Apologies if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find an answer for it. Can detect magic detect an invisible creature? My instincts tell me yes, given the descriptions of both spells and the invisibility status effect:
Detect Magic:
For the duration, you sense the presence of magic within 30 feet of you. If you sense magic in this way, you can use your action to see a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that bears magic, and you learn its school of magic, if any.
The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
Invisibility:
A creature you touch becomes invisible until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target's person. The spell ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.
An invisible creature is impossible to see without the aid of magic or a special sense. For the purpose of hiding, the creature is heavily obscured. The creature's location can be detected by any noise it makes or any tracks it leaves.
Attack rolls against the creature have disadvantage, and the creature's attack rolls have advantage.
It seems from those descriptions, that as long as the invisible creature is within 30 feat of the character using detect magic, the character should be able to find the invisible creature, but I wanted to get a second opinion just to be safe.
The 30 feet passive detection is a general "there is something magic within 30 feet of you". It's the action to see auras that let you "find" the source of that detection and what type of magic it is - which doesn't work for invisible things or anything you cannot see. If you were in a dark room full of magic items and didn't have darkvision - you'd know there are magic items. You won't know how many, size, kind or anything, or even that they're items, you'd only something magical was within 30 ft of you. If you used the action for the auras you'd see... Just black, darkness.
Detect magic won't locate an invisible creature, you need to be able to see the creature or object. There is a spell specifically designed to find invisible creatures or objects, See Invisible 2nd level.
The fact that the spell See Invisibility exists, that it is a higher level spell than Detect Magic, and is explicitly for the purposes of detecting invisible creatures/objects ought to be sufficient to demonstrate that Detect Magic is not intended to accomplish that function.
This is, of course, ancillary to the fact that Detect Magic explicitly requires things to be visible.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
"For the duration, you sense the presence of magic within 30 feet of you. If you sense magic in this way, you can use your action to see a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that bears magic, and you learn its school of magic, if any.
The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt."
What this means if your using this to find invisible creatures or objects is that you will sense a invisible creature or object if you use this and if you use your action it will NOT give off the aura but you will be able to tell it is illusion magic, if you have a cool DM they will let you make arcana checks to figure out what direction the magic is coming from and or others can roll perception to find said creature (listen for footsteps, breathing, look foot prints in dirt/dust) so yes it can aid in finding something invisible. there is a level 2 bard, wizard, sorcerer spell called See Invisibility and then later on there is a level 6 spell for bards, clerics, sorcerers, wizards and warlocks called True Seeing and while it does not say you can see invisible things it does say "This spell gives the willing creature you touch the ability to see things as they actually are. For the duration, the creature has truesight, notices secret doors hidden by magic, and can see into the Ethereal Plane, all out to a range of 120 feet." there are also several creatures (such as dragons) who have true seeing or blindsight (note that blindsight is not magic just means you hear really well) as there default senses and most DMs use this to see invisible players. HOWEVER there is a level 3 spell that blocks all of the spells above called nondetection: "For the duration, you hide a target that you touch from divination magic. The target can be a willing creature or a place or an object no larger than 10 feet in any dimension. The target can't be targeted by any divination magic or perceived through magical scrying sensors." this means any spells that are divination magic can't pick up said creature or object, this lasts for 8 hours (my arcane trickster casts this twice a day on himself, once when he wakes up the next after the first one wears off then he goes to bed XD) that spell will protect you from being detected by see invisible and true seeing (and arguable creatures truesight as truesight is a magical type of vision in the deviation school of magic)
I hope all this information helps you! PS. if you really need to find a invisible creature running around start throwing something on the ground like dust, dirt or oil, while the spell will cause the dirt and dust that falls on the creature to also become invisible it does not hide footprints! or protect vs saves for sliping in oil or ball bearings!
Unfortunately not. While it is a good idea, it wouldn't work due to the wording of Detect Magic: "Any visible creature". You would have to use See Invisibility.
That does help, I am the DM and my players are getting ready to encounter imps so i wanted to get some clarification on how they could use detect magic to find the invisible ones and wasn't sure. Thanks!
Would detect magic detect a construct, even one like animated armor that has the False Appearance feature? Does it detect magic around any magical creature? What then defines a "magical" creature? I have players in CoS spamming the spell through ritual casting and it has the potential to ruin all surprises. What limits are there to Detect Magic in general.
Would detect magic detect a construct, even one like animated armor that has the False Appearance feature? (1)Does it detect magic around any magical creature?(2)What then defines a "magical" creature? (3) I have players in CoS spamming the spell through ritual casting and it has the potential to ruin all surprises. What limits are there to Detect Magic in general. (4)
It only reveals currently active magical effects. I.e., a creature under the effect of something like the Haste spell, a door warded with Alarm, and magical items. Magic items are permanent enchantments with active ongoing magic. Constructs & summoned creatures are brought into being by magic, but they are not sustained by it (unless the creature's stat block explicitly says so).
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
The fact that the spell See Invisibility exists, that it is a higher level spell than Detect Magic, and is explicitly for the purposes of detecting invisible creatures/objects ought to be sufficient to demonstrate that Detect Magic is not intended to accomplish that function.
This is, of course, ancillary to the fact that Detect Magic explicitly requires things to be visible.
This is a good point and also a good thing to say at the table. "I believe see invisibility is the spell you're looking for in this case."
Would detect magic detect a construct, even one like animated armor that has the False Appearance feature? Does it detect magic around any magical creature? What then defines a "magical" creature? I have players in CoS spamming the spell through ritual casting and it has the potential to ruin all surprises. What limits are there to Detect Magic in general.
Spamming it as a ritual takes 10 minutes a go. If they aren’t in a safe area, and aren’t setting a watch during it. Maybe roll a die and on 1s they get ambushed. (Doesn’t have to be a 20. I just said a die. How annoying it is to you is up to you)
I know I can make it more difficult for them to do the ritual, but I want know the limits of what is considered magical. Would a unicorn emit a magical aura? Undead? In a world of magic, does everything that is not mundane detect as magic?
I know I can make it more difficult for them to do the ritual, but I want know the limits of what is considered magical. Would a unicorn emit a magical aura? Undead? In a world of magic, does everything that is not mundane detect as magic?
Actively has magic effecting it. Or is made purely from magic.
if it wouldn’t be in an anti magic field. It’s magic.
There should be an "I object!" or "Disputed" button you can click on posts, in addition to the "like this" button. Not to downvote or criticize people's posts, but just so that when people post something that is disputed, but which doesn't justify pulling the entire thread off tangent since it's already been the subject of long and contentious threads elsewhere, you can click a button to signal to other readers "take this with a grain of salt."
"Disputed!" to post #14 above, as it pertains to summoned familiars :)
There should be an "I object!" or "Disputed" button you can click on posts, in addition to the "like this" button. Not to downvote or criticize people's posts, but just so that when people post something that is disputed, but which doesn't justify pulling the entire thread off tangent since it's already been the subject of long and contentious threads elsewhere, you can click a button to signal to other readers "take this with a grain of salt."
"Disputed!" to post #14 above, as it pertains to summoned familiars :)
I have players in CoS spamming the spell through ritual casting and it has the potential to ruin all surprises. What limits are there to Detect Magic in general.
It requires concentration, so those characters will not be using hex or hunter's mark or barkskin or similar.
Casting it as a ritual requires just over 10 minutes of casting time (during which the mage is concentrating). So if the players are spamming it then they are literally stopping for 10 minutes, ritually casting, moving for 10 minutes with the spell up, stopping again for 10 minutes, etc. What are the rest of the party ding while this is happening? What are their foes doing?
Note that during the 10 minutes and 6 seconds of ritual casting, the caster is concentrating on the casting, so they will not have detect magic active.
As to the limitation of the spell, it is not that useful if the party has any magic items or spell effects. The spell lets you "sense the presence of magic." It doesn't say anything about telling you how many presences there are in range or where they are. That means if anyone within 30 feet has a magic item, then you are always sensing the presence of magic.
The spell should detect that somewhere in the 30 ft range there is some form of magic. But most likely you are caring some form of magic yourself - a potion or scroll for example.
You can not see the aura, so:
If there is any other magic item in the area you likely are not aware there is something invisible about.
If there is no other magic item about, you detect magic, but do not know it is an illusion. All you know is that there is some magic that you can barely detect and can not see the aura of.
You do not know the location for targetting purposes - you are still shooting blind.
If there is any other magic item in the area you likely are not aware there is something invisible about.
I would say that this one is down the DM, since the spell does not detail what occurs in a situation of multiple sources of magic, which is to say, it doesn't say if you detect just one source of magic or have a good idea of the number of different sources within range. Personally I would lean towards the latter since Detect Magic would be near useless if a single party member has a single magic item.
Player: "I use a Ritual of Detect Magic"
DM: "You detect magic"
Player: "I use an action to see it"
DM: "You see an aura around your finger where your Ring of Protection sits"
You would need to remove all your own magical items, hand them to a party member or leave them on the floor, move out of range and then perform the spell/ritual. Seems too overly tedious to be an intended way to go about it.
Apologies if this has been asked before, but I couldn't find an answer for it. Can detect magic detect an invisible creature? My instincts tell me yes, given the descriptions of both spells and the invisibility status effect:
Detect Magic:
For the duration, you sense the presence of magic within 30 feet of you. If you sense magic in this way, you can use your action to see a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that bears magic, and you learn its school of magic, if any.
The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt.
Invisibility:
A creature you touch becomes invisible until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target's person. The spell ends for a target that attacks or casts a spell.
At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional creature for each slot level above 2nd.
It seems from those descriptions, that as long as the invisible creature is within 30 feat of the character using detect magic, the character should be able to find the invisible creature, but I wanted to get a second opinion just to be safe.
It literally says “any visible creature” in detect magic. No.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
The 30 feet passive detection is a general "there is something magic within 30 feet of you". It's the action to see auras that let you "find" the source of that detection and what type of magic it is - which doesn't work for invisible things or anything you cannot see. If you were in a dark room full of magic items and didn't have darkvision - you'd know there are magic items. You won't know how many, size, kind or anything, or even that they're items, you'd only something magical was within 30 ft of you. If you used the action for the auras you'd see... Just black, darkness.
Hope that makes sense.
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Detect magic won't locate an invisible creature, you need to be able to see the creature or object. There is a spell specifically designed to find invisible creatures or objects, See Invisible 2nd level.
The fact that the spell See Invisibility exists, that it is a higher level spell than Detect Magic, and is explicitly for the purposes of detecting invisible creatures/objects ought to be sufficient to demonstrate that Detect Magic is not intended to accomplish that function.
This is, of course, ancillary to the fact that Detect Magic explicitly requires things to be visible.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
"For the duration, you sense the presence of magic within 30 feet of you. If you sense magic in this way, you can use your action to see a faint aura around any visible creature or object in the area that bears magic, and you learn its school of magic, if any.
The spell can penetrate most barriers, but it is blocked by 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood or dirt."
What this means if your using this to find invisible creatures or objects is that you will sense a invisible creature or object if you use this and if you use your action it will NOT give off the aura but you will be able to tell it is illusion magic, if you have a cool DM they will let you make arcana checks to figure out what direction the magic is coming from and or others can roll perception to find said creature (listen for footsteps, breathing, look foot prints in dirt/dust) so yes it can aid in finding something invisible. there is a level 2 bard, wizard, sorcerer spell called See Invisibility and then later on there is a level 6 spell for bards, clerics, sorcerers, wizards and warlocks called True Seeing and while it does not say you can see invisible things it does say "This spell gives the willing creature you touch the ability to see things as they actually are. For the duration, the creature has truesight, notices secret doors hidden by magic, and can see into the Ethereal Plane, all out to a range of 120 feet." there are also several creatures (such as dragons) who have true seeing or blindsight (note that blindsight is not magic just means you hear really well) as there default senses and most DMs use this to see invisible players.
HOWEVER there is a level 3 spell that blocks all of the spells above called nondetection: "For the duration, you hide a target that you touch from divination magic. The target can be a willing creature or a place or an object no larger than 10 feet in any dimension. The target can't be targeted by any divination magic or perceived through magical scrying sensors." this means any spells that are divination magic can't pick up said creature or object, this lasts for 8 hours (my arcane trickster casts this twice a day on himself, once when he wakes up the next after the first one wears off then he goes to bed XD) that spell will protect you from being detected by see invisible and true seeing (and arguable creatures truesight as truesight is a magical type of vision in the deviation school of magic)
I hope all this information helps you!
PS. if you really need to find a invisible creature running around start throwing something on the ground like dust, dirt or oil, while the spell will cause the dirt and dust that falls on the creature to also become invisible it does not hide footprints! or protect vs saves for sliping in oil or ball bearings!
Unfortunately not. While it is a good idea, it wouldn't work due to the wording of Detect Magic: "Any visible creature". You would have to use See Invisibility.
Kieran McMillan
That does help, I am the DM and my players are getting ready to encounter imps so i wanted to get some clarification on how they could use detect magic to find the invisible ones and wasn't sure. Thanks!
Would detect magic detect a construct, even one like animated armor that has the False Appearance feature? Does it detect magic around any magical creature? What then defines a "magical" creature?
I have players in CoS spamming the spell through ritual casting and it has the potential to ruin all surprises. What limits are there to Detect Magic in general.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
This is a good point and also a good thing to say at the table. "I believe see invisibility is the spell you're looking for in this case."
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Spamming it as a ritual takes 10 minutes a go. If they aren’t in a safe area, and aren’t setting a watch during it. Maybe roll a die and on 1s they get ambushed. (Doesn’t have to be a 20. I just said a die. How annoying it is to you is up to you)
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I know I can make it more difficult for them to do the ritual, but I want know the limits of what is considered magical. Would a unicorn emit a magical aura? Undead? In a world of magic, does everything that is not mundane detect as magic?
Actively has magic effecting it. Or is made purely from magic.
if it wouldn’t be in an anti magic field. It’s magic.
so a summoned familiar. Not magical.
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There should be an "I object!" or "Disputed" button you can click on posts, in addition to the "like this" button. Not to downvote or criticize people's posts, but just so that when people post something that is disputed, but which doesn't justify pulling the entire thread off tangent since it's already been the subject of long and contentious threads elsewhere, you can click a button to signal to other readers "take this with a grain of salt."
"Disputed!" to post #14 above, as it pertains to summoned familiars :)
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I also dispute it... but the rule... *facepalm*
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It requires concentration, so those characters will not be using hex or hunter's mark or barkskin or similar.
Casting it as a ritual requires just over 10 minutes of casting time (during which the mage is concentrating). So if the players are spamming it then they are literally stopping for 10 minutes, ritually casting, moving for 10 minutes with the spell up, stopping again for 10 minutes, etc. What are the rest of the party ding while this is happening? What are their foes doing?
Note that during the 10 minutes and 6 seconds of ritual casting, the caster is concentrating on the casting, so they will not have detect magic active.
As to the limitation of the spell, it is not that useful if the party has any magic items or spell effects. The spell lets you "sense the presence of magic." It doesn't say anything about telling you how many presences there are in range or where they are. That means if anyone within 30 feet has a magic item, then you are always sensing the presence of magic.
Edit- wrong post
The spell should detect that somewhere in the 30 ft range there is some form of magic. But most likely you are caring some form of magic yourself - a potion or scroll for example.
You can not see the aura, so:
I would say that this one is down the DM, since the spell does not detail what occurs in a situation of multiple sources of magic, which is to say, it doesn't say if you detect just one source of magic or have a good idea of the number of different sources within range. Personally I would lean towards the latter since Detect Magic would be near useless if a single party member has a single magic item.
Player: "I use a Ritual of Detect Magic"
DM: "You detect magic"
Player: "I use an action to see it"
DM: "You see an aura around your finger where your Ring of Protection sits"
You would need to remove all your own magical items, hand them to a party member or leave them on the floor, move out of range and then perform the spell/ritual. Seems too overly tedious to be an intended way to go about it.