Blind fight feat how useful?

[jk7275]

How useful do people find this feat? I thought about taking it as my DM likes to use invisible mobs from time to time
I am open to suggestions, if there is a better way I like to hear it

I have a human ranger switch hitter

[Kurald Galain]

I find it decent on melee characters; after all, it is not uncommon to get blinded or fight in clouds or have invisible enemies. That said, it's not an early pick; I generally have different priorities than this.

[Firechanter]

I prefer to get me an item that helps with invisibility, but if that's not on the cards and the DM loves using such mobs, go ahead.

[Florian]

I like it. Besides the obvious (invisible monsters), it´s also good when it comes to visual illusions.

[Doctor Awkward]

It's very situational. One of those feats that is fantastic when the situation arises, but the rest of the time it does nothing at all.

The fact that you only take half the normal penalties for being unable to see is excellent for a lot of people. The fact that it rerolls the miss chance for melee attack rolls and not ranged is asinine.

[Firechanter]

I like it. Besides the obvious (invisible monsters), it´s also good when it comes to visual illusions.

Yeah, spellcasters tend to be pretty miffed when they have a nice Mirror Image and Blur up for an effective ~84% Miss Chance, and you just close your eyes and roll for a flat 25% with Blind Fight. xD

FWIW, In 3.5 I'd take Blind Fight as a bonus feat from the Warblade list, doesn't hurt and fulfills the prereq for Pierce Magical Concealment, which reduces those miss chances to exactly 0.

In our current PF game, the GM hasn't used a lot of Invis / Concealed creatures so I didn't see the need to take countermeasures in that direction... yet.

[Elkad]

You'll see in the optimizing AC threads everyone recommends just going with miss chance.

Blind Fight is the best tool to combat that in every situation, and it comes online early.

Plus keeping your dex bonus, faster movement speed if you get caught in a Darkness. etc.

[StreamOfTheSky]

It's always been a pretty weak feat, IMO. I think with some buffs it could be a decent situational pick.

For one thing, why is it melee only? PF released a ranged attack version, I think Elf-only... Make it apply to melee and ranged, in one feat.
Also, if having Blind-Fight let you ignore some of the more annoying stuff related to fighting against concealment, that'd be nice. Stuff like...being able to deal precision damage to foes with concealment (but not total concealment) and letting you still threaten AoOs against foes with total concealment.

Just some thoughts...

[Particle_Man]

It is part of a feat tree in PF so it might be worth seeing if those are also worth it.

[Psyren]

It's a bit situational so I would only take it if I could retrain it away later once wealth-based solutions come online.

[ericgrau]

I find it decent on melee characters; after all, it is not uncommon to get blinded or fight in clouds or have invisible enemies. That said, it's not an early pick; I generally have different priorities than this.
This. Plus at minimum you want a good listen modifier to find the creature's square. DC is 20 for most noises (0+20), or move silently check+20 if the creature is carefully moving around slowly. But most aren't trying to be quiet and DC 20 is a good rule of thumb.

You can also force blind fight to be more useful earlier on a build by forcing situations with concealment. Allies with vision obscuring spells like sleet storm is nice. Or carry a smokestick or eversmoking bottle. Then you may want to take blind fight even further and try out other feats and items that improve your ability to fight in concealment.

As others said it is situational. So it's either low priority, or you wait for that situation to become very common, or you force that situation to become very common.

[GrayDeath]

I`ve found it to be a good but not great feat.

Almost all my Martials take it (but then again, they tend to have more feats as well^^) "just in case".

Additionally it is a prerequisite for some of the better "Whack`em" Prestige Classes AND, as said above, IF it works, its great.

Much better than the "works always but is really meh" of say Weapon Focus or somesuch. Not even to mention Dodge.

[Andreaz]

It's really useful when you need it, but it's not worth a feat.
If you can get it some other way (like an Incandescent Blue Sphere ioun stone set into a Wayfinder. You'll be shelling out some 9-10k for the feat and minor utilities.) that's better.

Otherwise you'll pick it up on very late game feats where your build is already finished, or you will have alternative ways to attack the unseen parties.

[StreamOfTheSky]

It's really useful when you need it, but it's not worth a feat.
If you can get it some other way (like an Incandescent Blue Sphere ioun stone set into a Wayfinder. You'll be shelling out some 9-10k for the feat and minor utilities.) that's better.

Only time I've ever seen it used outside of needing it as a pre-req for other feats, is via the Heroics spell, which temporarily grants a feat to somebody.

Even w/ Heroics available as a buff, it's pretty rare to have it get used, even in situations it'd be helpful. Usually the caster's action is better spent on something else, rather than giving the fighter a kinda cruddy feat to fight better in the fog.