So I'm currently busy with my first dnd campaign and we are a couple of sessions in but still in the tutorial phase because we are a new group with only 2 returning players on the team. On the team we have 2 fighters, 1 rogue, 1 wizard, 1 bard, and myself also a bard. I've have been trying to design a character that could function well with general utility while also being fantastic at survival, and dishing out burst damage as a high speed anti-mage combatant/assassin.
What I am looking for:
-Opinions on what people think of my build and action economy ideas
-Suggestions for spells to support my character as I have not possibly studied 'every' spell xd. Some that I've read are crazy and can't wait to unlock them though xd
Before mentioning my build plan, the other bard on the team has stated that they are going to become a sort of full healer, and I'm not totally sure if they can support 5 people on their own. I have mentioned to them that I will be helping with supporting and healing the team but my primary focus is my unorthodox fast running magical assassin thing I've got going on (I will still use bardic inspiration and such of course. I am a team player). Me and the rogue want to be the 'silent infiltrator' members of the team for when that kind of situation arises, the sneaky ones to steal the keys and pickpocket guards basically.
For my build my idea is to make a spellcasting melee combatant that relies on good run speed and invisibility spells to reach long range enemies while making use of double attack and quickened spell for some good damage output. I don't know if that's a good idea since I am new but this is why I am making the post to find out if it is xd.
So with all that in mind, here is my build plan that I have so far (levels in no particular order):
16 bard: Collage of swords
3 sorcerer: either shadow (if i choose a non darkvision race) or storm (if i choose a dv race like Tabaxi or mark of the storm half elf)
1 warlock: Hexblade
Feats/ASI(no particular order)(am considering varient human to get that extra feat slot to have another ASI available maybe):
-Warcaster(which I need for the multiclassing to remove spellcaster focus issues)
-Alert (for that awesome initiative bonus and to not have my pants pulled down by other assassins)
-Mobile (or mounted combatant, not sure)
-ASI improvement
-5th ASI is lost to level dip (*sad but okay face*)
The action economy boils down to double attack with quickened spells like booming blade plus the hexblade modifier or just using quickened spell to cast 2 spells on the turn. The extra slots I'd get from 9th level spells slots from not having 9th level spells could make for a nice pool of sorcery points (but I don't know if its worth not having 9th level spells). And also reactions can be used by the war caster trait which I could use to get out another booming blade or a simple damaging spell.
Spells (planned out so far):
Shield
Dispel magic and counter spell (of course)
Maybe silence (fits with my characters theme as i want to nickname him the 'Silencer' but I have not found a way to keep spell casters in place beside grapple to get its full benefit)
Invisibility or greater invisibility or both
Expeditious retreat (because i have no clue how to fight a potential spell sniper sorlock besides running to them super fast while invisible or using dimension door too)
Booming blade
Hex because hey 2-3 strikes a turn excluding reactions.
Foresight so those nice advantage buffs from my many attacks a turn(still debating with myself on this one)
And my hopefully coup de gras, Simulacrum(cast before hand and previously armed, even if not I feel its still good) to blow the amount of attacks per turn out the water
Skills:
My most important skill that I plan to have are high perception, stealth, acrobatics, and sleight of hand with my bard expertise dropped into stealth(to help my invis spells) and perception(so that once again other assassins don't pull my pants down doing a similar thing). My expertise will go into perception and stealth to empower their benefits in a combat situation (and for those fun times to pull pranks on the team with the rogue or the likes).
Race:
I'm still hesitant on what to use for my race (currently Warforged which feels lacking in combat besides that +1 AC bonus). I feel like mixing Tabaxi with the expeditious retreat spell and mobile makes for one crazy fast assassin, or a mark of the storm half elf so i can get summon elemental and ride an air or water elemental (then I may swap mobile for mounted combatant) to get advantage on my oh so many attacks, or simply variant human for the extra feat slot but that feels boring for my characters style (but if so i might get either a second ASI or the mage slayer feat in addition for more of that anti-mage feel that I'm going for).
So what do you think so far? I've only done a couple sessions but I've been studying the game for months and I feel this is good enough to help the team while still having personal character flavor. My main goal is still fun rp which is why I want to get all this min/maxing stuff out of the way first xd (and before I finalize my backstory).
The way the build is going I want to be able to fight and defeat other spell casters like sorlocks or pure wizards or similar stuff and my character seems to rely on speed and invisibility to reach them while staying safe enough. Would this possibly work? I feel like the build is lacking personally, like I won't be able to catch those faster teleporting targets and I'm not totally sure that if I even reach them if my damage will be enough to end them before they end me. Thoughts?
Your concept sounds very close to my current character, so let me tell you about him. First thought, though, is that it's nice to have a plan, but don't get too married to the idea, you might discover that a concept is different in play than in theory.
So I wanted to play something of a sword dancer, a graceful melee combatant who enhanced their swordplay with spellcasting. I went with a College of Swords bard as well because I thought it was a great mix of magic and swordplay, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized that the Bard is definitely a full caster. Taking the Colleges of Swords or Valor made them maybe half martials, but most of their power still came from high level spells and that just didn't quite feel like the character I wanted, so I took Bard to 4th level for a Feat (Elven Accuracy, I'm a half elf), then took one level of Hexblade for Hex Warrior, shield proficiency, and the Shield spell, and then started to take levels of Rogue.
I'm currently Swords Bard 4, Hexblade 1, Swashbuckler 4 and I'm really happy with it. I use my Charisma for spell saves, for wielding my rapier (Hexblade), and I even add it to my initiative (Swashbuckler). I'm very very mobile: base speed is 35 (half wood elf variant), I can Dash as a bonus action (Rogue's Cunning Action), I get 10 more feet of speed when I Attack (Blade Flourish), and I don't have to disengage my melee targets (Swashbuckler's Fancy Footwork). I'm very skilled, with Expertise in four skills (Bard+Rogue) with the highest Persuasion in my entire group of like 15 players, and half proficient in everything else (Bard's Jack of All Trades) including Initiative. I have just enough spell slots and known spells to get by. I picked up Booming Blade, Shield, and Eldritch Blast from Warlock and I will usually drop a Faerie Fire at the beginning of combat for those sweet sweet Sneak Attacks and then save the rest of my spell slots for casting Shield, which I describe as supernatural parrying with my sword.
So I've got a hypermobile, super charming, magically enhanced swordsman who does very decent damage. Elven Accuracy and Hexblade's Curse together give me an almost 30% chance to critically hit and when I do I can double damage from Sneak Attack and my choice of Booming Blade or Blade Flourish damage (can't do both).
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Thank you very much for the input! I will take it all into consideration.
I never considered picking up Faerie Fire. That one is interesting. My planned preference for a con spell is invisibility (until i get greater invis) to get advantage on attacks but I'll consider that one since it's aoe!
I do understand that bards are full casters and I know that if I use my build that my spells will overshadow my double attack eventually. That is why I'm considering changing my collage and backstory if I go that route. Still keeping my options open and such. Considering the team already has three martial characters I could easily afford to. I don't believe my plan never specifically mentioned that I had to be melee. Maybe I could even get em a crossbow or something :P. I just figured it would end up melee because of the design.
One thing though is that if I go full caster then I won't have any need to get into close range with an enemy and that would make spells like booming blade less useful to me clearly and perhaps the entire hexlock dip, so I may do more research into other warlock sub classes as well. I do believe the hexlock curse ability at lvl1 one can still be used at range though. Gonna have to double check that one for myself.
Still looking for more tips regarding the first post if anyone has any!
One thing that you may want to do is find out what level you will start at is and then work through the build level by level. Get an idea of where you'll have to be and see if it feels lacking at any levels in particular. Pay particular attention to the tier changes, since they tend to be ending points for campaigns.
Most campaigns don't make it anywhere near level 20, so it's very important to know what level the campaign will end at. You don't want to design a build that doesn't come together until level 10 if the campaign is ending at level 9.
Also, you should tell the other Bard that you don't have full healers in D&D, so he needs to come up with a different character concept.
This campaign is understandably intended to last pretty long into the later levels, so that's alight. Even if it doesn't, it is home brew so the focus can shift easily to more rp then combat.
Thanks for the tips everyone! Will keep it all in mind.
Personally I would have taken a pure arcane trickster rogue. All the pew pew sneak attack goodness, with spell casting abilities and all of the movement you could ever need via bonus actions dashes. Throw in being a tabaxi and get that feline agility speed burst as well. Could be a lot of fun.
Just a suggestion... One thing I love about Arcane Rouges is that the mage hand cantrip is buffed to be invisible. this means you have some crazy thievery potential. A travelling merchant? place mage hand inside the bags on his horse and steal things! It makes it hard to notice, and as what the hand is holding is also invisible as long as it is in the balled up fist!
Just a suggestion... One thing I love about Arcane Rouges is that the mage hand cantrip is buffed to be invisible. this means you have some crazy thievery potential. A travelling merchant? place mage hand inside the bags on his horse and steal things! It makes it hard to notice, and as what the hand is holding is also invisible as long as it is in the balled up fist!
That's not how it works. The mage hand is invisible, but that doesn't make whatever it is holding invisible as well.
Just a suggestion... One thing I love about Arcane Rouges is that the mage hand cantrip is buffed to be invisible. this means you have some crazy thievery potential. A travelling merchant? place mage hand inside the bags on his horse and steal things! It makes it hard to notice, and as what the hand is holding is also invisible as long as it is in the balled up fist!
That's not how it works. The mage hand is invisible, but that doesn't make whatever it is holding invisible as well.
I could see it being the case if it was small enough for the hand to completely encompass it. If you couldn't play a game of "which hand is it in", there's no way that it would be invisible, but if you couldn't see the item in someone's non-invisible hand then I'm not going to rule that you can see it in and invisible one. That said, I'm not losing sleep over it if my DM says, "Nope."
Just a suggestion... One thing I love about Arcane Rouges is that the mage hand cantrip is buffed to be invisible. this means you have some crazy thievery potential. A travelling merchant? place mage hand inside the bags on his horse and steal things! It makes it hard to notice, and as what the hand is holding is also invisible as long as it is in the balled up fist!
That's not how it works. The mage hand is invisible, but that doesn't make whatever it is holding invisible as well.
I could see it being the case if it was small enough for the hand to completely encompass it. If you couldn't play a game of "which hand is it in", there's no way that it would be invisible, but if you couldn't see the item in someone's non-invisible hand then I'm not going to rule that you can see it in and invisible one. That said, I'm not losing sleep over it if my DM says, "Nope."
So if the mage hand partly covers something, that something is partly invisible? So if the mage hand is holding an arrow in the middle, the arrow looks like it is in two pieces with the middle missing? That just doesn't make sense at all. It makes the invisible mage hand much more difficult to use in most situations if the invisible mage hand obscures one's vision of the things it is holding or touching.
There's a reason why spells that make the things you're holding or carrying turn invisible as well specifically say that they do that. And mage hand doesn't say that.
Just a suggestion... One thing I love about Arcane Rouges is that the mage hand cantrip is buffed to be invisible. this means you have some crazy thievery potential. A travelling merchant? place mage hand inside the bags on his horse and steal things! It makes it hard to notice, and as what the hand is holding is also invisible as long as it is in the balled up fist!
That's not how it works. The mage hand is invisible, but that doesn't make whatever it is holding invisible as well.
I could see it being the case if it was small enough for the hand to completely encompass it. If you couldn't play a game of "which hand is it in", there's no way that it would be invisible, but if you couldn't see the item in someone's non-invisible hand then I'm not going to rule that you can see it in and invisible one. That said, I'm not losing sleep over it if my DM says, "Nope."
So if the mage hand partly covers something, that something is partly invisible? So if the mage hand is holding an arrow in the middle, the arrow looks like it is in two pieces with the middle missing? That just doesn't make sense at all. It makes the invisible mage hand much more difficult to use in most situations if the invisible mage hand obscures one's vision of the things it is holding or touching.
There's a reason why spells that make the things you're holding or carrying turn invisible as well specifically say that they do that. And mage hand doesn't say that.
Not sure how partially obscuring it is worse than not obscuring it at all, especially since a normal would partially obscure it (even a normal mage hand). But that's me.
Looking at Mage Hand, it doesn't say that it doesn't obscure something, I'm assuming that it behaves similar to a normal hand. It does say that it's a spectral hand. I could see some people saying that you could see through it. I could see someone saying that because it is transparent enough to be seen through that it wouldn't completely obscure something within it. Like I said before, it's not a battle I'm worried about fighting with my DM, but being able to obscure things isn't going to be game breaking in most cases.
I may change my mind after the first time that I DM an AT that way, too. I say this because I know that people will try to work certain advantages as close to that blurry line between edge case and not kosher fairly often and different people choose to try to abuse different things because that's how they have fun. Will the Mage Hand legerdemain be that thing that someone tries to abuse to the point that I say no more? We'll see.
If something is invisible, that means that you can see through it. That means that you cannot rely on vision to see where the invisible object is. If you can't see through it, if it interferes with your vision, that makes it not invisible. It might be transparent or translucent. But there is some type of visible indication that there is an object in your field of vision. It's no longer invisible if there is a visible effect created by its mere presence.
If your "invisible" mage hand interferes with a person's vision of objects that are behind or in the mage hand, that makes it no longer invisible, because it is now affecting our vision. It means that people can see visual effect of the mage hand. That interferes with your ability to use the mage hand without being caught, because now there is a visual effect created by the mage hand. The great thing about invisibility is that it doesn't create some visual effect.
When I use an invisible mage hand, I don't want somebody with excellent perception to "see" the hand because they notice a weird visual effect being created by its presence. I want it to be undetectable by vision.
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If something is invisible, that means that you can see through it. That means that you cannot rely on vision to see where the invisible object is. If you can't see through it, if it interferes with your vision, that makes it not invisible. It might be transparent or translucent. But there is some type of visible indication that there is an object in your field of vision. It's no longer invisible if there is a visible effect created by its mere presence.
If your "invisible" mage hand interferes with a person's vision of objects that are behind or in the mage hand, that makes it no longer invisible, because it is now affecting our vision. It means that people can see visual effect of the mage hand. That interferes with your ability to use the mage hand without being caught, because now there is a visual effect created by the mage hand. The great thing about invisibility is that it doesn't create some visual effect.
When I use an invisible mage hand, I don't want somebody with excellent perception to "see" the hand because they notice a weird visual effect being created by its presence. I want it to be undetectable by vision.
You do you.
If I'm understanding you correctly, your thoughts are that you'd have to be able to see through it or it would be something like a cloaking device from the movies where there would be a visual effect around the edges of the creature. Thus, an object that is carried would have to still be visible through the creature and would provide the only visual effect that could be seen (the floating object). In my view, this would also mean that you would have to be able to see anything that an invisible creature swallowed. While the hands couldn't swallow an item, being able to grasp it completely is the closest thing. That's the part that I'm hanging up on with what I see when I imagine your description.
I'm seeing something more like the invisible cloak from Harry Potter, but without the shimmer telltale that they put in to show that he's taking it off. You can see through it, but not what's inside of it (otherwise you'd see Harry regardless of the cloak).
We can argue about which way is "correct" until we're blue in the face, since we are focusing on different aspects of what would be real and what would be magical. We're also focusing on different representations of invisibility. Ultimately, you are wrong if our DM says so as much as I'm wrong if the DM agrees with you. Either way, I'm sure that we'd have fun with it. Either way, you wouldn't be able to get away with carrying something too big, because either it would be visible and much more noticeable the bigger it is (by your definition) or it would become at least partially visible if you couldn't completely hide it within your hand (my version, though without a shimmer around the hand). Either way, your best bet to transport something with your hand would be to cause a distraction so that people won't be looking in the direction of the hand.
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Hello everyone.
So I'm currently busy with my first dnd campaign and we are a couple of sessions in but still in the tutorial phase because we are a new group with only 2 returning players on the team. On the team we have 2 fighters, 1 rogue, 1 wizard, 1 bard, and myself also a bard.
I've have been trying to design a character that could function well with general utility while also being fantastic at survival, and dishing out burst damage as a high speed anti-mage combatant/assassin.
What I am looking for:
-Opinions on what people think of my build and action economy ideas
-Suggestions for spells to support my character as I have not possibly studied 'every' spell xd. Some that I've read are crazy and can't wait to unlock them though xd
Before mentioning my build plan, the other bard on the team has stated that they are going to become a sort of full healer, and I'm not totally sure if they can support 5 people on their own. I have mentioned to them that I will be helping with supporting and healing the team but my primary focus is my unorthodox fast running magical assassin thing I've got going on (I will still use bardic inspiration and such of course. I am a team player). Me and the rogue want to be the 'silent infiltrator' members of the team for when that kind of situation arises, the sneaky ones to steal the keys and pickpocket guards basically.
For my build my idea is to make a spellcasting melee combatant that relies on good run speed and invisibility spells to reach long range enemies while making use of double attack and quickened spell for some good damage output. I don't know if that's a good idea since I am new but this is why I am making the post to find out if it is xd.
So with all that in mind, here is my build plan that I have so far (levels in no particular order):
16 bard: Collage of swords
3 sorcerer: either shadow (if i choose a non darkvision race) or storm (if i choose a dv race like Tabaxi or mark of the storm half elf)
1 warlock: Hexblade
Feats/ASI(no particular order)(am considering varient human to get that extra feat slot to have another ASI available maybe):
-Warcaster(which I need for the multiclassing to remove spellcaster focus issues)
-Alert (for that awesome initiative bonus and to not have my pants pulled down by other assassins)
-Mobile (or mounted combatant, not sure)
-ASI improvement
-5th ASI is lost to level dip (*sad but okay face*)
The action economy boils down to double attack with quickened spells like booming blade plus the hexblade modifier or just using quickened spell to cast 2 spells on the turn. The extra slots I'd get from 9th level spells slots from not having 9th level spells could make for a nice pool of sorcery points (but I don't know if its worth not having 9th level spells). And also reactions can be used by the war caster trait which I could use to get out another booming blade or a simple damaging spell.
Spells (planned out so far):
Shield
Dispel magic and counter spell (of course)
Maybe silence (fits with my characters theme as i want to nickname him the 'Silencer' but I have not found a way to keep spell casters in place beside grapple to get its full benefit)
Invisibility or greater invisibility or both
Expeditious retreat (because i have no clue how to fight a potential spell sniper sorlock besides running to them super fast while invisible or using dimension door too)
Booming blade
Hex because hey 2-3 strikes a turn excluding reactions.
Foresight so those nice advantage buffs from my many attacks a turn(still debating with myself on this one)
And my hopefully coup de gras, Simulacrum(cast before hand and previously armed, even if not I feel its still good) to blow the amount of attacks per turn out the water
Skills:
My most important skill that I plan to have are high perception, stealth, acrobatics, and sleight of hand with my bard expertise dropped into stealth(to help my invis spells) and perception(so that once again other assassins don't pull my pants down doing a similar thing). My expertise will go into perception and stealth to empower their benefits in a combat situation (and for those fun times to pull pranks on the team with the rogue or the likes).
Race:
I'm still hesitant on what to use for my race (currently Warforged which feels lacking in combat besides that +1 AC bonus). I feel like mixing Tabaxi with the expeditious retreat spell and mobile makes for one crazy fast assassin, or a mark of the storm half elf so i can get summon elemental and ride an air or water elemental (then I may swap mobile for mounted combatant) to get advantage on my oh so many attacks, or simply variant human for the extra feat slot but that feels boring for my characters style (but if so i might get either a second ASI or the mage slayer feat in addition for more of that anti-mage feel that I'm going for).
So what do you think so far? I've only done a couple sessions but I've been studying the game for months and I feel this is good enough to help the team while still having personal character flavor. My main goal is still fun rp which is why I want to get all this min/maxing stuff out of the way first xd (and before I finalize my backstory).
The way the build is going I want to be able to fight and defeat other spell casters like sorlocks or pure wizards or similar stuff and my character seems to rely on speed and invisibility to reach them while staying safe enough. Would this possibly work? I feel like the build is lacking personally, like I won't be able to catch those faster teleporting targets and I'm not totally sure that if I even reach them if my damage will be enough to end them before they end me. Thoughts?
I know dnd isn't pvp focused. I'm just comparing builds as a catalyst for my build process.
Your concept sounds very close to my current character, so let me tell you about him. First thought, though, is that it's nice to have a plan, but don't get too married to the idea, you might discover that a concept is different in play than in theory.
So I wanted to play something of a sword dancer, a graceful melee combatant who enhanced their swordplay with spellcasting. I went with a College of Swords bard as well because I thought it was a great mix of magic and swordplay, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized that the Bard is definitely a full caster. Taking the Colleges of Swords or Valor made them maybe half martials, but most of their power still came from high level spells and that just didn't quite feel like the character I wanted, so I took Bard to 4th level for a Feat (Elven Accuracy, I'm a half elf), then took one level of Hexblade for Hex Warrior, shield proficiency, and the Shield spell, and then started to take levels of Rogue.
I'm currently Swords Bard 4, Hexblade 1, Swashbuckler 4 and I'm really happy with it. I use my Charisma for spell saves, for wielding my rapier (Hexblade), and I even add it to my initiative (Swashbuckler). I'm very very mobile: base speed is 35 (half wood elf variant), I can Dash as a bonus action (Rogue's Cunning Action), I get 10 more feet of speed when I Attack (Blade Flourish), and I don't have to disengage my melee targets (Swashbuckler's Fancy Footwork). I'm very skilled, with Expertise in four skills (Bard+Rogue) with the highest Persuasion in my entire group of like 15 players, and half proficient in everything else (Bard's Jack of All Trades) including Initiative. I have just enough spell slots and known spells to get by. I picked up Booming Blade, Shield, and Eldritch Blast from Warlock and I will usually drop a Faerie Fire at the beginning of combat for those sweet sweet Sneak Attacks and then save the rest of my spell slots for casting Shield, which I describe as supernatural parrying with my sword.
So I've got a hypermobile, super charming, magically enhanced swordsman who does very decent damage. Elven Accuracy and Hexblade's Curse together give me an almost 30% chance to critically hit and when I do I can double damage from Sneak Attack and my choice of Booming Blade or Blade Flourish damage (can't do both).
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Thank you very much for the input! I will take it all into consideration.
I never considered picking up Faerie Fire. That one is interesting. My planned preference for a con spell is invisibility (until i get greater invis) to get advantage on attacks but I'll consider that one since it's aoe!
I do understand that bards are full casters and I know that if I use my build that my spells will overshadow my double attack eventually. That is why I'm considering changing my collage and backstory if I go that route. Still keeping my options open and such. Considering the team already has three martial characters I could easily afford to. I don't believe my plan never specifically mentioned that I had to be melee. Maybe I could even get em a crossbow or something :P. I just figured it would end up melee because of the design.
One thing though is that if I go full caster then I won't have any need to get into close range with an enemy and that would make spells like booming blade less useful to me clearly and perhaps the entire hexlock dip, so I may do more research into other warlock sub classes as well. I do believe the hexlock curse ability at lvl1 one can still be used at range though. Gonna have to double check that one for myself.
Still looking for more tips regarding the first post if anyone has any!
One thing that you may want to do is find out what level you will start at is and then work through the build level by level. Get an idea of where you'll have to be and see if it feels lacking at any levels in particular. Pay particular attention to the tier changes, since they tend to be ending points for campaigns.
Most campaigns don't make it anywhere near level 20, so it's very important to know what level the campaign will end at. You don't want to design a build that doesn't come together until level 10 if the campaign is ending at level 9.
Also, you should tell the other Bard that you don't have full healers in D&D, so he needs to come up with a different character concept.
This campaign is understandably intended to last pretty long into the later levels, so that's alight. Even if it doesn't, it is home brew so the focus can shift easily to more rp then combat.
Thanks for the tips everyone! Will keep it all in mind.
Personally I would have taken a pure arcane trickster rogue. All the pew pew sneak attack goodness, with spell casting abilities and all of the movement you could ever need via bonus actions dashes. Throw in being a tabaxi and get that feline agility speed burst as well. Could be a lot of fun.
Just a suggestion... One thing I love about Arcane Rouges is that the mage hand cantrip is buffed to be invisible. this means you have some crazy thievery potential. A travelling merchant? place mage hand inside the bags on his horse and steal things! It makes it hard to notice, and as what the hand is holding is also invisible as long as it is in the balled up fist!
That's not how it works. The mage hand is invisible, but that doesn't make whatever it is holding invisible as well.
Ah, thanks for the info
I could see it being the case if it was small enough for the hand to completely encompass it. If you couldn't play a game of "which hand is it in", there's no way that it would be invisible, but if you couldn't see the item in someone's non-invisible hand then I'm not going to rule that you can see it in and invisible one. That said, I'm not losing sleep over it if my DM says, "Nope."
So if the mage hand partly covers something, that something is partly invisible? So if the mage hand is holding an arrow in the middle, the arrow looks like it is in two pieces with the middle missing? That just doesn't make sense at all. It makes the invisible mage hand much more difficult to use in most situations if the invisible mage hand obscures one's vision of the things it is holding or touching.
There's a reason why spells that make the things you're holding or carrying turn invisible as well specifically say that they do that. And mage hand doesn't say that.
Not sure how partially obscuring it is worse than not obscuring it at all, especially since a normal would partially obscure it (even a normal mage hand). But that's me.
Looking at Mage Hand, it doesn't say that it doesn't obscure something, I'm assuming that it behaves similar to a normal hand. It does say that it's a spectral hand. I could see some people saying that you could see through it. I could see someone saying that because it is transparent enough to be seen through that it wouldn't completely obscure something within it. Like I said before, it's not a battle I'm worried about fighting with my DM, but being able to obscure things isn't going to be game breaking in most cases.
I may change my mind after the first time that I DM an AT that way, too. I say this because I know that people will try to work certain advantages as close to that blurry line between edge case and not kosher fairly often and different people choose to try to abuse different things because that's how they have fun. Will the Mage Hand legerdemain be that thing that someone tries to abuse to the point that I say no more? We'll see.
If something is invisible, that means that you can see through it. That means that you cannot rely on vision to see where the invisible object is. If you can't see through it, if it interferes with your vision, that makes it not invisible. It might be transparent or translucent. But there is some type of visible indication that there is an object in your field of vision. It's no longer invisible if there is a visible effect created by its mere presence.
If your "invisible" mage hand interferes with a person's vision of objects that are behind or in the mage hand, that makes it no longer invisible, because it is now affecting our vision. It means that people can see visual effect of the mage hand. That interferes with your ability to use the mage hand without being caught, because now there is a visual effect created by the mage hand. The great thing about invisibility is that it doesn't create some visual effect.
When I use an invisible mage hand, I don't want somebody with excellent perception to "see" the hand because they notice a weird visual effect being created by its presence. I want it to be undetectable by vision.
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If I'm understanding you correctly, your thoughts are that you'd have to be able to see through it or it would be something like a cloaking device from the movies where there would be a visual effect around the edges of the creature. Thus, an object that is carried would have to still be visible through the creature and would provide the only visual effect that could be seen (the floating object). In my view, this would also mean that you would have to be able to see anything that an invisible creature swallowed. While the hands couldn't swallow an item, being able to grasp it completely is the closest thing. That's the part that I'm hanging up on with what I see when I imagine your description.
I'm seeing something more like the invisible cloak from Harry Potter, but without the shimmer telltale that they put in to show that he's taking it off. You can see through it, but not what's inside of it (otherwise you'd see Harry regardless of the cloak).
We can argue about which way is "correct" until we're blue in the face, since we are focusing on different aspects of what would be real and what would be magical. We're also focusing on different representations of invisibility. Ultimately, you are wrong if our DM says so as much as I'm wrong if the DM agrees with you. Either way, I'm sure that we'd have fun with it. Either way, you wouldn't be able to get away with carrying something too big, because either it would be visible and much more noticeable the bigger it is (by your definition) or it would become at least partially visible if you couldn't completely hide it within your hand (my version, though without a shimmer around the hand). Either way, your best bet to transport something with your hand would be to cause a distraction so that people won't be looking in the direction of the hand.