Source
r/DnD•
Retreboi

Any Ideas on Blinding an Opponent in Combat?

5th Edition

Iya, a little context to this post. I am currently in a campaign with a couple of my friends, with the main goal of RPing and having fun. I am the most experienced of the group, so I have been helping our DM (has experience with D&D but first time DMing) and my friends (none have played DM before) with little things here and there to make the campaign more enjoyable. I noticed that some of my friends don't really enjoy combat as much becuase they see no RP potential in it. So I wanted to help them see there is lots of RP potential in combat.

So long story short, I was looking for a unique way of gaining advantage against opponents during a fight; so, I started looking at conditions and items. I noticed that Blinding an opponent would give you advantage against them but it doesn't appear that there is any item (like dust or something) that caused the blindness condition. I also noticed that the paralysed condition also gains you advantage against creatures (for obvious reasons). So I looked through some items and noticed the sertain poisons would inflict opponents with the paralysed condition.

So, I now have two questions. The first, is if there is any way of inflicting the blindness condition by throwing something like dust into there eyes? The second, can a PC use a Poisoners Kit to make a paralysing poison? Thanks in advance!

TL:DR can you blind an opponent with dust and can you make paralysing poison with a Poisoners Kit?

Posted Jul 17, 2023, 5:39 AM UTC

122
mr-frankfuckfafree•

you’re the dm, you can do literally anything you want.

just make sure to give them a check to see if it takes haha

1
RetreboiOP•

Na ya na mate, I'm a PC that was given permission by the DM to go look for a creative way of making combat more fun for our friends. But I will make note of that when I ask this kinda stuff, LOL!

1
mr-frankfuckfafree•

my b, i scanned your post. regardless, “dust of blindness” now exists!

1
RetreboiOP•

Oh, I must be blind! I searched for items that inflected blindness and saw nothing. Guess that resource must be out of date.

1
Aquadictus•

If your DM allows for it, it is possible.

The world is managed by the DM so if they think a paralytic poison can be created, or you can temporarily blind you opponents by throwing sand in their eyes (pocket sand!) , Then sure!

1
RetreboiOP•

That is very helpful, and yes, the DM has given me permission to look for some neat stuff to help spice up combat. It's just up to them if they want to add it in or not.

1
Yuri-theThief•

Deafness/blindness spell comes to mind.

Prone condition gives advantage on melee attacks. Shove the enemy prone. Several class features have abilities that inflict blindness.

Making poisons with the poisoners kit? That's a question to ask your dm. I like it, but you know, ask your dm. Throwing dirt in someone's eye sounds like an improvised action, again ask you dm. Depending, I may rule either an attack or grant a save, probably taking your full action, but I may only rule the enemy has temporary disadvantage on attack rolls; not necessarily that they are blind.

1
Yuri-theThief•

Additionally, you can use the help action in combat.

1
RetreboiOP•

I already helped our bard make a single player OP with Help action + Bardic Inspiration combo to help out our fighter a little

1
PraiseTyche•

#N O

1
Rockergage•

Part of the issue with trying to set up blindness is that we actually are pretty reflexive about protecting our eyes etc. it has to be something like a dust, flash of light etc that catches someone by surprise otherwise you’re trying to slash someone’s eyes out and that’s another thing I don’t recommend because it makes HP really stupid if you’re slashing off arms or eyes and they still have 80% HP.

1
RetreboiOP•

Indeed, I have already had some decision back and forth with our DM and we both agree that making "targeted attacks" would make combat a drag. If we can do it, so can the enemies, which just makes combat "who can disable the other side first" which isn't fun. All though you bring up a good point, it would probably have to be an item that we can buy for it to really be fair.

1
Rockergage•

You might need to start thinking of your character as a tinkerer/inventor as well. Someone who is surrounded by magical people and needs tools to attempt to match their power such as Batman or Sokka

1
RetreboiOP•

Oh definitely, I play hard on the "the fool with uses others assumptions to their advantage" a lot, it's my everyone seems to love interacting with my character because I like to just say or do random stuff to make them laugh. These things are more for my friends who are having trouble using the environment to there advantage, thus making combat more of a drag. I'm hoping that by allowing these thongs to be done (via item or otherwise) helps them in combat a little more, at least so they can grasp the ropes.

1
Rockergage•

Part of what you can do is start to incorporate stuff they do in video games and specifically mentioning them to players. Throw a trash can or two into the world, mention a cliff that a person is standing next to, try to bait them into using the world by making outlandish and improbable moments. Add in a log ride that you can have enemies be pushed into.

1
LookOverall•

Targeting particular parts of the body, that’s probably too much mechanics, but attacks that seek to impose a temporary condition- that adds a bit of variety. “I try and trip him with my tail” knock backs,

There’s a nice attack in Tai Chi sword form where you wipe blood off your blade and throw it in your opponent’s face. I’d allow that, though it would only give disadvantage

1
dirtplantington•

You could use the called shots mechanic and in exchange for there being a +4 bonus to the creature you're targeting's AC, you can target the eyes to blind them for 1d4 rounds (and I think permanently on a critical hit). Called shots are a really fun mechanic at the right table, and it sounds like this is the right table! There's called shots for like ears, eyes, wings, vitals and all have different effects on a hit or critical hit

1
RetreboiOP•

We had something like this in the first session we had, but after a wyvern almost ripped off our fighters arm and some PCs (may have been me..) took advantage of this but just trying to know the wyvern out rather than killing it, our DM dropped the rule after talking with me. We both realise that the Called Shot rule does allow for you to do some fun things I agree, but to an extent it's just kinda makes the games stall out. We desided to keep the rule in some situations (namely rugged brawls) but otherwise it's simply not a good fit for our party.

1
LongjumpingFix5801•

Our Thief rogue uses pocket sand and their Sleight of Hand Bonus Action.

1
Prowler64Wizard•

Do you want the blindness advantage to be on the player's side or the enemy's side? If on the DM's side, have a circus themed area / dungeon. Have a clown that throws pies at the characters. Hitting them with a high enough attack roll will pie them in the face, blinding them, and takes an action to wipe it off. This kind of completely different setting could also give the players opportunities to roleplay with not just the enemy clowns but other parts of the circus themes.

1
LordTyler123•

I use my free action to scoop up dirt and roll to throw it in some1s face. On hit no damage but they are blinded until the dirt is wiped from their eyes.

Kinda trading one attack roll so someone els can get advantage hope they make the most of it.

1