Melee, Obscurement and Alert

Blue · Jun 4, 2019

Just looking for a sanity check here. The third ability of the Alert feat is "Other creatures don't gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being hidden from you".

So if I'm in a heavily obscured area, like Fog Cloud would create, then:

1. My melee attacks have disadvantage because I can't see my target, but they grant advantage because they can't see me: Net result - no advantage or disadvantage. (And none possible, since any number of advantages or disadvantages are cancelled by one of the other type.)

2. Their melee attacks to me have disadvantage because they can't see me, but due to the Alert feat I am not granting disadvantage so all of their attacks are made with disadvantage.

Is this correct?

Esker · Jun 4, 2019

Seems right to me

Istbor · Jun 4, 2019

That sounds correct Blue

krustyy · Jun 13, 2019

I don't think that's the case. Hidden is not equal to heavily obscured. Alert only prevents them from gaining advantage when they are hidden, ie, sneaking around doing backstabby. Fog cloud gives total obscurement, but they are not hidden to you. You know their location because they're still running around making general battle noises.

Now, things could get weird if you are fighting against some kind of rogue. Mechanically speaking, the advantage/disadvantage is a wash and they attack normally if they are not hiding. If the spend a bonus action to hide, now they are hidden and they would not have advantage to hit you while they are hidden. They're still technically hidden and obscured though, so you'd still suffer disadvantage for them being obscured.

Esker · Jun 15, 2019

krustyy said:
Alert only prevents them from gaining advantage when they are hidden, ie, sneaking around doing backstabby. Fog cloud gives total obscurement, but they are not hidden to you.

It might be a case of edition differences, but my version of the Alert feat says "Other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you," not "hidden from you." So the advantage they'd normally get from you being effectively blinded would qualify.

Blue · Jun 15, 2019

Esker said:
It might be a case of edition differences, but my version of the Alert feat says "Other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you," not "hidden from you." So the advantage they'd normally get from you being effectively blinded would qualify.

This made me wonder which was the more recent. I looked it up in the PHB Errata document (which is fixed in later printings) and it says:

Alert (p. 165). The third benefit now
reads, “Other creatures don’t gain advan-
tage on attack rolls against you as a result
of being unseen by you.”

So yes, just unseen, no need for hidden.