D&D 5E Why does Invisibility work against undead?

[pogre]

The title question comes from my musings about HOW undead see the world. It just seems like certain undead, like skeletons, would not use our kind of vision. Therefore, invisibility would not work against those creatures.

Undead in my campaign have vision just like ours, but I am toying with changing that for my next campaign.

Thoughts?

 

[nswanson27]

The title question comes from my musings about HOW undead see the world. It just seems like certain undead, like skeletons, would not use our kind of vision. Therefore, invisibility would not work against those creatures.

Undead in my campaign have vision just like ours, but I am toying with changing that for my next campaign.

Thoughts?

5e is a bit fast and loose on defining things like "vision" "seeing" "blindsight" etc.... Without more precise definitions on the ground floor you're always going to have ambiguous corner cases. It's a trade-off they made to keep the rules simple and leave it to the DM to adjudicate these situations.

 

[Fanaelialae]

The title question comes from my musings about HOW undead see the world. It just seems like certain undead, like skeletons, would not use our kind of vision. Therefore, invisibility would not work against those creatures.

Undead in my campaign have vision just like ours, but I am toying with changing that for my next campaign.

Thoughts?

By RAW, undead have functionally the same vision as humans. It might not be identical (perhaps it is akin to the world Frodo perceived while wearing the one ring) but it is equivalent (not giving them any advantage in detecting invisible creatures). You could change that, but in common media zombies and skeletons are generally not portrayed as being difficult to hide from. Therefore, if you change this basic assumption, you should probably let players know in advance.

 

[Satyrn]

The title question comes from my musings about HOW undead see the world. It just seems like certain undead, like skeletons, would not use our kind of vision. Therefore, invisibility would not work against those creatures.

Undead in my campaign have vision just like ours, but I am toying with changing that for my next campaign.

Thoughts?

Sure. Why not.

Homebrew monsters are fun.

 

[jgsugden]

RAW are pretty clear and simple for vision in 5E. I didn't like that because I found that the different types of vision from prior editions added a lot to the game. Accordingly, for my campaign world, I introduced a lot more types of vision and vision approximating senses:

* Normal
* Low Light (ability to see clearly in dim light, extends radius of dim light)
* Darkvision (you produce a dim light that only you can see - limited range)
* Watersight (ability to see clearly in liquids - no range limit)
* Infravsion (see heat signatures - no range limit)
* Ultravision (see light in ultraviolet span - used to hide secret arcane writings, primarily - no range limit)
* Sonar (see with sound - beats illusions - limited range)
* Blindsight (like sonar, but doesn't require sound - beats illusions - limited range)
* Tremorsense (sense non-static things that touch surfaces you contact - beats illusions - limited range)
* Life Sense (ability to see souls - beats some illusions - souls radiate light like a lightsource, so it allows creatures with this sense to see you when you hide as easily as if you had a torch - no range limit)
* Devil Sight (see in any darkness as if it were bright light - some unlimited range, others limited)
* X-ray (see through most substances and concealment - beats illusions - limited range)
* Limited True Sight (Combines Low Light, Darkvision, Infravision, Ultravision and Blindsight)
* True Sight (all of the above - very rare)

I have a 5 page document that gives detailed rules on the above. If I ever get around to making it pretty, it will go up on the DM Guild. I also have a few races with unique types of vision, such as the illithid ability to see psionic energy as if it were a light source.

In my game, all undead have Normal Vision and Life Sense. Mere skeletons can see you coming before you turn the corner as your soul burns brightly for them - as if you were carrying a torch. Some undead have other advanced forms of sight as well, but adding this detail to undead gives them a creepy aspect that helps really differentiate a skeleton from a goblin. Hiding from undead is hard with life sense in play (but not impossible).

The other vision forms also differentiate other monsters. Orcs and other wilderness hunter races tend to have infravision rather than darkvision in my games. This allows them to spot prey at night from great distances. Underdark races tend to have darkvision, which is more useful for seeing within the confines of the caverns they inhabit.

You have to stop yourself and really consider the types of sight monsters and PCs have before encounters when you have this many vision types, but once you get used to it, it adds a lot of depth. However, until you get used to it, it can be a burden.

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Mercule]

In AD&D, I did a whole bunch of tweaks to undead to make them more "realistic". They were silent because they had extremely limited levitation. Things like skeletons saw life force. Things like that. It created a couple of memorable moments (like the one undead PC who wanted to know whether the "limited levitation" allowed water walking), but was largely not worth the added effort beyond "because, magic(ish)".

In short, if you want undead (or some other class of critter) to interact with the world differently, then create rules that enforce that. If you're just asking "why?", remember that you're gaming in a world where failure to dodge (save against) disintegrate may not turn you to dust, but the next guy could be dusted even if he does everything right.

 

[schnee]

Why does Invisibility work against undead?

´*•.¸ (*•.¸ ♥ ¸.•*´)¸.•*´
♥«´¨`•° MAGIC °•´¨`»♥
.¸.•* (¸.•*´♥`*•.¸)`*•.¸

 

[MechaTarrasque]

When the first necromancer was negotiating with Orcus on how to build undead, they got haggling over cost. It came down to a decision on whether the 20th level necromancer could have 50 skeletons who could see life force or 100 who couldn't, the necromancer thought "100 skeletons have way more DPR than 50 and invisibility=loud so why would I need them to see life force?", and the rest is history.

 

[Sir Brennen]

The title question comes from my musings about HOW undead see the world. It just seems like certain undead, like skeletons, would not use our kind of vision. Therefore, invisibility would not work against those creatures.

Undead in my campaign have vision just like ours, but I am toying with changing that for my next campaign.

Thoughts?

Elves don't use our kind of vision either, but invisibility works against them. If you're still considering it "vision" for eyeless undead, like skeletons, there's no reason not to rule that the magic of invisibility applies to them too. Nothing about the spell or invisible condition say it only works on the (demi)-humanly visible spectrum. Like much of 5e, it's open to interpretation.

So, have your cake and eat it, too.

On the other hand, remember, it's more than eyes that skeletons lack. They don't have muscles, or nerves, or even a brain with a visual cortex to process the information they receive from whatever magical senses they have. Yet they behave as if they do have all of these. So, however the magic of skeletal animation works, it lets them act as if they had all of these soft tissues, including normal eyes, and therefore, they'd have normal vision.