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Dear players,

David and his bat.

Alright, let's pass a GM judgement on what you can do and cannot do.
Unless specifically written in the statblock, or due to the creature type, a creature always has access to normal vision. An ooze for instance is blind due to its creature type.

Just being looking through the beastiary and realised that although I've been using the correct modify statistics for being diminutive/tiny, I had perhaps being using the wrong bestiary reference for the bat.

Indeed you were wrong.
The familiar entry clearly states indeed that the statistic can be used for standard animals, so you should not have used the Dire Bat as a base animal for your Wild Shape.

So in turn you are right to say:
As the bat is diminutive, it is the same as a bat familiar. The bat familiar has low-light vision, so I would guess that having low-light vision would also mean that they have normal vision.

Low-light vision supersedes normal vision, so no problem here, so yes you may have low-light vision. Last night, there was a Darkness spell in the way, so you would not have used normal or low-light vision in any case.

Note that if you are even in need to climb or swim in bat form, you would use your DEX bonus to do so.

However I would argue that even dire bats would have normal vision as there is no note saying that they only use blindsense.

Yes, see the opening statement.
The entry for Dire Bat says that it has Blindsense 40 ft., and I shall add, normal vision all the way the human eye can see. You would get only 30 ft of it as per Beast Shape III though.

An now for the Blindsense issues:

Blindsight and Blindsense as per the glossary entry:

Some creatures possess blindsight, the extraordinary ability to use a nonvisual sense (or a combination senses) to operate effectively without vision. Such senses may include sensitivity to vibrations, acute scent, keen hearing, or echolocation. This makes invisibility and concealment (even magical darkness) irrelevant to the creature (though it still can't see ethereal creatures). This ability operates out to a range specified in the creature description.

* Blindsight never allows a creature to distinguish color or visual contrast. A creature cannot read with blindsight.
* Blindsight does not subject a creature to gaze attacks (even though darkvision does).
* Blinding attacks do not penalize creatures that use blindsight.
* Deafening attacks thwart blindsight if it relies on hearing.
* Blindsight works underwater but not in a vacuum.
* Blindsight negates displacement and blur effects.

Blindsense: Other creatures have blindsense, a lesser ability that lets the creature notice things it cannot see, but without the precision of blindsight. The creature with blindsense usually does not need to make Perception checks to notice and locate creatures within range of its blindsense ability, provided that it has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent that cannot be seen has total concealment (50% miss chance) against a creature with blindsense, and the blindsensing creature still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects the movement of a creature with blindsense. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see.

The underline is mine.
This part is not very clear, but referring to Blinsense (Ex) entries, such as that from a summoner's eidolon, clears up the controversy "can target or not target?"

Blindsense (Ex): An eidolon's senses become incredibly acute, giving it blindsense out to a range of 30 feet. This ability allows the eidolon to pinpoint the location of creatures that it cannot see without having to make a Perception check, but such creatures still have total concealment from the eidolon. Visibility still affects the eidolon's movement and it is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see. The summoner must be at least 9th level before selecting this evolution.

The underline is again mine.
So, yep, I believe my call was the right one about the ability to pinpoint but not "see". Remember, there was a Darkness spell in the way.

The key here is that Blindsight lets one see invisible (magical) or invisible (hiding) creatures. Blindsense does not, but that was not the problem yesterday. Therefore, within the Blindsense range, this is important, see below, when you are turned into a bat, you are immune to gaze attacks, immune to blinding (unless by sound effects), and see underwater. Concealment and concealment effects such as Blur still apply to Blindsense, thus 50% miss chance for attacks and cannot target an invisible/100% concealed creature. In order to benefit from the immunities to gaze attacks, you would need to switch off your normal sight (puny little eyes) and function on blindsense only.

Beast Shape III is the highest Beast Shape number that a Druid can get with Wild Shape.
Note that it says Blindsense 30 feet, but as a bat you get less.

So let's look at one of the most pedantic and rule-heavy paragraphs of the PRD

Namely the transmutation polymorph entry in the Magic section.

Transmutation spells change the properties of some creature, thing, or condition.

Polymorph: A polymorph spell transforms your physical body to take on the shape of another creature. While these spells make you appear to be the creature, granting you a +20 bonus on Disguise skill checks, they do not grant you all of the abilities and powers of the creature. Each polymorph spell allows you to assume the form of a creature of a specific type, granting you a number of bonuses to your ability scores and a bonus to your natural armor. In addition, each polymorph spell can grant you a number of other benefits, including movement types, resistances, and senses. If the form you choose grants these benefits, or a greater ability of the same type, you gain the listed benefit. If the form grants a lesser ability of the same type, you gain the lesser ability instead. Your base speed changes to match that of the form you assume. If the form grants a swim or burrow speed, you maintain the ability to breathe if you are swimming or burrowing. The DC for any of these abilities equals your DC for the polymorph spell used to change you into that form.

The bat form clearly grants a lesser benefit, Blindsense 20 ft., so you get only that and not the 30 ft. given by the spell.

Later it says:
While under the effects of a polymorph spell, you lose all extraordinary and supernatural abilities that depend on your original form (such as keen senses, scent, and darkvision), as well as any natural attacks and movement types possessed by your original form. You also lose any class features that depend upon form, but those that allow you to add features (such as sorcerers that can grow claws) still function. While most of these should be obvious, the GM is the final arbiter of what abilities depend on form and are lost when a new form is assumed. Your new form might restore a number of these abilities if they are possessed by the new form.

So you lose your Dwarven Darkvision. In other words, a bat sees only up to 20 ft in areas affected by Darkness or naturally dark areas. This makes it VERY limiting for you to cast area of effect spells in bat form in the dark (magical or otherwise); because I assume that the whole idea of being a bat is to fly in dark caverns/rooms.
Ironically the tougher Dire Bat get screwed because they lose low-light vision, thus rely only on normal vision and ''Blindsense 40 ft." (30 ft. for a wildshaped Druid).

Note that I have no problem with you wildshaping into a bat, but for the past couple of sessions, I have always thought it was a bit too good to be true. I have found a way of stopping the Paladin: Monsters with high AC! .
I still have to work out an aura of spring-attack negation.

Session.

The Stone Golems ended up being more interesting than the Scanderig.
The Headless Lord's tactics were good, it is just that Telas hit too many times and too hard compared to what was expected of him. Had the plan unfolded properly, the Headless Lord would have been helped by one or two Hill Giant Zombies every turn and separated half of the party with line-of-sight problems.
What is left in this room is just a group of severely burnt Hill Giant Zombies. They might have a couple of blows to deliver before crumbling though.

Game page updated and event set-up for next week.

Laurent,