Casting Spells When the Caster is Impaired

Impaired Vision

A wizard's vision can be permanently or temporarily impaired as a result of blindness (magical or natural), disease, poison, or physical damage. Vision is also impaired in darkness.

The ability to see is not crucial in the casting of many spells. For instance, mirror image, monster summoning, tongues, and comprehend languages (when used to translate spoken words) do not require the wizard to be looking at anything in particular, and can therefore be cast with impaired vision. However, spells such as read magic, detect invisibility, and comprehend languages (when used to translate written words) that require the wizard to be looking at a particular object or location cannot be cast with impaired vision.

Impaired vision has no effect on spells the wizard casts on himself, such as change self or armor. Likewise, impaired vision has no effect when the wizard is attempting a touch spell (such as protection from evil) on a willing subject, presuming the wizard is close enough to the subject to touch him. However, if a wizard attempts to use a touch spell on an unwilling subject, the wizard must make a successful attack roll with a -4 penalty (this assumes that the wizard is close enough to his intended subject to touch him). As with all attacks, the DM can modify this roll if the victim is unprepared for the attack or is unaware of it. If the roll succeeds, the wizard touches the subject and the normal spell effect occurs.

Spells that are cast on a specific person, place, or thing from a distance, such as charm person or magic missile, cannot be cast by wizards with impaired vision. A wizard cannot simply blast a magic missile in a general direction and hope for the best-- the spell does not operate that way. Knowing the exact destination of these types of spells is a vital element of their execution.

Spells that are cast over a general area can be cast by wizards with impaired vision, although their effects may not be as precise as they would be if the wizard could see. For instance, a wizard with impaired vision could cast flaming sphere in front of himself and direct it to move straight ahead toward an area where he hears a group of screeching goblins. But if the goblins scatter at the approach of the flaming sphere, the wizard will not be able to accurately direct its movement to run them down.

This limitation also holds true for illusion spells that create illusionary images, such as phantasmal force; at best, the illusionist is making a rough estimate as to the location of his illusion, and any adjustments he makes to the illusion (such as moving it or having it respond to the actions of other characters) is unlikely to be more than an educated guess.

Additionally, the vision-impaired wizard is creating visual illusions from memory, and the results might not always be as precise as they would be if the wizard could see. In general, the more complex the illusion cast by a vision-impaired wizard, the more easily the illusion will be disbelieved by an opponent; the DM is free to add as much as a +4 bonus to the saving throws of opponents attempting to disbelieve such illusions (see pages 81-82 of the Player's Handbook for details on adjudicating illusions, and the section on illusions in Chapter 7 of this book).

Vision-impaired wizards can use their familiars for information about their surroundings, thus enabling them to cast spells with more accuracy and precision. Wizard eye and similar spells can help a vision-impaired wizard to "see." Infravision is not always useful in these situations, since it works to enhance the wizard's natural vision (although infravision helps if the wizard's vision is impaired because of darkness, and not because of disease or damage). The non-weapon proficiency Blind Fighting is equally ineffective for the vision-impaired wizard.

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