Sightless Blademaster (Samurai/Oracle)

Vision is a tool, like all other senses and weapons, but some are not as reliant on it as others. Whether by choice or by fate, the sightless blademaster forsakes his sense of vision in favor of honing his other senses into tools far too powerful to fool. Sightless blademasters use their humble appearance and apparent weakness to provoke their enemies into grossly underestimating their battle prowess. (Original concept by Taco Man)

Primary Class: Samurai.

Secondary Class: Oracle.

Alignment: Any.

Hit Dice: d10.

Bonus Skills and Ranks: The sightless blademaster selects three oracle skills to add to his class skills in addition to the normal samurai class skills. The sightless blademaster gains a number of ranks at each level equal to 4 + Int modifier.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The sightless blademaster is proficient with all simple and martial weapons, plus the double walking stick katana, katana, naginata, sword cane, wakizashi, zatoichi-bo, and zatoichi-hanbo. This proficiency also extends to a sword cane’s, zatoichi-bo’s, and zatoichi-hanbo’s scabbard, should they be used in combat. The sightless blademaster is proficient with all types of armor (heavy, light, and medium), but not with shields.

Blind: A sightless blademaster is blind and automatically fails any visual Perception checks. He cannot use scrolls or any other magical item requiring reading or functioning eyes. However, he is immune to gaze attacks and other effects which target the eyes. The sightless blademaster is trained to use his other senses to perceive the world around him, particularly his ears, and gains a +10 competence bonus to all auditory Perception checks. A trained sightless blademaster's other senses are so acute that, unless a target succeeds on a Stealth check, he can identify, by sound (and sometimes smell), any creature within 20 feet and suffers no penalties in melee combat from being blind or when attacking invisible creatures. A sightless blademaster can target creatures he can identify with spells or ranged attacks but all creatures outside of the sightless blademaster’s sensory range benefit from full concealment. All Disguise skill checks made against him suffer a –10 penalty. An effect which nullifies sound or renders a sightless blademaster deaf suppresses this ability. A sightless blademaster's ability to audibly discern an individual's location and identity improves by 5 feet at 5th level and every five levels thereafter, to a maximum of 40 feet at 20th level. This ability and blind fight replace mount.

Blind Fight: At 1st level, a sightless blademaster is an expert at blind fighting and gains Blind Fight as a bonus feat.