Call Lightning and Invisibility Sphere

[ForumFerret]

Here's the situation:

An artificer imbues items with two spells: Call Lightning, then Invisibility Sphere. He activates Call Lightning, and then activates the invisibility sphere. His next actions are to call down the lightning bolts while invisible.

The artificer's player maintains that activating the lightning bolts of the Call Lightning spell is an indirect attack and does not cause his Invisibility Sphere to fail.

The other folks involved in the discussion at the moment believe that causing the lightning bolts to fire in the Call Lightning spell are a direct attack action and would cause the Invisibilty Sphere to fail.

Our DM is currently out of town and cannot rule on this, so we put it to the forum as I think two of the guys are going to stab each other in the face .

I put it forth to you, fellow forum-goers. What do you think?

 

[Taloras]

Hes directing a spell to attack someone. Invisibility drops. Simple as that. Hes already cast the spell, but he is directing it to attack someone. Same thing. If a person casts flaming sphere, goes invisible, then moves it into someones square, thats an attack. how is this different?

 

[mikebr99]

Hes directing a spell to attack someone. Invisibility drops. Simple as that. Hes already cast the spell, but he is directing it to attack someone. Same thing. If a person casts flaming sphere, goes invisible, then moves it into someones square, thats an attack. how is this different?

Well... how is that different then summoning some wolves and directing them to attack? That doesn't bring down invis.....


Mike

 

[Christian]

Well... how is that different then summoning some wolves and directing them to attack? That doesn't bring down invis.....

Because you don't have that kind of direct control over summoned creatures. One of those beasties "attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or perform other actions." (PH 3.5 pp. 285-286 and 288)

If shouting to an allied PC to 'attack the enemy caster' doesn't cause your invisibility to drop, neither should directing a summoned creature to attack a particular opponent. If you're playing with the house rule that the spellcaster has total mental control over his summoned creatures, you might want to also house rule that these spells cause invisibility spells on the caster to fail ...

(Today's moral: druids, max out your Handle Animal skill.)

 

[Peter Gibbons]

The artificer's player maintains that activating the lightning bolts of the Call Lightning spell is an indirect attack and does not cause his Invisibility Sphere to fail.

According to the spell itself the lightning bolts are an attack and will end the invisibility sphere spell; the artificer's player could not be more wrong. In my personal opinion, however, they should be considered an indirect attack that does not end the invisibility sphere. That absolutely does not follow from the RAW, however.