Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
I'm here to discuss a new edition of D&D. Your pedantry about what apples to apples means and how I've misused it is just annoying me. Please drop it.
I'm a simulationist. If there's a state called invisibility in the game it should work just one way. That was one of the good things about 3e. When the DM says "Invisible", regardless of source, you know what it freaking is.
Given few other things work that way, why should invisibility?
Traditionally in fantasy literature, there are different kinds of invisibility. The invisibility of the Rings of Power was different from ordinary invisibility in the Tolkien universe. The invisibility of a normal Cloak of Invisibility was different from the invisibility of Harry's Deathly Hallows cloak of Invisibility. So traditional fantasy makes distinctions between different kinds of invisibility.
And then the editions of D&D sometimes also had different types of invisibility - some that disappeared on an attack and others that did not, some that blocked sound as well and others that did not, some which make you chameleon-like instead of see-through, etc..
I see nothing about being a simulationist that requires there be just one type of invisibility in the game. Any more than there is only one type of ray spell, one time of area attack spell, or even one type of cold spell.
I'd much prefer if the DM says invisible, you're not sure as a player what kind that means. Bring back some mystery to magic for goodness sake, enough with players knowing everything about the mechanics of the game so much that they instantly know what everything is and are constantly tempted to use player knowledge instead of character knowledge for how to deal with new things the character has never encountered.