dumb question re: detect magic

[SpiderMonkey]

I'm sure it's been asked a million times before (and no, my phb isn't handy; i'm at work), so please indulge me . Does detect magic cause magic items to actually glow, or does it enable the caster to see magic items as if they were glowing?

I'm sure it's become a cliched question by now, but i'd appreciate any response you'd care to generate. Thanks!

Game on!

 

[der_kluge]

The latter.

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

Only the caster sees the magic items as bwing magical.

TS

PS: rules question go in rules forum

 

[Hypersmurf]

Glowing actually doesn't come into it at all.

You can detect magic through 11 inches of stone, or two and a half feet of dirt.

It's not a visual phenomenon - you sense auras.

Detect Magic works if you're blind, in the dark, or in a two-foot-thick wooden box.

-Hyp.

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

I don't know how to describe auras other than by a "glow" of some sort

edit: even if the glow comes through 11 inches of Stone.

TS

 

[da_deadman]

Could you use detect magic to "locate" an invisible opponent if they had magic on them?

Any other "uses" out there for this.

Cheap to use as a regular spell, cheaper to use a a permanent spell.

 

[WattsHumphrey]

Could you use detect magic to "locate" an invisible opponent if they had magic on them?

The problem, if I'm not mistaken, with this is that they'll have to stay in your range of vision until you pinpoint them. It takes (I think) three rounds of concentration before you know exactly what's magical. Before that, you only know that 'something' is.

 

[S'mon]

Could you use detect magic to "locate" an invisible opponent if they had magic on them?

Even if they don't have magic items on them, the invisibility spell would detect as magic! It doesn't let you pinpoint the invisible creature straight off, but it does detect it. In a magic-saturated area such as Alphatia on Mystara, successful rogues tend to avoid carrying or using _any_ magic at all.

 

[Tabarnak Smokeblower]

Could you use detect magic to "locate" an invisible opponent if they had magic on them?

Yes you can, I think it's in the FAQ. The problem is, as other have mentionned, is the time it takes to detect the auras.

round 1: detect the absence or presence of auras in the range
round 2: detect the number and power of the auras (IIRC)
round 3: pinpoint the auras.

So an invisible opponent can take his sweet time getting out of the range of the detect magic spell, and it'll be almost impossible to locate him.

TS