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Shadowdancer's Hide in plain Sight
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<blockquote data-quote="Tyrol" data-source="post: 1965085" data-attributes="member: 18213"><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>All quotes within this post are drawn directly from the SRD. </p><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><p><strong>A ranger <strong>can</strong> use HiPS within an Anti-magic Field. </strong></p><p><strong>True, RAW.</strong></p><p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><p>A Shadowdancer <strong>cannot</strong> use HiPS within an antimagic field.</p><p><strong>True.</strong></p><p><strong>RAW.</strong></p><p></p><p>A Shadowdancer hides <em><strong>in</strong></em> shadows.</p><p><strong>True, RAI.</strong> </p><p>Why specifically note that the Shadowdancer cannot hide <em><strong>in</strong></em> her own shadow if she does not specifically hide <em><strong>in</strong></em> 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. </p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p><strong>True, RAW.</strong></p><p>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 <em>always</em> 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 <em>absolute zero</em> 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. </p><p><strong>True, RAI</strong></p><p></p><p>Therefore, it follows that Darkvision would not affect or prevent the use of HiPS by a shadowdancer. </p><p></p><p>True Seeing though, is different. </p><p></p><p> </p><p></p><p>Look up the word mundane in the glossary of your PHB, and you'll find it defined as "<em>Normal, Commonplace, or everyday. Also used as a synonym for "nonmagical.</em>" </p><p>Look up the word <em>simple</em> 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 "<em>ordinary or common.</em>" How 'bout that, simple and mundane are synonyms. For those that argue that the word "<em>simply</em>" does not imply anything, do you not find it interesting that it is included (before the word hiding) in the <em>only</em> sentence in the entire description that specifically references the word <em>mundane</em>? 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 <strong>normal</strong> or <strong>mundane</strong> use of the hide skill is intended to be immune to True Seeing. </p><p></p><p><strong>True, RAI</strong></p><p></p><p>Just another opinion <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> </p><p></p><p>Tyrol</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tyrol, post: 1965085, member: 18213"] 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. [B]A ranger [B]can[/B] use HiPS within an Anti-magic Field. True, RAW.[/B] A Shadowdancer [B]cannot[/B] use HiPS within an antimagic field. [B]True. RAW.[/B] A Shadowdancer hides [I][B]in[/B][/I] shadows. [B]True, RAI.[/B] Why specifically note that the Shadowdancer cannot hide [I][B]in[/B][/I] her own shadow if she does not specifically hide [I][B]in[/B][/I] 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. 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. [B]True, RAW.[/B] 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 [I]always[/I] 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 [I]absolute zero[/I] 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. [B]True, RAI[/B] Therefore, it follows that Darkvision would not affect or prevent the use of HiPS by a shadowdancer. True Seeing though, is different. Look up the word mundane in the glossary of your PHB, and you'll find it defined as "[I]Normal, Commonplace, or everyday. Also used as a synonym for "nonmagical.[/I]" Look up the word [I]simple[/I] 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 "[I]ordinary or common.[/I]" How 'bout that, simple and mundane are synonyms. For those that argue that the word "[I]simply[/I]" does not imply anything, do you not find it interesting that it is included (before the word hiding) in the [I]only[/I] sentence in the entire description that specifically references the word [I]mundane[/I]? 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 [B]normal[/B] or [B]mundane[/B] use of the hide skill is intended to be immune to True Seeing. [B]True, RAI[/B] Just another opinion ;) Tyrol [/QUOTE]
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