Imaro
Legend
I agree with @pemerton on the stealth rules. As I've said several times in other threads, I think the rules introduce a tremendous amount of confusion by using the word "hidden" to mean "made a successful Stealth check." The rules are explicit that it is possible to be invisible but not hidden ("an invisible creature... can always try to hide"), which means that despite 5E's focus on natural language, the word "hidden" is not being used in a natural way. It's a technical rules term, and a poorly chosen one at that.
I think you have it backwards... Invisible is the technical rules term used in 5e with a specific meaning... and a specific way it interacts with the action of hiding and being hidden.
Invisible
-An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a special sense. for the purpose of hiding, the creature is heavily obscured. the creature's location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves.
-Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage and the creatures attack rolls have advantage.
Thus in your example it's the word "invisible" which is not being used in a naturalistic way, not hidden...
Now let's look at the definition of hide...
hide:
-put or keep out of sight; conceal from the view or notice of others.
-(of a thing) prevent (someone or something) from being seen
-keep secret or unknown.
-conceal oneself.
conceal:
-keep (something) secret; prevent from being known or noticed
-keep from sight
IMO while hide can be used to refer to vision alone, it is also not wrong or incorrect usage (again according to some of the definitions above) for it to encompass a more broad approach which is the way it appears 5e is using it. thus I think your assumption is wrong.
Given this, I approach the stealth rules by mentally replacing all instances of "hidden" with "stealthy." When you do that, everything becomes a lot clearer, and it becomes obvious that Stealth is 95% about non-visual senses. By a strict reading, in fact, it's 100%*. If you can be seen, you can't become stealthy, period, end of story. Therefore, the Stealth check cannot possibly be about visual senses.
Could you perhaps give some quotes or evidence to back up this assertion? Maybe some of those lines that become more clear... or if you've provided them in another thread a link would suffice.
To address your other point... I don't think anyone is arguing that you can't become stealthy (really not seeing how this makes it clearer than using the word hidden but, ok) if you can be seen... the question is how do we determine if someone is seen after they've hidden... sorry after they've become stealthy?? The chances of seeing things are not equal and dependent upon environment, conditions, etc.having the chance to see someone does not equate to actually seeing them. That is where I feel your assumptions break down.
Now to the question of whether there is a difference between when you can hide (become stealthy) and when you can be hidden (be stealthy): I say no, there is no difference. However, we already know that "hidden" and "hide" are being used in non-natural ways here, so I can't just appeal to natural language. Instead, I point to the following sentence:
(Emphasis added.) This sentence uses "hiding" as an ongoing action, something that can be stopped. It is not the instantaneous act of crossing the threshold between the "non-hidden" and "hidden" states; rather, it is an action that causes you to be in the "hidden" state as long as you keep doing it. If you stop hiding, you're no longer hidden. Therefore, if something prevents you from hiding, you can't stay hidden.
Lol, so you made it a specific game condition because you felt it was being used in a non-natural way (which it wasn't) and then used your own commandeering of the meaning of the word hide/hidden to justify your own opinion of how it works... i'm sorry if that seems slightly suspect.
If we take a natural language approach then it would seem hiding is just being in a hidden state. Not the act of continuously trying to hide... when you try to hide you make a stealth check... so if hiding was continuously trying to hide you would continue making rolls as you tried to hide over and over again, correct?
[SIZE=-2]*The reason I consider it 95% is that I might call for a Stealth check to cover borderline cases between seen and unseen--e.g., you're trying to conceal yourself in heavy brush, which is on the edge between heavily and lightly obscured. However, nothing I can see in the written rules supports this. I consider it a logical extension of the rules, but it is technically a house rule.[/SIZE]
There is no state between heavily and lightly obscured but there is a precedent for DM adjudication of special circumstances to allowing hiding even if not obscured or in bright light... so more power to you.
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