I need to know specifically if Alert feat protects against sneak attacks and if invisible creatures are at the very least detected. My rationale is Alert might make a character smell a hidden or invisible creature. It made sense to me since I took alert feat with my Dragonborne Cleric. Your thoughts? My DM handled a situation really well when our Rogue was charmed in combat and sneak attacked me.The logic was that since he was a member of my party and I was engaged in combat, I was not able to detect him. I felt it was a good call. Clever DM. However, an invisible stalker attacked me also. What do you think about that encounter? I am confused about some details of Alert. Thanks.
Other creatures don’t gain advantage on attack rolls against you as a result of being unseen by you.
As long as you are not unconscious, you cannot be surprised. Period. You being unconscious is the only way for it to be possible for you to be surprised.
Normally, if you can't see your attacker--such as if it's invisible--it has advantage on attack rolls against you. Not anymore.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Also worth noting that the Alert feat doesn't directly protect you against the Sneak Attack ability of the Rogue class and certain monsters.
That said, it can protect you under some circumstances. Sneak Attack says:
Beginning at 1st level, you know how to strike subtly and exploit a foe’s distraction. Once per turn, you can deal an extra 1d6 damage to one creature you hit with an attack if you have advantage on the attack roll. The attack must use a finesse or a ranged weapon.
You don’t need advantage on the attack roll if another enemy of the target is within 5 feet of it, that enemy isn’t incapacitated, and you don’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
this is where the alert feat comes in - if a Rogue is hidden, waiting to ambush you, they will be relying on the fact that you can't see them, to give them advantage on their attack on you. As seen above, having advantage on an attack allows the Rogue to use their sneak attack ability. However, the alert feat prevents the Rogue from gaining advantage on their roll against you due to being unseen, which means they can't use the Sneak Attack ability.
Of course, there are other ways to trigger sneak attack, as shown.
Alert does not protect you from Sneak Attacks. It does rob the thief (the irony...) of at least one way to apply a sneak attack (having advantage by being hidden), but not if he has advantage by other means, or an ally of his is within 5 feet of you, or he is a Swashbuckler and he's alone with you, and so on. The DM could very well rule the charmed Rogue had advantage against you even if you knew he was there, because you didn't expect him to attack you; that would give him advantage, and thus Sneak Attack.
Alert also does not grant you knowledge of where a hidden creature is. Remember, if it's hidden, it means it successfully performed a Hide action against your passive perception. It doesn't even grant you knowledge of where an invisible creature is, although an invisible creature that is not hidden usually has its position known by other means (most often sound).
As Mathias said above, however, any advantage such unseen creatures would normally have against you is useless against your alert nature. Note that the same isn't true about your own disadvantage to hit invisible opponents - that's still a problem.
I need to know specifically if Alert feat protects against sneak attacks and if invisible creatures are at the very least detected. My rationale is Alert might make a character smell a hidden or invisible creature. It made sense to me since I took alert feat with my Dragonborne Cleric. Your thoughts? My DM handled a situation really well when our Rogue was charmed in combat and sneak attacked me.The logic was that since he was a member of my party and I was engaged in combat, I was not able to detect him. I felt it was a good call. Clever DM. However, an invisible stalker attacked me also. What do you think about that encounter? I am confused about some details of Alert. Thanks.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Also worth noting that the Alert feat doesn't directly protect you against the Sneak Attack ability of the Rogue class and certain monsters.
That said, it can protect you under some circumstances. Sneak Attack says:
this is where the alert feat comes in - if a Rogue is hidden, waiting to ambush you, they will be relying on the fact that you can't see them, to give them advantage on their attack on you. As seen above, having advantage on an attack allows the Rogue to use their sneak attack ability. However, the alert feat prevents the Rogue from gaining advantage on their roll against you due to being unseen, which means they can't use the Sneak Attack ability.
Of course, there are other ways to trigger sneak attack, as shown.
Pun-loving nerd | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Alert does not protect you from Sneak Attacks. It does rob the thief (the irony...) of at least one way to apply a sneak attack (having advantage by being hidden), but not if he has advantage by other means, or an ally of his is within 5 feet of you, or he is a Swashbuckler and he's alone with you, and so on. The DM could very well rule the charmed Rogue had advantage against you even if you knew he was there, because you didn't expect him to attack you; that would give him advantage, and thus Sneak Attack.
Alert also does not grant you knowledge of where a hidden creature is. Remember, if it's hidden, it means it successfully performed a Hide action against your passive perception.
It doesn't even grant you knowledge of where an invisible creature is, although an invisible creature that is not hidden usually has its position known by other means (most often sound).
As Mathias said above, however, any advantage such unseen creatures would normally have against you is useless against your alert nature. Note that the same isn't true about your own disadvantage to hit invisible opponents - that's still a problem.
Edit: Ninja'd by Stormknight...