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So my party is running into a lot of invisible enemies--especially ones that use Greater Invisibility, and we're very short on magic that can get around it (we have one cleric, that's it for our magic). Aside from buying a wand of Glitterdust, what are some creative (preferably non-magical) ways to get around invisibility?
Some scenarios to think about:
In a tavern
Out in the wilderness
In a stone dungeon
invisible and flying, outdoors
under water
Mundane option for some of those (depending on how your GM runs invisibility): Bags of flour/dirt/sand.
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Depending on what they are doing... you might be able to do a few things.
First of all, if they are spell casters, you might be able to track them based on their verbal components (which have to be spoken in a loud, clear voice!). That'll at least help you locate the square.
For clerics, Invisibility Purge is about the best possible choice! Negates all invisibility and reveals all invisible targets 5'/level from the Cleric. Great 3rd level spell!!!
Faerie Fire is another good one... no save, just illuminates everything in a 5' burst. It is a 1st level druid spell, so you may need to get wands of this, and use UMD, but is pretty darned good!
What level is your party? Why are you facing a lot of invisible targets?
I am currently playing an Inquisitor and we were running into these issues as well. invisible enemies are AWESOME for GM's its something to keep the party on their toes and can be alot of fun for everyone. i like the idea of equallizing the playing field, you could have your cleric cast DARKNESS (i think thats a cleric spell as well) or invisibility purge. its also possible to have a party member, or several, to buy a wand or scroll of see invisibility and hand it to someone who can cast it. i know these are magical ways, but they're still the easiest. in a tavern/other indoor area certainly bags of flour, but outdoors and flying you almost need IP or SI
Flour, dirt, water, mud, fairy fire, wall of fog spell (I think the name is wrong but u get the idea... Blind Fighting feat. just a few ideas :)
well there is always the create water 0 level spell. if you think someone is in a square and you flood it with water then it makes a splash. you know someone is there or not. ( but i think you are still flat footed against them.)
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You could use spells like Obscuring Mist or Darkness spells. If we can't see you then nobody is going to be able to see anybody. The more people in the party with Blind-Fighting the better. These spells can also be used in situations aside from counter invisibility, so they aren't necessarily wasted slots if you don't run into invisibility that day.
Spike Stones and Spike growth have very large areas and will trigger when they are walked over, letting you know what square they are in.Just cast them in the vauge area you think an opponent might be standing, they also have loooooooong duration AND have a chance to cripple them.
well there is always the create water 0 level spell. if you think someone is in a square and you flood it with water then it makes a splash. you know someone is there or not. ( but i think you are still flat footed against them.)
Spam that everywhere. Now there are many different puddles the enemy must cross in order to get to you, and that will make a sound when he steps in it. After using this trick a couple of times, you could also theoretically mess with your GM by funneling the enemy into select dry paths if he tries to walk around it.
puddles
So inquisitors are able to counter the first problem entirely? I mean, they have detect magic, create water, and the detect alignments.
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Detect spells will sort of find an invisible enemy, but it's not a pleasant process; only in the third round of concentration do you get to see individual auras, so before that you only know IF there is something in the cone you're scanning. Heaven help you if the enemy is so uncooperative as to walk out of the cone.
So it is only useful for NPC's when the GM doesn't want you wandering around his super secret base? Because that sounds like it would need something like a tight corridor to funnel them in for it to work. I think a halfling going half speed in order to avoid stealth penalties could get past you within that time frame otherwise.
How are the various detect alignments? I mean, obvious it would be easy enough to just have the opponent as a true neutral, or maybe a lawful or alignment (since those are the ones I'd cycle through last) But assuming you just knew the alignment (previous enemy? BBEG trying to make a get away and didn't prep dimensional door?) how well would that work?
Water is still good though. The enemy would have to flying and invisible to get past a water puddle easily. And that would just be spiteful on your GM's part.
Detect spells will sort of find an invisible enemy, but it's not a pleasant process; only in the third round of concentration do you get to see individual auras, so before that you only know IF there is something in the cone you're scanning. Heaven help you if the enemy is so uncooperative as to walk out of the cone.
My groups have had to use poor man's see invisibility (detect magic) a few times. Usually, the DM would just have them attack (thus betraying their location) on the 3rd round right before we would have gotten the detect info. Both amusing and kind of mean... :)
Smog Pellet from the Dungeoneer's Handbook.
Almost every character I have made in the past 10 years has started play with a bag of chalk dust for exactly this purpose. If you have black powder in your world, making a chalk dust grenade should be pretty easy. AOE spells can also be useful. Stuff like Burning Hands is pretty easy to pick up a wand of and then it's just a UMD check. If you can figure out a direction, you might be able to hit someone.
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I don't want to give the impression that Detect Magic is useless for detecting invisible opponents, but it's much better to have See Invisibility.
And yeah, tight corridors and all that can change how good it is in individual cases. I suppose a well-trained party can make it work much better than someone who just started, just through clever overlapping scanning fields.
That's actually an interesting idea; by half-overlapping detect magic fields with multiple spellcasters, you can narrow down which part of the cone contains the magic aura (if any). If you do it right, maybe even fast enough to keep track of a moving enemy.
Let's assume a party with five people with Detect Magic. (Don't laugh. The group I GM for have five casters out of seven players.)
S1 detects in a cone, no auras.
S2 detects in a cone not overlapping S1; one aura.
S3 detects in a cone half overlapping S2; no auras.
S4 detects in a cone overlapping the half of S2 not covered by S2; one aura.
... and so forth. You get the idea. Maybe there's even more efficient ways. I'll pitch it to my fellow computer science students, maybe we can come up with a fast algorithm :P
I think the trickiest part will be finding out how far away the enemy is, not which compass direction he's in.