In last night's game, the players were fighting an NPC with a suped-up misty step-like ability (the NPC was able to teleport farther away than the spell as listed, similar to one of the NPCs in the back of VGTM). However, before that happened, the ranger in the party managed to throw a hunter's mark on the NPC. There was some debate about what the hunter's mark actually allowed the ranger to do WRT tracking or awareness. (The encounter took place at night, in a forest, for environmental context.)
The spell reads:
You can choose a creature you can see within range and mystically mark it as your quarry. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 damage to the target whenever you hit it with a weapon attack, and you have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find it. If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn of yours to mark a new creature.
I'm reading this doesn't provide any special or magical awareness of a marked creature's location if they're out of visual range of the caster. (Advantages for tracking are in play, though, per the spell's text.) If the NPC managed to teleport/get to a point where the ranger couldn't see him, then the ONLY way of locating the NPC would be through tracking, yes? The hunter's mark spell itself isn't like a beacon or approximate locator, correct?
You're correct; the spell doesn't give you any special awareness of the target's location. It just gives the caster advantage on checks to find them if they hide or track them if they get away.
Keep in mind that being out of sight isn't the same as being hidden; they still make noise, and still have to take the Hide in combat to try to be quiet and escape notice. Thus, Hunter's Mark makes hiding in combat much harder even if there's plenty of hiding spots available.
See Mind Spike for an example of a spell that does let you know where the target is.
Keep in mind that being out of sight isn't the same as being hidden; they still make noise, and still have to take the Hide in combat to try to be quiet and escape notice.
Understood. In this specific case, the NPC was out of range of the party's darkvision (including the Ranger's 90' range), at night, and they were clumped together (many of them wearing stealth-negating metal armor) while the NPC was solo on well-known ground. The druid was Wild Shaped into that a wolf, and was able to successfully get a faint whiff in a general direction.
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In last night's game, the players were fighting an NPC with a suped-up misty step-like ability (the NPC was able to teleport farther away than the spell as listed, similar to one of the NPCs in the back of VGTM). However, before that happened, the ranger in the party managed to throw a hunter's mark on the NPC. There was some debate about what the hunter's mark actually allowed the ranger to do WRT tracking or awareness. (The encounter took place at night, in a forest, for environmental context.)
The spell reads:
You can choose a creature you can see within range and mystically mark it as your quarry. Until the spell ends, you deal an extra 1d6 damage to the target whenever you hit it with a weapon attack, and you have advantage on any Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Survival) check you make to find it. If the target drops to 0 hit points before this spell ends, you can use a bonus action on a subsequent turn of yours to mark a new creature.
I'm reading this doesn't provide any special or magical awareness of a marked creature's location if they're out of visual range of the caster. (Advantages for tracking are in play, though, per the spell's text.) If the NPC managed to teleport/get to a point where the ranger couldn't see him, then the ONLY way of locating the NPC would be through tracking, yes? The hunter's mark spell itself isn't like a beacon or approximate locator, correct?
You're correct; the spell doesn't give you any special awareness of the target's location. It just gives the caster advantage on checks to find them if they hide or track them if they get away.
Keep in mind that being out of sight isn't the same as being hidden; they still make noise, and still have to take the Hide in combat to try to be quiet and escape notice. Thus, Hunter's Mark makes hiding in combat much harder even if there's plenty of hiding spots available.
See Mind Spike for an example of a spell that does let you know where the target is.
Understood. In this specific case, the NPC was out of range of the party's darkvision (including the Ranger's 90' range), at night, and they were clumped together (many of them wearing stealth-negating metal armor) while the NPC was solo on well-known ground. The druid was Wild Shaped into that a wolf, and was able to successfully get a faint whiff in a general direction.