Player blinded. What to do?

[The Shadowdove]

I have a player who is foolish enough to drink every potion he comes across, I guess.

While in an evil villains lab he did so. Drinking a potion that was sitting in a cauldron and unfinished.

I had him roll a percentile... He did it again following his failure.

On the table a 25-30 is blindness one eye.

He got 25 and 27.


How do I make his magical blindness manageable?

Magic side affects ... Maybe?


I'm at a loss.

Thanks a dozen people.


Looking forward to your advice!

-Dove

[Fwiffo86]

Why would you want to make it manageble? Let him deal with the ramifications of guzzling unknown concoctions whenever he comes across one.

Certainly let him figure out a way to remove it. I think the restoration spell covers that. Maybe even lesser restoration.

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

I'd probably just make it curable with a greater and/or lesser restoration spell, which he could find from some local cleric, bard or druid who will demand payment. Monetary payment or some kind of service if you want to use it as a plot hook.

[hymer]

First aid first. Rinse his eyes with appropriate eye rinse liquid. If not available, use water.
While this is going on, dial the local emergency number and have them send aid. Follow their instructions.

If you're talking about a PC, well, there's a condition called 'blinded' which leaps to mind. Lesser Restoration can cure the same condition. So, he's blind until someone casts Lesser Restoration on him?

[Yagyujubei]

agree with the restoration comments, but i do think you should make him eat it for a session or two. it's his fault he's being so reckless and there are repercussions for taking huge chances over and over.

[Svata]

Haven't played a Cleric yet so I don't know their spell list very well yet, but there used to be Remove Blindness/Deafness. If that's still a thing, it sounds like just the thing you need. Otherwise, (Lesser/Greater) Restoration or full on Heal should do the trick. Or, as its magical blindness, possibly Dispel Magic or (more likely) Remove Curse or Break Enchantment could do it.

[Shining Wrath]

Did he have any reason to drink the contents of the unknown cauldron? You didn't induce this or encourage it?

Then he's blind until Lesser Restoration fixes the problem. And a dumb-butt.

May I suggest that the friendly local temple of Goodness, Light, and Lesser Restoration Spells probably has a quest that needs doing? They'll restore sight to one eye so he can go on the quest, and restore the other one when he gets back.

A no-treasure, no-glory sort of quest. Otyugh needs to be removed from the septic system beneath the temple comes to mind.

[Kornaki]

A no-treasure, no-glory sort of quest. Otyugh needs to be removed from the septic system beneath the temple comes to mind.

A side quest to gain more XP relative to the difficulty of the main storyline's bad guys? Don't mind if I do!

[Person_Man]

I would just follow the RAW and require Lesser Restoration and the standard Blindness condition until it is removed. There's no need to coddle the player or make a special exception for them, especially when its something this egregious. If anything, it'll end up being a funny story.

[Shining Wrath]

A side quest to gain more XP relative to the difficulty of the main storyline's bad guys? Don't mind if I do!

That's rather pointless, as if you go up a level, the CR of every encounter will go up a level. This isn't a video game where you can run around and kill monsters until the next boss is trivial.

[kaoskonfety]

"manageable" is a funny idea in this case...

- hallucinogenic visions, possibly prophetic, more likely bad acid
- auditory hallucinations, cries for helps, mystical chanting, the activation word for the big bads doom item, endless screaming
- Chest burster - an imp has been incubating in his abdomen, causing the blindness - it escapes and will spend the foreseeable future invisibly harassing the character
- the player, once his sight is healed counts as undead for the purposes of turning and similar effects that expressly affect the undead
- his eyes work fine, we just need to get the black ichor out of there - allow a heal check to do it... but he stays blind a couple days either way and they need to bleed viscus black ooze out of his eyes over several hours of a long rest (he doesn't get the benefits of a long rest, cause eye stabs), and now sports bizarre scarring that may be ,mistakes for lycanthopy, vampirism or diabolic possession...

mix and match to taste...

[Drake S.]

Could make it really cool and have his other senses enhanced because of it. His hearing becomes more adept, sense of smell, taste, touch, etc. Let him roll with it a bit and force him to try and RP in a different way with sight impeded but everything enhanced like a Daredevil character. Give him the option to revert back with a restoration spell or potion, but maybe if he likes the current effect, he can choose to stay in it. Sometimes we are too quick to try to "cure" a handicap or weakness, but sometimes, that can make a character all that much cooler.

Also, I figured I'd take a different spin on it than everyone else in the thread who is suggesting curing it or unpleasant side-effects.

[kaoskonfety]

Could make it really cool and have his other senses enhanced because of it. His hearing becomes more adept, sense of smell, taste, touch, etc. Let him roll with it a bit and force him to try and RP in a different way with sight impeded but everything enhanced like a Daredevil character. Give him the option to revert back with a restoration spell or potion, but maybe if he likes the current effect, he can choose to stay in it. Sometimes we are too quick to try to "cure" a handicap or weakness, but sometimes, that can make a character all that much cooler.

Also, I figured I'd take a different spin on it than everyone else in the thread who is suggesting curing it or unpleasant side-effects.


while interesting to give the player a cool spin to play with anything better than "very temporary inconvenience" would encourage further "drinking whatever is lying around". If you WANT to encourage that neat. But I would recommend "he's blind with some perk" rather than "he's blind but it doesn't matter"

Something like - visions - maybe his eyes now link to a clairvoyance or scry effect under his concentration control - the character stays largely useless in combat but can help with scouting, checking rooms etc.

[The Shadowdove]

All great suggestions people!
And no, there was a lot of in character distress and disbelief while he was doing it. and a lot of "we told you so" afterward.

I didn't encourage it in any way. There was just a lot of it...

Maybe he figured that, since he rolled a percentile, there was a chance of something better happening?

Ironically, I was having him roll on a table with nothing but ailments, curses, and disfigurements on it.


I've done one thing.

He can't see anything, and has disadvantage on perception related actions. Attacks included obviously.

But I allowed him a faint discoloration in his pitch black vision whenever a spell is cast, that leaves behind a cloudy colored residue. It dissipates eventually. Magical items maintain very dull murky color emanating from them as well.

He has yet to make use of this knowledge, and every intelligence check I allow him ends up lower than 10. Unfortunately...

[kaoskonfety]

I was having him roll on a table with nothing but ailments, curses, and disfigurements on it.

I desire to build such a table now... for reasons...

[MaxWilson]

That's rather pointless, as if you go up a level, the CR of every encounter will go up a level. This isn't a video game where you can run around and kill monsters until the next boss is trivial.

"If you go up a level, the CR of every encounter will go up a level..." "This isn't a video game..."

It blows my mind that these two statements can be written consecutively by the same person.

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

"If you go up a level, the CR of every encounter will go up a level..." "This isn't a video game..."

It blows my mind that these two statements can be written consecutively by the same person.

To be fair, you could simply adjust the phrase to "this isn't the type of video game..." since JRPGs have a long tradition where grinding out mobs for XP and loot makes for easy wins later on.

It's only since recent Bethesda RPGs where the world began leveling with the player to maintain a consistent difficulty. But that has it's own problems.

[Shining Wrath]

To be fair, you could simply adjust the phrase to "this isn't the type of video game..." since JRPGs have a long tradition where grinding out mobs for XP and loot makes for easy wins later on.

It's only since recent Bethesda RPGs where the world began leveling with the player to maintain a consistent difficulty. But that has it's own problems.

Yeah, I was thinking of the Final Fantasy series until quite recently.

[CrusaderJoe]

Medicine DC 10, three passes and he is cured. Three failures and he is blind for 1d4+1 days before someone can try again.

Lesser restoration can be used anytime to cure the blindness.

Don't just help the PC out of it or get will continue with their crazy antics. Make them work for it.


Edit: the first game I recall where the world leveled with your character was Final Fantasy 8.

[Flickerdart]

Straight up blindness is a reasonable consequence for his recklessness, but boy is it boring. Now that the character is no longer distracted by his physical sight, his oracular powers can come forth! Have a little bit of fun describing to him what his "sight beyond sight" can detect - both in terms of secrets and treasures, and in terms of horrifying monsters from the beyond that dwell among the living, unseen.

[Icewraith]

Yeah, I was thinking of the Final Fantasy series until quite recently.

What are you talking about? The world scaled with the player's level as early as VIII?

Edit: Edit ninja'd.

[Picasso007]

What are you talking about? The world scaled with the player's level as early as VIII?
Specifically, FFVIII levels with Squall. Which, yes, results in the inevitable shenanigans/strategy of deliberately knocking Squall out and leaving him unconscious the entire game, so that he doesn't gain any XP and remains level 1 the whole game. And since the rest of your party levels up normally (well, maybe slower-than-normally, given the lower-level baddies), the game rapidly becomes a cakewalk.

On-topic, I love all of kaoskonfety's suggestions. The Blindness condition should be the least of his concerns. Also, going forward, may I direct your attention to the "Potion Miscibility" table on DMG pg 140? It seems relevant to your interests. If you don't want to punish your other players by introducing it for the whole party, just say that he's drunk so many weird magical goop that there's a lingering effect which causes it.