Attacking from darkness

[tomBitonti]

Here is the setup:

Player character (call them 'PC'') stands on a ledge.

Ogre (call them 'O') stands 100 feet across and 100 down from PC.

There is near total darkness. (It is a dark night.)

O has a greatbow, and a miserable hide skill (say, -5).

PC cracks open a sun rod, so that he is now visible to O.

Round 1: PC is unaware of O. O shoots at PC, who is denied their dexterity bonus.

Round 2: O moves 5 feet, hides, then shoots PC again.

Question:

Does PC get their dexterity bonus in round 2?

Thx!

 

[werk]

Does PC get their dexterity bonus in round 2?

Yes, they are no longer flat-footed and would retain their dexterity bonus to armor class.

The ogre, however, is functionally invisible to the PC, so would ignore that dex bonus to AC. "Invisible: Visually undetectable. An invisible creature gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls against sighted opponents, and ignores its opponents’ Dexterity bonuses to AC (if any)."

 

[starwed]

Since the sunrod only casts shadowy illumination out to 90', the Ogre might not even have to make a hide check. The darkness provides total concealment, with all the benefits that entails.

If he was just a tad bit closer (or the PC has low light vision), he'd be lit up by shadowy illumination (partial concealment). While a rogue could hide in that, the Ogre's poor bonus will make it unlikely. (Although the opposed Spot check does take a -1 penalty for every 10 feet of distance.)

 

[Infiniti2000]

Does the PC have Blind-Fight?

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Wouldn't help. Blind Fight only works in melee.

BLIND-FIGHT [GENERAL]
Benefit: In melee, every time you miss because of concealment, you can reroll your miss chance percentile roll one time to see if you actually hit.
An invisible attacker gets no advantages related to hitting you in melee. That is, you don’t lose your Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, and the attacker doesn’t get the usual +2 bonus for being invisible. The invisible attacker’s bonuses do still apply for ranged attacks, however.
You take only half the usual penalty to speed for being unable to see. Darkness and poor visibility in general reduces your speed to three-quarters normal, instead of one-half.
Normal: Regular attack roll modifiers for invisible attackers trying to hit you apply, and you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC. The speed reduction for darkness and poor visibility also applies.
Special: The Blind-Fight feat is of no use against a character who is the subject of a blink spell.
A fighter may select Blind-Fight as one of his fighter bonus feats.

 

[TheGogmagog]

The PC would be denied dex. Remember range increments 100' over and 100' up is both one range increment and lower ground (don't think lower ground matters for ranged weapons though).

Also, you are out of range of sneak attack damage so hiding wouldn't be important. Also with total concealment from natural darkness there isn't any point in hiding, especially when you attack after hiding. Always attack and then move when invisible, since a target knows what direction it was attacked from. If it did matter, you would want to attack and then move and hide, that way you are hidden during the PC's action (in this case) and begin your next attack from hidden.

 

[Question]

The easy solution :

PC : "I cast magic missle at the darkness!"

 

[tomBitonti]

More encounter details

Hi,

The motivation for my question was an encounter that I ran this past weekend, where
the party was stationed near a cave entrance on a ledge some 100' high. An ogre
with a greatbow was positioned about 200' across from the party. A party member
activated a sunrod, which made him and the other party members visible to the
ogre, so the ogre started taking pot-shots at the party members.

I am presuming that the party members are visible to the ogre. I agree, there would
be at least one range increment penalty, and (is this correct?), a penalty for shooting
uphill.

Many of the party members have high AC's due to having high DEX scores. Some, but
not all, have uncanny dodge.

Since the ogre is not visible (is effectively invisible), the party members without uncanny
dodge *should* (I think) have been flat-footed to the ogre, but I didn't realize that until
afterwards. I haven't considered this issue before, so I'm not entirely sure.

Note that the ogre wasn't even trying to hide. I don't think that matters, because he
was effectively invisible to the players.

There are a couple of factors that still have me wondering ... would listen checks have
made a difference? Could a player ready to move to a new square upon seeing an
arrow racing towards themself? Would a spot check be necessary to do so?

Thx!

 

[Bad Paper]

Since the sunrod only casts shadowy illumination out to 90'

Sixty feet, not ninety.

Ogre has no reason to make a Hide check. Then again, he's pretty stupid, so let him waste his time.

Ogre is invisible to PC, thus PC is denied Dex bonus to AC. What I wonder now is: if the PC had Deflect Arrows, could he use the feat? He is aware of the attack, but not of the attacker, so yes..? Help me out here

I've never heard of this "penalty for shooting uphill." It seems silly to me. Perhaps if the angle is severe, then the party can claim cover from the ground on which they are standing, but... silly, nevertheless.

This can be solved with a simple Dancing Lights cantrip.

 

[Stalker0]

There is no penalty for shooting uphill.

The big question that's not covered in the rules is, how far can an enemy see your light source. Using your light, you can see everything around you, and more in shadowy illumination. At what distance could an enemy see yoru light source? More importantly, just because your enemy can see your light, doesn't mean he can see you.