After reading this entire thread, I think the only ones who have truly hit the nail on the head here are Hawken and FireLance, and to a slightly lesser extent Thanee.
I felt like throwing in my 2 cents regarding the whole True Seeing vs HiPS. Some of that which I mention has already been said, but I wanted to bring the spotlight back and examine them.
All quotes within this post are drawn directly from the SRD.
Hide in Plain Sight (Ex): While in any sort of natural terrain, a ranger of 17th level or higher can use the Hide skill even while being observed.
Extraordinary Abilities (Ex): Extraordinary abilities are nonmagical. They are, however, not something that just anyone can do or even learn to do without extensive training. Effects or areas that negate or disrupt magic have no effect on extraordinary abilities.
A ranger can use HiPS within an Anti-magic Field.
True, RAW.
Hide in Plain Sight (Su): A shadowdancer can use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as she is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, a shadowdancer can hide herself from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind. She cannot, however, hide in her own shadow. [Emphasis mine.]
Supernatural Abilities (Su): Supernatural abilities are magical but not spell-like. Supernatural abilities are not subject to spell resistance and do not function in areas where magic is suppressed or negated (such as an antimagic field). A supernatural ability’s effect cannot be dispelled and is not subject to counterspells.
A Shadowdancer
cannot use HiPS within an antimagic field.
True.
RAW.
A Shadowdancer hides
in shadows.
True, RAI.
Why specifically note that the Shadowdancer cannot hide
in her own shadow if she does not specifically hide
in other shadows. Why wouldn't the author have written "The shadowdancer may not use her own shadow for the purposes of fulfilling this requirement," if they meant otherwise? This conclusion is also supported in the previous statement that the Shadowdancer must be within 10' of shadows to use the ability.
Darkvision is black and white only but otherwise like normal sight. Darkvision does not grant one the ability to see in magical darkness.
The absence of color, or "black and white only," viewable by a creature with darkvision, does not grant the creature the ability to see through all shadows or otherwise eliminate shadows from their sight.
True, RAW.
Darkvision implies a greater sensitivity to light, much like the rod cells within the human eye (which similarly cannot distinguish color and are used in times of dim light), only far more sensitive. One might argue that darkvision is described as the ability to see with "no light at all;" however, this is a very relative term, as some degree of light is
always present (albeit this may be in extremely tiny amounts, far below the threshold of light necessary for a human eye to function, and thus how darkvision seemingly functions with "no light at all" to an observing human). [ Note that only a sealed environment or a purely magical darkness could actually ever reach
absolute zero light, or true 'no light at all.' Also note that Darkvision does not penetrate magical darkness, and would rarely if ever encounter absolute zero light under any other circumstances. Rather than try and explain this fact scientifically, the author made the reasonable assumption that only humans would be reading the SRD or other D&D books, and that as far as a human was concerned, a creature with darkvision could operate with what the human considered "no light at all." While shadows might appear muted (compared to a human) in some situations to a creature with darkvision, there are still shadows.
True, RAI
Therefore, it follows that Darkvision would not affect or prevent the use of HiPS by a shadowdancer.
True Seeing though, is different.
True Seeing
Divination
Level: Clr 5, Drd 7, Knowledge 5, Sor/Wiz 6
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
You confer on the subject the ability to see all things as they actually are. The subject sees through normal and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic, sees the exact locations of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects, sees invisible creatures or objects normally, sees through illusions, and sees the true form of polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things. Further, the subject can focus its vision to see into the Ethereal Plane (but not into extradimensional spaces). The range of true seeing conferred is 120 feet.
True seeing, however, does not penetrate solid objects. It in no way confers X-ray vision or its equivalent. It does not negate concealment, including that caused by fog and the like. True seeing does not help the viewer see through mundane disguises, spot creatures who are simply hiding, or notice secret doors hidden by mundane means. In addition, the spell effects cannot be further enhanced with known magic, so one cannot use true seeing through a crystal ball or in conjunction with clairaudience/clairvoyance.
Look up the word mundane in the glossary of your PHB, and you'll find it defined as "
Normal, Commonplace, or everyday. Also used as a synonym for "nonmagical."
Look up the word
simple in a dictionary (as it is not defined in the PHB/SRD anywhere) and one of the prominent definitions will be along the lines of "
ordinary or common." How 'bout that, simple and mundane are synonyms. For those that argue that the word "
simply" does not imply anything, do you not find it interesting that it is included (before the word hiding) in the
only sentence in the entire description that specifically references the word
mundane? Not once, but twice, once before and once after, all in the same sentence... and that the two words often have the same or extremely similar meanings? This is far too coincidental to be unrelated and clearly implies that only
normal or
mundane use of the hide skill is intended to be immune to True Seeing.
True, RAI
Just another opinion
Tyrol
(I'm not its biggest fan either, for that matter.)
