Guiding Bolt and Faerie Fire both have some version of the effect of giving advantage on attacks against the target, in the future. Guiding Bolt has the Spell Tag Buff for this type of effect while Faerie Fire has a Debuff Spell tag. Why? And what's the rule or logic for this sort of thing?
The flavour and mechanics are different. Guiding Bolt guide your allies into advantage - its flavour is that you’re buffing your allies and making it easier for them to hit. It provides no negative effect on the creature itself. Faerie Fire places a debuff on your enemies of making them glow, so there is a tangible negative effect on the target. That glow/debuff is what causes the advantage.
Also, Faerie Fire cancels the effects of the Invisible condition, which would be a debuff effect. Had a DM forget about that part when he passed on using an LR to beat my Faerie Fire cast on his invisible hunter/assassin mini-boss. Poor thing had a bit of a rough time after that.
Also, Faerie Fire cancels the effects of the Invisible condition, which would be a debuff effect. Had a DM forget about that part when he passed on using an LR to beat my Faerie Fire cast on his invisible hunter/assassin mini-boss. Poor thing had a bit of a rough time after that.
That reminds me of another question I have saved up: Is Faries fire useful against enemies with really good stealth? I kind get confused about how invisibly works and how stealth work.
Also, Faerie Fire cancels the effects of the Invisible condition, which would be a debuff effect. Had a DM forget about that part when he passed on using an LR to beat my Faerie Fire cast on his invisible hunter/assassin mini-boss. Poor thing had a bit of a rough time after that.
That reminds me of another question I have saved up: Is Faries fire useful against enemies with really good stealth? I kind get confused about how invisibly works and how stealth work.
This goes into a bit of a gray area I think. If stealthy enemies want to hide, they need full cover or to be heavily obscured. However, under the effect of FF they give off 10 feet of dim, colored light. In some conditions, this light would be plainly visible even when the creature had full cover, and I think many DMs would rule that the creature could not become hidden in that case, even though it's not clearly RAW as far as I understand it.
If it was 5 feet within a Fog Cloud, would its "light halo" be visible outside the cloud or does "shed light" originate from a source and thus does not continue beyond anything that blocks light? I don't think the RAW has easy answers for things like this.
So, Invisibility and Stealth are two separate but related matters. Invisibility is, ultimately, a condition. With it up, any attempt to see you will automatically fail unless something like Truesight is in play. Stealth/hiding depend on your character being "hidden"; that is, unseen and unheard by another creature. Broadly speaking, when a DM adjudicates that such conditions are possible, you roll a Stealth check, which then will compete with either another creature's passive Perception as a DC if they're not specifically searching for hidden creatures, or a contested roll against their Perception if they are actively searching. Given this, Faerie Fire would pretty reasonably cancel out the "unseen" portion of the requirements unless there's something blocking line of sight between an affected target and whoever is looking for them.
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Guiding Bolt and Faerie Fire both have some version of the effect of giving advantage on attacks against the target, in the future. Guiding Bolt has the Spell Tag Buff for this type of effect while Faerie Fire has a Debuff Spell tag. Why? And what's the rule or logic for this sort of thing?
The flavour and mechanics are different. Guiding Bolt guide your allies into advantage - its flavour is that you’re buffing your allies and making it easier for them to hit. It provides no negative effect on the creature itself. Faerie Fire places a debuff on your enemies of making them glow, so there is a tangible negative effect on the target. That glow/debuff is what causes the advantage.
Also, Faerie Fire cancels the effects of the Invisible condition, which would be a debuff effect. Had a DM forget about that part when he passed on using an LR to beat my Faerie Fire cast on his invisible hunter/assassin mini-boss. Poor thing had a bit of a rough time after that.
That reminds me of another question I have saved up: Is Faries fire useful against enemies with really good stealth? I kind get confused about how invisibly works and how stealth work.
This goes into a bit of a gray area I think. If stealthy enemies want to hide, they need full cover or to be heavily obscured. However, under the effect of FF they give off 10 feet of dim, colored light. In some conditions, this light would be plainly visible even when the creature had full cover, and I think many DMs would rule that the creature could not become hidden in that case, even though it's not clearly RAW as far as I understand it.
If it was 5 feet within a Fog Cloud, would its "light halo" be visible outside the cloud or does "shed light" originate from a source and thus does not continue beyond anything that blocks light? I don't think the RAW has easy answers for things like this.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
So, Invisibility and Stealth are two separate but related matters. Invisibility is, ultimately, a condition. With it up, any attempt to see you will automatically fail unless something like Truesight is in play. Stealth/hiding depend on your character being "hidden"; that is, unseen and unheard by another creature. Broadly speaking, when a DM adjudicates that such conditions are possible, you roll a Stealth check, which then will compete with either another creature's passive Perception as a DC if they're not specifically searching for hidden creatures, or a contested roll against their Perception if they are actively searching. Given this, Faerie Fire would pretty reasonably cancel out the "unseen" portion of the requirements unless there's something blocking line of sight between an affected target and whoever is looking for them.