How common is blindsense?

[acid_ninja]

So darkstalker was disallowed for a character I'm making (stealth can't have good things apparently) and I'm wondering how nerfed I am. Its ECL 15, how common are blindsense, tremorsense, ect at that level?

[Runestar]

Quite rare in core at least, dragons (including pseudodragons), bats (bat, dire bat, bat swarm), sharks and dragon disciples get it.

Try using the search engine at the SRD to generate a list of creatures with access to a particular ability. Very useful filter option.

[PId6]

Depends on the type of campaign. If dragons/oozes/aberrations are common, you'll have some problems. If not, you'll have less problems.

[Saph]

It's relatively rare. At a very rough estimate I'd say only about 10% of monsters have it at lower levels, rising to maybe 20% at the higher level you're at now.

Darkstalker tends to be used more in high-optimisation PvP matches or solo dungeoncrawls. In a typical party it's less useful since most enemies won't have advanced detection abilities and if a monster can't see you they can just attack one of your allies instead.

[acid_ninja]

Fair enough. I guess there are always the "hide from" spells. I did pass up on Greater TWF to get it so my DM may have shot himself in the foot.

[Optimystik]

Darkstalker tends to be used more in high-optimisation PvP matches or solo dungeoncrawls. In a typical party it's less useful since most enemies won't have advanced detection abilities and if a monster can't see you they can just attack one of your allies instead.

Well, it might come in handy if you're the "sneaky scout" type, a la Bilbo from The Hobbit, and thus move ahead of the party. Doubly so since if the monster finds you, your chances of surviving alone are slim, your party gets no info, and they end up short one member for the actual fight to boot.

[Escheton]

So because you wanted to be able to use your skills at high lvl the dm nerfed you, making the caster even better because he can cast his way around the problem you are now facing.

Spiderclimb, flight and similar effects offsets blind/tremor/whatever-sense as they tend to have a short range and are usually not scanning the sky/ceiling. If their senses even reaches that far.

the second bit is advice, though it can also be casterbashing...

[DanReiv]

I would be cautious tho, DMs tend to do thing for a reason. Like banning the -DEX Ray when they know there's a handfull of dragons.

Be careful, it's not a powerful feat by itself, very situational, can break an encounter, or be completly useless.

IMO if your Dm disallowed it, there's gonna be a fair amount of blind/tremorsense/scent.

Just my 2 cents