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Message: <blockquote data-quote="radmod" data-source="post: 5262237" data-attributes="member: 93008">A couple of caveats about a long winded post - bear with me please. First, I'm not sure how well this has been addressed here, but of what I've seen there have been no definite answers (essentially there are two camps). Second, I've been doing D&D for a long time, so I often get rules mixed up between 1e to 3.5e. Finally, this has nothing to do with 4.0.The question is how do various detect spells, SLAs work vs. hide.For invisibility, I've always thought it to be clear. Invisibility makes you and your gear invisible. This includes the 'aura' that is detectable. Glitterdust falls on you (and essentially becomes part of you) so a reapplication of invisibility can make it invisible. Faerie Fire, OTH, OUTLINES you so re-invisibility does not make it go away.Now to hide. Apparently detection spells do not necessarily require L0S as they are senses (a blind character can still sense evil like a mage could detect magic in a closed box). As such, a hide would not make the aura of your magic go away. Playing RAW, it would make it very difficult for a rogue to hide against a paladin or a permanent detect magic/arcane sight. And that, quite frankly, bites ("What do you mean my Hide check of 50 does no good?").I believe the real question becomes "how big is an aura?" IIRC, some are defined as being 10 ft. (aura of courage) but most are undefined. A pro-evil (technically not an aura) creates a 1 ft. barrier. According to the DM spell, some auras overwhelm others. This seems to imply a more powerful aura would likely have a 'larger' aura.So how big is an aura? How does having more powerful magic items affect the size of your aura? Can one effectively hide against detections spells?I'm thinking a few solutions right now:1) The logical solution is that against a detect spell a hide check would take a penalty for the things that could be detected. Just like trying to hide behind a tree while holding a couple of logs would give a circumstance penalty so would having more and more powerful items. The problem with this is that a lot of math would be involved. 2) When a character attempts to hide against something that could 'detect' it, the 'detector' makes two spot checks, a normal one and a special one, using the same die roll for both checks. The special check would be done like a detect spell vs. non-detection only in this case the check is vs. the Hide check. The 'detector' would add the caster level/character level of the spell/SLA to the die roll. If they detect the hider then they know his general area (his space).3) Probably the easiest idea (and it works with #1 above) is to treat the hidden person's aura as a size modifier. That is, DM provides 4 separate aura strengths (faint, moderate, strong, overwhelming) that could be related to a size modifier (large, huge, gargantuan, colossal). Obviously, no magic would be normal size. A PC's aura size would be the 'size' of the most powerful magic item or functioning spell. Thus a rogue with a +1 dagger would take a penalty of -4 on a hide (or provide a +4 bonus to a spot) against a player with a detect on. Likewise, one with a relic would take a -16. A PC's personal aura (evil, good, lawful, etc.) would be based on HD with those having active auras (Paladins) taking an additional -4 penalty. So, for example, a 10th level rogue with a +1 dagger is hiding from a Wiz and a Paladin. His hide check is a 27. The wizard (with DM) gets a +4 bonus to spot while the Pally gets a +8 (moderate) on the spot. Now that I've written all this, someone please tell me this is covered elsewhere and essentially settled.BTW, Arcane Sight and the like would be affected in the same manner UNLESS, of course, the hider was literally out of sight and just not concealed (behind a desk, a tree, etc.)</blockquote>

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