5e invisibility and Detect Magic

The flour should indeed become invisible. But if you make flour fog, there is now a big hole in it. Still disadvantage to hit, but no way the invisible creature can hide.

Scientifimagically speaking, doesn't invisitibility basically letting light through....which thus means no light reflection or shadow casting ?

Thrown flour in a space on the other hand might become invisible in contact to an invisible creature, the rest of it would technically fall on the ground all around it giving you a cue that something is making some of it disappear .....

You are not carrying or wearing the flour when the spell is cast so it does not turn invisible, nor does anything you carry or put on after the spell is cast. You don’t transfer your invisibility to objects, nor does an object transfer it’s invisibility to you.

Invisibility is an illusion spell, you still have a physical presence and can be affected by everything. You project an illusionary image of whatever is “behind” you from the perspective of any viewer, so you are projection light in some form.

Burning oil would stick to and injury an invisible creature, it doesn’t disappear when it sticks to you and the affect wouldn’t extend to the smoke of your skin burning.

Hasn’t everyone seen League of Extraordinary Gentleman, or The Invisible Man? The cold cream or bandages make you visible.

Dust of Appearance isn’t in the game anymore but was way better. It showed invisible creatures and prevented invisibility, like Glitterdust did and Branding Smite does now.

All flour would do is stick to you and prevent you from using invisibility to take the hide action in an otherwise visible space, you still are invisible and still get attacked with disadvantage. It just lets them track you.

Invisibility has been toned down in this edition, that’s why things that take it away are rarer.

Smart play can and should be rewarded. Another smart play is to grapple an invisible creature and prone it, you would always know where it is while it is grappled and melee attacks against a prone creature would cancel the disadvantage of attacking an invisible creature.

If the players don’t figure out solutions well they deserve problems.

It seems RAI, the covered in flour trick should work:

https://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/10/1...p-an-object-does-the-object-become-invisible/

Still not buying the "lantern" bit, though.

Pauper said:

On the other hand, a magical lantern that reveals invisible creatures by casting their shadows in visible light would be pretty cool, IMO.

--
Pauper

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Ristamar said:

It seems RAI, the covered in flour trick should work:

https://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/10/1...p-an-object-does-the-object-become-invisible/

Still not buying the "lantern" bit, though.

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A regular lantern, no. But this...

Lantern of Revealing
DMG
Wondrous Item, Minor, Uncommon
2 lbs.
While lit, this hooded lantern burns for 6 hours on 1 pint of oil, shedding bright light in a 30-foot radius and dim light for an additional 30 feet. Invisible creatures and objects are visible as long as they are in the lantern's bright light. You can use an action to lower the hood, reducing the light to dim light in a 5-foot radius.

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DM Dave1 said:

A regular lantern, no. But this...

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Indeed. As a DM, I love that item. A great piece of low level loot.

As far as the physics example quoted it’s true and while not applicable in a fantasy setting it “proves” flour works.

A black hole is famous for being invisible as it doesn’t emit light, it emits X-rays. However the exact position of a black hole is known through the position of its accretion disk. The accretion disk is various objects pulled into the gravity well, largely space dust. The black hole remains completely invisible however you know right where it is.

smbakeresq said:

Remember though an invisible creature still needs to take the hide action to actually be removed from the map. Invisibility grants the chance to take that hide action, otherwise you still know where the invisible creature is, you just can’t see it.

And yes flour works great. It’s also a great use of something like alchemists fire or acid (you still see the smoke or vapors from the creature or its possessions burning) or a bullseye lantern as it still casts a shadow, see “The Shadow” series.

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Can we stop with this rules lawyer BS already? "You enter a room. Your eyes are immediately and automatically drawn to the invisible iron golem standing motionless in a corner, no check needed". I don't care what the printed rule is, it's aggressively stupid.

A creature you touch becomes invisible until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target's person.

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I am not sure it is correct to interpret this as meaning that the target must be wearing carrying the invisible item at the time the spell is cast. I could see going both ways.

1. Only items carried at time spell cast are invisible and if they are removed from the invisible target's person, the items are no longer invisible.

This fits with the common movie and TV tropes. You go invisible but then when you carry something it hovers in the air. You can smudge paint on your face. But in those depictions, this is usually because only the targets physical body, not clothes or held items are invisible. The invisible man had to go nude to be invisible. The plus side it is makes it easier to detect the invisible creature by throwing flour in the air, rain, etc. But it also means that the invislbe thief can't, say, hide a stolen gem. You would just have a floating gem moving about.

2. Anything on the target's person is/becomes invisible for the duration.

This allows a player to take something--like a letter, gem, etc.--and make it invisible. It also does not completely nerf the flour in the air trick, because even though the flour turns invisible when it hits the invisible creature's body, their will be a more obvious distortion.

Reading over this list and thinking about it, I've come to realize that I prefer option two. I like to think of invisibility is similar to Predator or Skyrim. You can, if paying attention, notice a distortion. It makes it hard to hid and very hard to see if the invisible creature is hiding. While you are invisible, whatever you carry is invisible.

Both interpretations raise some interesting questions. I'll assume the first interpretation, only that which is on your person when invisibility is cast on you is also made invisible.

1. You are holding a torch when invisibility is cast on you. Is the torch now invisible? Does it still cast light? Or is the light "leaving" your person? Same with the heat. Also the smoke would be visible because it is leaving your person. I would rule that you could see the flame and smoke, but not the torch itself.

2. You are holding an injured comrade. Can a "person" be on your person? If you give someone a piggyback ride, can you have two party members made invisible for the price of one? Per the RAW, a person is something you can carry. I would say yes. Think of the fun you could have with a party made up of a Goliath and four gnomes.

3. Are you invisible to yourself? I would say, either "no" or that you see a translucent glowing version of yourself.