2 Rules Questions: AoO and Detect Evil

[Mystendanian]

In short, my question is this:

Does the detect evil ability render an invisible opponent visible to the Paladin?

The scenario was this: I put our party of 8 8th-lvl characters against a Moon Hag (pg 98 Creature Collection), who has the ability to become invisible at will. It was a very entertaining battle which started with the Hag casting Mordenkainen's Sword against the party while hovering 30 feet above their camp. 20 rounds of combat followed (yes, 20!) and at the end the PC's and Hag had pretty much spent all of their spells and were locked into hand-to-hand combat. The Hag was surrounded and getting cut up pretty bad, and when finally reduced to less than 10 hp, I decided she would flee from certain death. At her turn in the initiative, I declared that she went invisible and flew into the night sky. The Paladin says that he should have gotten an attack of opportunity because with his detect evil, he would have still been able to see her. (Sometime during the 20 rounds of combat, the Paladin used his detect evil ability on the Hag.)

I ruled that:
a) Since all the Hag did was move, the space she started out in was not threatened and
b) His detect evil ability would not have rendered the Hag visible.

The question on a) is the Hag used an "at will" ability, so does that break the rule of "if all you do is move, the space you start out in is not considered threatened?" The question on b) is would the detect evil ability allow the paladin to see an "aura?"

Thanks for your input.

Myst

 

[MichaelH]

a) Yes. At Will does not mean free action. Unless specified otherwise, it requires a standard action for the hag to use a spell-like ability. Thus the hag is not only moving, but using a spell-like ability that requires a standard action. Using a spell-like ability, however, provokes an AoO so the paladin (and anyone else threatening the hag at the time) gets his AoO before she turns invisible.

b) No. Detect Evil does not allow the paladin to see an invisible creature. It requires a standard action to use, and he must concentrate for 3 rounds to get the full effect. Read the spell desciption for further details.

 

[Hypersmurf]

a) Yes. At Will does not mean free action. Unless specified otherwise, it requires a standard action for the hag to use a spell-like ability. Thus the hag is not only moving, but using a spell-like that requires a standard
action.

Yup. However, since she was invisible, and the Paladin can't see her, she has total concealment, and thus she doesn't provoke an AoO from the Paladin (in 3.5).

-Hyp.

 

[MichaelH]

Sorry Hypersmurf, I edited while you were posting.

Yes, once she is invisible, no AoO, but the spell-like ability provokes an AoO before she becomes invisible.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Using a spell-like ability, however, provokes an AoO so the paladin (and anyone else threatening the hag at the time) gets his AoO before she turns invisible.

... unles she SLAs Defensively.

-Hyp.