So, what about them? As far as I can remember the situation right now is, correct me if I'm wrong: 1. Rays get the full concealment treatment, so 50% miss chance. 2. There is no effect on area or cone spells. 3. Targeted spells like Enlarge, Charm, Haste, Harm(shouldn't that be touch?), Magic Missile, Blindness/Deafness and whatnot face no penalty at all. Though it would be plausible NOT to be able to effect targets meters away when the caster is blinded. What's the RAW take on this topic? I didn't find much on SRD about it. 1. seems to be ok, but what about 2. and 3.? I was thinking about fizzling all spells of category 3 when the target is not the caster himself or something in touch range. Don't know if that's rules compliant though. As to category 2... no idea really. Maybe a fizzling chance when the caster is blind? Would be nice to get some opinions on this, especially from the rules lawyers and experienced DMs.
I know Kalshane was on about deaf casters a while back, something to do with potions, iirc. Don't hold your breath waiting for input though, he seems to be vacationing like so many others - Morpheus, Old Book, Blue, Zebedee, etc. :shrug:
Not to forget Allyx. Maybe I should take a vacation, too... Seems to be the season for it. That aside, it doesn't make much sense to continue with this without a consensus in Co8 about it. So I'll just wait and see.
In the RAW, total concealment prevents someone targeting you with a spell which has "target" as its area of effect, unless you can touch them. So, enlarge, magic missile, charm etc DO NOT work for a blinded person. You can imagine this as enfolding the whole body in the magic IMHO, so you have to see them (personal justification). Rays and harm etc MIGHT work because they rely on a hit roll and the 50% miss chance IF the target is "pinpointed". To pinpoint a target, they must have attacked you in melee and not moved since, OR you can make a listen check at the appropriate DC (taking into account distance and actions being taken) to pinpoint them. (You are also allowed to target a square in the hopes they are in it, and in this case the DM counts them as if pinpointed if you guess right-but in the CRPG you will obviously guess right=abuse as you the player can see them!) Think of this as just having to connect on part of the body. Area spells can target successfully because you can hose the area, but if you try to target enemies and avoid your mates that would probably be abuse unless you pinpointed everyone's location through listen checks etc. Whether and how you can implement this in the CRPG is beyond me, but the rules lawyering is my pleasure:nerd: . Fizzling chance sounds a good compromise to me, FWIW. EDIT- I suppose that you could therefore cast charm etc AS A TOUCH SPELL if you are adjacent to the target and you pinpoint them.
Oh please don't forget me I've not been vacationing, it's more like a messy divorce between myself and the telephone company, and the telephone company got to keep the dog, the car and the internet connection. As Tim Smith says, magic missile will fail if the target cannot be seen (total concealment, blindness etc...) If the spell requires a touch/ranged touch attach, add the concealment (50% miss chance) to the target vs that attack. I'd personally like to see area spells that are cast while the caster is blinded, have the target area displaced (like with grenade like missiles). Code: 5-6 3-4\ | /7-8 \|/ 1-2 -x- 9-10 | x = intended target location but exactly how that could be implemented is anybodies guess.
How I'd do it: The target gets a huge (+5) bonus to the save on top of whatever else they get; if they make it, then they take no damage. If they fail they still only take half damage.
that sounds simple enough, but the problem is that how spells work its kinda hard to change stuff that easily. you might have to remove the part where you can't target at all when blinded and then effectively add a new spell to the spell script with the condition that the caster be blind.
Wouldn't be Talktalk by any chance, would it? Some DMs like to do this anyway in PNP, as its a little bit unrealistic to accurately target your magical artillery to the nearest inch in the heat of battle. Baldurs Gate worked reasonably for this -you cast the spell as the enemies were rushing you so couldn't be sure you were on the money. Generally in PNP I am happy to let the caster target accurately-it IS MAGIC after all....
