on the eyes and a bandana over the patches) of moving around trying to do things. I suspect they will change their mind. A Daredevil type hero only really works in comic books. ( or as an NPC).
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
*Sidesteps all the unnecessary arguments*
Variant human/custom lineage for the alert feat. You get a substantial bonus to your initiative, and creatures won’t have advantage against you when you can’t see them. Pretty big since you blinded yourself, but this remedies that quite a bit. If you want to play a martial, blind fighting is available like many have pointed out. The caster part becomes a bit difficult as quite a few spells require sight of the target to work take effect, and this is true for most debuffs and buffs.
I can see this working well with a melee oriented martial. A caster or “shaman” may take quite a bit of research or a discussion with your DM.
hell that honestly wouldn’t be much different than any melee martial that exists.
I wonder if anyone’s made a comprehensive list of spells that actually require sight? It’s a very important part of casting.
So a drow, swarm ranger?
To the caster/shaman part...
This can be done with Warlock pact of the chain, using your familiar to see through its eyes. Little does anyone know you have an invisible imp that you use for eyes with you at all times.
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It takes an action to use their eyes so if you are fine with only bonus action spells or reaction spells you’re golden
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
get the keen mind feat. Do it every so often. It'd be like one of those picture flip books. Between that, and your other senses such as hearing and smell etc. you could still have a pretty good idea of how the battlefield goes down.
Now. to a... "the DM has to be generous" scenario....
Again, with the Keen Mind feat. You can try and convince the DM that because you are blind, and have the keen mind, you see that "snap shot photo" of the scene in your "minds' eye" But this would be 100% a homebrew thing the DM decides on to allow or not.
Edit: Overall - just providing an alternative to not eliminate the caster/shaman as a potential route.
Edit2:
Arcane Eye is achievable a few different ways for Warlock too.
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