My question is, how can I make up for this? How can I still be useful to my party even if I can't help in combat, I can gather information for them and try to put my ears to use, but what else can a blind character do? it makes acrobatics and athletics that much more difficult, and I am going to be a much poorer scout and pick pocket, it will probably interfere a lot with my lock pick and finding traps. Suggestions?
Go get them fixed by a cleric (obviously of a different god). If you can become raised from the dead for 500gp and a ritual, surely there should be a way to get your eyes fixed. If not, I'd make a new character and consider quitting the campaign. I can only see only more problems with this DM in the future.
Is this a joke? You're OK with your DM screwing with you?
Go get them fixed by a cleric (obviously of a different god). If you can become raised from the dead for 500gp and a ritual, surely there should be a way to get your eyes fixed. If not, I'd make a new character and consider quitting the campaign. I can only see only more problems with this DM in the future.
What he said.
What he said.
+1
As for healing of the eyes, unfortunantly we're in a setting, the Midnight setting, with no devine classes as the god of shadows is the only god in town. So I'm eyeless for good.
Seriously ... retire the character. The DM utterly neutered him.
Even blind, combatants still know where each other all are (by default) unless a target is actively using Stealth against you. Finding a target isn't the problem, actually hitting is though.
If you are have a party capable of piling on status effects, the -5 can be turned into an effective -3 if you have Combat Advantage. (Note you can't gain Flanking while you are Blind, but Dazed and Prone etc. enemies still grant CA). You can still do Sneak Attack (again, by default) even Blinded. Your attacks are less accurate, but they can still matter.
You would probably function about as effectively as a character 2-3 levels lower than the other members of your party, as a combatant.
Another avenue is just helping everyone. Using Aid Another should be a piece of cake even counting the -5 penalty, because you only need a '10.' You can spend most of your fights just making sure everyone else is more accurate to partially offset your not attacking. You can keep your body up close sometimes to "absorb" some damage off of other PCs. You aren't Helpless so you can't be coup de graced.
Similarly, if the party wants you to hit, or do some kind of skill check, they can Aid Another to your benefit, giving you bonuses. This can easily be explained as partially offsetting your vision problems with things like accurate descriptions of your surroundings, warnings when things are moving, etc.
I actually don't think there should be a tremendous penalty on lockpicking, because you can't see too much about the insides of most locks anyway. If the party members describe the lock's appearance it should be about enough for you to just figure it out with your tools. Maybe a slight penalty, but not necessarily.
You could work out with your DM the ability to make Perception checks to negate or mitigate the penalties you face. You have a -10 penalty to Perception from being blind, but perhaps you can work out with the DM that you can make a DC 15 or so check as a minor action each round to reduce or negate your blindness penalties. This kind of dovetails into the idea that you are getting used to being blind, and can help explain how you eventually get the ability to fight as normal.
I certainly wouldn't bother trying to "Scout" or "Pickpocket" though.
Also, using a Dagger if you don't already will make you more accurate as a Rogue, and the party could pool resources to make sure you get some magic on your weapons if that's available.
EDIT: Or magic armor for that matter.
now on to business:
Combat Advantage is a big one and as a rogue you should be attempting to get it at all occasions, you may want to look at the weapon expertise feat from the PHB 2.
buddy up with your cleric, warlord, bard, ect... basically your leader. these guys can usually give you a +2 to your next attack (or -2 to one defense, in the bard's case).
following these steps can help you offset the -5 from blindness in combat, but it will require a whole party effort.
I'm in a profession (Adventuring) that is envious of the lifespan of underwater welders. These things will happen and I am not only okay with this but excited for possible role play avenues that this opens up. This will honestly only make the character cooler in the end. Please instead of telling me to quit his campaign could I get some advice on my original question?
As for healing of the eyes, unfortunantly we're in a setting, the Midnight setting, with no devine classes as the god of shadows is the only god in town. So I'm eyeless for good.
You character should have just bled out fo the face and died. A blind rogue is pretty much ****ed. I'd just say get the blind -fighting feat asap. your either a cool blind guy or a realistically crippled hinderence. You can't be both, and as seeing its 4E be the cool blind guy. Thats my advice.
Here's what the rules flat out prevent the character from doing:
Providing a flank for allies, taking Opportunity Attacks, gaining combat advantage, ever again.
Now, the rules in no way stop you from using a ritual scroll, but I can appreciate that in your DM's setting the only place to buy one might be of divine origin. However, power source and level requirement do not factor into scrolls in 4E, you don't even need the appropriate skill, although without it, there is the inevidability of fatal errors occuring.
My advice is to leave the character in the background as a locksmith, diplomat or trap guinea pig and find yourself a new character to play.
Here's what the rules flat out prevent the character from doing:
Providing a flank for allies, taking Opportunity Attacks, gaining combat advantage, ever again.
You can get Combat Advantage, just not from flanking. i.e. CA is still granted by opponents who are:
- Blinded
- Dazed
- Dominated
- Helpless
- Prone
- Restrained
- Stunned
- Surprised
- Unconscious
The tricky part is figuring out ways that you and your party can get the foes into these conditions more often.
- +2 Bonus to Attack Rolls: You gain a +2 bonus to your attack roll when you have combat advantage against the target of your attack.
- Able to See Target: You must be able to see a target to gain combat advantage against it.
Blind Fight
Creatures adjacent to you gain no benefit from concealment or total concealment against you, and invisible creatures adjacent to you are effectively visible to you.
No dice I'm afraid, check out the box from the previous page.
Oh, I didn't remember that bit I guess.
Well, no sneak attack then.
You can't read. You can't run without tripping, you can't fix yourself a sandwhich with any kind of speed (and mayo would get EVERYWHERE) and you can't fight. Not only can you not gain combat advantage, but everybody has combat advantage against you. 3 levels was a complete understatement. You would have to be marco polo'ing all the time just to figure out which person in the room is your friend and which is your enemy.
All the super cool hypersensitive hearing stuff is high level shtick and you just lost your sight. I say you're better off trying to get your hands on the legendary eye of Vecna instead of going for the "coping with a disability" feel at this point. Especially because you're a rogue. You're all "precision targeting" and "cut the blue wire". If you don't know which is blue, everything goes to hell. I'd say pick up some wacky means of sight and run with it.
I don't see this as being screwed, I just see this as an obstical, sometimes you loose a limb adventuring, sometimes your eyes I guess, I already have a +12 to hit at 4th with the -5 I'm running +7 with a warlord in the party some of his powers (furious smash is a good one) he could all but negate my penalties once I find a way to gain combat advantage and maybe get that feat I'm on the fast track back to being compotent, capable and maybe even better then I was at some things. D&D to me is about the role play experiance just as much as it is about the combat, being blind doesn't affect bluff and may help my intimidate.
I guess I'm a minority in the crowd that started at the transition point between 2nd and 3rd and had DMs that occasionally liked doing 3D6 6 times place in order and then pick a class, it's outdated and generates weak characters, but it's fun sometimes to play a fighter because that's all that the stats will let you roll and try to make it your own. Roll with the punches and don't let this kinda thing ruin a character, I can already see me telling stories about my "awesome blind rogue" ruining people.
Anyway that's my take, thank you to all of you who provided suggestions and ideas. Even the idea of NPCing him if I really just can't make him work in the end.
The first is the Grimlock Helm (lvl 17): When equipped you bcome blind and gain blindsight 5
Second is the Unguent of Blindsight (lvl 21): It's a consumable that gives you darksight 10 until the end of the encounter
I didn't see anything else, though I may have missed something. These were pretty much off the top of my head.
...my DM just rolled 100 on percs to see if a god of shadows was watching an event in one of his churches, so he doesn't take to kindly to me killing a high cleric of his and then trying to gain benifits from an enchanted basin in his church and causes my eyes to explode out of my skull.
Did your rogue know the consequences before committing this act?
Others have said that your rogue got the short end of the stick. I disagree. One doesn't walk into a temple and take out the high cleric without some sort of retribution. The high cleric gets his powers from the diety. I'm surprised the rogue is still alive.
My question is, how can I make up for this? How can I still be useful to my party even if I can't help in combat, I can gather information for them and try to put my ears to use, but what else can a blind character do? it makes acrobatics and athletics that much more difficult, and I am going to be a much poorer scout and pick pocket, it will probably interfere a lot with my lock pick and finding traps. Suggestions?
Your character is no longer a rogue. A blind rouge would be interesting to RP, but the game mechanics are so stacked against your character that it's probably not an avenue worth pursuing.
It's certainly going to be interesting RP. Maybe put a blindfold over yourself, and if you can get through 2 secenarios that way, hey, you're golden.
Definitely a tough gig.
Let us know how it goes.
Treat his sight as Tremorsense 10, with a perception check to ascertain just what it is he is sensing at that range. He's probably got a low Wis, so if the DM will allow it, use Cha for the whole focused thing, his force of personality and self-assurance lending a great measure of aid to all his bling exploits. Later on, find a bandana of Darkness, or something similar. You tie it over your eyes and it creates an aura of darkness or whatever around you.
I'm in a profession (Adventuring) that is envious of the lifespan of underwater welders. These things will happen and I am not only okay with this but excited for possible role play avenues that this opens up. This will honestly only make the character cooler in the end. Please instead of telling me to quit his campaign could I get some advice on my original question?
As for healing of the eyes, unfortunantly we're in a setting, the Midnight setting, with no devine classes as the god of shadows is the only god in town. So I'm eyeless for good.
I like your attitude.
Every group needs more players like you.
It's amusing to note that most of the responses, by people who post all the time & consider themselves "helpfull", were anything but.
I'm sorry, but when you're asked to help solve a specific challenge & the best you can come up with is "Drop out of the campaign/make a new character"? That's pathetic.
Adress the challenge presented or just don't reply.
Much of my own advice has already covered - maybe work with your DM to reasign feats so that you could access them at lower lvs, seek out various magic items (maybe ignoring their lvs), explore various ways to work with your party, aid another....
And don't forget the obvious - something like a seeing eye dog. But in a magical world why settle for a mere dog? You can (potentially) get all kinds of assistants.
Also various forms of telepathy. You might not be able to see. But is there any way (in rules or from the DM) for images seen by another to be trasmitted into your mind? Works all the time in movies, comics, Sci-Fi, etc, so why not in D&D (even if it is 4e)....
I like your attitude.
Every group needs more players like you.
It's amusing to note that most of the responses, by people who post all the time & consider themselves "helpfull", were anything but.
I'm sorry, but when you're asked to help solve a specific challenge & the best you can come up with is "Drop out of the campaign/make a new character"? That's pathetic.
Adress the challenge presented or just don't reply.
This.
I think the key to keeping this character around is working with your DM. Getting some homebrew feats to offset the penalty (maybe eventually negating it?) could work. It'll hinder your build, since you have to devote your feats to regain what you could normally before.
However, once you are a good blind fighter, never forget that your opponents aren't. Try to take out light sources and get combats going in the dark and start to enjoy your new perk.
I like your attitude.
Every group needs more players like you.
What? Self-centered jerks who only want to play THEIR way, no matter what it does to the group? That's what the OP is doing. "I'm going to be blind. Who cares if it makes me ineffective in combat? Who cares if it means I can't do one of the major abilities of my class [sneak attack]?"
OP, have you mentioned any of this to your group - and that you have no intention of doing anything to fix it for at least 3 levels?
It's amusing to note that most of the responses, by people who post all the time & consider themselves "helpfull", were anything but.
It's called "tough love." Sometimes you have to tell people the truth, no matter how much they don't want to hear it.
I'm sorry, but when you're asked to help solve a specific challenge & the best you can come up with is "Drop out of the campaign/make a new character"? That's pathetic.
It's truth. Do you really think the OP's group wants to cover for his ineffectiveness, esp when the OP was told repeatedly that he would become a large lump and still refused to bend?
Much of my own advice has already covered - maybe work with your DM to reasign feats so that you could access them at lower lvs, seek out various magic items (maybe ignoring their lvs), explore various ways to work with your party, aid another....
Wait, didn't you just say none of the posters (including the ones who said this) were helpful?
And don't forget the obvious - something like a seeing eye dog.
Which does nothing in combat and becomes a major liability.
However, once you are a good blind fighter, never forget that your opponents aren't. Try to take out light sources and get combats going in the dark and start to enjoy your new perk.
Translation: Screw the other players even more! If you have to be ineffective, make them useless as well!
Translation: Screw the other players even more! If you have to be ineffective, make them useless as well!
Someone feeling particularly defensive? Did you have a blind party member once? Would you like a hug?
On the contrary, you can make portions of the battlefield dark so not to screw everyone. Or, even better, your party can prepare and make it a team effort to darken the area and not gimp themselves.
Though, I suppose if the team doesn't want to help their party member, they could just all tell him that he's "useless and they don't want him around anymore." I suppose that's what teams are suppose to do
.Someone feeling particularly defensive? Did you have a blind party member once? Would you like a hug?
On the contrary, you can make portions of the battlefield dark so not to screw everyone. Or, even better, your party can prepare and make it a team effort to darken the area and not gimp themselves.
Though, I suppose if the team doesn't want to help their party member, they could just all tell him that he's "useless and they don't want him around anymore." I suppose that's what teams are suppose to do
Defensive? Sarcastic reference to what you think teams are supposed to be? Really? I'm sure you're aware that when a football player hurts himself, he gets replaced immediately. All his old team mates will visit him in the hospital and still invite him to BBQs but he doesn't get back on the field until he's just as good as he was before.
We're talking about a group that has assembled for a specific purpose, not a family unit. As much as I love a good story of overcoming adversity, this situation is a little more complicated. Blindness is a huge deal and even after you've learned to cope, you still function wildly different than anybody else on your team. It's definitely useful to have people with a variety of abilities and talents but after a certain point, you just can't adventure with them.
You better believe that Aquaman is an NPC to the rest of the justice league.
See where I'm coming from?
Get together with your DM, rent a copy of any Zatoichi movie, and realize how awesome your rogue is about to become.
That really is great stuff, but they're level 4. He can't be that awesome yet. I mean, I know he can, but I honestly believe it would be detrimental to the cohesion of the party and borderline marysue.
(I don't know much about 4e, so if there isn't spot and search, psionics, or multiclassing, then ignore this)
Someone feeling particularly defensive? Did you have a blind party member once?
No, but I have played with PCs who - through no fault of their own - became the equivilant of wallflowers in combat. However, none of the players really resented the player of the ineffective character because everyone knew he was taking steps to fix the issue. This is not the case here. The OP has clearly stated that he wants to force the rest of his team to cover for him, rather than take steps to fix the issue.
On the contrary, you can make portions of the battlefield dark so not to screw everyone.
You said to put out the lights and blind the monsters. That would blind any melee combatant and give penalties to any ranged combatant who attacked into the darkness.
Or, even better, your party can prepare and make it a team effort to darken the area and not gimp themselves.
They are LVL 4, so their options are very limited. Also, the OP wants to force his party to cover for him for at least 3 levels. This is not a temporary issue, nor one they can buy their way through (at least, not for long, unless they spend almost all their treasure on magical items).
Though, I suppose if the team doesn't want to help their party member, they could just all tell him that he's "useless and they don't want him around anymore."
They don't have to. The OP has already announced his intention to be useless and to have them cover for him.
I suppose that's what teams are suppose to do
What team? The team the OP has declared he has no interest in? Why should they WANT to help him? He has already said he refuses to help himself.
Jus' sayin'.....
You better believe that Aquaman is an NPC to the rest of the justice league.
See where I'm coming from?
Not really, but I don't read comics.
No, but I have played with PCs who - through no fault of their own - became the equivilant of wallflowers in combat. However, none of the players really resented the player of the ineffective character because everyone knew he was taking steps to fix the issue. This is not the case here. The OP has clearly stated that he wants to force the rest of his team to cover for him, rather than take steps to fix the issue.
He has expressed taking Blind-Fighting. Maybe they have a hyper-accelerated gaming group where they level every session? I admit three levels is a bit much, but that was the high end of his hypothesizing. He was originally going with one level (which doesn't seem that terrible).
You said to put out the lights and blind the monsters. That would blind any melee combatant and give penalties to any ranged combatant who attacked into the darkness.
Forgive me. 3.5 kicked in and I forgot that PCs work more in tandem with each other. Back in the day, putting out the lights to blind the monsters didn't mean crippling the team.
They don't have to. The OP has already announced his intention to be useless and to have them cover for him.
I'm sorry, the same OP who opened a thread asking how he could get around being useless?
What team? The team the OP has declared he has no interest in? Why should they WANT to help him? He has already said he refuses to help himself.
I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself. He never declared he has no interest in them. You assumed. Maybe they already talked about it. In fact, after he got blinded and the team didn't immediately shout "Roll a new character, you're dead to us!" seems to suggest they aren't opposed to him sticking around.
Not really, but I don't read comics.
You kidding me? I don't read that stuff either, but everybody knows who aquaman is! He's a freaking trope. Whatever. You obviously aren't worth the effort.
Get together with your DM, rent a copy of any Zatoichi movie, and realize how awesome your rogue is about to become.
In 4th edition terms Zatoichi isn't blind for most purposes (neither is daredevil.) He can't read, distinguish colors, or see more than, say, ten squares, but he isn't blind.
You kidding me? I don't read that stuff either, but everybody knows who aquaman is! He's a freaking trope. Whatever. You obviously aren't worth the effort.
Perhaps I'm not cultured enough in geekdom? All I know about him is that he's considered useless and lives under the water. DC version of Nemo (or Nemo's the Marvel version of DC... whatever).
Don't let people tell you your adventuring days are over!
Perhaps I'm not cultured enough in geekdom? All I know about him is that he's considered useless and lives under the water. DC version of Nemo (or Nemo's the Marvel version of DC... whatever).
All I know about him is that - in a group of 'people' who have invulnerability, ultra-speed, near-prescient planning abilities, and other very superior skills - his ability is ... talking to fish. Superman over there can 1-Shot Vecna, and Aquaman has a limited version of Speak with Animals.
All I know about him is that - in a group of 'people' who have invulnerability, ultra-speed, near-prescient planning abilities, and other very superior skills - his ability is ... talking to fish. Superman over there can 1-Shot Vecna, and Aquaman has a limited version of Speak with Animals.
Those are words I do understand, thanks!:D
As an aside, how does Batman fit into it? I never understood how he stood a chance against... well... most anything not specifically tied to Gotham.
Perhaps I'm not cultured enough in geekdom? All I know about him is that he's considered useless and lives under the water. DC version of Nemo (or Nemo's the Marvel version of DC... whatever).
I definitely overreacted, but THIS RIGHT HERE is exactly what I'm talking about. That's all you needed to know about aquaman to get my analogy. He's a superhero that is so useless that he barely functions as part of the group. He's a supporting character. As amazing as he is when the shark people attack, he spends so much time doing absolutely nothing that nobody wants to be him.
I'm saying that a blind rogue is cool, but it's so specialized that during moments where you're shining, everybody else is fumbling and while everybody else is shining, you're a sack of potatoes. It's almost pointless to be in the same group. (Unless we're getting zatoichi powers real early and then everything works out. Not that I like it, but it works.)
I definitely overreacted, but THIS RIGHT HERE is exactly what I'm talking about. That's all you needed to know about aquaman to get my analogy. He's a superhero that is so useless that he barely functions as part of the group. He's a supporting character. As amazing as he is when the shark people attack, he spends so much time doing absolutely nothing that nobody wants to be him.
Well, I did say he was considered useless. I have no idea if he is, though if he's being written about still, there must be some use for him.
I'm saying that a blind rogue is cool, but it's so specialized that during moments where you're shining, everybody else is fumbling and while everybody else is shining, you're a sack of potatoes. It's almost pointless to be in the same group. (Unless we're getting zatoichi powers real early and then everything works out. Not that I like it, but it works.)
Have you tried it?
Personal experience time:
We had a group where one person played a blind individual. This is back in the 3.5 era, and said person was a bard. She took the blind-fighting feats and what not and, though she wasn't ever the super star, she worked well in the group and it was interesting during those formative "fumbling" years. No one hated her for being blind, no one had the spot light stolen and good times were had all around.
The OP has stated that he understands he's going to lag behind than the others in his group. I know 4e is more a team game than 3e, but I don't see how a mature group could deal with this and still have fun.
Furthermore, it doesn't really help the OP with his original question posed.
Those are words I do understand, thanks!:D
As an aside, how does Batman fit into it? I never understood how he stood a chance against... well... most anything not specifically tied to Gotham.
Batman is the aforementioned near-prescient planner.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BatmanGambit
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CrazyPrepared
I am not responsible for any timesinks. :P
1.Go get yourself a Heavy Crossbow.
Being blind you cant be in the middle of combat with swords ah swinging.
But to try to be a bit usefull for the next 3 levels after getting the heavy crossbow come up with a strategy with your companions... such as.. use your hearing and their commands... such as they tell you to....
SHOOT! 12-O-CLOCK! 6 O CLOCK! 3 O CLOCK! 9 O CLOCK....
2. When you lvl up put as much points in listen as you can
3.Ask your dm if you can use a feat or 2 from the"Complete Adventurer" 3.5
It has a feat called "Hear the Unseen" It requiers Blind Fight and listen 5 ranks
But it gives you the ability to "Pinpoint a targets location by sound, not sight."
3.Later down the line you can get your full attack actions back, via a couple more feats...Pick up from the same book, A feat called Quick Reconnoiter, requiers 5 spot 5 listen and gives you the ability to ; "spot and listen checks as free actions, +2 on initiative checks"
And then get exotic weapon proficiency for a repeating heavy crossbow...
4. You need to start leveling in sorcerer. SUMMON A FAMILIER... get 5 lvls of sorcerer so your familier and you can speak freely to eachother in a magical language nobody else understands. That way your familier can tell you where you are, and where your enemies are if they arent making noise... and you dont walk straight foward into a wall... lol...
also to make up for the loss of your lvls in rogue make a synergy out of it and become a rogue sorcerer crossbreed ... Take a look at the Arcane Trickster in the 3.5 DM's Guide... Its a cross between a rouge and sorcerer prestige class.... and a danm good one at that... heck... become a (( 4th lvl rogue....4th lvl Sorcerer... and start Leveling Arcane Trickster....By lvl 22 you will be able to cast 3 wish spell.... every day...
THIS OF COURSE IS OPTION A
OPTION B;
1st. Get 28 thousand gold.....lol...
2nd. Buy a Scroll of Wish (its lvl 9 arcane spell -not divine-)
3rd.you either need any 1st lvl sorcerer, wizard,bard, whatever has the spell "Read Magic"... or you need someone thats going to get a for sure 20 on there use magic device roll... but whoever you choose you better make danm sure you can trust them with a WISH...
As far as the gold issue you can make an adventure out of it for your group... petition a wizard and take on a task for him in exchange for the scroll.... or just ask your friends for an I-O-U and lump all there gold together... personnaly option A makes for much better character development
And for you nay sayers that having nothing to say but /tear up your character sheet and shuv it down the DM's throat... i say onto you...Get creative... and dont give up
You should look at it from the other players perspective. It may be a cool concept but it will ultimately be disruptive to every game session. I have used a blind NPC as a plot point but would never expect a player to stick with one if it could not be cured. IIRC, somewhere in the DMG/PHB it talks about retiring a character when it is going to severely gimp the party for the sake of flavor/rp.
It would work in a system that is designed to handle it. GURPS/Hero/Savage Worlds could provide the rules necessary to play this character.
Now there seem to be a lot of leeps of logic, assumptions and outright crap spouted by people who clearly did not read my posts. So allow me to clear some things up.
I plan on taking 1 to 2 levels without the blind fighting feat, not 3. In that time I plan to suffer penalties but damned if I'll cause this to make me useless. I will still have a +7 to attack, I will still be able to manuver, I plan on getting a seeing-eye-apprentace to direct my attacks, as that will help with my long term goal of starting a theives guild as well. That along with my fantastic skill checks and an Avenger that likes to grant me multiple rolls and a warlord that likes to grant me bonuses I can still be a simi-effective combatant 60-70% of the time, I am here looking for suggestions to increase that. I have already mentioned I have a fun and flexable DM who will work with me on this one so my character does not have to be blind and helpless.
My party is a mature and intelegent group that enjoys the roleplay as much as the combat, they are all aware that I plan to take a couple of levels, I announced this intention and they all said that was cool and it'd be fun to work with. Since I enjoy the math of D&D as much as anything else my characters wind up being pretty optimized usually, this just puts my character on a level of a sub-optimal character, it does not cripple him for life.
As a final note, please cool the insults.
I would also consider taking Skill Focus perception, to get your base perception rolls as high as possible.
An example feat (off the cuff) would be a feat which allowed you to use a minor action and an off-hand weapon or tool (like a light cane) to locate an adjacent foe automatically (and then you could attack them with no penalty). Another feat might be one that allowed you to automatically locate an enemy at range after they made a ranged, burst, or area attack, provided they did not move afterward (representing hearing their spellcasting, prayer, or even their bowstring twanging).
If done carefully, these feats would be useful in the future when you regained your sight (as you could use them in darkness, or against invisible opponents).
Another cool and interesting alternative might be a familiar from the upcoming Arcane Power, a Beast companion, or a Spirit companion (making use of and modifying current rules for Rangers or Shamen). As you destroyed the priest of a particular god, perhaps another power, opposed to him (even a primal or primordial spirit, or fey/shadowfell being) might bestow this upon you as a gift. I myself would think it might be cool to slowly shift the character from a Rogue to a Beastmaster ranger (you aquire the wolf, or whatever, and, instead of multiclassing, the DM lets you "retrain" abilities into ones from the new class as you progress. This may not, however, be of interest to you.
I like Arcana_Man's first suggestion, it looks like it'd be a cool way for your character to go, if it weren't for the fact you're doing 4e, lol.
Anywho, kudos to you for trying to tackle a challenge like this, could lead to some VERY interesting character development.
Then I had to think about the anime Ninja Scroll where there was a battle with a superb blind samurai as well. He outmatched the hero of the story, but he lost in the end. The hero had attack the samurai earlier in the battle and his dagger was stuck in the bamboo tree. The fight continued and they came back to that spot, but the blind samurai didn't notice the dagger. So his blade hit the dagger and the hero could use that momentum to kill the blind samurai.
From those two movies I can easily find ways to make feats/skills to use in DnD. You can learn to hear more and thus know about your surrounding. You will eventually be able to "see" the opponents and sneak up on them. In fact I'd say you'd be a better sneak in the dark then those that can see, because they unconsciously still rely on their eyes and have lesser development senses such as hearing.
Your insight and perception should go up. +5 at heroic, +10 Paragon, +15 epic. But not related to anything visual.
Blind fight should develop in a similar fashion. A slight penalty at first, but in due time you should be equal...or slightly better then normal in combat.
There is loads for a blind guy with discipline ;)
You kidding me? I don't read that stuff either, but everybody knows who aquaman is! He's a freaking trope. Whatever. You obviously aren't worth the effort.
Never heard about Aquaman and the justice league until now
Then again I don't follow american comics ;)
In short. Get of your high horse.
So I'm playing a rogue in a 4th ed campaign and my DM just rolled 100 on percs to see if a god of shadows was watching an event in one of his churches, so he doesn't take to kindly to me killing a high cleric of his and then trying to gain benifits from an enchanted basin in his church and causes my eyes to explode out of my skull. So I'm now playing a blind rogue, I just hit 4th level and we're working on a blind fighting feat for 4th, but in the mean time I don't want to take it this level, it will take me quite some time to adjust to having no eyes and I don't want my character to become blind and then suddenly just know how to fight blind. I intend to spend 4th level blind and suffering the full negatives for being so after that at 5th I will retrain a feat for blind fighting, that or wait for 6th level. until that time however I will be suffering a -5 to attack rolls -10 to perception I will grant combat advantage and will be pretty much impotent in a battle.
My question is, how can I make up for this? How can I still be useful to my party even if I can't help in combat, I can gather information for them and try to put my ears to use, but what else can a blind character do? it makes acrobatics and athletics that much more difficult, and I am going to be a much poorer scout and pick pocket, it will probably interfere a lot with my lock pick and finding traps. Suggestions?
Interesting development. But you will be less useful to your group for sometime...
You like the idea to be blind, and your DM is working on giving you the feat you need, so we just have to look for ways to be useful until you are "back to normal".
A custom magic item, reducing your penalties would be interesting, but I doubt you want this.
Someone already suggested the "aid other in battle" trick, it is a very good idea.
If you have a ritual caster with brew potion in your party, I'd suggest discssing with your DM the possibility of the creation of a custom "extreme senses" potion. This potion would enhance all your senses.
On a "normal" person, this would be a bad thing, and give a lot of penalties, but you are missing one of your senses. This makes the potion only useful for you.
When you use the potion, you gain blindsight for the encounter (at the price of a healing surge, or a daily item use if the DM prefers an elixir) but have a low penalty (-1) on all rolls. And maybe a vulnerability to sensory attacks.
In this way, when the team really needs your help, you could be back to an effective level for the duration of the encounter. It allows you to "pay" for your blindness until your next level, but still be efficient and useful when needed.
Another possibility would be a potion, or item, or ritual, allowing you to see through the eyes of another member of the team.
I like the idea of the blinded rogue learning slowly how to be efficient without sight.
He has expressed taking Blind-Fighting.
He also said he had no intention of taking the feat yet.
Maybe they have a hyper-accelerated gaming group where they level every session?
If that's the case, that does change things.
I admit three levels is a bit much, but that was the high end of his hypothesizing. He was originally going with one level (which doesn't seem that terrible).
One level isn't. 3 levels - unless, as you said, they level quickly - means 6+ sessions of staggering around.
I'm sorry, the same OP who opened a thread asking how he could get around being useless?
And then disregarded everyone telling him that the ideas he had are not workabout without houseruling away pre-reqs.
If the DM is willing to houserule around the issues, that also changes the picture. RAW, there is pretty much nothing the OP can do, short of taking Blind-Fight, which the OP won't do.
I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself. He never declared he has no interest in them. You assumed.
He said he had no intention of doing the one thing that would make him effective. Instead, he was INTENTIONALLY NOT doing it. I didn't have to assume. He announced that he doesn't want to be useful yet.
Maybe they already talked about it.
If so, the OP never said it - and that would have been useful information.
In fact, after he got blinded and the team didn't immediately shout "Roll a new character, you're dead to us!" seems to suggest they aren't opposed to him sticking around.
Maybe they assumed he would reroll, or do something to mitigate the blindness.
If that's the case, that does change things.
...
If the DM is willing to houserule around the issues, that also changes the picture. RAW, there is pretty much nothing the OP can do, short of taking Blind-Fight, which the OP won't do.
I think he's addressed this in a previous post. He came here asking for suggestions and got a flurry of "REROLLS!" without anyone even asking if he had talked to the DM about this.
I think people were jumping the gun on this guy and his follow-up posts show that his team is behind him and his DM is looking at doing some houseruling to assist with it.
For Example, Combat Awareness: At the beginning of your turn roll a D20 with no bonues or penalties. If you roll higher than 15, reduce all penalties to Perception and Combat checks by the difference. On a roll of a Natural 20, gain blindsight 1 till the end of your next turn.
Its good to see that you're not holding a grudge with your DM, and you're willing to roleplay the character. I've met other players who would have just killed off the character, instead of playing it out.
He also said he had no intention of taking the feat yet.
If that's the case, that does change things.
One level isn't. 3 levels - unless, as you said, they level quickly - means 6+ sessions of staggering around.
And then disregarded everyone telling him that the ideas he had are not workabout without houseruling away pre-reqs.
If the DM is willing to houserule around the issues, that also changes the picture. RAW, there is pretty much nothing the OP can do, short of taking Blind-Fight, which the OP won't do.
He said he had no intention of doing the one thing that would make him effective. Instead, he was INTENTIONALLY NOT doing it. I didn't have to assume. He announced that he doesn't want to be useful yet.
If so, the OP never said it - and that would have been useful information.
Maybe they assumed he would reroll, or do something to mitigate the blindness.
Please, for the love of god, read my posts before posting blind, uninformed advise.
I didn't say that me and my group had talked about this because it's not useful or pertinent information unless you're derailing the topic. I didn't ask for suggestions on how to be useless to my party or weigh down on them so whether or not they know doesn't affect my original post which is just asking for ideas on how to help me keep him useful. Anything other then that is just side tracking to what you think I'm doing to my party, which is not helpful in the context of this thread.
That said, if you go back and read my most recent post before this one, all of your questions and misconceptions are put to rest.
Finally... who started this 3 levels thing, I never once used that number in any of my posts. 2 levels tops, that's 3-4 sessions at most, most likely 3.
Anyone remember that movie Krull? (terrible as I thought it was, stick with me on this one) The Seer was blind and yet he still had a role in the movie. Sure he was killed off but he was an interesting character and had short albeit good development as a character.
In fact a lot of really interesting characters from a lot of movies (and books, those things with pages still exist I think) are blind or are otherwise handicap in a "combat impotence" sort of way. Abraham Whistler from Blade, Paul Atreides from Dune Messiah and of course Daredevil.
I'd like to hear about your character as it progresses.
Paul Atreides from Dune Messiah
The man was freakin' prescient! The Kwizatz Haderach don't need eyes!
#1 - Retrain all your combat feats as soon as possible for other non-combat things, like Skill Training and Skill Focus.
#2 - Put all of your money into defensive items and skill-boosters. Sell your weapon(s) off.
#3 - In combat, drop prone and either use a Bluff check to play dead or curl up in a ball (using Total Defense). Hopefully the monsters won't mess with you.
If you play your cards right, you'll have a guy with unparalleled ability with skills. A total liability in combat, for sure, but you might prove useful in some skill challenges.
The DM effed you.
And no thought to the fact that the player effed the setting, and is comfortable with his/her character paying the price for that? While the DM's action was indeed high-handed, the player is looking at it not as an affront but as an avenue to further explore the character. What you're missing here is the role-playing part of the role-playing game.
What you're missing here is the role-playing part of the role-playing game.
The problem here is that the player is now in a position where he pretty much auto-loses the "game" part of role playing game. Unless he tweaks the **** out of his skills to overcome his disability to some extent, he won't even be useful in most skill challenges, becoming something of an XP leech. The OP may be okay with this, but I wonder how the rest of the players will feel.
If there were real personal connections between the characters, I think the best choice would be to keep the character around as an NPC (mostly controlled by the player) while bringing in a replacement. Even Batman got a temp replacement when he suffered a debilitating injury.
The problem here is that the player is now in a position where he pretty much auto-loses the "game" part of role playing game. Unless he tweaks the **** out of his skills to overcome his disability to some extent, he won't even be useful in most skill challenges, becoming something of an XP leech. The OP may be okay with this, but I wonder how the rest of the players will feel.
If there were real personal connections between the characters, I think the best choice would be to keep the character around as an NPC (mostly controlled by the player) while bringing in a replacement. Even Batman got a temp replacement when he suffered a debilitating injury.
There are MANY ways to play D&D.
In some cases, the Dm will never, ever, "tweek" the adventure to fit the PCs.
Other DMs build their encounter with in mind the abilities and inailities of their team.
I think we are here in the second case.
If the PC wants to be blind, then the DM will count his impairment when building the adventure.
The full team wants to play this story, so there is NO problem at all. The monsters will be weaker and less numerous. Some fights will happen in complete darkness and being blind won't be a disavantage.
And there are a lot of temporary solutions allowing this PC to be effective while blind.
In a "gamist" group, this character could not be played.
In a "story" group, this character is a very interesting one to play, for the player AND for the team, and the DM. A blind PC can be an inpediment or an asset. Quests can revolve around helping him to overcome his handicap, etc.
If the PC wants to be blind, then the DM will count his impairment when building the adventure.
The full team wants to play this story, so there is NO problem at all. The monsters will be weaker and less numerous. Some fights will happen in complete darkness and being blind won't be a disavantage.
And there are a lot of temporary solutions allowing this PC to be effective while blind.
In a "gamist" group, this character could not be played.
In a "story" group, this character is a very interesting one to play, for the player AND for the team, and the DM. A blind PC can be an inpediment or an asset. Quests can revolve around helping him to overcome his handicap, etc.
I agree with this approach. In my group I'd probably hurl this character off a cliff (didnt see that coming ey), but if you want to explore the RPG aspect, why not.
A blind rogue can actually be an advantage. Make your own luck. In combat situations, you can set off a few smoke grenades and other darkness effects, and just feel / prod your way around combat (blind people 'see' by hearing and touch).
The GM will hopefully allow some space in interpreting game mechanics ('seeing' target in order to gain combat advantage being used loosely in this case, for instance). If the rest of the party finds powers to enhance such a tactic, it could be beneficial even. I know Druids have a darkness spell. And all Drow characters have similar stuff. Wizards as well.
Also I agree with the Tremorsense item idea. That'd be the easiest fix for a blind character. With a lot of hard work, your DM will probably allow you to see something. Perhaps try to make up for your kill by either attoning to the affronted diety, or working with its biggest enemy.
At that point it is his responsibility to balance what he takes away and his fault if you are having less fun than the players of able bodied characters.
The DM has effectively arbitrarily turned your d20 game into a d12 game (all of the other characters still get to roll the d20s though). Its not part of the rules, its not fair to you, or to the other players (who now have to support a character who cannot contribute effectively to the game).
If he wants to impose the blindness as a story effect(which again can only happen in 4th as a house rule), IMO he/she is obligated to provide you with a palette of abilities that compensate for your loss of sight and leave you relatively as effective as you were before. If the DM is unwilling to do that, he/she is just trying to punish you for refusing to ride his/her railroad and i'm pretty sure that i wouldn't be interested in that DMs game in pretty short order.
It is sad that most of the responses are of the vein of your DM Screwed you, or the character is completely useless. Is he worse in combat? Most assuredly, but that doesn't mean that the characters adventuring career should be over. The darkness idea in combat is a great one, the character definitely should try to alleviate the disability as soon as he can - find a way to get the blind sense, tremor sense or what not. I think it is commendable that the OP is wiling to deal with a characters weakness rather than retire the character. If it is a complete detriment to the party, that is bad, but if the other players are fine with it, than that is great.
The OP's character did something stupid, ****** off a god, and is suffering the price. This however gives a whole bunch of story arcs to the DM and the rest of the party to help their friend regain his sight. Nothing better than that I would think. But to some players, I guess they don't see how much fun that could be, and I think that's sad.
So, all I can say to help you is talk to the players and DM and try to come up with a way to rectify your problem. Perhaps search out a magic item or ritual that lets you share the eyesight of another party member, or an artifact like the eye of Vecna. Heck - that would be fun.. the character being so desperate to get his sight back, that he uses a cursed relic that will almost guarantee his death in order get back what he has lost. Perhaps the DM has a plan already - but talk to him just in case.
The full team wants to play this story, so there is NO problem at all. The monsters will be weaker and less numerous. Some fights will happen in complete darkness and being blind won't be a disavantage.
This may sound good, but in play that means these monsters will get steamrolled by the other PCs, and leveling will take quite a bit longer than normal. I wonder how long the other players will be willing to play this "story."
Additionally, 'complete darkness' is a hard thing to come by in D&D, what with the existance of sunrods, scintillating robes, light spells, etc. That's not even considering how many monsters can see in the dark, don't rely on sight, or utilize Area or Close attacks. The smoke grenade idea might work, but then combat is reduced to "which square do you attack into" followed shortly by "rolling for 20s."
If the DM can pull this off with everyone being happy with the game, more power to him.
Either way everyone seemed to have fun with my blindness.
Never heard about Aquaman and the justice league until now
Then again I don't follow american comics ;)
In short. Get of your high horse.
It wasn't a high horse. I honestly thought that you couldn't possibly live in America, watch television, and be a nerd (and D&D counts towards that end) without knowing the basic gist of what Aquaman is. He's been referenced on family guy! I figured it was pop culture enough to pass on a nerd forum.
Of course, in the end, he knew all he needed to know to get it. I was more ****** about not being understood than somebody not knowing who some random superhero is.
You know, at least it's less of a high horse than taking pride in the fact that you don't read something simply because it's American.
ON TOPIC and courteous:
Either way everyone seemed to have fun with my blindness.
This is very good to hear. How'd you manage the +8 to attack with the -5, though? As curious as I am about that, I'm actually more interested in how being blind has hindered you outside of combat.
This is very good to hear. How'd you manage the +8 to attack with the -5, though? As curious as I am about that, I'm actually more interested in how being blind has hindered you outside of combat.
20 in dex (we're using heroic stat arrays) +1 weapon, dagger, level 4, weapon expertise, rogue weapon talent.
so 5+1+3+2+1+1-5=8
Outside of combat it has done almost nothing to hamper me. The DM ruled I can't search for traps yet, but other then that it's helped with a lot of role play, it's fueled a lot of intimidate and bluffs and helped me look badass a couple times. When I was trying to impress the apprentice I threw a dagger over my shoulder and rolled a 20, so the blind guy whips a dagger over his shoulder and embeds it in the center of the "O" on the polearm vendors sign.
Other then the traps the only hinderance has been the DM looking at me and saying "you see, in the distance, a large fire" and me saying "no... I really just don't"
20 in dex (we're using heroic stat arrays) +1 weapon, dagger, level 4, weapon expertise, rogue weapon talent.
so 5+1+3+2+1+1-5=8
Outside of combat it has done almost nothing to hamper me. The DM ruled I can't search for traps yet, but other then that it's helped with a lot of role play, it's fueled a lot of intimidate and bluffs and helped me look badass a couple times. When I was trying to impress the apprentice I threw a dagger over my shoulder and rolled a 20, so the blind guy whips a dagger over his shoulder and embeds it in the center of the "O" on the polearm vendors sign.
Other then the traps the only hinderance has been the DM looking at me and saying "you see, in the distance, a large fire" and me saying "no... I really just don't"
How did you even know there was a sign? Wait a minute, beyond that, how would you even know there was an O on it?
No, sir, I don't like it.
I see where I botched my math. Forgot about the weapon, expertise, and didn't assume the heroic starting stats. Totally didn't even add in proficiency. Bah.
How did you even know there was a sign? Wait a minute, beyond that, how would you even know there was an O on it?
No, sir, I don't like it.
I see where I botched my math. Forgot about the weapon, expertise, and didn't assume the heroic starting stats. Totally didn't even add in proficiency. Bah.
I wasn't actually aiming at the sign, it was just embelished for a nat 20 on what was pretty much just an awesome check. However, you don't like it? Don't like what? people having fun at the expense of things ocasionally not making sense, I think you may be in the wrong hobby? I phrased that a little harsh, but still, "cut me some slack, Jack."
A couple of future possibilites is making some feats that have the requirement of each other. first one grants blindsight 1, then blindsight 5 then blindsight 10. You could also instead turn the blind fighter into a multiclass feat. Getting some benifits to being blind over others. Attacks that would leave opponents temorarily blind, giving them a penalty but leaving you unfazed. Turning your character into a hybrid class might make for an interesting story development so that you can use summons, and switch out one of your at wills for a burst. Do tell us what happens though.
What is the makeup of your group?
I wasn't actually aiming at the sign, it was just embelished for a nat 20 on what was pretty much just an awesome check. However, you don't like it? Don't like what? people having fun at the expense of things ocasionally not making sense, I think you may be in the wrong hobby? I phrased that a little harsh, but still, "cut me some slack, Jack."
Well, what I like has no real bearing on your game. I was just expressing my opinion. Think nothing of it.
Maybe it's cause my games are lighthearted with a lot of dry humor. Nobody at my table would let a blind guy feel cool because they aren't serious enough. My players are pretty mean-spirited. I'm sure they aren't normal.
Outside of combat it has done almost nothing to hamper me. The DM ruled I can't search for traps yet, but other then that it's helped with a lot of role play, it's fueled a lot of intimidate and bluffs and helped me look badass a couple times. When I was trying to impress the apprentice I threw a dagger over my shoulder and rolled a 20, so the blind guy whips a dagger over his shoulder and embeds it in the center of the "O" on the polearm vendors sign.
Other then the traps the only hinderance has been the DM looking at me and saying "you see, in the distance, a large fire" and me saying "no... I really just don't"
+1.
I wish they had the Deft Hands feat from 3.5. It was a godsend for my gnome rogue. Basicly, it allows gives a +2 feat bonus to thievery and no penalty for not being able to see the traps/locks/pockets/etc as you're using your hands to feel it.
I haven't read the last page, but going with Aid Another type stuff until you can get your feat on sounds like a good option to me. You'll be helpful to your party and you won't have to see to do it. I picture the blind guy tripping people with his cane ;)
What I'd do rather than tryign to get the CA rules revamped is to eventually ask for a new, character-specific version of sneak attack. Something like 'Rather than CA, you can apply your sneak attack damage if the enemy can't see/sense you (esp. in darkness) or if the enemy thinks you're a helpless blind guy, not the new Zatoichi.' Feinting would still work, to this end, but flanking would not. This could be refined better.
I like your attitude.
Every group needs more players like you.
+1
I think this is a great opportunity for a personal quest - either to find a way to regain your sight, or to craft an item that will give you blindsight. Talk to your DM about it based on the character you want to have. The fact that you are willing to be nerfed for a few levels is a plus on your part for roleplaying the fact that your rogue did something foolish and payed the price for his insolence to a god. Personal quests can be fun when your DM is willing to work with you on it.
And no thought to the fact that the player effed the setting, and is comfortable with his/her character paying the price for that? While the DM's action was indeed high-handed, the player is looking at it not as an affront but as an avenue to further explore the character. What you're missing here is the role-playing part of the role-playing game.
That
I'm surprised it took so long for someone to point this out! Everyone keeps on saying about how much the DM screwed the OP's character. Guys, he killed high cleric of a god while in that god's temple and then tried to use an enchanted basin in the church!!! The god would normally not see that, but the DM made the percentile roll, so he did. What would you do if you were DM in that situation? Have the high and mighty god come down and slap the rogue on the wrist while saying "that was a mean thing to do mister! I'm going to take twenty gold from you!"
th' f*ck? If a god sees you defiling his temple and killing his high priest, you'd better hope your lucky enough to where he just takes your eyes!Well done on the DMs part and kudos to the player for sticking with it. One cookie for you sir
A "mummy's eye" or something similar createdby your DM would provide an interesting side-quest, and restore your sight. In the case of this particular item, it also gives darkvision (pretty good for rogues) and a funky ability, which also would suit a rogue.
Granted, it means associating your character with necromancy,but you've already ****** off the one god anyway :P
Though, I suppose if the team doesn't want to help their party member, they could just all tell him that he's "useless and they don't want him around anymore." I suppose that's what teams are suppose to do
Yes, that is what a good team would do. Sure, they would still associate with him, get together for dinner or social occassions, and so forth. But, if the team really cares about the welfare of both the blind person and themselves, they would not bring him into situations where his liability makes it highly likely that he is going to be killed, not to mention making the team less effective as they have to watch out for him.
Basically, my point is that what you mentioned can be fairly easily explained away to keep the character in the party. I still admire the player for continuing the character as is; personally I'd either be immediately seeking to fix the problem or just retire the character. I think the roleplaying oportunities are fantastic though.
There is something in the first two posts by the Op that seem a bit contradictory to me, though:
he doesn't take to kindly to me killing a high cleric of his
As for healing of the eyes, unfortunantly we're in a setting, the Midnight setting, with no devine classes as the god of shadows is the only god in town. So I'm eyeless for good.
Isn't a cleric a divine class?
As others have said. Good work taking it as a story. You guys sound like the last group I RPed with (Rifts). All kinds of things happened and we carried on. Sometimes we would go 3 or 4 sessions with even intra character battles. One lead to the party splitting up completely and two brothers becoming NPCs for awhile while the rest carried on (we normally run 2 characters each including the DM) until amends where made for the climatic fight with the BBEG.
To those saying "you cant fight, your screwed slit your wrists" have fun playing your board game... Ima go back to my Roleplaying games. For many of us DnD is writing an epic story together, no matter the results we all had a hand in the designing of it and can feel proud for making an interesting story.
These kinds of characters end up in your heart forever.
In other words, the setting might not allow the Divine power source, but that doesn't mean the few gods it has don't have priesthoods.
I think it was more of "The god i ****** off IS the only god. So no divine help"
Ah, that makes sense, then.
To those saying "you cant fight, your screwed slit your wrists" have fun playing your board game... Ima go back to my Roleplaying games. For many of us DnD is writing an epic story together, no matter the results we all had a hand in the designing of it and can feel proud for making an interesting story.
These kinds of characters end up in your heart forever.
It is commendable that he wants to roleplay this. The problem is, even from a roleplaying perspective, it makes no sense that his party would allow him to continue adventuring with them until such time as he finds a way to compensate for his blindness. He can't effectively defend himself in combat situations, and would likely increase the danger to his teammates. Even normal travelling would be perilous for him.
But, I'd have to be honest here, if I were a player in your group, I'd probably be uncomfortable that the campaign was being catered to your player. Your PCs blindness is now a (and possibly THE) core element that defines the party, your DM is changing rules to accommodate your PC, somehow your character knows where the bad guys are and doesn't trip over the random rock, etc.
I probably wouldn't say anything openly but I'm sure I'd be annoyed by it.
Does this make me selfish? Maybe, but I'm only human and so are your other players.
You may say that I can't be sure that everyone else is having fun and could just be keeping silent, but when everyone sits around and talks excitedly about the game for about 6 hours after the DM is gone and things they can't wait to do, including plans that they have with my character, I'll take my chances.
if increasing the fun is something you're against
lol.
Look, if it works in your group, that's fantastic. I can only imagine that the rest of your group flows real well with the tone that a character like yours would set. Actually, I'm very curious about the rest of your party. Not just class make-up, but the characters. Who are they?
My players could never handle it. My group plays more "gritty" grimdark. People put broken glass in food. We houserule drugs into our games. One of the players is a war vet who committed atrocities. A blind character in our games would stumble everywhere and would need a stick. I might let somebody overcome some of the disadvantages of blindness over the course of years, but that's as good as it would get. They would have to find some other means of seeing. I'd probably make magical regeneration super expensive and offer profane grafts or hag eyes or crystal orbs at more affordable cost ... All this talk has got me thinking about it too much. I think I'm going to have to blind somebody.
Of course, I know that wouldn't work in hardly anybody else's games. That's exactly why I'm curious what tone your group sets and how they all mesh with the wushu blind guy.
I not taking it personally because I am not in your group and I don't have to deal with the situation. I am not against increasing the fun people have; I am against one PC aggrandizing attention, plot lines, and house-rules.
I might think it's cool for a session or two. Then it would probably become an annoyance. But hey, maybe your 6 other players and DM just somehow all have the exact same selfless gaming perspectives, care nothing for verisimilitude, and don't mind their PCs becoming supplemental accessories to your enjoyment. That's cool, but as I say it depends on persepective.
And I wouldn't take chances that the other 7 people at a table share mine.
I'm not trying to burst your bubble here, but I see a lot of your posts saying "me" "my pc" and everyone else as some collective "other" that magically just shares your perspective.
Explanation for Xanadu
Alright, I'll start this by saying you're right, most of my posts are about my PC, funny that in a post about my PC and how to help keep him relevant. As for the rest, xanadu you seem to have made some heavy assumptions there, your post makes it sound like I because blind, took it in 100% stride then started forcing my party to help create the church of the blind rogue and we go and run brail dungeons in which we fight villains that have vulnerability 10: blind people and we then go home to celebrate "we love the blind guy" day. Where that has not been the case. The game has not been tailored to me and we have not fought less challenging fights, some fights have been really freaking hard because my character was penalized so heavily at first.
After I lost my eyes I stopped role-playing for the remainder of that session (1 hour) saying that my character was to busy screaming in pain and going into shock. Following that I role-played conversations without any issues (aside from occasionally pointing at a tree when trying to point at a person) we then left town because we were being chased and for the first 7-8 encounters I had trouble finding anyone that wasn't adjacent to me having to make perception checks or have a party call out to me to get direction and then was also suffering a -5 penalty, for adjacent targets it was just a -5 since they were right there. When we entered a cave I was really screwed up because of echoes and sometimes could not pinpoint but with some help from Jr. (The seeing eye child I picked up before leaving town) was able to still add to the party just not as much as sight might have allowed for.
After that my sightlessness came in handy a couple times when walking through pitch black areas with no torches to speak of. Finally I was primarily able to help contribute in the fact that I just happen to be a clever person and good with plans, so I helped foil 2 ambushes, and get a pincer strike on one encounter by having the group with stealth sneak to a different entrance making those encounters a cake walk instead of a painful encounter. as time has gone on I have role-played becoming more and more accustomed to my lack of vision, it may have happened really quickly over the course of a week and a half in game, it would have been more but we burned through a couple of bigger dungeons which cut the leveling time down a lot, but I role-play it off saying that I A) needed to learn fast and B ) had a lot of help.
After I lost my eyes I stopped role-playing for the remainder of that session (1 hour) saying that my character was to busy screaming in pain and going into shock. Following that I role-played conversations without any issues (aside from occasionally pointing at a tree when trying to point at a person) we then left town because we were being chased and for the first 7-8 encounters I had trouble finding anyone that wasn't adjacent to me having to make perception checks or have a party call out to me to get direction and then was also suffering a -5 penalty, for adjacent targets it was just a -5 since they were right there. When we entered a cave I was really screwed up because of echoes and sometimes could not pinpoint but with some help from Jr. (The seeing eye child I picked up before leaving town) was able to still add to the party just not as much as sight might have allowed for.
After that my sightlessness came in handy a couple times when walking through pitch black areas with no torches to speak of. Finally I was primarily able to help contribute in the fact that I just happen to be a clever person and good with plans, so I helped foil 2 ambushes, and get a pincer strike on one encounter by having the group with stealth sneak to a different entrance making those encounters a cake walk instead of a painful encounter. as time has gone on I have role-played becoming more and more accustomed to my lack of vision, it may have happened really quickly over the course of a week and a half in game, it would have been more but we burned through a couple of bigger dungeons which cut the leveling time down a lot, but I role-play it off saying that I A) needed to learn fast and B ) had a lot of help.
If you really want to play up the "trying to fight while blinded" angle and you really aren't in it for combat effectiveness, I would use the grab action a lot. If the rest of the party is willing to go along with flavorful combat over "effective" combat, then have people bull-rush opponents in squares adjacent to you, roleplay this as a tactic you've developed with the group. They shove enemies near you so you can locate them and then you grab and go for it.
Grab-n-stab! After you actually locate and opponent, always do a grab as your first action, to represent that the rogue now needs to get a solid hand on them to track position and then start stabbing a lot. House-rule some balanced garrote rules so you can become a combat strangler- you don't need to see someone once you've got wire around the neck! Seriously- becoming a disturbing and brutal strangler rogue after losing your eyesight sounds pretty grimdark to me! Especially if you end up with someone grabbed and in flanking position, it'd be like the other player stabbing and slashing while you held the opponent pinned.
Wrestling and other grappling arts can be performed extremely well even blind. Several of the world's best grapplers have been blind, one amazing wrestler in Utah is not only blind, but only has no fingers- only thumbs! (actually an advantage in many ways since opponents can't grab his digits and lever on them).
I wish you had a fighter in the party with Footwork Lure, you could go into combat with a hand on the fighter's back- the fighter would then footwork lure someone into flanking position with you. It'd have the same flavor above but be a really cool way to make sure you got CA and precisely located opponents.
So you've ticked off the god of shadows, who's the only god in town. And he's powerful enough to blow your eyeballs straight out your skull. In addition to being blind, you've just made yourself quite the enemy, so what now?
Make amends.
I assume that the god of shadows counts rogues among his favored children. And even though you got a little uppity, a display of penitence and humility (and, since he's probably on the evil end of the alignment pool, submission) may be enough to bring you back into the fold. Work with your DM to return to the temple and try to make amends with the god, with the ultimate goal being to get some sort of sight (or sight substitute) returned to your character.
Basically, I'm thinking that your character realizes he made a terrible mistake, and seeks the forgiveness of the god. He indentures himself to the god's service and, by constant and exceptional service, becomes a chosen implement and one of the dark god's personal favorites. This seems like a great solution to me: adventure hooks aplenty for the DM, character development opportunities for you, and eventually a "fix" of your character (my idea would be some sort of "negative sight" -- lighted areas would appear shadowy to you, while dark areas would be lit up bright as day (if the shadows were deep enough)). Sound like a viable option?
And don't forget the obvious - something like a seeing eye dog. But in a magical world why settle for a mere dog? You can (potentially) get all kinds of assistants.
Also various forms of telepathy. You might not be able to see. But is there any way (in rules or from the DM) for images seen by another to be trasmitted into your mind? Works all the time in movies, comics, Sci-Fi, etc, so why not in D&D (even if it is 4e)....
This is probably the best low-level idea I've seen for the OP's problems. Take a look at the beastmaster ranger option from Martial Power. If your DM is flexible, I bet you could work out some kind of mish-mash between that and your rogue powers. Maybe you can only sneak attack if you're flanking with your beast companion? Maybe being "in tune" with the beast eliminates your perception penalties at a certain distance.
It might get complicated, with a lot of "if x happens, then use y" situations for the character, but it could be cool.
Also, and I don't think anyone else has brought this up, make sure that your decisions are okay with the rest of the players in your group. It is a wonderfully cool roleplaying opportunity, but I, for one, as another player in the party, would not want to be "babysitting" the blind guy all the time while I'm trying to enjoy my own character. Sometimes it can be a little selfish to force everyone else to play your handicap. Also, realistically, how many adventurers would even allow a blind rogue to wander around dungeons with them? At level 4 you haven't known each other very long, so why would they keep you on as a hire with a share in all their gains?
If the players are not digging the idea after awhile, then it may be time to retire him to NPC status.
Quit the game. Your GM is a tool.
I am the DM for the next campaign our group is playing. I need to blow someones eyes out. =P