loodwig
2014-07-07, 04:45 PM
A subject of debate has arisen in my group as to the effects of glitterdust, and more importantly what happens after you fail a saving throw.
From where I stand, my thoughts are that you get the blinded condition, 50% of your attacks auto-fail as a result (assuming you don't have the feat blindsense), you get a -2 to your AC, you are considered flat footed (confirming additional AC penalties possibly), and you have a -2 to your attacks. You also fail all sight based perception checks and get a -4 temporary penalty to your perception (which fades in time, GM discretion as to how long "time" is, but typically some time after combat ends).
By contrast, a player in my group says that affected players cannot perceive enemies and distinguish friend from foe, and attack squares at random (d8 for direction). I don't want to simply ridicule my player, who has more experience with pathfinder and being a GM than I do, but I cannot find any source material that supports his claim. I've placed the onus on him to support his claim, and used GM fiat for the time being. However, I'd like to see if any of you can support his position, and better still can cite the material that can support his position.
If what he says is true, I'd say glitterdust is an incredibly powerful spell... one I should specifically protect against for balance purposes (like make treating blind en masse standard equipment for every opponent I create). After all, this makes the status effect of blind vastly superior to that of confuse, as you now have a 1/16 chance of hitting your opponent (versus the 1/4 for confuse) and a significantly higher chance of hitting your ally, though you won't accidentally target yourself with blind.
From where I stand, my thoughts are that you get the blinded condition, 50% of your attacks auto-fail as a result (assuming you don't have the feat blindsense), you get a -2 to your AC, you are considered flat footed (confirming additional AC penalties possibly), and you have a -2 to your attacks. You also fail all sight based perception checks and get a -4 temporary penalty to your perception (which fades in time, GM discretion as to how long "time" is, but typically some time after combat ends).
By contrast, a player in my group says that affected players cannot perceive enemies and distinguish friend from foe, and attack squares at random (d8 for direction). I don't want to simply ridicule my player, who has more experience with pathfinder and being a GM than I do, but I cannot find any source material that supports his claim. I've placed the onus on him to support his claim, and used GM fiat for the time being. However, I'd like to see if any of you can support his position, and better still can cite the material that can support his position.
If what he says is true, I'd say glitterdust is an incredibly powerful spell... one I should specifically protect against for balance purposes (like make treating blind en masse standard equipment for every opponent I create). After all, this makes the status effect of blind vastly superior to that of confuse, as you now have a 1/16 chance of hitting your opponent (versus the 1/4 for confuse) and a significantly higher chance of hitting your ally, though you won't accidentally target yourself with blind.