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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Norfleet" data-source="post: 1135863" data-attributes="member: 11581">Well, think about it: If you were fighting an ogre, and some insignificant rodent were behind you, would you even pay attention to it? No! You're battling with an OGRE. The rat is something you'd likely accidentally step on in the process. It's quite easy to ignore something when the threat value posed by that is insignificant compared to your real target. You might even be dimly aware that there is, in fact, a rat somewhere behind you, but it's simply not something you care enough to pay attention to.Otherwise, you'd have ridiculous flanking situations occurring where a very dangerous attacker, such as a rogue with a high sneak attack value, is able to achieve "flanking" due to the help of something which doesn't pose a credible threat at all, such as a cat.After all, if something which is invisible can be ignored and not provide flanking, something which is visible but on the opposite side of your objective can similarly be ignored. Therefore, a coherent, unified ruling is reached: Something which the defender is unaware of, or is willfully disregarding as a credible threat, will not aid in flanking. An invisible opponent attacks with the benefit of of being invisible: Once it does so, the defender is aware of it, and can be distracted by the presence of an invisible opponent, unless the defender willfully ignores it.</blockquote>