Invisibility -- In-Game Explanation for No Attacking?

[Tonguez]

Its Magic

However to add to the overanalysing the answer to your question depends on how Invisibility works

1. Invisibilty as an illusion makes the targets beleive that their is nothing to see.
It stops as soon as somebody stops beleiving that deception

2. Invisbilty works by alterate light waves (bending them or transforming them into Unltraviolet etc). In this case when you attack, your opponent tries to get a fix and sees you as a blur (the light around your edges) and from there you are seen and the spell ends.

3. Any others

 

[Zappo]

1. Invisibilty as an illusion makes the targets beleive that their is nothing to see.
It stops as soon as somebody stops beleiving that deception

No, because if I kill someone with a Silent Still Disintegrate spell from hiding while noone else except me and my victim is present, the spell will still end. Even though the victim is dead before he can realize it and noone else has seen the fact. Besides, if I shout in someone's ears "I'M HERE! I'M HERE!", the spell won't end unless I have a rat bastard DM who thinks that shouting in your ear is an attack.

2. Invisbilty works by alterate light waves (bending them or transforming them into Unltraviolet etc). In this case when you attack, your opponent tries to get a fix and sees you as a blur (the light around your edges) and from there you are seen and the spell ends.

No, for the same reasons above. Besides, when the spell is over, it's over for good - it doesn't turn you into a blur.

I think any type of rational analysis of spells is doomed to failure.

 

[Iku Rex]

The way I see it, Invisibility creates a certain state of mind as part of the spell. "I'm insignificant. Don't mind me. I'm not here."

This does not influence your actions, but in order to attack, you inevitably move out of that state of mind, which ends the invisibility.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

Anyway, does anyone have a good in-game explanation for why this would be?

1) Boccob said so.

2) Olidammara said so.

3) Heironeous, Pelor, Moradin, Yondalla, Ehlonna, Garl Glittergold, Corellon Larethian, and Kord said so. (All good dieties)

4) Because the material components are an eyelash and some gum arabic. And we all know that the enemy of eyelashes are weapons, unarmed strikes and attack spells. Also, gum arabic is deathly afraid of death. Hence why it's deathly afraid of damage. And damage is caused by attacks. Therefore, invisibility ends when a caster attacks. Wha-la! Logic!

5) There is no spoon...oh yeah, closely related to there is no logic in a game. I mean, what in-game reason is there that I can't rob the bank in Monopoly?

 

[Geron Raveneye]

How about this one?

Treat the spell not as an independant force the wizard crams into his head every moring, but as the expressin of his will, clothed in game rules? That way the spell in question only would do what the wizard had in mind for it.

Now you can easily explain the 2nd level Invisibility spell as a passive spell a wizard calls upon when he wants to go some place unseen or if he wants to have the surprise before an attack, dropping it afterwards. It´s only 2nd level, less powerful (and less difficult to learn, thus) and it runs for 10 minutes/lvl.

If the wizard wants to cast something that protects him during a complete fight, he´d cast Improved Invisibility, which holds even while attacking, and runs for only 1 minute/lvl. I´t s more powerful, and thus it´s harder to learn, impossible even for the fledgeling mage who hasn´t mastered magic enough to control that kind of powerful effects.

If you just step a bit away from "wizard loads and fires spells" and think in matters of "realizing one´s will" and "different effects need more powerful mages", you can easily explain the difference with "The wizard didn´t want it any other way..if he wanted it another way, he´d cast a different spell, if he could"

When the wizard masters Improved Invisibility, it´s just a matter of which effect he needs at the moment.

 

[Staffan]

1. Invisibilty as an illusion makes the targets beleive that their is nothing to see.
It stops as soon as somebody stops beleiving that deception

That doesn't work, because Invisibility is not a [mind-affecting] spell. It's a Glamer - it works by actually changing the target's sensory properties, in this case by removing the visual image the target projects. Light-waves have nothing to do with it either, because D&D physics have very little to do with real-world physics.

And given the rather specific definition of an attack in the spell description, the limitation on attacking has to be of the "kiss the frog" variety - that's just the way it works.

 

[Klaus]

If you want to be reeeeeeally specific about this...

"Remember, Krusk, if you attack, the invisibility ends."

"Huh? Why, Mialee?"

">sigh< The spell envelopes you in a thin illusion that makes all kinds of light go 'around' you, so no one will see you there. But it's not a very powerful spell, and the invisibility 'sheet' isn't very thick, so a single offensive action ruptures the spell's magical weave. Were it an 'improved' version of the spell, the 'sheet' would be thick enough to endure any attacks you make, only disappearing after time itself had gnawed away the weave..."

"SO sorry I asked."

 

[Snoweel]

Thanks to OA and Rokugan, I've gone the way of complete animism for my supernatural.

That said, I think that the little magic spirit that grants invisibility as per the second level spell is so horrified by its host magic-user attacking another being that it flees in terror.

Meanwhile the spirits that grant the greater invisibility spells are made of sterner stuff and aren't so shy about their host causing harm to another.

 

[Snoweel]

Note that animism helps explain away most, if not all of the foibles of magic.

 

[Bob Aberton]

I would say its something like this:

The invisibility spell doesn't actually make you invisible. It does, however, decieve the senses olf those around you so they think you are not there.

However, When you stab that sword right into the other guy's eye, I would say its a pretty good indication that you are there. It is impossible to decieve someone who you have just attacked into thinking you're not there.