Will Arcane Sight let you see Invisible Things?

[Laslo Tremaine]

Will Arcane Sight allow you to see a magically invisible creature?

For example:

•A sorceror that has cast the Invisibility spell on herself. (I would assume yes)
•A rogue with a Ring of Invisibility. (I would assume yes)
•A creature that has Invisibility as a Spell-like power. (I would assume yes)
•A creature that has Invisibility as a Supernatural ability. (I would not assume)
•A creature that has Invisibility as an Extraordinary ability. (I would assume no)

As far as the RAW goes, I would assume that someone effected by an Invisibility spell would give off a faint aura and Greater Invisibility would give off a moderate aura. A Ring of Invisibilty would give off a faint aura, and Invisibility as a spell-like power would give off an aura equal to the spell.

Am I crazy?

Does invisibility hide your magical signatures/auras also?

If not, does a creature with Invisibility as a supernatural power (like an Invisible Stalker) give off a magical aura?

 

[Octal40]

Nothing in the Invisibility spell descriptions specifically mention masking the magical auras. That said, Arcane Sight would only show you the aura, not the creature.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

You could sense the invisible creature well enough to know what square it's in. But you would still suffer a 50% miss chance to strike the creature with melee or ranged attacks, and you would still lose your dex bonus to AC against it.

 

[Starglim]

You instantly know the location and strength of the magical aura, and can make a Spellcraft check to determine the school of magic. I would say this is enough to pinpoint the square that the aura is in, but not to see the creature's shape or negate the 50% concealment chance.

Supernatural abilities create magical auras just as spells do - even if that supernatural ability is inherent invisibility. An invisible stalker can be seen by see invisibility and true seeing, so its invisibility is an active effect, not a complete lack of any visible substance.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

You could sense the invisible creature well enough to know what square it's in. But you would still suffer a 50% miss chance to strike the creature with melee or ranged attacks, and you would still lose your dex bonus to AC against it.

Okay, that all makes sense. I was mainly wondering if a character would then be able determine position well enough to cast Glitterdust, and it seems that he would...

 

[jgsugden]

The rules seem clear that these types of spells can detect the presence f the magic creating the invisibility. However, this leads to problems.

This is a slippery slope, as the same concepts would be applied to detect magic, as well. Do you really want a 0th level spell negating most of the benefit of a 4th level spell like greater invisibility?

My suggestion: Apply a house rule that magical auras emmanating from invisible sources are also invisible. I have used that rule for nearly 20 years, and have found it not to be damaging to the game - and have found it to be quite helpful in preserving the intent of invisibility magics.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

Except that Detect Magic takes three rounds to pinpoint a magical aura...

1st Round: Presence or absence of magical auras.
2nd Round: Number of different magical auras and the power of the most potent aura.
3rd Round: The strength and location of each aura.

Our house-rule (or assumption of how the rule works) is that if the aura moves out of the cone, you go back to step one...

So if you have a moving target, you will never be able to pinpoint its location.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Except that Detect Magic takes three rounds to pinpoint a magical aura...

1st Round: Presence or absence of magical auras.
2nd Round: Number of different magical auras and the power of the most potent aura.
3rd Round: The strength and location of each aura.

Our house-rule (or assumption of how the rule works) is that if the aura moves out of the cone, you go back to step one...

So if you have a moving target, you will never be able to pinpoint its location.

This is how we've always played it as well. In a past game, the paladin (to his surprise) detected an invisible foe by using his Detect Evil ability and detecting more auras than he could see (!) But he couldn't ever use the ability to pinpoint the foe, because it moved out of the cone each round.

And yeah, IMO you'd definitely be able to pinpoint it enough via Arcane Sight to cast Glitterdust.