The good natured pyromancer throws a Pyroblast at you. Beeing the dodgy thief that you are you jump out of the way, rolling a 9 on Defy Danger. I give you a worse outcome.
“You jump backwards, away from the heatwave but something about the beauty of the fire just draws your eye. To bad that the explosion comes with a blinding white light. It is the last thing you will see for a while.
Then you hear a warscream comming from the Ghouls to your right. But you can’t see anything. What do you do?”
Poop my pants. Then run blindly.
Close my useless eyes and listen carefully. flicking my dagger at the nearest scream.
Feign death! Wait for the action to move past me.
Then backstab all the way!
I scream and grab at my eyes, shouting for Bjorn to come save me. Again.
Stand with a look of aw on my face. yell out “I have seen the holy light of Fizzwick the day bringer. I am his servant and no evil shall stand before his might. I have been blessed with his power to burn evil to cinders who dares face the light? ” and hope I distract the ghouls long enough for the cleric to turn them.
Over serious response:
I’ve temporarily blinded players a couple of times, and it really ruins their fun. I won’t be doing it again.
Adrian Brooks blinding a player is actually a pretty decent in-a-pinch application of “put someone in a spot” as long as you don’t drag it out. It’s especially fun to put the pressure on someone else, too. So, when the Thief gets blinded, look at the Paladin and say;
“Lux, you can see Bug stumbling around blind and the giant spider looks ready to pounce. What’ll you do?”
Adam Koebel Blinding can also work if you / the player use it as an opportunity to “sell” the character’s competence. Make “blinded” about missing clues or opportunities, but using cunning, unconventional solutions.
Nick Pilon that’s what we call “being a fan of the characters”! Definitely a good plan.
I know my tools so well I don’t need to look at them. My hands pull my kit and I lay it on the floor. I’ve removed locks in complete darkness. I’ve dodged guards. And most importantly, I’ve learned to lay a trap in under 30 seconds in the dark and hide.
Adrian Brooks Your mistake was in blinding the players rather than their characters. I can see how blinded players wouldn’t be having a good time… 🙂
Daniel Kellett once played a character who was blinded halfway through a campaign. His character continued to do awesome things while blind, but the biggest problem was mostly that we’d forget and talk about stuff that assumed the character could still see.
GM: “A handsome man turns and smiles at you.”
Daniel: “Awesome. I smile back and – wait, no, I’m blind, that doesn’t work.”
GM: “Right. Ummm… You hear a soft chuckle, and…”
Daniel’s solution was to start wearing a blindfold during the game.
I was blind in pathfinder society game two weeks ago…
And the week before there was this creepy dude in pathfinder who cast a magical darkness immune to magical and mundane light. Which means EVERYBODY was blind. Scary stuff…