The Blind Swordsman

[Brauron]

So, I want to build a blind swordsman, Zatoichi-style, and I'm wondering how the blindness should be handled, mechanically. A friend who is a character-optimizer said there's Blindness flaws that would help the character in roundabout ways, but didn't elaborate.

I have access to the PHB, PHB II, the entire Complete series, and most other books.

The DM has house-ruled that Listen and Spot are class skills for all classes.

I want to be an ordinary meleeist, not a gish.

Character level 4th.

Any suggestions?

[Kizara]

Convince your DM to give you blind-fight for free, for starters. Having all your enemies be effective invisible is pretty lose as a melee.

[MeklorIlavator]

If you can use ToB, the diamond mind stance hear the air would likely be good. Besides that, I believe that there are feats in PHB2 and the Heroes of Battle that aid listen checks. The only other think I can think of would be the Synesthete power, but as you don't want to be a gish, that's out(though If your a high enough level, a permanent magic item of it could work).

[cupkeyk]

This thread reappears every six months. Someone will try to convince you to NOT do it because gimping your self is stupid.

BTW Zatochi is not blind. He closes his eyes to train himself to see in darkness. Basically, get an underfolk human who closes his eyes and uses blindfight.

[neochaos]

There was one race...Grimlock or something, that geve you blindsense 60ft or something.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Blindfold of True Darkness, MIC. As you can't remove it, try to have your DM give it to you for free. It eliminates your vision and gives you blindsight.

[Collin152]

Take snatch arrows.
"How did you do that?"
"I heard that coming a mile away."
"Very good, Blinkin, well done."
"Pardon? Who's talking?"

[FlyMolo]

Take snatch arrows.
"How did you do that?"
"I heard that coming a mile away."
"Very good, Blinkin, well done."
"Pardon? Who's talking?"

"You're really blind?"
"Yes."
*waves hand in front of face*
"Don't do that wavy hand thing."

[/ripped wholesale from No Need For Bushido]
But seriously, that guy is awesome.

[Brauron]

Blindfold of True Darkness, MIC. As you can't remove it, try to have your DM give it to you for free. It eliminates your vision and gives you blindsight.

Sorry if this sounds dumb, but what's MIC stand for?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Magic Item Compendium. There's a stickied thread with all of the acronyms used on this board at the top of the page.

[Maerok]

Flaw: Blind (cannot be healed by magic)

Then by UA, you can take a feat.

[Xefas]

I'd probably just ask my DM to make it a flavor thing. I'm blind, but take no penalties in combat for being blind. Obviously you'd still get all the non-mechanical "penalties" for being blind, such as not being able to read/write/etc.

But, hey, if the DM thinks I should be gimped for wanting to play an interesting character, then I just wouldn't play an interesting character. Or, rather, I would find other ways to make my character interesting that he can't turn into a mechanical penalty to punish me with.

[Maerok]

A lot of people want to play blind swordsmen or monks or what have you; which is rather impractical, but I won't stand in your way. You'd think they'd have made a PrC or something...

[Sstoopidtallkid]

There is, but it is 3.0 and monk-specific. Not really what the OP wanted.

[Skjaldbakka]

Grappling isn't hindered much by being blind, especially if you can get blind-fight for free by talking your DM into it. But then you aren't a swordsman. *shrugs*

[Avor]

My god, just take blind fight with as your human bonus feat.

Then once you hit level 4, make your 18 wis 19, and get blind sight, like you can see 5 feet.

That will get you your effect. You will be blind, but get up close, you fight just fine.

[Skjaldbakka]

You need blind sight for that. Blind sense doesn't negate the miss chance from not being able to see your target.

[Avor]

Great, now I can't find it. A feat that gives you a 5 radius of normal sight, even if you are blind/in the dark.

[Skjaldbakka]

I think it is in CW.

[Ascension]

5 feet won't really help much. You'd have to have your teammates push you in the direction of enemies. Really, any special sight with a radius less than 30ft isn't all that helpful.

[Avor]

I think it is in CW.

No, just found it, Sword and Fist page 5.

[MeklorIlavator]

I believe it's also in CW, as Sword and fist is 3.0. And really, its pretty much a waste of a feat unless you can get a longer range form, like Ascension said.

[Avor]

And really, its pretty much a waste of a feat unless you can get a longer range form, like Ascension said.

Not really, use normal listen checks to get a idea who is where. Run up and do them in good.

Yes being blind is a disadvantage, but what do you expect! It's blindness!!! You can't just take some feats and expect to magicaly mean nothing.

5 foot radius is more than generous.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Or, instead of wasting feats, you can spend 9,000 gp and negate all of the combat problems. I'd rather do that, personally.

[Quietus]

Major problems of being blind, aside from the whole "How the hell do you travel?" :

Heal checks become a pain in the neck, stabilizing friends is near-impossible.
Potions are only useful if you know exactly what's in them.
-4 penalty on all strength and dex based skills
No spot checks (though it's fun for the DM to ask you for spot checks anyway).
Everything in the world is treated as Invisible to you (You're flat-footed, they get +2 to hit against you, and I THINK you draw an AoO every round... can't remember where I read that last). Blind-fight helps cover this.

However, having a good Listen check is fantastic for covering your bases - there's a feat I think in the PHB2, Hear the Unseen, that lets you pinpoint someone's location with a DC 25 Listen check, and gives a +5 bonus to listen checks to locate invisible opponents... or something to that effect. Skill Focus : Listen becomes far more important, and Blind-fight is near necessary in combat. If you decide to go for the full penalties of being blind, try to convince your DM to give you those three feats for free - or at the very least, Blind-Fight, and possibly Hear the Unseen. The full penalties for blindness are incredibly rough, it's certainly a flaw worth more than one feat.

Alternatively, when I was rolling a blind monk a year or so ago, Bears with Lasers suggested that instead of going through the full thing of being blind, simply roleplaying it (as in, no spot checks, etc), and "flavoring" my misses as being the result of my blindness. I don't like that option, myself, I like to have things represented mechanically, but it's certainly a do-able option, and wouldn't require taking such an enormous hit to your effectiveness.

[Baidas Kebante]

Not really, use normal listen checks to get a idea who is where. Run up and do them in good.

Yes being blind is a disadvantage, but what do you expect! It's blindness!!! You can't just take some feats and expect to magicaly mean nothing.

5 foot radius is more than generous.

Five foot radius is one step. That means you can only react to someone standing right in front of you. That's not "generous" by any definition of the word. 30 foot radius means six steps. That means immediate area with room to dodge, side-step and the like.

By the way, he wants to recreate Zatoichi. The whole point behind the character is that while he is blind, he does not move nor fight in a way that is handicapped by it. That's the flavour. This is not normal blindness, but blindness with proper training for compensation.

[The_Snark]

No, just found it, Sword and Fist page 5.

Also in Deities and Demigods, which means it got put into the SRD. Here you go.

It's blindsight, which is nice; unfortunately, needing 19 Wisdom puts it out of the reach of most characters. Wisdom is not an important stat for your average swordsman.

[cupkeyk]

Or Combat Awareness from PH2. Combined with scorpion's sense or a similar feat for tremorsense like abilities.

[Nekoshodan]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Baidas Kebante

Quote:
Originally Posted by Avor
Not really, use normal listen checks to get a idea who is where. Run up and do them in good.

Yes being blind is a disadvantage, but what do you expect! It's blindness!!! You can't just take some feats and expect to magicaly mean nothing.

5 foot radius is more than generous.

Five foot radius is one step. That means you can only react to someone standing right in front of you.

It must be really easy to sneak up on you, if you can't even react until you see someone.

[Ascension]

Also in Deities and Demigods, which means it got put into the SRD. Here you go.

It's blindsight, which is nice; unfortunately, needing 19 Wisdom puts it out of the reach of most characters. Wisdom is not an important stat for your average swordsman.

While I don't like this option much, I will say that Swordsage would not only fit the build thematically but would also have WIS synergy. You're still pretty useless, but at least you're useless... with style!