Blind is one of the status conditions in ADOM. It may affect both the PC and monsters.
Effects on the PC
A blind PC will suffer the following effects:
- The map stops being updated for the duration of the blindness, except if the player changes level. The player cannot see the PC or any of the monsters on the map. The dungeon map already explored remains visible. There is a limited workaround to this; a blessed necklace of the eye will allow the map to be perceived within a range of 1. It will not allow the player to see monsters or the PC.
- While the player will still notice if (s)he becomes attacked and is able to discern missing attacks ("You feel something pass very closely by your head!"), (s)he cannot recognize any monster types automatically. Extensive knowledge of the game monsters will allow the player to deduce the attackers by a number of hits per round, special effects applied on the PC such as poisoning. One of the possible strategies is trying to 'c'hat to the monster in the direction of the attack (which will also have to be deduced beforehand).
- The PC will receive a penalty to DV and will not be able to train shield skill.
- While blind, the player will not receive the usual warnings for attacking neutral/friendly monsters or jumping into water and these actions will be performed automatically with all possible consequences. The PC will also automatically activate any traps.
- Missile attacks can still be used with severe to-hit penalties while the player himself/herself will experience targeting issues.
- The PC cannot perform the following actions:
- Applying most skills that have to be actively used; note that blind characters will still be able to pick locks using their sense of touch[1]
- Training with Garth
Causes
Thankfully no monster in the game can blind the PC. This status condition can only be received using a number of specific ways:
- Drinking potions: potion of blindness, cursed potion of invisibility; drinking orcish glibber, a.k.a. a cursed potion of booze, will also briefly blind the PC unless (s)he is an orc.
- Triggering traps: light trap, stunning door trap.
- Extra: getting hit in the face with mud, which is only possible as a one-time event while entering a special room; a certain statue can also blow dust in the PC's face which has the same blinding effect as a glob of mud.
Cures/Treatment
Blindness received from potions and traps is temporary and will usually wear off relatively quickly (the exact number of turns varies and may possible be affected by the PC's attributes), while blindness caused by mud or dust is *permanent*: it will stay indefinitely unless the player issues the clean face command ('F').
Effects on monsters
Blind monsters will stagger around aimlessly, randomly moving in any direction and attacking the PC if they stumble into him/her. Blinded monsters can thus be easily targeted and shot down with missiles or spells, as they will not be able to reach the PC reliably. Even in melee there is same value to blindness, as the monster might move past the PC in open spaces instead of attacking him/her. Blind monsters can be backstabbed.
Blinded monsters will also not be able to use most of their activated abilities including spellcasting and missile attacks. Teleporting monster however will be able to move through astral plane and will actually perform this action with more priority.
Players can afflict monsters with blindness by hitting them (both in melee and missile with the added effect of destroying the potion) with a potion of blindness or a cursed potion of invisibility. Missiles weapons "of darkness" will likewise blind the monster on successful hits.
Note that a number of monster is immune to blindness.
Extra
Game messages
While the PC is blind the majority of messages normally generated by the game to indicate a certain action/event are either not displayed at all or replaced by less informative versions. The following list contains the replacement messages (note that it is not yet full):
| Event | Normal message | "Blind" message |
|---|---|---|
| Getting hit by a monster | "The -foo- (critically) hits/fails to hurt you." | "Someone/something (critically) hits/fails to hurt you." |
| Evading an attack | "The -foo- misses you." | "You feel something passing very closely besides your head!" |
| Dungeon features | ||
| Standing on a door square | N/A | "You stumble against some kind of opening." |
| Standing on an altar | "You see an ancient altar of black obsidian/gray granite/pure white marble." | "You stumble against some stone block." |
| Standing on a forge | "An old forge is standing here." | "A lot of stuff seems to be standing around here." |
| Standing on a herb bush | "Some <herb status> are growing here." | "Something seems to be growing here." |
| Standing on a pool | "You see a <color> pool." | "Your feet suddenly feel wet." |
| Getting caught in webs | "Yikes! You stumble into a huge and quite strong web!" | "Yikes! You stumble into something sticky and dusty!" |
Zen Monks
One of the most challenging challenge games conceived is the "Zen Monk" challenge. This involves a Monk, permanently blinded by a very early glob of mud, trying to play through the entire game and win without removing the blindness. Players will be unable to react and respond to threats before they're attacked, and navigating through the dungeons without a blessed necklace of the eye is pretty much impossible without the player carefully cartographing the levels on his/her own. Strategy revolves around becoming more powerful by careful leveling in easy areas, and making use of the full abilities the PC does retain; for instance, (s)he can freely use Darkness to level the playing field against many creatures.
The challenge cannot be completed in ADOM version 1.1.1, as the chaos orbs cannot be put in their respective anomalies on D:48, as was painfully discovered by player Soirana in his attempt, the as to now only report of a player actually obtaining four of the orbs. This bug was fixed in version 1.2.0.