OVERALL RATING: B-TIER

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Blindness/Deafness 5e

In the 2014 rules, Blindness/Deafness was a niche spell that suffered from a dangerously short range (30 feet), forcing squishy Wizards to walk up to Ogres to cast it. In the 2024 update, the spell has received a massive range buff and a school change, though its core mechanic remains the same.

Below, I analyze the math behind the Blinded condition, why the range increase changes the spell’s viability, and why this remains one of the best non-concentration debuffs in Tier 2 of play.

What Does Blindness/Deafness Do in 5e?

Blindness/Deafness forces a creature to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, you apply one of two conditions:

1. Blinded: The target automatically fails ability checks that require sight. Attack rolls against the creature have Advantage, and the creature’s attack rolls have Disadvantage (PHB 2024, pg. 361).
2. Deafened: The target automatically fails ability checks that require hearing.

The target repeats the save at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. Crucially, this spell does not require Concentration.

Spell Rating: Blindness/Deafness

Overall: 👁️ B-Tier (Excellent Debuff)

Contextual Performance (1-10)

• Combat: 8/10. The ability to inflict the Blinded condition without using Concentration is rare and powerful. You can maintain a major control spell (like Web or Hypnotic Pattern) and still cast this to further debuff a boss. The only downside is the Constitution save, which is often high on the monsters you want to blind (Brutes/Giants).

  Let’s play out the math of how much Blindness reduces the target’s damage potential, and increases your party’s damage potential with attack rolls:

  Scenario	Normal Combat	Blinded Combat	Difference
  Monster Accuracy	65% Hit / 5% Crit	42% Hit / 0.25% Crit	-23% Accuracy
  Incoming Damage (Monster attacking Party)	19.5 DPR	12.7 DPR	-35% Damage Taken
  Outgoing Damage (Party attacking Monster)	44.5 DPR	61.5 DPR	+38% Damage Dealt

  Assumptions: Incoming: Monster deals 30 damage on hit (flat average used for simplicity). Outgoing: Party makes 5 attacks dealing 2d8+4 (13 avg) damage each. Baseline: 65% chance to hit and 5% crit chance. Blinded: Disadvantage for Monster, Advantage for Party.

  This math highlights why Blindness is an offensive spell disguised as a defensive one. By blinding a boss, you create a massive damage swing in both directions — without using Concentration.

• Exploration: 2/10. You could theoretically deafen a guard so you can make noise nearby, or blind a lookout. However, casting the spell requires Verbal components, which usually alerts everyone anyway. Still, if you can upcast this and it actually lands on two guards, you should have a much easier time stealthing past them.

• Social: 1/10. Casting a visible spell to make someone blind is generally considered assault.

Core Metrics (1-10)

• Raw Power: 7/10. The Blinded condition is mathematically potent. It is essentially an offensive and defensive buff in one package. However, the target gets to repeat the save every turn, meaning the duration can be unreliable. But even if it lasts two rounds, +35% damage for your party’s attack rollers (even more for Rogues and Paladins who love crit fishing) and -35% incoming damage is huge.

• Versatility: 6/10. While “Deafened” is rarely useful in combat, it has niche uses against casters or monsters that rely on hearing (like bats with Echolocation). The range buff to 120 feet makes it usable in almost any encounter. It’s good against mages who require sight to target your party with certain (powerful) spells (like Counterspell), archers who have to guess your party’s location AND attack with disadvantage, and melee foes.

• Efficiency: 7/10. Because it doesn’t use Concentration, it never conflicts with your best spells. It is always a valid use of a turn if you have the slots. That said, if it doesn’t last multiple rounds of combat, the efficiency value of Blindness/Deafness drops off considerably.

• Upcast Scaling: 7/10. Targeting extra creatures is excellent scaling. For a 4th-level slot, you can blind three enemies. In a boss fight with powerful minions, this can shift the tide of battle dramatically.

Playstyle and Synergy

• Playstyle: Use this as a “Layered” debuff. Cast your big Concentration spell first (e.g., Slow), then on round 2, cast Blindness/Deafness on the heavy hitter. No need to get into close range to cast this anymore.

• Party Synergy: High. Rogues love this spell because Advantage guarantees Sneak Attack. Paladins and Fighters love it because they crit twice as often (due to Advantage). Healers love it because the tank takes significantly less damage.

What Are the Rules for Blindness/Deafness in 5e?

The rules for Blindness/Deafness in the 2024 Player’s Handbook are as follows:

• It does not require Concentration. This is the most distinct feature of the spell. You can have Haste running on your Barbarian and still cast this on the enemy.

• Constitution Save vs. High CON monsters. Be aware that the target repeats the save at the end of each of its turns. If you cast this on a Giant with a +8 CON save, they will likely shake it off quickly. It is statistically better to target enemy Casters, Archers, or Rogues who often have lower Constitution.

• Blindness vs. Blindsight. If a creature has Blindsight (e.g., a Dragon or Ooze), the Blinded condition does not hinder them as long as you are within the radius of their Blindsight. However, if you are 60 feet away and they only have 30 feet of Blindsight, they are effectively blind to you.

• Deafness counters Echolocation. Some monsters (like Bats or Darkmantles) have a trait usually called “Echolocation” which states they lose their Blindsight if they are Deafened. In these specific cases, choosing “Deafened” effectively blinds them.

• When upcast, you can choose different conditions for different targets. The spell’s description indicates a three-step process: choosing a target, forcing a save, and then selecting the condition of your choice if they fail.

  Upcasting Blindness/Deafness means repeating step one, but steps two and three can be different.

• When upcast, you cannot choose to target the same creature twice. The spell’s description clearly states “one additional creature” (emphasis mine), so you can’t blind and deafen one creature by upcasting Blindness/Deafness.

• A Beholder’s Eye Rays are affected by blindness, but its Antimagic Cone isn’t. Because Eye Rays require sight, but Antimagic Cone does not. Here’s Sage Advice confirmation.

How to Use Blindness/Deafness in 5e

Here are the optimized ways to utilize Blindness/Deafness under the 2024 rules:

1. Prevent Opportunity Attacks. You can only make an Opportunity Attack against a creature you can see. If your squishy Sorcerer is stuck in melee with a blinded Gladiator, the Sorcerer can simply walk away without Disengaging. The Gladiator cannot see them leave.

2. Shut down spellcasters. Most spellcasters have a low Constitution modifier, so the spell’s more likely to land. Plus, many spells require sight of the target, and even area of effect spells will have to be cast without knowledge of the party’s whereabouts.

   This is the best and most consistently useful function of the Blindness/Deafness spell.

3. Reduce incoming damage. Blindness is also great for archers and melee foes, who will have to guess their targets’ locations and have disadvantage on the attack to boot. There’s really no foe that isn’t hurt by the blinded condition (besides the ones who are immune to it).

4. Boost party damage. Attack rolls against blinded creatures have advantage, meaning Rogues, with their Sneak attack, will be especially grateful. But really, every single member of your party that’s making attack rolls is going to get a nice damage boost by attacking blinded creatures.

5. Make an escape. While Blindness/Deafness is great for combat scenarios, it’s also great for getting out of situations without fighting. If you’re dealing with just one or two powerful foes, blinding them and making a mad dash for the exit is a perfectly viable strategy.

   Pairing this with the Silent Image spell can help ensure that your foe has no reason to even chase you (if they’re a dumb troll or something).

6. Protect yourself from negative effects. While you can’t automatically fail saving throws RAW, most DMs ignore this. This means you can purposefully deafen yourself or your allies to nullify the effects of Dissonant Whispers, Vicious Mockery, Command, or any other spell/effect that requires you to hear the caster.

   Deafening yourself can also be great if you’re going up against Harpies with their Luring Song ability. Likewise, purposefully blinding yourself or your allies can be a great defense against something like a medusa.

7. Sneak past sleepers. While deafen has more limited utility than blind, it can be useful for sneaking past a creature who’s sleeping. It might also be useful for speaking secrets in mixed company, although they may be worried by their sudden deafness.

8. Upcast for crowd control. Using a 3rd-level slot to target two creatures is often better than casting a different 3rd-level spell. If you are fighting two Hill Giants, blinding both of them reduces the total incoming damage to the party by roughly 35% per giant.

9. The “Stacking” Strategy. Since this is non-concentration, use it to fill your turns after your big setup. Round 1: Cast Web to restrain enemies. Round 2: Cast Blindness/Deafness on the one guy who passed his save against Web.

10. Pair with Subtle Spell. Sorcerer’s Subtle Spell metamagic can allow you to cast this spell in mixed company to blind or deafen a creature you don’t want to see or hear something (PHB 2024, pg. 142). They’ll likely still be concerned about their one-minute loss of senses, but at least they won’t know why it happened.

    On the subject of metamagic, the Heightened Spell metamagic is also useful for making it more likely that Blindness/Deafness lands by making a harder saving throw.

11. Pair with Bane or Bestow Curse. Reducing a creature’s chances of landing the initial saving throw and the repeated saving throw each round can ensure that you get a whole lot more mileage out of Blindness/Deafness.

Who Can I Target With Blindness/Deafness 5e?

You can target any creature within 120 feet with Blindness/Deafness. If you upcast the spell, all targets must be in range, but they don’t all need to be within 120 feet of each other.

Is Blindness/Deafness 5e a Good Spell?

Yes, Blindness/Deafness is a good spell. The fact that it doesn’t require concentration is a real strength of the spell, and only 32 creatures in the game’s official sourcebooks are immune to the blinded condition.

The spell’s ability to both boost your party’s offensive capabilities while kneecapping an opponent’s ability to deal damage is everything you want from a straightforward utility spell.

On the downside, Blindness/Deafness requires a Constitution saving throw, which tends to be the highest ability score of monsters in the game. But if you’re smart about who you target or find ways to enhance your spell save DC/debuff your enemies’ spell saving throws, you can get around this issue.

Blindness/Deafness 5e Compared to Other Second-Level Spells

All right, so the real question is where Blindness/Deafness stacks up compared to other 2nd-level options on the table. Let’s go over a few spells that fill similar roles as Blindness/Deafness:

• Phantasmal Force. Depending on your DM, Phantasmal Force can completely take an enemy out of the fight and even get some damage in to boot. This spell also requires an Intelligence saving throw, which enemies are much more likely to fail.

• Hold Person. Hold Person has the slightly worse Wisdom saving throw, but it also comes with the stronger paralyzed condition. All around, if you’re in a campaign with a lot of humanoids, Hold Person is usually the superior option to Blindness/Deafness.

  And as far as Reddit is concerned, Hold Person is the superior option (although, this poll was taken before Blindness/Deafness’ range got quadrupled).

• Tasha’s Mind Whip. Another Intelligence saving throw spell, TMW is good for limiting an enemy’s options in combat to one of three: action, bonus action, or movement. It also deals a healthy 10.5 average damage on a failed save, or half that on a successful one.

  Overall, if you want to guarantee damage and don’t care as much about great, party-wide utility, Tasha’s Mind Whip is the better option. But as far as net party damage (incoming and outgoing), it usually trails behind.

• Silence. Silence is right up there with Counterspell as premier anti-spellcaster spells. Blindness/Deafness also fills the niche decently and has extra benefits.

  Still, if you’re looking for a straightforward “no spells at all from this particular area” spell, Silence is the stronger choice.

Blindness/Deafness 5e DM Tips

I left DMs with one unpopular ruling above: that players can’t automatically fail saving throws to purposefully blind or deafen themselves with Blindness/Deafness.

In my opinion, players should always be rewarded for creative thinking, so if this is how they approach blinding themselves before a fight with a Medusa or deafening themselves against a Harpy’s Luring Song, I say let them on — no saving throw required.

DnD 5e Blindness/Deafness FAQ

1. Can you blind yourself to avoid a Medusa’s gaze? Rules as Written (RAW), the spell targets “One creature that you can see.” You can see yourself, so you are a valid target. However, you cannot choose to fail a saving throw in 5e unless a specific feature says so. You would have to cast it on yourself and hope you fail the Constitution save. Most DMs, however, will allow a player to close their eyes for free without spending a spell slot to avoid a gaze attack.

2. Does Blindness/Deafness work on creatures with Truesight? Yes and No. Truesight allows a creature to see in magical darkness and see through illusions, but it does not make them immune to the Blinded condition. If a creature’s eyes are physically clouded or shut by this transmutation spell, Truesight does not help them, unless they are specifically immune to the condition “Blinded.”

3. Does Dispel Magic end Blindness/Deafness? Yes. Because Blindness/Deafness is a spell with a duration (1 minute), it can be ended early by Dispel Magic.

2014 Blindness/Deafness (Legacy Version)

The text below covers the version of Blindness/Deafness found in the 2014 Player’s Handbook. I have preserved this section for players running legacy campaigns or using older modules that haven’t updated to the 2024 rule set.

If you are playing with the 2024 rules, use the guide at the top of this page.

Matt Zane

Author, DnD Lounge

Matt Zane started DnD Lounge in 2021. Matt began playing DnD 5e in 2015, and has been DMing since 2017. He loves optimization, but also enjoys looking for creative ways to use spells and abilities that follow the spirit and letter of the rules. He also eschews pure optimization in favor of a more balanced approach, where building a character is primarily about serving an interesting story arc and party dynamics rather than maxing out DPR.