Detect Magic to Detect Invis

[Mavrik]

Wondered what the opinion of using detect magic to pinpoint an invisible creature is ;-

If you cast detect magic then 1st round there is a presence of magic, round two there are x number of magic sources, round three one of them is over there in an empty square.

Of course if you allow this then Arcane sight allows you to detect invis without the three rounds


Mav

 

[Solarious]

Detect Magic will allow you to pinpoint which square invisible creatures no problem by pinpointing the illusion aura, as long as they are so gracious as to not move while you do it. Arcane Sight would do the same thing minus the concentration.

I wouldn't allow either to negate the concealment miss chance, as you are detecting the aura and not the creature itself: you'll need See Invisibility or Invibility Purge for that.

 

[Christian]

Detect Magic will allow you to pinpoint which square invisible creatures no problem by pinpointing the illusion aura, as long as they are so gracious as to not move while you do it. Arcane Sight would do the same thing minus the concentration.

I wouldn't allow either to negate the concealment miss chance, as you are detecting the aura and not the creature itself: you'll need See Invisibility or Invibility Purge for that.

Exactly right, IMO. There was, IIRC, a discussion of this in the 3.0 FAQ. Detect Magic is a pretty poor substitute for See Invisibility, because you need to concentrate for three rounds to pinpoint the square the invisible creature is in, at which point you need to (a) cease concentrating on Detect Magic, ending the spell, (b) hope the target doesn't move until you do whatever awful thing you wanted to do to it with your next action, and (c) cope with the 50% miss chance for your attack, if that's your plan. I did have some success with this once with my 3.0 halfling sorcerer, using Detect Magic to find out where to aim, and following up with Glitterdust. But it doesn't generally do much good ...

 

[kenobi65]

As the others have noted, it's not a great way to do it.

Even beyond the 3 rounds issue, the concentration issue, and the problem with the target moving, you still don't know where within that particular square the target is, so you're still facing that concealment miss chance.

 

[el-remmen]

I've always just ruled if you're invisible then the aura is invisible too.

 

[Jack Simth]

Exactly right, IMO. There was, IIRC, a discussion of this in the 3.0 FAQ. Detect Magic is a pretty poor substitute for See Invisibility, because you need to concentrate for three rounds to pinpoint the square the invisible creature is in, at which point you need to (a) cease concentrating on Detect Magic, ending the spell, (b) hope the target doesn't move until you do whatever awful thing you wanted to do to it with your next action, and (c) cope with the 50% miss chance for your attack, if that's your plan. I did have some success with this once with my 3.0 halfling sorcerer, using Detect Magic to find out where to aim, and following up with Glitterdust. But it doesn't generally do much good ...

Try a bat familiar - it's got Blindsense, and can empathically tell you something's amiss with a particular location (or, later, use Speak With Master....)