Second, I've been outside the optimizing things (and actually, from d&d itself) for a while.
Now I'm trying to play a blind character. It's for the next campaign. So I'm not hurried to finish it. Also the concept is kinda vague, but i'll try to explain it as clean as possible.
The idea is: a blind character that can overpass it's vision problems, but not totally ignore them. This is, for example, use touchsight(limited time, still can't recognize colors or things far away) during a fight, but not use cure blindness/Miracle/24-hours-blindsight-1200 miles. Also I like it to have some fighting skills, without going to OP (like going frenzy-barbarian 800+ damage/turn). I prefer some more tactic, skill-required abilities. For example, the setting-sun's ballista throw, tactical-feats, combat form-feats(PH2), etc. I liked the concept of the drunken master, but I think it's really underpowered.
Also, for the concept I must add I like the guys that usually looks defenseless but can beat up a guy when needed.
The campaign will probably will be lvl 1 with 1 LA maximum (still, I want to listen some higher level options). I'll probalby not be allowed to use spells like True-sight, See the invisible, etc for obvious reasons.
Only the following sources are allowed:
Allowed books
-Book of Exalted Deads
-Complete arcane
-Complete Divine
-Comple Adventurer
-Complete Warrior
-Dungeon Master’s Guide
-Dungeon Master’s Guide 2
-Draconomicon (not sure if it’s 3.0 or 3.5)
-Eberron Campaign Setting
-Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting
-Libris mortis
-Magic Item Compendium
-Miniatures Handbook
-Monster Manual 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
-Spell Compendium
-Player’s Guide to Faerun
-Player’s Handbook
-Player’s Handbook 2
-Serpent Kingdoms (no sharruk xD)
-Tome of Battle: Book of the Nine Swords
-Unaproachable East
-Weapons of Legacy
2) I don't know where is xeph clarity from... but i'm pretty sure it's outside the books allowed.
3) I don't get why ability focus with scent. Isn't it for increasing the DC of a special ability?
Thanks anyway for answering
Blindsight 30' with the downside of being blind outside of that radius isn't that big of a downside when you're already blind.
@Vortsukoto: Excelent item, it's already among my options
@Slagger: Great idea. I was thinking about getting some way to use magical darkness on my advantage and the different ways to get it. There was a soulmeld that did exactly this, but unluckly MOI is not allowed
@Cyclone: It's a great feat. Unfortunately, from a book not allowed
I kinda surprised no one ever did a "Blind PC = No" thread / faq thingy.
Anyway yeah Tremorsense and/or Scent before CJ's Telepathy set-up.
Other brainstorms on this point:
-It hasn't been mentioned yet, but the Shadow Sun Ninja (Tome of Battle) has a few interesting abilities that work with blindness. One of them allows you to bust out a short-duration area-of-effect blindness effect merely by striking opponents from whom you've hidden (and since Shadow Sun Ninjas have access to Shadow Hand, that's also easy access to invisibility and the Hide skill). Another - and the reason why I mention this - allows you to voluntarily blind yourself... but completely ignore the drawbacks to being blind as far as fighting other blind targets is concerned. If you are naturally blind, this basically confers the ability to "see" other blinded targets, no matter how they lost their sight, and fight completely unhindered. (This is pretty much the best way I know of to do the "blind monk" archetype without becoming a spellcaster.)
-As has been mentioned, the Mindsight feat (Lords of Madness) gives you one of the best senses in the game, provided you have a source of telepathy (by far easiest to get as a Mindbender). I'm not sure offhand how many other ways there are to get Telepathy, but if you do have that ability, get Mindsight. It really is that good.
-A few levels of Binder (you need an EBL of 3 to pull this off, so that's either three Binder levels, one Binder level and the Improved Binding feat, or - in this case - the Bind Vestige, Improved Bind Vestige, and Practiced Binder feats, depending on whether you value class levels or feats more for your build) can allow you to forge a pact with Malphas, the Turnfeather. Malphas provides a few basic roguelike abilities, including invisibility (in short bursts with a cooldown), Sudden Strike, and the Poison Use ability. Importantly to you, though, he grants a power called Bird's Eye Viewing. This lets you summon a bird (dove or raven), which lasts for the entire day (and can be summoned again if it dies or is dismissed), can fly around with any range under your complete control, and lets you see and hear everything it can see and hear, without taking an action to do so. It even works with Trapfinding! Basically, you can create a permanent, mobile set of eyes and ears with this pact.
The latter two aren't on your booklist, sadly,but definitely deserved a mention (especially Malphas - there's so much you can do with the bird, and it's easier to grab for nonspellcasters than Mindsight).
For a warrior character, though, I'd definitely add the Shadow Sun Ninja to your list. Between that, Hunter's Sense / Hearing the Air (both swordsage-available), and the blindfold of true darkness, you'd have a pretty passable approach to martial blindness. Grab psionic tattoos of Touchsight for when you need extra range.
As has been mentioned, the Mindsight feat (Lords of Madness) gives you one of the best senses in the game, provided you have a source of telepathy (by far easiest to get as a Mindbender). I'm not sure offhand how many other ways there are to get Telepathy, but if you do have that ability, get Mindsight. It really is that good.
It's definitely good for the long-range radar as a general option (I've run a character who had both Mindsight and an eversmoking bottle strapped to her back; she wasn't actually blind, but it was a useful tactic). You can't run with it on its own, but it's certainly good for locating non-mindless enemies. It tends to leave you guessing about the presence of mindless enemies, depending on your level of personal paranoia.
Though I don't remember the official stance on it, it typically shares tremorsense's advantage of not being limited by walls (unlike blindsight).
Should find a way to get ever smoking bottles (maybe 2 or 3) on yourself in combat so you always have a huge miss chance and then you have little negative.
Never heard of that item before. Where is it from?
It hasn't been mentioned yet, but the Shadow Sun Ninja (Tome of Battle) has a few interesting abilities that work with blindness. One of them allows you to bust out a short-duration area-of-effect blindness effect merely by striking opponents from whom you've hidden (and since Shadow Sun Ninjas have access to Shadow Hand, that's also easy access to invisibility and the Hide skill). Another - and the reason why I mention this - allows you to voluntarily blind yourself... but completely ignore the drawbacks to being blind as far as fighting other blind targets is concerned. If you are naturally blind, this basically confers the ability to "see" other blinded targets, no matter how they lost their sight, and fight completely unhindered. (This is pretty much the best way I know of to do the "blind monk" archetype without becoming a spellcaster.)
I totally forgot about SSN. I even played it like 4 months ago xD. Anyway it was a monstruosity with 9 classes in 20 levels xD. Sounds interesting, specially for the access to maneuvers that improve your senses.
The latter two aren't on your booklist, sadly,but definitely deserved a mention (especially Malphas - there's so much you can do with the bird, and it's easier to grab for nonspellcasters than Mindsight).
Yea... maybe I can try that my DM allow mindsight (it's difficult tho). But I'm sure binder is out of discussion.
The eversmoking bottle is an item from the srd (read DMG) and it is basically an item which after a couple rounds creates smoke which will be enough to provide you with cover and a 50% miss chance which is a powerful miss chance, then the smoke also won't hinder you since 1) your blind b) your using blindsight from the headband which means you are in no way hindered but the enemies are. I'm not sure if 2-r wouyld help but they have a speicific amount of smoke they produce each round so I would assume multiple would increase the cover faster. Although a strong wind can remove it the bottle is always smoking so even after the wind is gone the smoke will just come back.
You get a 50-ft. radius within 1 round of uncorking the bottle; it does spread more slowly after that, but you get plenty of fighting space pretty much instantly. It only becomes a bit problematic if you end up fighting a running battle (we treated it as having a 10-ft. smoke aura when moving around, but a different DM would probably have their own interpretation).