Blind Druid Build

[Laucorn]

I'm considering to attempt a blind druid but I am not sure how I would go about it for a couple of reasons.

1. Druid is not a class I have used very often and as such not that great at optomizing them yet.

2. I'm not sure how to go about making my characters blindness not that big of a draw back.

Its a level 8 starting Campaign

This is what I am working with.

Level 8 Human Druid Neutral Good
Hp: 75
Str: 15 (2)
Dex: 18 (4)
Con: 17 (3)
Int: 15 (2)
Wis: 20 (5)
Cha: 14 (2)

Anything Psionic is banned, and the leadership feat is not allowed either. I'm allowed to take up to 2 flaws for extra feats if need be and no traits. So thats what I got to work with. Also I can use anything as long as I can provide a printed out full description of what it does, and know what books its from. So any suggestions on how to make this work?

Note:

I forgot to mention for doing the blind thing the DM is granting me two unique automatic bonuses for having an uncurable blindness.

1. My listen ranks are double the rest of my max ranks & 1 point grants me 2 ranks aka instead of a max rank of 11 I can get a max rank of 22 in listen.

2. I get a spell like ability that allows me to shoot a line of fire from my eyes that deals 2d6+1 (every 2 character levels) 5 times per day once every 1d4 rounds.

[Incanur]

The sad/awesome thing is that a blind druid could still contribute to your average party without any optimization whatsoever. Hell, I think wild shape automatically gives you sight assuming the blindness comes from a physical aspect of the true form.

[Laucorn]

The sad/awesome thing is that a blind druid could still contribute to your average party without any optimization whatsoever. Hell, I think wild shape automatically gives you sight assuming the blindness comes from a physical aspect of the true form.

Actually the idea behind this was something me and my dm came up with the druid's blindness connected to his soul it can't be cured no matter what even when in wildshape, and if any kind of ressurection spell is used on him the result will be a blind person.

[Telonius]

Blindfold of True Darkness (MiC, 75) can mitigate it. Grants Blindsight for 9,000gp.

EDIT: Alternately, you could Wildshape primarily into creatures that are already blind - moles, bats, stuff like that.

EDIT2: Beware of blind ninjas.

[CTrees]

Even if it's ruled (even by fluff) that wildshape doesn't return sight (you transform into an average member of the species, right? Which would normally mean sight, but I can see flavor reasons against it), you can be a bat. Potentially an enormous bat.

Also, Natural Spell, animal companion, summons. Being blind isn't going to be that much of a bother.

EDIT: I like the fluff you've come up with. Again, be a bat, or similar, and don't bother relying on your eyes to see.

[Incanur]

Actually the idea behind this was something me and my dm came up with the druid's blindness connected to his soul it can't be cured no matter what even when in wildshape, and if any kind of ressurection spell is used on him the result will be a blind person.

I see. What about blindsight and blindsense? Are those a possibility? In any case, just maxing listen and summoning critters would be a functional tactic. The elemental companion alternate class feature from Complete Mage might be worthwhile. Though weaker in combat than the best animal companions, an earth elemental makes an outstanding scout who could serve as your eyes. Unlike animals, elementals are intelligent enough to talk to.

[Telonius]

Scorpion's Sense (Sandstorm p53) is a feat that can give you tremorsense for a short distance. It does have a prereq.

I suppose the Blind-Fight feat goes without saying as a possibility?

[Laucorn]

Blindfold of True Darkness (MiC, 75) can mitigate it. Grants Blindsight for 9,000gp.

Cool thanks :3


Even if it's ruled (even by fluff) that wildshape doesn't return sight (you transform into an average member of the species, right? Which would normally mean sight, but I can see flavor reasons against it), you can be a bat. Potentially an enormous bat.

Also, Natural Spell, animal companion, summons. Being blind isn't going to be that much of a bother.

Hmmm actually for being blind my dm is granting me a few things.

1. My listen ranks are double the rest of my max ranks & 1 point grants me 2 ranks aka instead of a max rank of 11 I can get a max rank of 22 in listen.

2. I get a spell like ability that allows me to shoot a line of fire from my eyes that deals 2d6+1 (every 2 character levels) 5 times per day once every 1d4 rounds.

Now then how about some suggestions on how I can play off this blindnes feats and what not.

[Telonius]

1. My listen ranks are double the rest of my max ranks & 1 point grants me 2 ranks aka instead of a max rank of 11 I can get a max rank of 22 in listen.


My inner munchkin is screaming "Exemplar!" but I'm going to ignore the little bugger.

For roleplaying, an obvious possibility is to have your animal companion also be your "eyes." This could be as though he were a seeing eye dog, or more directly if you cast the "Chain of Eyes" spell (from Spell Compendium, Druid4).

[Laucorn]

My inner munchkin is screaming "Exemplar!" but I'm going to ignore the little bugger.

For roleplaying, an obvious possibility is to have your animal companion also be your "eyes." This could be as though he were a seeing eye dog, or more directly if you cast the "Chain of Eyes" spell (from Spell Compendium, Druid4).

I was actually thinking about doing a hawk or falcon animal companion to give me a sort of garret from quest for camelot feel lol.

[Xtomjames]

There is a feat that grants you access to arcane spells, likewise you could take a few levels of sorcerer first. Either way find a way to gain access to the Blindsight spell that lasts for 1 min/level it's 1st or 2nd level. Take the metamagic feat persist and you can cast on yourself once and have it all day. If you take the Enduring metamagic feat you can make it last a week.

[Laucorn]

There is a feat that grants you access to arcane spells, likewise you could take a few levels of sorcerer first. Either way find a way to gain access to the Blindsight spell that lasts for 1 min/level it's 1st or 2nd level. Take the metamagic feat persist and you can cast on yourself once and have it all day. If you take the Enduring metamagic feat you can make it last a week.

Hmmm i'll probably go the feat route I don't like dipping into classes unless I actually intend on leveling the classes evenly.

[Dr_S]

I'm considering to attempt a blind druid

Hey! I'm playing a blind character in my current campaign.

Even with Blind-fight you are going to more or less be ranged attacker fodder as you don't get to add your Dex to your AC and they get +2 on top of that. Unless you're playing Pathfinder (based on the other posts I'm assuming 3.5 and I don't know if they have it) and improved and greater blind-fight are available to you, or you use other means to increase your AC.

Most things that grant blindsight do it to ranges of like 30 feet which is outside the range a normal ranged attacker would be attacking from so keep that in mind or you may be leaving yourself incredibly vulnerable.

**Edit just as an example, the Blindfold of True Darkness as was mentioned above gives blindsight out to 30 feet. Better than nothing of course, but won't protect you from anything that's attacking from a range of 35+ feet.**

[Lateral]

There's actually a feat called Blindsight in the 3.0 supplement Masters of the Wild. It was never updated to 3.5; I'm not sure how wild feats worked in 3.0, but the feat's text doesn't mention spending Wild Shape uses to use it. It grants 20 foot blindsight, and you can take it by level 8 (so as your 9th level feat).

There's also the Blindsight 5-ft Radius feat, which has Blind-Fight, BAB +4 and WIS 19 as prerequisites. The nice thing about 5-foot radius blindsight is that, as long as you're a melee combatant and don't plan to make use of reach weapons, you only need a method of locating enemies- you don't need to bother with any more Blindsight, you can just make do with Blindsense, Tremorsense or even Scent.

[Telonius]

I'm also foreseeing some hilarious uses of the "Know Direction" and "Find the Path" spells.

[Laucorn]

Lots of good suggestions here guys perhaps for a bit lets focus on enhancing my close combat capabilities despite being blind. As my primary weapon is gonna be the quarter staff.

[awa]

embrace the wild 2nd level spell gives you the sense of a single animal 10 min a level i like porpus for the 120 foot blind sight.

[Laucorn]

embrace the wild 2nd level spell gives you the sense of a single animal 10 min a level i like porpus for the 120 foot blind sight.

That actually might work.

[Telonius]

Lots of good suggestions here guys perhaps for a bit lets focus on enhancing my close combat capabilities despite being blind. As my primary weapon is gonna be the quarter staff.

At level 10, your full attack should be talon-claw-claw-bite (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dinosaur.htm#megaraptor), if you're going just from Core. :smallbiggrin:

Depending on what you want to do with this guy, your feat selection will change. I'd say that level 1 and level 6 feats are pretty much fixed as Blind-Fight and Natural Spell. If you're a human, you'll get one extra feat. Exalted Wild Shape is very nice at 9th; it gives great resistances and a Smite attack while in Wild Shape. But if your DM is strict you'll have to meet some serious roleplaying requirements (being an Exalted feat).

Feats (focused on Summoning):
1 Blind-Fight
3 Spell Focus (Conjuration)
6 Natural Spell
9 Augment Summoning

Feats (focused on Blasting):
1 Blind-Fight
3 Energy Substitution (Acid)
6 Natural Spell
9 (Other Metamagic Spell)

Feats (focusing on Melee)
1 Blind-Fight
3 Improved Natural Attack* or Hear the Unseen (CAdv 119)
6 Natural Spell
9 Multiattack* or Lion's Pounce (CDiv 82)

* - DM may not allow this, since you won't always meet the prerequisites.