This Christmas, my sister got me a DVD of an old japanese movie called "Zatoichi 3 : New Tale of Zatoichi!" or something like that. Well anyways, I got to thinking that a blind swordsman might be a pretty interesting character to play, but I have no idea how this could be done, and still stand a chance in a fight, especially when your opponents could be pointing pistols (or worse) at you.

I pretty much figured, this has to be an adept and he will have the "Blind" flaw.

Blind Fighting is the first power I think I'd need.

Now blind fighting actually applies to those who are blind, right? Not just for people in no-light situations?

I was also looking into Astral Perception. However, from how it reads in the books, this wouldn't be so useful in a fight, and on top of that, you are looking at +2 modifiers to all your actions while perceiving.
Does anybody know anymore about this?

I'm also thinking an "Aptitude" edge in edged weapons would be needed. Our group usually never uses this edge, but I think it'd be permissible in this situation.

So now, does anybody have any ideas to help me make my Blind Swordsman in such a way that he could be survivable???

If you have Magic in the Shadows and the Cannon Companion, the idea of a blind swordsman is reasonably playable.

The Blindfighting Adept power lowers the modifier for blindfire or fighting in full darkness to +4. You probably shouldn't bother taking this if you take astral perception. On the plus side, it has the insane coolness factor that you may sometimes be better off closing your eyes and shooting than trying to aim at the target.

The Blindfighting technique in Cannon Companion "reduces any visibility target number penalties by 2". That would include fighting in full darkness. Or, you could probably talk your DM into letting you use this with Astral Perception(By the way Kung Fu, Ninjutsu, and Pentjak-Silat are the only martial arts that allow use of Blindfighting with edged weapons) to reduce your TNs in melee combat.

You might be able to talk your DM into letting you do some other method of reducing modifiers, such as auditory enhancements or a souped-up version of the thermal sense gland.

.....and if you think Zatoichi 3 is good, find & watch the entire series. You'll see why Tarantino, Kurosawa & so many others tell people this is one of the major influences on their styles.
Also, there was a small film called "Blind Fury" with Rutger Hauer in it. VERY Zatoichi-like.

Blind Fire: +8
....and with Blind-Fighting(Adept Power): +4.
...and with Motion Sense(Adept Power): +2.
...and with Blind-Fighting(Martial Arts Maneuver): +0.

Did I miss anything?

Hell, don't forget Kitano's Zatoichi. Fucking brilliant.

Also:

Motion Sense, cost 0.5, in SOTA:2064. If you sense the target (see table pg67 SOTA2064), you get a -2 reduction to visibility modifiers.

actually, Wireknight, it's:

Blind Flaw: +6
Blind-Fighting (Adept Power): +3 (according the the FAQ guys, blind-fighting reduces penalties by half)
Motion Sense (Adept Power: +1
Blind-Fighting (MA Maneuver): +0

same result, unless you want to use a different manuever.

Well, in the astral you can see the physical whether you are physically blind or not.
I would take Astral Perception and bounce around it that way and only rely on the blind fighting need when you have things in the Astral Plane that you don't want to get ugly with.

that always felt like cheating, to me. "i'm gonna make a blind swordsman who isn't really blind!"

That's because it IS cheating.

You lose all your Blind Swordsman Cool Points ™ if you do that.

And "They" take away your cane if you do that.

it would also take the coolness factor away from zatoichi always winning at dice games due to his hearing. you would have a bit of an issue reading the dice though the astral but it still wouldnt be as cool as winning based solely on hearing.

Blind +6
Blind Fighting +3
Echolocation (adept version of ultrasound vision) +2
Motion Sense +0

I forget offhand how much blind fighting costs, but motion sense + echolocation would be .75 points, so you should have plenty of points for Improved Ability: Edged Weapons 6 and some initiative boosts. To round out the character, who should have his other senses well honed, I'd add in Improved Scent, Directional Sense, and maybe Sound Filter 5.

Add in Kung Fu 4 with close combat and close combat: edged weapons as manuevers, and you can even take on troll chain whippers without problems.

You never have any visibility modifiers, and can always sense your opponents with echolocation, so like traditional blind swordsmen you can't see at all but your other senses are honed to the point where you can behave as though you could see. Plus, flash packs and smoke grenades will be really useful.

The perceptive and aptitude: edged weapons edges would make a lot of sense for this character.

JaronK

BF costs 0.50

Wouldn't the Echolocation non-eqv. power be actually the eqv. to Spatial Recognition?
Not to quibble over the fact that you did describe it as Ultrasound Vision

That's a -2 to sound perception, not a -2 to everything like MS is. But it also seems more feasible than the physad eqv. of US Vision counting.

In addition to SR and Direction Sense, you'd also want Imp. Senses (high, low-freq; dampener, amplification, SSF 5) and Olfactory Boost (Magic Rating), to make sure your GM doesn't screw you and say the undefined bonus gives a -2 under the SR3 TN mods chart. Altogether, that's 2.00

Motion Sense. (0.50)

With the remaining 3 pp, you can do all sorts of fun stuff.

Quick Strike (3.00)

or

Combat Sense 3 (3.00)

or

Imp. Reflexes 2 (3.00)

or

Quickdraw (0.50)
IA (Edged) 3 (1.50)
Sixth Sense 4 (1.00)

etc.

I would go with Blind fighting, Motion Sense, Enhanced Perception, various Improved Senses and Combat Sense. As for a race, I'd go with drake, if your GM allows it.

Yeah. Drake physads are cool.

And the world needs more of them.

if i lit you two on fire, i'd be the bad guy. there's no justice.

Aren't drakes bred?

I mean, who would breed a blind anything on purpose?

Sounds more likely to be an omelette (if drakes come from eggs that is) than a PC.

BTW, what book is the drake detailed in as a playable race?

I could be behind the times... but isn't the "Blind" flaw worth less than 6 points if one is magically active at all?

I'd assume this counts towards anyone with priority A or B magic or any adept or aspected as well as full magicians..

I dont know, maybe Im lost again...

drakes were originally an artificial race, yes. but they've bred with humans and metahumans since then, so there are naturally-born drakes that could easily be born with flaws. playable drakes are described in DotSW.

The Blind flaw is worth less if you have astral perception.

Having astral perception in this case, though, defeats the whole purpose.

Even the physad powers do, to an extent. The blind mundane swordsman is just badass. The blind physad swordsman doesn't need his sight because magic has endowed him with other gifts. The blind drake is, of course, a joke.

We also must remember that once they get two grades of initiation, then can Center for Melee Weapons, and they can also Center to offset penalties.

Every time I read this topic, I keep thinking "the Invisible Swordsman" from The Three Amigos.

Farley Farley Farley

ROFL

"I shot up in the air, Dusty shot up into the air, why didn't you?"

Mail plane...

I sooo gotta roll a troll named Buttercup

I don't think I'll be using any astral perception. It feels like cheating, and defeats the purpose of the blind swordsman.

There will definately not be any drakes in our group. It just creates too many problems and is just wierd.

Thanks for all the ideas!

Yes, you're right. There is a bit of an 'H' sound in there.