[3.5] Blindfold of true darkness over one eye

[Reliku]

Hey guys,

Excuse me for the the cheese attempt :P

Would it be possible to wear a blindfold of true darkness over one eye? You wouldn't get the immunity to gaze attacks, but do you gain blindsight? If so, what would the conditions be? Do you have to have both eyes closed for the blindsight to work? Or is blindsight a "bonus" over normal vision?

Blindsight is not based on the eyes, so I would argue, if you have blindsight (by wearing the blindfold), it overlaps over your normal vision. You do not, however, get the protection from gaze attacks, since you can still see with your one eye.

Bonus question, can you still make gaze attacks yourself with one eye behind the blindfold?

Alternatively, you could also argue that the blindfold takes vision away, and grants blindsight in the eye it blinds. This interpretation would mean you can see as if you had blindsight from one eye, and normally from the other.

If you were to argue that you need to cover both eyes to use the blindfold, why? And what would that mean for a creature who only has one eye, or who has lost both eyes even?

Would love to hear some thoughts! :)

[Particle_Man]

I would crib from "eyes of the eagle"

"Wearing only one of the pair causes a character to become dizzy and, in effect, stunned for 1 round. Thereafter, the wearer can use the single lens without being stunned so long as she covers her other eye. Of course, she can remove the single lens and see normally at any time, or wear both lenses to end or avoid the dizziness."

[Telonius]

Personally I'd say that the description is designed with two-eyed characters in mind. Something like a Cyclops - or for that matter, a Beholder, spider, or some other multi-eyed creature - it's going to operate a bit differently. I'd say that the important thing is that it takes up the Goggles slot and covers all of the character's regular means of sight. As a Wondrous Item, it will magically change to fit whatever it's on.

Unless the item has some specific text (like Eyes of the Eagle) that says otherwise, the magic item has to be on and situated as usual for it to function. If it's a set, both things have to be on or you get no benefit. You don't get Dex +3 from wearing just one of a set of Gloves of Dex +6, for example.

[Reliku]

I would crib from "eyes of the eagle"

"Wearing only one of the pair causes a character to become dizzy and, in effect, stunned for 1 round. Thereafter, the wearer can use the single lens without being stunned so long as she covers her other eye. Of course, she can remove the single lens and see normally at any time, or wear both lenses to end or avoid the dizziness."

We ended up doing something similar. I discussed it with my DM for this campaign and we agreed that the blindfold grants blindsight in the eyes it covers. So if you wear it over only one eye, you get blindsight in that eye. We've agreed that it's similar to wearing a night vision monocular (if you ever have you'll know what I mean), you can't use both eyes at the same time. Switching your mental focus from one eye to the other eye is a free action (since both eyes are physically acclimatized). Because you're only looking through one eye at a time though, you suffer from a complete loss of depth perception. Because of this, I borrowed from a 3.5 flaw (which is homebrew I think) called one-eyed, which basically states that anything that has to do with ranged attacks or ranged spells has their range increment halved. So you can wear the blindfold of true darkness this way, and gain benefits of the blindsight while retaining normal vision, but at a loss of depth perception and thus with a penalty to anything that requires you to aim.

So, completely houseruled, but this seems fair :)