Dealing with Greater Invisibility

[Greenfield]

So, on the original topic, are you saying that a character who is in love with Greater Invisibility isn't an issue to worry about?

That does seem to be where you're going. Boss monsters should all be given True Sight, Tremorsense or something similar, and all monsters plan their field tactics around the idea that they're going to die anyway, so what difference does it make if you can take out a medium-to-large damage dealer?

I'm sorry if that comes out as if I'm mocking you, but that does seem to be what your argument boils down to.

When I DM my goal is to challenge the party. All of the party. If a PC has some favorite trick that lets him/her glide through without a challenge then I (as DM) am doing something wrong.

I like to recognize that these characters aren't the first ones to ever try these tricks. I'm not expecting the typical Orc troop to have someone with See Invisible ready to hand to shut this guy down, but if nothing else they may know enough to retreat, to move the battle so their unseen attacker has to move as well. When he does the Hide bonus from Invisibility drops from +40 to +20. Still not great, but at least it's possible to spot him. Particularly if he gets overconfident and neglects to put any effort into Stealth. Then it's a flat 20 for the Spot/Perception target number.

There's also the option of detect Magic. I don't typically allow that to bypass Invisibility (it normally tells them that there's magic in the area the first round, how many magic auras in the 2nd round, and their locations the 3rd round). Instead of giving fixed locations on round 3, I have the image stay fuzzy. Caster gets an approximate location, but not down to the square.

But even with my house rule, does the Invisible PC have any other magic with them? If so then that can be located exactly.

Plus side: I use a Cantrip or 1st level spell to counter a 4th level spell. Down side, I burn three rounds to do it. Sort of a fair balance.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

So, on the original topic, are you saying that a character who is in love with Greater Invisibility isn't an issue to worry about?

Yes.

That does seem to be where you're going. Boss monsters should all be given True Sight, Tremorsense or something similar, and all monsters plan their field tactics around the idea that they're going to die anyway, so what difference does it make if you can take out a medium-to-large damage dealer?

It's less that boss monsters should be given these abilities, and more that a creature lacking such abilities would never rise to the level of boss. If all it took to kill a scary monster was one PC with a fourth level spell, then that scary monster wasn't actually very scary in the first place.

What you want to do with less powerful monsters is another question. If they're just meaningless chumps, then maybe the only reason they're still around is that nobody has gotten around to killing them yet. There are an awful lot of hydras out there in that swamp, and fighting all of them is a waste of time, which is why there are so many of them (or whatever). There's no particular reason to believe that they should have developed a specific counter against this one mediocre spell. If these are all orcs who are working for the Big Bad, and the Big Bad has some reason to expect that invisibility is a thing they need to be prepared for, then maybe they've been given specific training or a spell scroll or something.

When I DM my goal is to challenge the party. All of the party. If a PC has some favorite trick that lets him/her glide through without a challenge then I (as DM) am doing something wrong.

If you're going to meta-game and contrive excuses to foil the PCs specifically, then there's no point in even playing the game. There's no point in making a character if the GM goes out of their way to target your one gimmick. You might as well drop rocks that reduce them down to 1hp, or whatever level of "challenge" you want to provide.

Your job as the GM is to build the world, and play all of the NPCs. If an NPC has a trick to foil invisibility, then great. Powerful NPCs probably will. Most probably won't, though, simply because high-level magic-users who can cast greater invisibility are supposed to be rare. If a high-level magic-using PC wants to devote a significant chunk of their resources toward casting one particular spell that they find useful, then contriving reasons for it to suddenly not work is just adversarial GMing.

 

[Dandu]

Not exactly unreasonable for foes to prepare for invisibility in a world where invisibility exists, and has existed for thousands of years.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Not exactly unreasonable for foes to prepare for invisibility in a world where invisibility exists, and has existed for thousands of years.

The same could be said for dragons, but if you spend too much time preparing for anything that might show up, you'll never get anything done.

 

[Dandu]

Fortunately, Glitterdust is a powerful, versatile second level spell, and if all else fails, I hear flour is a pretty popular item these days for anyone with a millstone or access to trading networks.

 

[Greenfield]

Yes.

That was all that needed to be said. You could have left out pretty much everything you've written in this entire thread if you'd just said to the OP "Your problem isn't a problem. Walk it off."

Sorry, I'm having a really bad day at work. if I post any more on this today I'll say something that will get me banned.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

That was all that needed to be said. You could have left out pretty much everything you've written in this entire thread if you'd just said to the OP "Your problem isn't a problem. Walk it off."

The OP never said that it was a problem. Just that it's "tiresome." They asked for advice on how to handle it.

My advice is to not worry about it, because the actual problem at hand is a matter of perception. You don't have a problem. You think you have a problem, and that is the problem. (Many Pathfinder DMs have the same issue when one character gets a very high AC, and they expect it to cause problems, but it never does.)

Unless the OP actually does have some problem with this spell ruining their game somehow, in which case the standard reminders about Glitterdust and Tremorsense should be sufficient.

 

[Greenfield]

Translation: Your problem isn't a problem. Walk it off.

Heard it before. I'm sure it's as helpful this time as it was then.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Translation: Your problem isn't a problem. Walk it off.

Nowhere did the OP state, or even suggest, that there was any problem associated with this spell other than that they thought it was kind of tiresome.

Translation: There isn't a problem. That being the case, any over-reaction on your part is likely to cause more harm than good.

 

[Greenfield]

In other words, it's not a problem, walk it off.

Got it.