D&D 5E Fixing Eldritch Blast

[Barolo]

Really, if we go the route of "unless a creature takes an action to hide, you continue to know where it is even when you lose sight of it", then you can just let someone run away as far as they can and, unless they spend an action hiding, you always know where they are, no matter how far. Actually, even if they teleport/plane shift/astral travel, right?

 

[Yunru]

Really, if we go the route of "unless a creature takes an action to hide, you continue to know where it is even when you lose sight of it", then you can just let someone run away as far as they can and, unless they spend an action hiding, you always know where they are, no matter how far. Actually, even if they teleport/plane shift/astral travel, right?

'Tis why I grant a free stealth check when someone becomes totally (maybe even heavily) obscured.

 

[Ristamar]

Really, if we go the route of "unless a creature takes an action to hide, you continue to know where it is even when you lose sight of it", then you can just let someone run away as far as they can and, unless they spend an action hiding, you always know where they are, no matter how far. Actually, even if they teleport/plane shift/astral travel, right?

The rules already have separate mechanics for that. It's called "tracking."

 

[Barolo]

'Tis why I grant a free stealth check when someone becomes totally (maybe even heavily) obscured.

When a runaway is still at a plausibly visible (or audible) distance, sure, nice ruling. But what should happen after they moved a thousand kilometers away and then teleported to another dimension?

The rules already have separate mechanics for that. It's called "tracking."

I wonder if the irony in my original statement got lost at typing.

 

[Ristamar]

I wonder if the irony in my original statement got lost at typing.

Sarcastically extrapolating one rule or mechanic to the point of absurdity as a point of refute in a rules discussion sounds like an appeal to extremes, so I assumed the statement wasn't genuine. If I was mistaken, then I apologize since my flippant reply wasn't terribly helpful.

There aren't any hard rules as to where, when, or how a game transitions from characters using their senses (e.g. Perception skill) to locate a hidden creature in the immediate vicinity versus the skills and tools used for long distance tracking (Survival skill, spells, etc) . It's one of the many gray areas in every edition of D&D that could produce an interesting discussion regarding transitory adjudication of the two systems.