I'm making a Duergar fighter character and am wondering if the Blind Fighting fighting style could cancel out Sunlight Sensitivity. The Duergar's Sunlight Sensitivity states
You have disadvantage on Attack rolls and on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on sight when you, the target of your attack, or whatever you are trying to perceive is in direct sunlight.
However, the Blind Fighting fighting style states:
You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn't behind total cover, even if you're blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.
If my character were to close his eyes and make a melee attack against an opponent within 10 feet of him while being in sunlight would Sunlight Sensitivity be nullified because the attack doesn't rely on sight?
Best Answer
This works: an attack made with your eyes closed does not "rely on sight".
Sunlight Sensitivity states:
If you close your eyes, thereby voluntarily taking on the blinded condition, you are using your blindsight, and any attack roll you make against a creature you can "see" with your blindsight is not an attack roll that relies on sight, so it would not be given disadvantage because of Sunlight Sensitivity.
This is a really clever way to mitigate the disadvantages conferred by Sunlight Sensitivity.
The sentence is technically ambiguous.
There is an alternate way to read the sentence, which is:
without regard for relying on sight, and disadvantage on:
where “rely on sight” only applies to perception checks. Personally, this doesn’t seem like a particularly compelling reading, and I can’t come up with a good narrative reason why something else, and not the blinding sunlight, would be causing an issue for the attacker.