Wednesday, March 15, 2017

D&D 5e: Sight Unseen

As I was tinkering with Out of the Abyss, one of the challenges has been dealing with the light (or perhaps I should say 'dark') situation in the Underdark: the races who live there naturally have adapted to the lack of sunlight, but not necessarily to a total lack of light. Even those races which have innate and extensive (120') darkvision still tend to use fire--either magical or mundane--to light their settlements or to create artistic effects. Still, I thought, there have to be some creatures that don't use light, abhor it, or (at least) don't seek it out.

I scoured the internet for lists of fantasy monsters, creatures, and humanoids who would be considered "blind," but I couldn't find anything comprehensive. As such, I thought I'd save everyone the time I went through and list what little I did find with my notes! I'm particularly interested in creatures whose eyes don't work, so I'm not looking for creatures with extra senses in addition to sight, but rather those that lack sight.

Constructs:A few constructs are granted magical sight which doesn't rely on "eyes" and which allows them to perceive a limited space around them. Animated Objects and Helmed Horrors (but not golems) fall into this category.

Burrowers:
Chances are that if it spends its life digging through the dirt, it doesn't need eyes to do it. Ankhegs are an example of these sightless monsters. On the more ferocious end of things, Purple Worms are both deadly and blind!

Plants and Oozes:
Most plants and mindless oozes are eyeless, relying on other senses. Blights and Shambling Mounds are examples of these plant-based creatures, as are fungi like Gas Spores, Shriekers, and Violet Fungus. While Myconids can see, their creations (Spore Servants) cannot.

Broken Undead:
Pieces of larger creatures that have been reanimated often function the same way that constructs do--using magic to perceive the world. Crawling Claws are an example of this kind of reanimated creature.

Blind Animals:
While we might think of bats as typical of this category, there are other monstrosities and beasts who don't rely on sight. Darkmantles and Gricks are examples of this.

Aberrations: 
Aberrant creatures cover a multitude of alien beings, some of whom are native to worlds without sight. Grell and Intellect Devourers are perfect examples.


Humanoids:
This is a very small category--unless you count clumsy carpenters and kids with BB-guns. Grimlocks
are degenerate humans who have, over centuries, lost their eyes and gained blindsight.

...and that's all!

The bottom line is that the ability to inflict blindness is a much more practical ability than I had initially thought, and that most--almost all--creatures have some kind of traditional sight (although that sight may be augmented by more alien abilities and senses).