Fighting in the Dark (blindsided)

[meerkat]

Got a question about fighting in the dark. Say you have a human fighting a dwarf crossbowman in complete darkness. The dwarf can see just fine due to Heat Sight but the human sees nothing.

1. The human doesn't actually know what hex the dwarf is in, does he need to make some sort of perception test to figure it out or can he just move adjacent and hack away with the minus 5 modifier? If a perception test do you modify it with the difficuly of guessing where he is? eg a silenced archer is going to be impossible to locate in the dark

2. Once he does actually get beside and swings the dwarf draws his warhammer and swings back, under blindsided it states "When a character cannot see his attacker in order to react effectively to an attack, he is considered Blindsided. The character subtracts –2 from his Physical and Spell Defense against that attack." and next sentence it mentions "attacks made against a blinded character" SO does this mean the poor human is -5 to hit the dwarf if/when he finds him and the dwarf is attacking against -2 defence?

If so makes vision a pretty powerful situational modifier and an archer without some sort of enhanced vision useless in a dungeon setting..

[Flagg]

Unless, you know, someone has a light source.

[arma]

1) No, it's assumed he uses his other senses. If the dwarf starts Silent Walking, however...
2) Yes.
3) Yes, and heat sight and even night vision are often overlooked when racial abilities such as tail attack, flight, or versatility are discussed. You got to introduced a dark situation as a GM to make things worthwhile, just as you need to introduce fights so the Warrior gets to use his stuff and social situations so the Troubadour gets to play with his tools.