Author Topic: Effects of lighting or blindness on attacks and maneuvers  (Read 1013 times)

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Offline Jengada

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Effects of lighting or blindness on attacks and maneuvers
« on: April 09, 2017, 02:18:38 PM »
I must be missing something. I've looked through all my books, and I'm not finding anything that describes the penalty for blindness on  melee or maneuvers. There's a thread on her about the Blind Fighting and Spatial Location Awareness skills, pointing out that if you use SLA, then it can overcome "the -90 penalty for blindness." But that penalty is only presented in that skill description, as far as I can find.

ChL Table 15.32 (for maneuver modifiers) has a -40 for Pitch Dark, significantly less than what SLA posits. Spells like Blind or Blinding state that they blind, but not what that does in terms of mechanics.

Is there some table or text I'm totally blanking on? This seems like something that should be in the basic rules!

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Offline OLF, i.e. Olf Le Fol

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Re: Effects of lighting or blindness on attacks and maneuvers
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2017, 10:44:42 AM »
RMSS "Spell Law" states that "for game purposes, blindness and complete darkness may be handled the same way. Magical darkness is, to all intents and purposes, impenetrable without magical light of some kind. Normal fires, torches and the like will still produce heat, and will continue to burn (and ignite com- bustible materials), but will not produce any light.
Characters who are blind or operating under magical darkness operate with a modification of -100. Characters with Spatial Awareness skill may attempt to move without penalty (or a reduced penalty)." (chapter 7.1.20, p231, "Darkness and Blindness")
The world was then consumed by darkness, and mankind was devoured alive and cast into hell, led by a jubilant 紗羽. She rejoiced in being able to continue serving the gods, thus perpetuating her travels across worlds to destroy them. She looked at her doll and, remembering their promises, told her: "You see, my dear, we succeeded! We've become legends! We've become villains! We've become witches!" She then laughed with a joyful, childlike laughter, just as she kept doing for all of eternity.

Offline jdale

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Re: Effects of lighting or blindness on attacks and maneuvers
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2017, 11:02:31 AM »
There is a discrepancy between the maneuver modifiers and the blindness penalty. RMU explains this as the penalty is for example -100 for pitch dark if it's basically necessary to see to do whatever you are trying to do, or half that penalty if vision is very helpful but not required. Combat is a good example where vision is basically necessary (the full penalty applies) whereas picking a lock might be an example where it's easier with good lighting but you can operate in darkness, so half penalty. I think if you take that as the logic underlying the listed penalties in RMSS, it makes sense.
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Offline Jengada

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Re: Effects of lighting or blindness on attacks and maneuvers
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2017, 07:43:46 PM »
RMSS "Spell Law" states that "for game purposes, blindness and complete darkness may be handled the same way. Magical darkness is, to all intents and purposes, impenetrable without magical light of some kind. Normal fires, torches and the like will still produce heat, and will continue to burn (and ignite com- bustible materials), but will not produce any light.
Characters who are blind or operating under magical darkness operate with a modification of -100. Characters with Spatial Awareness skill may attempt to move without penalty (or a reduced penalty)." (chapter 7.1.20, p231, "Darkness and Blindness")
Thanks, this is perfect, and what I was expecting. It seems low light should also have penalties, I'm considering doubling the Perception penalties for Heavy Shadows (-20) and Dark (-60) to cover this.
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