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Old May 18th, 2017, 12:46 PM
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Playing Deaf, Blind or mute Characters in D&D 5e

Since quite a moment I wanted to play A Deaf Spellcaster. Some said to me that it would be hard to a Deaf be a spellcaster. I Wonder if that apply to a Blind or Mute character too. What are your thoughts about it?

They tell me the disadvantage of playing an unusual character like that, but I wonder why it would be a nuisance to play that kind of character in a game?

Like a blind mystic for example or a mute monk or a deaf spellcaster?

Any advice to play a character like that?
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Old May 18th, 2017, 12:54 PM
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I've played a mute monk before. The trick is in establishing certain hand signals that other party members can easily relate to. Thumbs up, OK sign, etc. You know those movies where one soldier is scouting ahead of the rest of the group and he does things like hold up one hand, palm forward, as an indicator for everyone to stop moving? Yeah, do that.
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Old May 18th, 2017, 07:33 PM
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Deaf wouldn't be impossible to RP, depending on the reality level of your GM. If you face a standard dungeon crawl, it's probably not too hard. If you are doing a lot of city time, then it could be difficult... how will you sell treasure? Order drinks? Gather information, charm the city guards, etc.. It can all be done, but... Like being a Drow Elf in 2nd edition, the "reality" is, life would be ten times harder, and many things might not happen around you.

(One example... the classic "city guard chasing a person, yelling "stop thief!". The GM desire is that you do/try, and uncover a plotline. But, your deaf PC doesn't see the chase, never hears the screams, never hears the guards, and thus... missed plotline/clue.)

Mute is similar... it can be overcome even easier, I think. I could go a day without talking, and live a fairly normal life. A day without hearing, however, would require radical changes to my day/life/career/relationships.

Blindness is one of those that folks always love to try, but... you either need a very forgiving DM, or you end up with 'My PC is blind, but he has blindsense, sonar, echolocation, and telepathy" so basically, he's not really blind. He's Matt Murdock/Daredevil... disabled, with no downside.

Sure, you do well in a pitch black dungeon, but... ask a blind person how well they navigate a crowded LA street, or New York Subway. Now, ask them how well they would do that, if everyone in the area was either running in panic, or intent on mugging them. That's your blind PC, in a dungeon, with goblins trying to kill you.


All that said, I think the idea is fun, and you should try it. the worst that happens is you find out you don't like it, and move along. The best is that you do well, and love it, and create a memorable PC.
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Old May 19th, 2017, 12:48 AM
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I'm currently playing a deaf spellcaster (but in Pathfinder, not 5e) and having an absolute blast with her. As usual, it will depend on how lenient or picky your DM is. Here are my workarounds for the typical problems of being deaf.

1) She has a special class ability (oracle deaf curse if you're familiar with Pathfinder) that lets her cast spells silently (not sure if that's an issue in 5e).

2) She wasn't born deaf, so she speaks well enough to be understood. (Actually, she talks a lot. More than a lot.) Some DMs might be more picky with this.

3) She reads lips. Of course, in real life it's impossible to read lips 100% accurately (or even close to 100% accurately). Then again, we're playing a fantasy game—you can't cast magic in real life either. My DM handwaved it as being sufficient to understand people most of the time.

4) There are still lots of problems being deaf. You can't read the lips of someone behind you, or tell what the knight is saying behind his helmet, or hear an explosion etc, etc. And that, to me, is the appeal of playing a deaf character. You have all these wonderful challenges arising from fairly ordinary situations. For example, my PC separated from the group during a pitched battle, with no way to communicate. I routinely choose to have my PC misread lips, leading to misunderstandings. The list goes on and on. For me, it's a heck of a lot of fun.

In summary, I'd say that the key is for your character to still be useful to the party, and to embrace the extra challenges and complications he/she will face. Other than that, be sure to communicate with your DM about the parameters of his/her sensory deficit. Your character will be gimped in certain situations—and you should enjoy it.
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Old May 19th, 2017, 10:09 AM
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@ekidnu and Dirkoth, thanks for your encouragement. In the D&D 5e there is an Observant feat that let you read lips. About the character, she born completely deaf but with the help of his Mentor she learned to cast the Finde familiar Spell and since then learning to cast spell became easier because she can hear thought her familiar's ears. Something curious about her is that she use minor illusion spell to speak with little sister voice!:P

I barely have all how will she be! Thanks to you, I could consider a lot of facts like I didn't realize, like "how will she communicate in a battle with her companions?" but that makes me play the character more!:P

I could play a deaf warlock and would be easy if I choose the great old one pact along with the Chain pact and the Familiar invocation so she can hear though his familiar and even talk though him, but it would take the charm about playing such character!
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Last edited by J2B; May 19th, 2017 at 10:12 AM.
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Old May 19th, 2017, 03:09 PM
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My history is that any time you have a PC with a disadvantage or significant flaw, it's a lot more fun to play. The beauty is overcoming flaws and advancing the goal.

We tend to enjoy things more when the underdog wins. When Arnold Schwarzenegger or The Rock is shown in a movie in a fight, don't you kind of expect them to win because they are the biggest/strongest?
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Old May 19th, 2017, 03:36 PM
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Yeah!, that's why I want to change the pace and do something unusual. I like to make weird choices as characters. I tend to use the worst compatibility cases in races for some clases!

I played a half-orc monk in D&D 5e game. Let me tell you my best ability points only had a 14. when normally character good in that kind of class have a 16. But let me tell you that I enjoyed playing that character than others.
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Old May 19th, 2017, 08:40 PM
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An interesting train of philosophical thought is:

if you are deaf (or blind, or...), in a world of magic (healing), does it heal you? If so, why are you still deaf/blind/mute. If not, why not? How can a cure light wounds spell revive you from (basically) death, but not restore eyesight? How can it mend bones, replace livers, mend nearly amputated fingers and limbs, and not grow back a tympanic membrane?

In a world of magic, why are there any physical defects?

Even more interesting: Does a heal spell remove scars? What about tattoos? If you cast a heal on an Orc, does it get better looking? or more Orc (worse) looking? How does the spell know to not heal the eye he plucked out, to look fierce? What if Ogrthrasha Broken Tooth swallowed a healing potion? Would be then just be Ogrthrasha Normal teeth?
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Old May 19th, 2017, 09:53 PM
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For me there is a logical conclusion.

1) If you born with a defect like mute, deaf or blind, like the healing spell restore you to your last healthy form. Like you can't fix a thing that works even if works in different way the should. Like a car with an horrible sound that it can be driven.

2) if you use your natural healing (normally leaves scars) like a healing spell restore you to your last funtional body, the scars will remain.

3) I think the lesser restoration and greater restoration spell can recover limbs lost or parts of your body only if it's not a born defect. Like you can't restore a thing that since it was created was a failure but you can replace it though.
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Last edited by J2B; May 19th, 2017 at 09:54 PM.
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Old May 19th, 2017, 10:48 PM
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the last healthy form idea is interesting... is that your last healthy form ten seconds ago, ten minutes ago, ten days ago? How does the healing spell know how far back to go, to heal, and stop?

Can it go back before birth, before the damage in the womb? If you heal a baby at birth, could it undo a birth defect?



The spell "remove blindness/deafness" is interesting...

srd
Remove blindness/deafness cures blindness or deafness (your choice), whether the effect is normal or magical in nature. The spell does not restore ears or eyes that have been lost, but it repairs them if they are damaged.


So, if you are born blind, the spell works. If you are born without eyes, it won't. If your eyes have been burned and horribly scarred with acid, or pierced with metal, it will heal them. If they've been cut out, it won't.

Oddly, if you are deaf, for any reason, it works, although it may not restore your ears... which have little to nothing to do with hearing (except to funnel sound to the parts that actually do hear). It will restore the bones of the ear, the tympanic membrane, the fluid inside the cochlea, the cilia inside the cochlea, even the audiotory nerve... but it can't restore or create the mass of cartilage outside the head... unless there's some of it left.

Makes you wonder how much of your ear has to be torn off, to be "lost", as opposed to simply being damaged.
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Old Aug 1st, 2017, 10:29 PM
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Being deafened shouldn't limit spellcasting in 5e, and the "deafened" condition isn't bad, either:

"A deafened creature can’t hear and automatically fails any ability check that requires hearing."

I know it sounds pretty obvious, but the only disadvantage of being deaf is you can't hear.
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Old Aug 3rd, 2017, 02:11 PM
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Blind characters are interesting to me. You should stick to probably daredevil rule. You use some sort of radar sense to see but in some environments you are at disadvantage.
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Old Aug 7th, 2017, 07:02 AM
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I'm currently playing a mute character since he's a Kenku, however you still are allowed to make noises which you can do masterfully.

So for me it's a combination of making noises that hopefully make sense in what I want. Such as I did a horse hoof noise to which a party member guessed I suggest we get horses.

I've not come up with any hand signals as of yet but I will in the future
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Old Aug 30th, 2017, 05:55 PM
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The only reason I can think to limit spellcasting due to deafness is if the character were born deaf, or deafened before he began learning magic.

I imagine magical casting as being very precise...you're kinda manipulating the forces of nature, y'know? So any condition that would prevent you from being precise with your verbalization would have an effect, including drunkenness, getting your tongue pierced, sleeping on your face and having it go numb (okay, that might be a bit much ), etc.

Then again, you could always find someone to plant the memory of it being spoken in your mind, I guess, so maybe that's a workaround.
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Old Dec 18th, 2017, 12:27 PM
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If anyone else is playing one, they are fun to mess with for your low WIS or low INT characters. We had a mute character in a live tabletop game and my (not too bright) character used to act out what people said in charade form for her. Of course her hearing was fine, but she couldn't successfully communicate that to me; I would just take her attempts as frustration with her disability and act things out slower and in more detail. Good times :-)
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