D&D 5E (2014) See Invisibility: awareness of Invisibility

[Cyan Wisp]

Thanks for the replies, team! The Dm, a fair and reasonable chap, went with "shimmering aura" or something, so I could alert the team to the skulker, but I do, also, like the idea of reading suspicious behaviour or visual weirdness with Insight/Perception.

 

[Coroc]

...
For a start, they'll cast no shadow. To go further, perhaps they would have a curious uniformity of illumination to their features, no part of them appearing to be especially well illuminated or in shadow. A particularly bright point of illumination, such as a lantern, might be visible shining through their body if they were in front of it.

This.

Rethinking the situation, the bard fears to encounter invisible mobs, so he will try to actively determinate which of the mobs he sees are actually under the invisibility effect, concluding that he would pay attention to the indicators above.
So no additional insight check needed, at least that is how I would rule it.
Still I would require the char to communicate the situation explicitly to his comrades, and the mob still is invisible to them so they only get a vague idea of his location.

 

[jasper]

Hi, community, I would like to see how See Invisibility works for you regarding knowing that something is invisible.

The Situation: My bard has See Invis running and we encounter a wizard cabal. My companions don't see the skulking invisible mage by the statue, but I do.

My immediate reaction is to warn them about the invisible guy... but then I begin to ponder: why would I? As far as I'm concerned, the mage is not invisible, so is not worthy of any suspicion! So, unless the party swaps notes quickly and I describe the position of each wizard I see -

Bard: "Five wizards, huh. Must be a convention or something."
Rest of Party: "Five???"

- the rest of the party won't benefit from my (unknowing) knowledge until they confirm which one they can't see by cross-checking.

How would it work at your table?

You are over thinking this. But at my table is would says.
Hey Cyan Wasp. AND ONLY Cyan Wasp. You see 5 wizard people. And they not playing Baseball.
***
In game like we were watching a movie.
SUDDENLY IN A DEEP DARK 200 DECIBEL WHISPER THE BARD SEES 5 WIZARDS THAT HIS PARTY IS NOT NOTICING.
***

 

[Yardiff]

If an invisible creature is just hanging out in a corner not trying to hide he is just automatically 'spotted'?

 

[AndySim]

One of the main points of See Invisibility is to foil the invisibility spell - I'm not going to let it then deceive the caster on whether something is invisible or not. That seems pretty cheesy on a DM's part.

To be fair the way invisibility and see invisibility is cheesy. Invisibility gives advantage on attacks made by and disadvantage to attacks made against. This doesn't go away under see invisibility.

 

[Stalker0]

To be fair the way invisibility and see invisibility is cheesy. Invisibility gives advantage on attacks made by and disadvantage to attacks made against. This doesn't go away under see invisibility.

We are looking at the 2014 rules not 2024 (where things with that are even more messed up).

But in 2014...see invisible makes an invisible thing visible. Now it does not technically say "remove the Invisible condition"....but we are at accountant level of stingy to go that far imo. With the invisible condition removed, the advantage/disadvantage caveats of invisible would go away.

 

[Stalker0]

If an invisible creature is just hanging out in a corner not trying to hide he is just automatically 'spotted'?

From the 2014 rules on hiding:

"You can't hide from a creature that can see you clearly"


Normally invisibility gives you the concealment you need to hide out in the open. But with that gone, the caster can now "see you clearly" and you are no longer hidden.

 

[bloodtide]

I ignore such badly written 5E stuff. I have and will always do "detect invisibility' as you see the person/object with a bit of a shimmer and twinkle.

And use the 3.5E part of "Such creatures or objects are visible to you as translucent shapes, allowing you easily to discern the difference between visible and invisible."

 

[Umbran]

Because what people playing D&D really want is for GMs to cheese their own rules to annoy players.

 

[Bae'zel]

If an invisible creature is just hanging out in a corner not trying to hide he is just automatically 'spotted'?

I would assume that most reasonable players and DMs would rule it based on circumstances.

If you're invisible, people might be able to figure out where you actually are for a variety of reasons:

• making noises (coughing, talking, singing, heavy breathing, footsteps etc...)
• leaving traces (footprints in mud, a hazy outline in rain, pushing branches/leaves around)

Now, it depends on what we mean by "invisible". There's "hard core physics simulator" invisible (ie, you still occupy space, reality reacts to your physical presence regardless) or there's "magical" invisible, which makes you hidden in all visible ways too (ie, the magic makes you NOT leave a hazy outline in the rain because it's magic).

As an aside, these debates about 2024's stealth rules have been utterly clear to me since the start and I'm baffled at how many people still can't figure them out. That's unfortunate.