Does Faerie Fire cancel concealment due to smoke?

[jaults]

Faerie Fire
Evocation [Light]
Level: Drd 1
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Area: Creatures and objects within a 5-ft.-radius burst
Duration: 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: Yes
A pale glow surrounds and outlines the subjects. Outlined subjects shed light as candles. Outlined creatures do not benefit from the concealment normally provided by darkness (though a 2nd-level or higher magical darkness effect functions normally), blur, displacement, invisibility, or similar effects. The light is too dim to have any special effect on undead or dark-dwelling creatures vulnerable to light. The faerie fire can be blue, green, or violet, according to your choice at the time of casting. The faerie fire does not cause any harm to the objects or creatures thus outlined.

Faerie fire specifically cancels concealment from darkness, but what about other environmental effects, like smoke?

Thanks,
Jason

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

Since you can't see a candle is smoke (or fog, for that matter), I'd rule that it doesn't work.

AR

 

[MerakSpielman]

I agree with AR. The effects listed in the spell description are "transparent," as it were. Smoke is translucent to opaque, so you can't see the person who is outlined with Faerie Fire.

It's similar to them being on the other side of a really dirty window. You just can't see them. If the window were clean, and the person on the other side were in darkness, then you would see them once you outlined them.

(Forgive me if these analogies don't make sense. They sounded good when I thought of them....)

 

[Hypersmurf]

You know, I think I've been interpreting Faerie Fire vs Mirror Image wrong.

Figments can't illuminate darkness. I'd been assuming that if someone using MI was hit by FF, then he is limned with coloured flames that shed light as a candle, and his images are limed with coloured flames that do not shed light as a candle.

In bright sunlight, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. In darkness, it would be glaringly obvious which image was casting light. In dim to moderate lighting, it might be possible to tell, but not necessarily guaranteed.

However...

... since Faerie Fire beats Displacement, the implication is that the flames outline your real position, even though your apparent position is a few feet away.

And so now I'm inclined to say that the Mirror Images don't get limned in flames at all... only the real caster.

Which makes Faerie Fire a much better anti-MI spell than I'd thought.

-Hyp.

 

[BSF]

What about somebody shooting arrows at you from the brush? Don't they have concealment, rather than cover? It seems like this would pop up for a Druid pretty often.

 

[Hypersmurf]

What about somebody shooting arrows at you from the brush? Don't they have concealment, rather than cover? It seems like this would pop up for a Druid pretty often.

Same. It's not "concealment due to darkness or similar effects", so FF doesn't apply.

-Hyp.

 

[BSF]

Then why wouldn't the Druids have scrapped Faerie Fire for something that would be effective against humanoids invading their forests? It seems to me that Druids would prefer to use spells that allow them to find enemies hiding in the woods, as well as being able to Faerie Fire somebody and then Obscurring mist the area. The Faerie Fired person is a nice target, but can't see who he might be fighting.

 

[MerakSpielman]

The problem is that mist and smoke are not similar effects to darkness, displacement, and invisibility.

The conditions that are nullified by the spell do not involve something physically existing in the space between yourself and the target.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Then why wouldn't the Druids have scrapped Faerie Fire for something that would be effective against humanoids invading their forests?

The nocturnal humanoids with penalties in sunlight who attack at night, you mean?

-Hyp.

 

[Altamont Ravenard]

The nocturnal humanoids with penalties in sunlight who attack at night, you mean?

-Hyp.

Zing!

lol

AR