Where did that tiny centipede go?

[Voadam]

If a tiny centipede familiar sneaks into camp at night and delivers a touch spell, does everyone automatically know where he is to squash him? It seems like it would be hard to see him, being just a little insect.

"just a little insect" heh.

A tiny monstrous centipede is 1-2 ft. long.

A diminutive one would still be a creepy giant 6 inches to a foot long.

 

[Noumenon]

Oh, there's plenty of horror movies where things that size scurry around in your basement and you can only see them out of the corner of your eye. I remember one called "The Tingler" where the mechanical centipede-like thing was actually as long as your spine and it would sink all its legs into your back and control you with fear.

Jeff Wilder, I guess I was thinking that when a typical tree gives you a +2 cover bonus that it actually gives you cover, so that standing in a square with a small tree or slender pillar would be as good for you as standing in a square full of undergrowth. But it doesn't really make sense to have a tree give you cover from all sides unless you're a squirrel. I guess dodging behind a massive tree or a wall doesn't do you much good if they're chasing you. You need continuous cover, and that means concealment.

I can see this getting pretty complicated in a bigger combat with a bunch of guys hiding behind walls in the dark, where the guy with darkvision can see some of them and the guy who jumps over the wall can see some of them and the rest can't see them.

I found a page with a couple maps I can use as pregenerated terrain. It would be cool to have a generator so the players wouldn't say, "What? We decided to camp right in the middle of three hedgerows?" It could have the different terrain types in the % suggested by the DMG.

And of course the whole issue is moot because the whole area will just get blown up with a fireball anyway. Heck, they'd probably fireball the lone centipede even if they could see it. Oh, wait -- familiars get improved evasion. Good. That's about the only way to make a centipede fireball resistant -- they're not very upgradable.

 

[Noumenon]

You have to basically start your turn in an area with concealment in order to make a hide check.

Page 41 of the 3.5 FAQ has an example where a ranger with spring attack and Hide in Plain Sight starts hidden and then makes another hide check after spring attacking to disappear from view. But the main thrust of it is to reinforce that you can't do that unless you have Hide in Plain Sight. He's so clear about this it makes me wonder if you'd even be able to hide at the start of your next turn, even starting in concealment.

And what good is that? If you can get so far out of sight on your turn that the opponent can't see you even after they take their move, you don't need Hide to escape the encounter. Melting back into the shadows seems pretty much impossible.