An "enemy" further ahead in the dungeon had cast Cordon of Arrows at an intersection as an alerting mechanism. An intrepid adventurer with Invisibility on them approached within 30' so spell went off and the trap fired.
The salient portion of Cordon of Arrows to me was this: "whenever a creature other than you comes within 30 feet" -- it makes no mention of detection etc.
My ruling was that the spell would work and "see through" invisibility. The adventurer made the save so it was no big deal, but I thought this a curious spell interaction.
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I completely agree. The spell description says nothing about how it works it just clearly states "Until the spell ends, whenever a creature other than you comes within 30 feet of the ammunition for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there, one piece of ammunition flies up to strike it." So I think you ruled it perfectly correctly. The spell works by magic and does not need to "see" an opponent to trigger.
This would be a very useful defensive spell to have placed in a dungeon since triggering it would let the defenders know someone was there even if they couldn't see them. On the other hand, false triggering due to rats or other dungeon occupants could also be an issue. Either way, it would likely catch someone trying to hide and move stealthily down the corridor as well.
I also agree. I think people assume if they are invisible, they can't be 'seen'. But footprints in dust will still appear, sound from walking will still be made, body heat will still radiate, vibrations in the ground from walking, etc.
There are several creatures with blindsense/tremor sense which the spell could easily utilise (or even truesight given the magical nature) for activation.
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Good day everyone, yesterday in a session I made a snap ruling regarding the Cordon of Arrows vs Invisibility
The situation:
An "enemy" further ahead in the dungeon had cast Cordon of Arrows at an intersection as an alerting mechanism. An intrepid adventurer with Invisibility on them approached within 30' so spell went off and the trap fired.
The salient portion of Cordon of Arrows to me was this: "whenever a creature other than you comes within 30 feet" -- it makes no mention of detection etc.
My ruling was that the spell would work and "see through" invisibility. The adventurer made the save so it was no big deal, but I thought this a curious spell interaction.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I completely agree. The spell description says nothing about how it works it just clearly states "Until the spell ends, whenever a creature other than you comes within 30 feet of the ammunition for the first time on a turn or ends its turn there, one piece of ammunition flies up to strike it." So I think you ruled it perfectly correctly. The spell works by magic and does not need to "see" an opponent to trigger.
This would be a very useful defensive spell to have placed in a dungeon since triggering it would let the defenders know someone was there even if they couldn't see them. On the other hand, false triggering due to rats or other dungeon occupants could also be an issue. Either way, it would likely catch someone trying to hide and move stealthily down the corridor as well.
I also agree. I think people assume if they are invisible, they can't be 'seen'. But footprints in dust will still appear, sound from walking will still be made, body heat will still radiate, vibrations in the ground from walking, etc.
There are several creatures with blindsense/tremor sense which the spell could easily utilise (or even truesight given the magical nature) for activation.