# Playing a Deaf Character ## Overview Deaf individuals in our world work in all walks of life, and this may be reflected in your world, leading to the occasional deaf player character or NPC. These rules give some guidance on how to go about playing deaf characters. As with any optional rules, check with your DM before using these rules. ### Creating your Character When you create your character (or if an event causes permanent deafness) make a note on your character sheet that they act on a permanent "Deafened" condition. You gain the following features: * You permanently act under the "Deafened" condition. If your character is only partially deaf, they instead act under the "Partially Deafened" condition, which results in disadvantage on any ability check that relies on sound. * You gain the "Lip Reader" feature at level 1, detailed later in these rules. * You learn the "Sign Language" language. * You have a magic item, an Amulet of Translation - Sign Language, detailed later in these rules. ### Perception and Passive Perception Audio is a large part of how hearing individuals remain aware of the world around them, an advantage that deaf individuals don't have. As a result, deaf individuals rely more on sight than sound, and tend to be more perceptive when it comes to visual aspects of the world. For active Wisdom (Perception) checks, your DM should determine whether the check is exclusively a sound based check. For example, a dragon roaring might be sound based, but loud sounds also create sound waves and vibrations that can be felt in the air or ground. If the check is purely sound based, you automatically fail the check. If the audio does cause any sort of vibrations that might be felt, or there is something else in the scene that you might be able to notice with any of your other senses, you either make the check normally, or at disadvantage, your DM determining which based on the sound in question. For Passive Wisdom (Perception) checks, treat your passive score as normal. Learning how to live without sound, you've learned to rely on your other senses for your spacial awareness. Your DM may give you Disadvantage on a check (-5 to passive skills) if the passive check relates exclusively to sound, however you cannot automatically fail a passive Wisdom (Perception) check that relies on sound. \columnbreak ### Spellcasting and Verbal Components Being deaf does not mean a character is mute, and while they may choose not to use their voice, that does not mean that they cant. These rules offer three options for allowing deaf characters to perform verbal components. * Your character can cast spells as normal, either through practicing the verbal components for spells, or your sign language completing the verbal language components of the spell. OR * Your character has practiced the verbal components for your spells, practicing endlessly until you've gotten the mouth movements down. Each time you learn or prepare a spell that you have not used before, you spend part of your time during a long rest practicing the spell. You can only practice one spell in this way per long rest, and you must have at least one unused spell slot of the spell remaining. Once you have done so, you are able to perform the verbal components of the spell as per usual. OR * You've studied what mouth movements are required to cast particular spells with verbal components, however doing so can still be difficult, particularly in the midst of combat. When you cast a spell of 1st level or higher, you must make a DC 8 + the spell's level check, using your spellcasting ability modifier plus your proficiency bonus if you are proficient in the Performance skill (Spellcasting Ability [Performance]). On a fail, the spell fails, wasting your action, but not the spell slot. <img src='https://www.gmbinder.com/assets/img/books.jpg' style='position:absolute;bottom:45px;right:30px;width:350px; mix-blend-mode:multiply;' /> \pagebreakNum ## Feats and Items These rules add the following items and Feats to your game. ### Lip Reader - Feat *Prerequisite: Deaf, Taken at Character Creation* Unable to hear, you've instead learned to watch other creature's lips and bodies to determine what they are saying. You gain the following benefits: * If you can see a creature's mouth while it is speaking a language you understand, you can interpret what it's saying by reading its lips. * You gain proficiency in the Insight skill * If you choose to take the Observant feat at an Ability Score Improvement, you can also increase one ability score of your choice by one, in addition to the normal benefits of the feat. ### Amulet of Translation *Wonderous Item, uncommon (requires attunement)* A small silver amulet enchanted with a modified Magic Mouth and Tongues spells. While wearing this amulet, it translates one language into a second one (both languages being determined when the item is created). When the amulet hears or sees its attuned language, it repeats what was said in the second language. The translation only moves in one direction, translating language A into language B, but unable to do the reverse. The amulet speaks in a monotone voice at a consistent volume, and will only translate when worn. \columnbreak ### Note from the Author These rules are intended to provide a way for players to play deaf characters, and are intended to be designed in such a way to both provide an interesting mechanical experience, as well as respect deaf culture. It should be noted that this is not the ideal way to play a deaf character if you want to experience and learn about deafness. In reality, lip reading is a rarer skill, even among the deaf community, and few have access to tools as powerful as the magic item amulet listed in these rules. If you want a better and more accurate representation of playing a deaf character at your table, try playing without these, learning a few pieces of sign language and working with your party to communicate nonverbally! However, these rules are written for my own table, which is an online and voice-only game, where visual communication is impossible. As a result the rules are designed in such a way to allow for such a game, as well as a way for in person games or online games that use video to still allow hearing players to communicate their ideas and intentions clearly while still experiencing to a minor degree the level of difficulty that deaf individuals experience on a daily basis. These rules have been designed consulting several deaf friends of mine at the uni where I am currently taking ASL (the inspiration for this set of rules), but I am always open to further feedback to better representation! ### Support Me if you Like! If you like this content and would like to see more rules along these lines, consider supporting me at ko-fi.com/itsdusty