Blind · Game Mechanic Compendium

Definition

A blind takes sight away from a target for a time: its attacks miss or lose accuracy, it cannot pick targets, or its view shrinks. The effect stays on the blinded figure. An area of darkness or smoke that impairs anyone inside or looking through it is a smoke screen; darkness laid on a target’s eyes is a blind, and so is a flashbang, whose blindness stays on each viewer for a time set by distance and facing. Invisibility hides the user or an ally from every opponent, so the effect sits on the hidden figure; reveal grants sight of hidden things, and cures for blindness are counters, not reveals. Stun stops all action and fear takes over movement; World of Warcraft’s Blind, a disorient broken by damage, sits on that border. Line of sight decides whether a flash reaches a viewer, and fog of war is the system of unit sight that a sight-radius blind shrinks.

Behaviour

Delivery runs from a word or a touch (Power Word—Blind, Cause Blindness) to a beam (the Gem of Brightness), a thrown dart or grenade, and an area burst (DARK). The payload is a penalty to hits, a total loss of sight or of basic attacks, or a shrunken view. Counterplay is a save, a cure (Cure Blindness, LAMP), or, against a flash, keeping it away from the crosshair.

Variations

Accuracy loss (Greyhawk, Final Fantasy, Pokémon Red and Green): the target still attacks, at a percentage or stage penalty.
Total miss (League of Legends): every basic attack misses; abilities still land.
Flash by line of sight (Rainbow Six, Counter-Strike 2, Valorant): strength depends on each viewer’s facing and distance, and teammates are caught.
Repeated save (Dungeons & Dragons, 2024 edition): Blindness/Deafness imposes the Blinded condition, carried by Advantage and Disadvantage, with a new save each turn.
Disorient (World of Warcraft): the target wanders slowly until damage breaks the effect.
Sight-radius loss (League of Legends): Nocturne’s Paranoia shrinks enemy champions’ sight radius, acting on fog of war.

Gating

Tabletop forms ration the blind by spell slots, from Power Word—Blind at 8th level in 1975 to Blindness at 2nd in 1978, with a save or a hit-point cap gating the effect; the Gem of Brightness has no stated charges. Final Fantasy keeps per-level charges restored at inns, Pokémon PP restored at a Pokémon Center. Shooters from Rainbow Six to Counter-Strike 2 make the flash a grenade under a carry limit, with no save: geometry gates the effect. World of Warcraft adds a cooldown and energy to a crafted reagent; League of Legends pairs mana with a short cooldown. Durations fall from days or until cured to seconds.

History and provenance

Chainmail’s Darkness (1972) covered the whole field, an antecedent of the smoke screen, and Men & Magic (1974) has no blinding effect. Greyhawk (1975) has the earliest cited targeted blinds, and the Players Handbook (1978) defined the effect as seeing “only a grayness”. Final Fantasy (1987) is the earliest cited video instance; Pokémon spread the accuracy drop under names such as Sand-Attack. Rainbow Six (1998) is the earliest cited shooter with flashbangs; whether Counter-Strike’s 1999 betas had one is unconfirmed. Overwatch’s original Cassidy Flashbang reportedly stunned rather than blinded.

Notable examples

Notable examples, in chronological order. Notes describe how the ability behaves in each game; gating is what limits its use there; the latest reference is a widely played game from 2020 or later.
Game	Year	Medium	Gating	How the ability behaves
Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk Gary Gygax and Robert Kuntz (TSR)	1975	Tabletop RPG	Spell slots, At will	Power Word—Blind (Magic-User 8th level) works "like the Stun", fully affecting creatures of up to 40 hit points and none over 80, for 2-8 or 1-4 days; the text does not say what blindness does. The Gem of Brightness, aimed as a 1" beam with no stated charges, cuts the looker's hit probability by 20% until a Cure Serious Wound removes it.
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Players Handbook Gary Gygax (TSR)	1978	Tabletop RPG	Spell slots	Illusionist Blindness (2nd level, range 3", one creature, save negates) leaves the target "able to see only a grayness" until dispel magic or the caster ends it; cure spells fail. Cleric Cause Blindness, the reverse of Cure Blindness, needs a touch and a failed save. Continual Light blinds a creature if cast upon its visual organs.
Final Fantasy Square	1987	Video	Spell slots	DARK, a level-2 black magic spell, blinds all enemies "by darkness"; BLND (level 7) hits one enemy, which "is blinded and cannot see well enough to effectively attack." The level-2 white magic LAMP, cast on one ally, removes the enemies' DARK spells. Each cast spends a per-level charge restored at inns.
Pokémon Red and Green Game Freak	1996	Video	Per rest	Sand-Attack (15 PP), Smokescreen (20 PP), Kinesis (80% accuracy, 15 PP) and Flash (70%, 20 PP) share one effect that lowers a single target's accuracy by one stage; PP are restored at a Pokémon Center. Smokescreen, despite its name, is a single-target accuracy drop.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Red Storm Entertainment	1998	Video	Consumable	Kits carry flashbang grenades "used to stun opponents with a bright flash and bang", and a breacher can trade a door charge for more. Observing a flashbang causes "a large increase in reticle size", a pulsed accuracy penalty; planners can order "Flashbang Room" at a waypoint by a door or window.
World of Warcraft Blizzard Entertainment	2004	Video	Cooldown, Mana, Consumable	The rogue's Blind leaves the target wandering, confused, at reduced speed for up to 10 seconds, and damage breaks it. In the Classic re-creation it costs 30 energy, reaches 10 yards, has a 5-minute cooldown, and consumes Blinding Powder, which the rogue crafts; the Elusiveness talent shortens the cooldown.
League of Legends Riot Games	2009	Video	Mana, Cooldown	Teemo's Blinding Dart, at range 680, deals magic damage and "causes the target to miss all of their attacks" for 1.5 to 2.5 seconds by rank. Early Data Dragon data give 70 to 110 mana and an 8-second cooldown, current data 70 to 90 mana and 7 seconds. Abilities still land, so only basic attacks are denied.
Counter-Strike 2 Latest Valve	2023	Video	Consumable	A bought flashbang blinds anyone with a direct line of sight to the explosion, turning the screen white for a few seconds and muffling sound to a ringing. Strength depends on the distance and on the angle to the player's crosshair, and teammates are blinded too. Competitive modes allow two flashbangs within a four-grenade limit.

Provenance

Earliest documented use: Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk (1975), tabletop rpg. Confidence: medium. Greyhawk has the earliest cited targeted blinds: Power Word—Blind, a Magic-User spell that works "like the Stun" but never says what blindness does in play, and the Gem of Brightness, a magic item whose beam cuts a looker's hit probability by 20 percent; a Prismatic Wall also blinds low-level creatures that look at it, as a side effect of a barrier. Men & Magic (1974) has no blinding effect: its Light and Continual Light only illuminate a circle, and the word "blind" does not occur in the scanned text of it or of Monsters & Treasure. Whether the 1974 Anti-Cleric could reverse Light into darkness is unconfirmed, and such a darkness would fill an area. Chainmail's Darkness (1972) brings gloom over the entire playing area for both sides, an antecedent of the smoke screen rather than of the blind. Confidence is medium because the 1975 spell is undefined, the gem is an item rather than a cast ability, and Blackmoor and other 1975 to 1977 material remain unsurveyed. The Players Handbook (1978) is the earliest cited text to define the effect. The earliest cited video instance is Final Fantasy (1987), from its 1990 NES manual; an earlier accuracy-loss spell in Dragon Quest II is unconfirmed.

Sources

Gary Gygax and Robert Kuntz (TSR). (1975). Dungeons & Dragons Supplement I: Greyhawk. Rulebook Magic-User spells, 8th level, Power Word—Blind, p. 26; Magic-User spells, 9th level, Prismatic Wall, p. 29; Miscellaneous Magic, Gem of Brightness, p. 54. Accessed 2026-10-24. The earliest cited targeted blinding effects and the accuracy-loss payload; page numbers from the scan's page markers.
Gary Gygax (TSR). (1978). Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Players Handbook. Rulebook Cleric spells, 3rd level, Continual Light and Cure Blindness, p. 47; Illusionist spells, 1st and 2nd level, Color Spray and Blindness, p. 95; Magic-User spells, 8th level, Power Word, Blind; Druid spells, 3rd level, Pyrotechnics. Accessed 2026-10-24. The grayness of Blindness, Cause Blindness, the visual-organs wording of Continual Light, and the split of Pyrotechnics into a blinding flash and an obscuring smoke.
Square. (1990). Final Fantasy instruction manual (NES). Nintendo of America. Rulebook White Magic, level 2, LAMP, p. 76; Black Magic, level 2, DARK, p. 78; Black Magic, level 7, BLND, p. 79. Accessed 2026-10-24. The DARK and BLND wording and the LAMP cure.
Red Storm Entertainment. (1998). Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six manual (PC). Rulebook Pulsed Reticle Modifiers (Distraction Devices); Kits (Flashbang grenades); Orders, special actions. Accessed 2026-10-24. The flashbang as an accuracy penalty and a planned order.
Prima Games. (2003). Counter-Strike: Prima's Official Strategy Guide (Xbox). Book Weapons & Equipment, Flashbang Grenade. Accessed 2026-10-24. The flashbang's price, the carry limit of two, and the line-of-sight and distance rules in the Xbox port.
BradyGames. (2004). World of Warcraft: Official Strategy Guide. Book Rogue chapter, Subtlety abilities (Blind); Blinding Powder; Elusiveness talent. Accessed 2026-10-24. The Blind effect, its reagent, and the cooldown talent; the scanned row is partly garbled.
Wowhead Classic database, Blind (spell 2094). Wiki Energy cost, range, cooldown, and reagent in the 2019 Classic re-creation.
Wizards of the Coast. (2025). System Reference Document 5.2.1. Rulebook Spells, Blindness/Deafness, p. 113; Color Spray, p. 116; Darkness, p. 122; Rules Glossary, Blinded, p. 177. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 2024 Blinded condition, the repeated save of Blindness/Deafness, and the area Darkness on the other side of the boundary.
Riot Games. Data Dragon champion data, Teemo (version 0.151.101). Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Early Blinding Dart wording, range, duration, mana, and cooldown.
Riot Games. Data Dragon champion data, Teemo (version 16.21.1). Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Current Blinding Dart mana and cooldown.
Riot Games. Data Dragon champion data, Nocturne and Graves. Website Paranoia's loss of sight radius for enemy champions, and Graves' Smoke Screen as an area that reduces sight range.
pret. pokered disassembly, data/moves/moves.asm. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. The shared accuracy-down effect and the accuracy and PP of Sand-Attack, Smokescreen, Kinesis, and Flash.
Foo Zen-Wen (Strafe). (2026). CS2 Flashbang Guide. Article Accessed 2026-10-24. The Counter-Strike 2 flashbang's line-of-sight rule, white screen, angle and distance dependence, friendly blinding, and carry limit.
Riot Games. Phoenix agent page. Website Accessed 2026-10-24. Curveball, an orb that blinds any player who sees it.
Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren (Guidon Games). (1972). Chainmail, 2nd edition. Rulebook Fantasy Supplement, Wizard spells, Darkness and Wizard Light. Accessed 2026-10-24. The field-wide Darkness, an antecedent on the smoke-screen side of the boundary.
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (Tactical Studies Rules). (1974). Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 1, Men & Magic. Rulebook Magic-User spells, 1st level, Light, p. 23; 3rd level, Continual Light. Accessed 2026-10-24. The 1974 Light spells, which illuminate without blinding.

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West, James, Jr. (2026). "Blind." Game Mechanic Compendium, updated 2026-10-24. http://localhost:4321/abilities/blind

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