Heightened sences?

[orlondok]

I am converting Dungeon of the mad mage from 5e to 3.5 ... (currently on the Sargauth level (lvl 3))

I am at the point where I am creating Azrok the leader of the Bugbear/Goblin faction.
The module says he is blind (from birth).

Is there anywhere in the rules that show guidelines for bonuses to the other senses (listen or maybe smell) as a result of the blindness all his life?

Or maybe one of the more experienced DMs/players can give some advice/suggestions?

[Beni-Kujaku]

I am converting Dungeon of the mad mage from 5e to 3.5 ... (currently on the Sargauth level (lvl 3))

I am at the point where I am creating Azrok the leader of the Bugbear/Goblin faction.
The module says he is blind (from birth).

Is there anywhere in the rules that show guidelines for bonuses to the other senses (listen or maybe smell) as a result of the blindness all his life?

Or maybe one of the more experienced DMs/players can give some advice/suggestions?

The only RAW mention of that is one vague "a character blind for a long period of time may somehow alleviate these drawbacks". However, Azrok's mother has crafted him a Blindsighted dagger, in lore. So, Azrok has never suffered from being blind, and always relied on this 30ft vision. Hence he should not have any heightened sense.

[orlondok]

Hmmm ... yes ... good point ...

In this scenario, the dagger in question has been stolen ...

So another question would be ... how should I adjust His CR for being blind?

He is built as a 4th lvl Barbarian / 4th lvl Fighter ... so CR 8 ...

Is there somewhere in the rules (or again as a suggestion / best guess) as to how I should adjust his CR because of the blindness ? (There is NO way he is a CR 8 when he is missing half of his attacks ... lol)

[Thurbane]

Hmmm ... yes ... good point ...

In this scenario, the dagger in question has been stolen ...

So another question would be ... how should I adjust His CR for being blind?

He is built as a 4th lvl Barbarian / 4th lvl Fighter ... so CR 8 ...

Is there somewhere in the rules (or again as a suggestion / best guess) as to how I should adjust his CR because of the blindness ? (There is NO way he is a CR 8 when he is missing half of his attacks ... lol)

Spoiler: Adventure Spoiler

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There is a blind Mountain Troll in Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde adventure, and its CR is lowered by 2, down to CR 8.

[Drelua]

The only RAW mention of that is one vague "a character blind for a long period of time may somehow alleviate these drawbacks". However, Azrok's mother has crafted him a Blindsighted dagger, in lore. So, Azrok has never suffered from being blind, and always relied on this 30ft vision. Hence he should not have any heightened sense.

He would probably still be somewhat used to it, he has to be holding the dagger for it to work so he would have to do without sometimes. He'd probably have to put it down to get dressed and then fumble for it at the very least, so I might reduce the penalties. And if he's smart he'd train to fight blind in case he lost the dagger, so giving him blind-fight would be reasonable.

[Xeni]

the blind fight feat lets you roll twice and take the better miss chance. also the combination of quick reconiter and keen eared scout would be able to give him good intel every round on the stuff that surrounds him. its a 3 feat combo and he is still a bit worse off than a normal fellow, but it alleviates the worst of the penalties and makes him competent in combat.

[orlondok]

Thanks much for all the cool ideas ...

Lots of good advice to make him an interesting opponent ...

[Thurbane]

You could also spice up the encounter by having him with a monstrous pet or minion with a gaze attack, which he is immune to...

[Silly Name]

So another question would be ... how should I adjust His CR for being blind?

He is built as a 4th lvl Barbarian / 4th lvl Fighter ... so CR 8 ...

Is there somewhere in the rules (or again as a suggestion / best guess) as to how I should adjust his CR because of the blindness ? (There is NO way he is a CR 8 when he is missing half of his attacks ... lol)

On average, level does not coincide with CR anyways. Ok, that's the suggested rule in the DMG, but if you stop and think about it, it makes no sense: a level 8 fighter would be an even spar for another level 8 fighter (assuming similar power level in feats, equipment and so on), but would he be an "encounter of moderate difficulty" for a typical party of level 8 adventurers? Of course not, he'd get overwhelmed very easily, even assuming a Core-only, low-optimization party.

You should try to figure out your guy's CR by thinking about how dangerous he is when fought. What are his chances of downing a PC? How long is he likely to last in combat? Since he'd be a mostly physical fighter, suffering the full effects of blindness would tank his offensive capabilities, greatly lowering his CR.

I'd give him the Blind-Fight feat for free, let him add his Dexterity bonus to AC (so that he doesn't get killed by a Rogue), lower the speed penalty to two-thirds rather than half. The negative modifiers to AC should still probably affect the guy's CR, perhaps consider them a -1 to CR.

Now, the actual danger posed by the guy heavily depends on how you're building him. I'm assuming he'll have a good HP pool and does decent melee damage, but feat selection is going to heavily impact his potential.

What's his statblock like in the 5e Module? You could start from there and try to figure out how to replicate his features.

[Thurbane]

There's also the Blindsight, 5-Ft. Radius feat, but requires a Wis of 19 or higher.