Fog / mist vs no concealment or invisibility effects


Rules Questions


8 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

Some abilities, like several shaman hexes create effects around an enemy that state "preventing it from gaining any benefit from concealment or invisibility". How does that interact with spells like obscuring mist that prevent you fromn seeing further than 5ft and grant concealment?

If, for example, I attack someone under the effect of the sparking aura wind spirit ability who is standing 10ft away while we are both in the area of an obscuring mist. Does he have total concealment or not?

Sparking Aura (Su)::
The shaman causes a creature within 30 feet to spark and shimmer with electrical energy. Though this does not harm the creature, it does cause the creature to emit light like a torch, preventing it from gaining any benef it from concealment or invisibility. Furthermore, while the aura lasts, whenever the target is hit with a metal melee weapon, it also takes an amount of electricity damage equal to the shaman’s Charisma modifier. The sparking aura lasts a 1 round for ever 2 shaman levels the shaman possesses. Once the aura ends, the creature cannot be the target of this hex again for 24 hours.


Any idea?


It should trump the spell as it is more specific.


Thanks.


It would appear from the text that this is a light effect and thus is intended to negate darkness and invisibility (similar to faerie fire).

Since a torch does not negate fog based concealment this shouldn't either.

This may be FAQ worthy.


The fog cloud blocks vision. The spell does not counteract this any more than it would blindness.

Scarab Sages

There is no wording in fog cloud saying that characters with bright light are easier to see. In fact 2 squares away you can't see them at all because mist is physical and blocks sight.

2 squares away I would say still get total concealment, since the fog blocks it. Light does not penetrate the fog.

Adjacent: by RAW I'd have to rule they still get concealment and enemies have 20% miss chance against them.

The only thing able to remove the fog besides wind is strong magical fire, not normal fire, not electricity or light.

If this hex made characters viewable, then light, daylight and other spells would also allow you to see easier in Fog Cloud, that is a can of worms best left unopened, and say because the fog is physical, it blocks sight, just as the Fog Cloud description says.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I'd hazard a guess that maybe the author forgot that "don't even have line of sight in the first place" is technically a version of "concealment"; lots of people mistakenly think that "concealment" only refers to when you DO have line of sight to where the target is but something's providing a miss chance.

So, I'd say that if you've got LoS to the enemy's space, then this ability negates whatever concealment they have (even total concealment from invisibility or whatever). If you don't have LoS to their space (like if they're on the other side of a curtain/wall or deep into some fog, or if you're blinded), then I'd say this ability doesn't help.

At least, that's my interpretation of a rather imprecisely-written ability.


The hex did not turn up in the search, so I manually searched. Found it under the Wind spirit: Sparking Aura (Su)

Looks like a great way to counter invisibility.

/cevah

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