Rules for a character that has one eye missing? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Rules for a character that has one eye missing? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
MachineofWar001
05-24-05, 08:47 PM What are the rules for a character with a missing eye?

I would think they would have penalties on at least Spot checks, wouldn't they? What are the numbers?

Thanks.
Sidious
05-24-05, 08:54 PM I don't know...for some reason I've been unable to comprehend depth perception, so attack rolls might be affected as well. Don't forget various skill checks like Search, Jump, and perhaps others as well.
TheErsatzFacsimileOfMe
05-25-05, 08:57 AM I would assume that over time, the penalty for missing an eye would be less. For example, as a child I was almost completely deafened in one ear (water skiing accident), and when it first happened I could hardly hear out of the ear that was fully functional, but over the past 20 or so years, I've adjusted to it and can actually locate things by sound (again).

As for official rules, I don't believe I've heard any reguarding a PC with only one eye.
lostone
05-25-05, 09:38 AM If the eye were lost as part of an adventure (say a house rule critical hit table to show where the critical hit did its damage) I'd give a penalty to initiative, spot checks, -1 to dodge bonus to AC (if they have one, otherwise ignore this penalty), any as a circumstance penalty needed.

If the character was missing an eye just for flavor and to make the character more flavorful I would not penalize them and just assume the character was a little bit better before the game began and the penalties were figured in.
Ilium
05-25-05, 10:06 AM If I wanted to give an in-game penalty, it would be on ranged attacks. With only one eye your depth perception is limited. You can still use the apparent size of something to estimate how far away it is, but withouth binocular vision it's easy to guess wrong.

One of my eyes sometimes doesn't work (the old "lazy eye" syndrome) and when that happens I can't catch things thrown at me very well, or throw accurately.

So the DM's best friend -2 penalty would probably be about right.

I don't think AC or initiative should be affected, since your field of vision really doesn't shrink that much. Human eyes point in pretty much the same direction and their fields of vision overlap a LOT.

A penalty to spot checks might be appropriate in some circumstances, but I wouldn't penalize search.

My 2cp.
lostone
05-25-05, 10:26 AM I don't think AC or initiative should be affected, since your field of vision really doesn't shrink that much. Human eyes point in pretty much the same direction and their fields of vision overlap a LOT.The reason I said spot and initiative is because when one eye isn't usable the average human looses something close to 30-40 degree arc of peripheral vision on that side.

The reason I said -1 to dodge bonus to AC is because the dodge bonus would again be dealing with depth perception, jumping back from an attack you know you're too close to avoid otherwise, etc.

People don't realize how much they really depend on depth perception until they don't have it. (I had eye surgery a few months ago, I was bumping into every piece of furniture in the apartment.
DM Zoc
05-25-05, 11:14 AM In the world of fantasy heroes, missing an eye never seems to mean anything other than being bad with ranged weapons. Gain the "shaky" flaw.
Darkmatter20
05-25-05, 11:15 AM Missing an eye is a big deal.

Two eyes are necessary to triangulate position of objects. This allows your brain to give your vision a three dimensional image. In other words a one-eyed character would not be able to shoot at long or close range. Using or avoiding a sword. Would have difficultly even picking up smaller objects at close range. For instance when trying to put sugar into a test-tube they would be just as likely to pour the sugar out behind the tube because they cannot see the test-tube and spoon in three dimensions.

A friend of mine recently had a medical problem, not going into, and had to cover one eye because it was unable to blink. After the first three days hanging around with her it was obvious that she had difficulilty performing simple tasks. She wasn't disabled becuase of it but everything required more concentration and reasoning of distances based on where her hand was.

It is likely that over time this people would diminish but they person would get better at dealing with the small things.

If the player just wants it to look cool just let them have it theres no harm in it. If it came from Roleplay reason, BBEG took my eye, impose penalties but nothing as severe as whats here.

Oh my friends much better now thanks for asking.
baalzamon999
05-25-05, 01:58 PM Well, I don't know all the real-world effects, but there are rules for damage to specific areas in the DMG.
MachineofWar001
05-25-05, 06:20 PM It would be just for flavor.

I'm working on a Goliath character who was exiled from his tribe because of something that happened during hunting. Being exiled from a tribe just makes more sense for a Goliath adventurer, and I was just wondering if that would greatly affect my adventuring.
Sirix
05-26-05, 01:50 AM How about something like this:

ONE-EYED
You've only got one functioning eye.
Penalties: You take a -1 penalty to ranged attack rolls, AC, and Reflex saves, and a -2 penalty to Spot checks. In addition the Deflect Arrows feat has the additional prerequisite Wis 13 for you, and Snatch Arrows has the additional prerequisite Wis 15.

Even though I'm not a big fan of Flaws as they were done in UA (too many possibilities for rules abuse), I'd probably give the one-eyed character a feat in exchange for this, assuming it's for role-playing reasons. Also, I'd be leery about handing out such things after character creation, just to reduce the opportunity for min-maxing.
Sir Todd
05-26-05, 07:37 AM There is one error in your logic people.
When training with firearms or bows, firing with one eye is an ADVANTAGE not a disadvantage. They often teach you to close one eye when using ranged attacks so that your accuracy improves.

There are no Official Penalties accociated with having one eye. But if you wish to add one, perhaps a small Spot penalty of -1. Call it a circumstance penalty.
MachineofWar001
05-26-05, 02:27 PM These are all great opinions. Keep the suggestions coming please. I'll have my DM read all of these posts to see which one he will apply to the campaign.

Thanks people. This is very helpful.
lostone
05-26-05, 02:33 PM Well then I suggest the DM make all the creatures on his world cycloptic. :evillaugh

Just kidding. :D
Molu Kai
05-28-05, 07:29 PM Having one eyes SHOULD NOT give you a disadvantage for ranged attacks.

If this were the case, a sniper's scope would be a binocular optical device instead of a monocular one.

Now here's why...

We achieve depth perception through the convergence of our eyes and the spatial disparity that this causes. As we look into the distance our eyes diverge until the are pointing straight (assuming you don't have strabismus). this occurs at optical infinity (generally considered to be somewhere around 20 feet. Incidently this the reason vision charts are set at this distance).

Beyond optical infinity we use monocular clues to gauge distance. Some examples of this are:

-Parallel lines appear to come together as they approach the horizon (eg) the edges of a road

-Relative motion. If you are moving, objects closer to you appear to move by faster that ones that are distant. Glance out a car as you are on the highway and you will see fence posts near the road zoom by quicker than trees in the distance.

-Our pre-existing knowledge of relative size. If you saw a halfling and an ogre that appeared to be the same size, your brain would tell you that the ogre was farther away. A really cool optical illusion caused by this is that the moon will look bigger when it is close to the horizon compared to when it is at it's zenith. Try it.

-Lastly, objects that are further away appear higher in our visual field.

For anyone that doubts this, ask yourself why a sniper would only use one eye.
Ilium
05-28-05, 08:04 PM For anyone that doubts this, ask yourself why a sniper would only use one eye.

Because bullets from sniper rifles don't arc significantly.
_Twisted_
05-29-05, 01:26 AM Because bullets from sniper rifles don't arc significantly.

I think gravity causes a bullet to drop enough that a sniper takes this into account when firing at a long distance.

Any sniper's out there to let us know?
Super Guy
05-29-05, 02:31 AM I might imagine that because your eye that's looking through the scope is in line with the barrel, you don't need that other eye- it'll only screw things up. With just one eye, you have a straighter shot.

However, using a bow or something, anything really where you're not aligning it with one eye, you should probably take a slight penalty on.

That's a guess, but it's a logical one.

Also, to the person who said you would probably poor sugar outside of the container or have difficulty picking up close objects... cover up one eye. It does have slight effects (for example, I tried touching a small letter on paper with the eraser of a pencil. With two eyes, I was dead on. With one eye, I was on almost all the time but a few times I missed by a little), but not drastic ones.
lostone
05-29-05, 08:20 AM I might imagine that because your eye that's looking through the scope is in line with the barrel, you don't need that other eye- it'll only screw things up. With just one eye, you have a straighter shot.

However, using a bow or something, anything really where you're not aligning it with one eye, you should probably take a slight penalty on.I believe master archers typically sighted along the arrow when aiming. A good example of this is Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. The fletching practically hits his cheek when he fires.

I believe marksmen did the same with crossbows.
Greyman
05-30-05, 01:30 AM Combining all of the above, perhaps a trait would be more appropriate than a flaw?

Missing Eye [Trait]
Your depth perception is really screwed up by the loss of half of your eyes but, oddly, this makes you a better marksman.
Benefit: You gain a +1 competence bonus to attack with ranged weapons
Drawback: You take a -1 penalty to attack with melee weapons, and suffer -1 penalty to Spot and Search checks.
Special: Characters that normally have more than two eyes only gain the benefit and drawback of this trait if they loose half or more of their eyes. In the case of odd numbers of eyes, round up.
Sinaz
06-01-05, 09:01 PM Combining all of the above, perhaps a trait would be more appropriate than a flaw?

Missing Eye [Trait]
Your depth perception is really screwed up by the loss of half of your eyes but, oddly, this makes you a better marksman.
Benefit: You gain a +1 competence bonus to attack with ranged weapons
Drawback: You take a -1 penalty to attack with melee weapons, and suffer -1 penalty to Spot and Search checks.
Special: Characters that normally have more than two eyes only gain the benefit and drawback of this trait if they loose half or more of their eyes. In the case of odd numbers of eyes, round up.

I did something like this for a cursed eye (with which, the player had to wear an eye patch over one eye or the other or suffer a blind effect.)

Here's how I interpreted things like depth perception and field of vision. I'm going to ammend Greyman's trait:

Missing Eye [Flaw]
One eye is missing removing the benefits of binocular vision.
Drawback: Reduced FOV/Blindspot; if the player fails a spot check DC 20, any attack from side of his missing eye is against flatfooted AC.
Reduced Depth Perception; player suffers a -2 to attacks against an enemy that has other creatures or charaacters overlapping in line of sight.
Edymnion
06-04-05, 11:17 PM We achieve depth perception through the convergence of our eyes and the spatial disparity that this causes. As we look into the distance our eyes diverge until the are pointing straight (assuming you don't have strabismus). this occurs at optical infinity (generally considered to be somewhere around 20 feet. Incidently this the reason vision charts are set at this distance).He already hit it.
Beyond 20 feet, we don't really have binocular vision, we don't have depth perception, we don't NEED two eyes looking out farther than that. Only when things are close do we rely on stereoptic vision to judge how far away something is.

At most it would be a -1 or -2 within the first range increment of your weapon, and nothing after that.

I also would not penalize spot checks in any way. One eye sees just as good as two when it comes to noticing if something is there or not. You're going to have a bigger blind spot, yes, but you still see just as well in the area you can see as if you had 2 eyes.

Overall, the long term penalities to having only one eye are very minor, once you learn to compensate for them. Short term is going to be a :censored:, but those would be circumstantial penalities for a few days or weeks, nothing that would carry over for the rest of the character's career.
Rechan
06-04-05, 11:48 PM I was born without a functioning left eye, so from experience missing an eye is going to get in your way.

Assuming that the remaining eye is in top condition (mine isn't), your biggest disadvantage is 1) arc of vision, and 2) depth perception.

1) People have snuck up before and stood on my left side and aside from feeling their presence, I had no idea they were there. Being in the supermarket or subway can be tedious in this regard.

Being flanked would be a serious challenge for someone without the peripheral on the off side, as would spot detections that is not directly ahead. I like the suggestion by Sinaz about a spot check vs. being flat footed on your bad side.

2) Judging distances up close is a challenge; reaching out to tap someone's nose might end up poking them in the eye by accident. Catching a ball someone throws to you is difficult, but something like, say, juggling is not (since you don't watch when you juggle).

To me, in combat vs. one foe, depth perception should not be that much of a challenge. In D&D it is assumed that you are going for the kill when you swing, so you're hitting at whatever's close, so missing a vital spot you're aiming for I don't think should count against you - a stab is a stab is a stab. Unless the guy has a good dodge AC, you shouldn't be much of a problem hitting something big and armored if you're aim is off an inch if you're swinging a big frickin' sword because you don't aim with big honkin' swords, you make mighty sweeps.

Remember that there are stances that you can take that minimize this problem. A fencer, for instance, is going to stand with his good foot forward, and thus his head is going to be cocked in the good foot's direction; he's depending solely on his good side. The same could be said for spear user or a martial artist (depending on style). This doesn't work as well with shield and sword or two-weapon wielder, however.

Also, as for dodge bonus penalties, remember that you have this guy here who's trying to hit you with a Big Honking Sword, you're not going to lean back so the sword swipes an inch from your face - you're going to get the heck out of the way as much as you physically can. So if there's a penalty to dodge, it should be say, against multiple opponents (once more referring to the blind side) and possibly to ranged attacks.

If anything, I would incur a penalty with a weapon where you have to be precise, such as with a rapier or whip, or a precision-based maneuver like a disarm. Or possibly it could count against critical hits/sneak attacks, since these are believed to be 'going for the guts'.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MachineofWar001 05-24-05, 08:47 PM	What are the rules for a character with a missing eye? I would think they would have penalties on at least Spot checks, wouldn't they? What are the numbers? Thanks.
Sidious 05-24-05, 08:54 PM	I don't know...for some reason I've been unable to comprehend depth perception, so attack rolls might be affected as well. Don't forget various skill checks like Search, Jump, and perhaps others as well.
TheErsatzFacsimileOfMe 05-25-05, 08:57 AM	I would assume that over time, the penalty for missing an eye would be less. For example, as a child I was almost completely deafened in one ear (water skiing accident), and when it first happened I could hardly hear out of the ear that was fully functional, but over the past 20 or so years, I've adjusted to it and can actually locate things by sound (again). As for official rules, I don't believe I've heard any reguarding a PC with only one eye.
lostone 05-25-05, 09:38 AM	If the eye were lost as part of an adventure (say a house rule critical hit table to show where the critical hit did its damage) I'd give a penalty to initiative, spot checks, -1 to dodge bonus to AC (if they have one, otherwise ignore this penalty), any as a circumstance penalty needed. If the character was missing an eye just for flavor and to make the character more flavorful I would not penalize them and just assume the character was a little bit better before the game began and the penalties were figured in.
Ilium 05-25-05, 10:06 AM	If I wanted to give an in-game penalty, it would be on ranged attacks. With only one eye your depth perception is limited. You can still use the apparent size of something to estimate how far away it is, but withouth binocular vision it's easy to guess wrong. One of my eyes sometimes doesn't work (the old "lazy eye" syndrome) and when that happens I can't catch things thrown at me very well, or throw accurately. So the DM's best friend -2 penalty would probably be about right. I don't think AC or initiative should be affected, since your field of vision really doesn't shrink that much. Human eyes point in pretty much the same direction and their fields of vision overlap a LOT. A penalty to spot checks might be appropriate in some circumstances, but I wouldn't penalize search. My 2cp.
lostone 05-25-05, 10:26 AM	I don't think AC or initiative should be affected, since your field of vision really doesn't shrink that much. Human eyes point in pretty much the same direction and their fields of vision overlap a LOT.The reason I said spot and initiative is because when one eye isn't usable the average human looses something close to 30-40 degree arc of peripheral vision on that side. The reason I said -1 to dodge bonus to AC is because the dodge bonus would again be dealing with depth perception, jumping back from an attack you know you're too close to avoid otherwise, etc. People don't realize how much they really depend on depth perception until they don't have it. (I had eye surgery a few months ago, I was bumping into every piece of furniture in the apartment.
DM Zoc 05-25-05, 11:14 AM	In the world of fantasy heroes, missing an eye never seems to mean anything other than being bad with ranged weapons. Gain the "shaky" flaw.
Darkmatter20 05-25-05, 11:15 AM	Missing an eye is a big deal. Two eyes are necessary to triangulate position of objects. This allows your brain to give your vision a three dimensional image. In other words a one-eyed character would not be able to shoot at long or close range. Using or avoiding a sword. Would have difficultly even picking up smaller objects at close range. For instance when trying to put sugar into a test-tube they would be just as likely to pour the sugar out behind the tube because they cannot see the test-tube and spoon in three dimensions. A friend of mine recently had a medical problem, not going into, and had to cover one eye because it was unable to blink. After the first three days hanging around with her it was obvious that she had difficulilty performing simple tasks. She wasn't disabled becuase of it but everything required more concentration and reasoning of distances based on where her hand was. It is likely that over time this people would diminish but they person would get better at dealing with the small things. If the player just wants it to look cool just let them have it theres no harm in it. If it came from Roleplay reason, BBEG took my eye, impose penalties but nothing as severe as whats here. Oh my friends much better now thanks for asking.
baalzamon999 05-25-05, 01:58 PM	Well, I don't know all the real-world effects, but there are rules for damage to specific areas in the DMG.
MachineofWar001 05-25-05, 06:20 PM	It would be just for flavor. I'm working on a Goliath character who was exiled from his tribe because of something that happened during hunting. Being exiled from a tribe just makes more sense for a Goliath adventurer, and I was just wondering if that would greatly affect my adventuring.
Sirix 05-26-05, 01:50 AM	How about something like this: ONE-EYED You've only got one functioning eye. Penalties: You take a -1 penalty to ranged attack rolls, AC, and Reflex saves, and a -2 penalty to Spot checks. In addition the Deflect Arrows feat has the additional prerequisite Wis 13 for you, and Snatch Arrows has the additional prerequisite Wis 15. Even though I'm not a big fan of Flaws as they were done in UA (too many possibilities for rules abuse), I'd probably give the one-eyed character a feat in exchange for this, assuming it's for role-playing reasons. Also, I'd be leery about handing out such things after character creation, just to reduce the opportunity for min-maxing.
Sir Todd 05-26-05, 07:37 AM	There is one error in your logic people. When training with firearms or bows, firing with one eye is an ADVANTAGE not a disadvantage. They often teach you to close one eye when using ranged attacks so that your accuracy improves. There are no Official Penalties accociated with having one eye. But if you wish to add one, perhaps a small Spot penalty of -1. Call it a circumstance penalty.
MachineofWar001 05-26-05, 02:27 PM	These are all great opinions. Keep the suggestions coming please. I'll have my DM read all of these posts to see which one he will apply to the campaign. Thanks people. This is very helpful.
lostone 05-26-05, 02:33 PM	Well then I suggest the DM make all the creatures on his world cycloptic. :evillaugh Just kidding. :D
Molu Kai 05-28-05, 07:29 PM	Having one eyes SHOULD NOT give you a disadvantage for ranged attacks. If this were the case, a sniper's scope would be a binocular optical device instead of a monocular one. Now here's why... We achieve depth perception through the convergence of our eyes and the spatial disparity that this causes. As we look into the distance our eyes diverge until the are pointing straight (assuming you don't have strabismus). this occurs at optical infinity (generally considered to be somewhere around 20 feet. Incidently this the reason vision charts are set at this distance). Beyond optical infinity we use monocular clues to gauge distance. Some examples of this are: -Parallel lines appear to come together as they approach the horizon (eg) the edges of a road -Relative motion. If you are moving, objects closer to you appear to move by faster that ones that are distant. Glance out a car as you are on the highway and you will see fence posts near the road zoom by quicker than trees in the distance. -Our pre-existing knowledge of relative size. If you saw a halfling and an ogre that appeared to be the same size, your brain would tell you that the ogre was farther away. A really cool optical illusion caused by this is that the moon will look bigger when it is close to the horizon compared to when it is at it's zenith. Try it. -Lastly, objects that are further away appear higher in our visual field. For anyone that doubts this, ask yourself why a sniper would only use one eye.
Ilium 05-28-05, 08:04 PM	For anyone that doubts this, ask yourself why a sniper would only use one eye. Because bullets from sniper rifles don't arc significantly.
_Twisted_ 05-29-05, 01:26 AM	Because bullets from sniper rifles don't arc significantly. I think gravity causes a bullet to drop enough that a sniper takes this into account when firing at a long distance. Any sniper's out there to let us know?
Super Guy 05-29-05, 02:31 AM	I might imagine that because your eye that's looking through the scope is in line with the barrel, you don't need that other eye- it'll only screw things up. With just one eye, you have a straighter shot. However, using a bow or something, anything really where you're not aligning it with one eye, you should probably take a slight penalty on. That's a guess, but it's a logical one. Also, to the person who said you would probably poor sugar outside of the container or have difficulty picking up close objects... cover up one eye. It does have slight effects (for example, I tried touching a small letter on paper with the eraser of a pencil. With two eyes, I was dead on. With one eye, I was on almost all the time but a few times I missed by a little), but not drastic ones.
lostone 05-29-05, 08:20 AM	I might imagine that because your eye that's looking through the scope is in line with the barrel, you don't need that other eye- it'll only screw things up. With just one eye, you have a straighter shot. However, using a bow or something, anything really where you're not aligning it with one eye, you should probably take a slight penalty on.I believe master archers typically sighted along the arrow when aiming. A good example of this is Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. The fletching practically hits his cheek when he fires. I believe marksmen did the same with crossbows.
Greyman 05-30-05, 01:30 AM	Combining all of the above, perhaps a trait would be more appropriate than a flaw? Missing Eye [Trait] Your depth perception is really screwed up by the loss of half of your eyes but, oddly, this makes you a better marksman. Benefit: You gain a +1 competence bonus to attack with ranged weapons Drawback: You take a -1 penalty to attack with melee weapons, and suffer -1 penalty to Spot and Search checks. Special: Characters that normally have more than two eyes only gain the benefit and drawback of this trait if they loose half or more of their eyes. In the case of odd numbers of eyes, round up.
Sinaz 06-01-05, 09:01 PM	Combining all of the above, perhaps a trait would be more appropriate than a flaw? Missing Eye [Trait] Your depth perception is really screwed up by the loss of half of your eyes but, oddly, this makes you a better marksman. Benefit: You gain a +1 competence bonus to attack with ranged weapons Drawback: You take a -1 penalty to attack with melee weapons, and suffer -1 penalty to Spot and Search checks. Special: Characters that normally have more than two eyes only gain the benefit and drawback of this trait if they loose half or more of their eyes. In the case of odd numbers of eyes, round up. I did something like this for a cursed eye (with which, the player had to wear an eye patch over one eye or the other or suffer a blind effect.) Here's how I interpreted things like depth perception and field of vision. I'm going to ammend Greyman's trait: Missing Eye [Flaw] One eye is missing removing the benefits of binocular vision. Drawback: Reduced FOV/Blindspot; if the player fails a spot check DC 20, any attack from side of his missing eye is against flatfooted AC. Reduced Depth Perception; player suffers a -2 to attacks against an enemy that has other creatures or charaacters overlapping in line of sight.
Edymnion 06-04-05, 11:17 PM	We achieve depth perception through the convergence of our eyes and the spatial disparity that this causes. As we look into the distance our eyes diverge until the are pointing straight (assuming you don't have strabismus). this occurs at optical infinity (generally considered to be somewhere around 20 feet. Incidently this the reason vision charts are set at this distance).He already hit it. Beyond 20 feet, we don't really have binocular vision, we don't have depth perception, we don't NEED two eyes looking out farther than that. Only when things are close do we rely on stereoptic vision to judge how far away something is. At most it would be a -1 or -2 within the first range increment of your weapon, and nothing after that. I also would not penalize spot checks in any way. One eye sees just as good as two when it comes to noticing if something is there or not. You're going to have a bigger blind spot, yes, but you still see just as well in the area you can see as if you had 2 eyes. Overall, the long term penalities to having only one eye are very minor, once you learn to compensate for them. Short term is going to be a :censored:, but those would be circumstantial penalities for a few days or weeks, nothing that would carry over for the rest of the character's career.
Rechan 06-04-05, 11:48 PM	I was born without a functioning left eye, so from experience missing an eye is going to get in your way. Assuming that the remaining eye is in top condition (mine isn't), your biggest disadvantage is 1) arc of vision, and 2) depth perception. 1) People have snuck up before and stood on my left side and aside from feeling their presence, I had no idea they were there. Being in the supermarket or subway can be tedious in this regard. Being flanked would be a serious challenge for someone without the peripheral on the off side, as would spot detections that is not directly ahead. I like the suggestion by Sinaz about a spot check vs. being flat footed on your bad side. 2) Judging distances up close is a challenge; reaching out to tap someone's nose might end up poking them in the eye by accident. Catching a ball someone throws to you is difficult, but something like, say, juggling is not (since you don't watch when you juggle). To me, in combat vs. one foe, depth perception should not be that much of a challenge. In D&D it is assumed that you are going for the kill when you swing, so you're hitting at whatever's close, so missing a vital spot you're aiming for I don't think should count against you - a stab is a stab is a stab. Unless the guy has a good dodge AC, you shouldn't be much of a problem hitting something big and armored if you're aim is off an inch if you're swinging a big frickin' sword because you don't aim with big honkin' swords, you make mighty sweeps. Remember that there are stances that you can take that minimize this problem. A fencer, for instance, is going to stand with his good foot forward, and thus his head is going to be cocked in the good foot's direction; he's depending solely on his good side. The same could be said for spear user or a martial artist (depending on style). This doesn't work as well with shield and sword or two-weapon wielder, however. Also, as for dodge bonus penalties, remember that you have this guy here who's trying to hit you with a Big Honking Sword, you're not going to lean back so the sword swipes an inch from your face - you're going to get the heck out of the way as much as you physically can. So if there's a penalty to dodge, it should be say, against multiple opponents (once more referring to the blind side) and possibly to ranged attacks. If anything, I would incur a penalty with a weapon where you have to be precise, such as with a rapier or whip, or a precision-based maneuver like a disarm. Or possibly it could count against critical hits/sneak attacks, since these are believed to be 'going for the guts'.