How do you keep an invisible bridge, wellll invisible?

[Monkplayer]

My adventures are coming out of a dwarven stronghold into a huge chasm. The best way to cross this chasm is on a invisible bridge. How can you keep the bridge invisible from detect magic spell, dispel magic spell, see invisibility, etc?

[EWHM]

Non-detection maybe? Although that won't do all of them. And I'm not sure how you protect it from Indiana Jones, who scatters rocks over the bridge after making the 'Leap of Faith'.

[Zhayne]

You're the GM. Simply declare it to be so.

[Speaker for the Dead]

How about making it blend into the background like the 'leap of faith' bridge in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"? It's not magic, not invisible, just very well camouflaged.

[The_Hanged_Man]

Speaker for the Dead wrote:

How about making it blend into the background like the 'leap of faith' bridge in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"? It's not magic, not invisible, just very well camouflaged.

Yep. Or just having it being perfectly translucent. Perhaps being made out of crystal or something like that.

[EvilMinion]

1st level arcane spell Magic Aura might do in a pinch.

Unfortunately, the size of the bridge kinda puts it outside of that spells limits, unless you did multiple castings on smaller bits.

Then just change its 'detectable' aura to non magical, and detect magic tells them nothing.

See invis would still work though... but if it is an invisible bridge, see invis should work, neh?

[Ravingdork]

Wouldn't invisibility plus permanency be all you need?

To prevent things like detect magic, just wrap the bridge up in an invisible wall (preferably made of lead) thick enough to block the divination.

[tonyz]

Very high level illusion spells like screen or veil can accomplish quite a lot.

[EWHM]

Hanged_man's probably got the best answer. A dwarven crystal bridge that is really hard to see without intense light of a sort unlikely to be available in such a cavern.

[Lamontius]

only the penitent man shall pass

[VRMH]

It could simply not be there all the time. A Command Word Wall of Force might do the trick, and only the magical cobblestone that creates it needs to be hidden then.

A mundanely, completely unmagically hidden drawbridge would be hard to find for someone who is expecting a magical construction.

The bridge doesn't exist at all, but all who "cross" it actually activate an Air Walk spell.

[Kayerloth]

Sequester is probably the best spell for the job. Otherwise I'd go with Speaker of the Dead + The Hanged Man's line of thought.

Sequester:

Sequester

School abjuration; Level sorcerer/wizard 7

Casting Time 1 standard action

Components V, S, M (a basilisk eyelash and gum arabic)

Range touch

Target one willing creature or object (up to a 2-ft. cube/level) touched

Duration 1 day/level (D)

Saving Throw none or Will negates (object); Spell Resistance no or yes (object)

When cast, this spell prevents divination spells from detecting or locating the target and also renders the affected target invisible (as the invisibility spell). The spell does not prevent the subject from being discovered through tactile means or through the use of devices. Creatures affected by sequester become comatose and are effectively in a state of suspended animation until the spell ends.

Note: The Will save prevents an attended or magical object from being sequestered. There is no save to see the sequestered creature or object or to detect it with a divination spell.

[FLite]

It you could make invisibility immune to see invisibility, then you would need a spell to see invisible to see invisible objects, and everything would just get silly.

Is there a reason it needs this level of protection? You might be better off with misdirection: The road leads to the cliff and an old, crumbling ruined bridge. Cast false aura (transmutation) on the end of the crumbling bridge and giggle as people sit on the end of the bridge trying to figure out how to trigger the spell that makes it whole once more. 100 feet off to the left along the cliff, you have your invisible bridge.

Just remember that whatever you do, you need to find a way to prevent tracks from forming to your bridge, or invisible or not, your enemies will figure it out. And over several hundred years, wagons carrying goods will wear tracks even in stone.

[Tacticslion]

Dot.

[Benchak the Nightstalker]

Permanent invisibility plus permanent aroden's spellbane

(You'll have to bend the rules a bit to make aroden's spellbane permanent, but you're the GM, so that's no problem.)

[Quandary]

Ravingdork wrote:

Wouldn't invisibility plus permanency be all you need?

To prevent things like detect magic, just wrap the bridge up in an invisible wall (preferably made of lead) thick enough to block the divination.

So... invisible bridge wrapped in ...very visible lead sheeting?

If the lead sheeting is invisible... then you can Detect Magic/Arcane Sight it.

Quote:

1st level arcane spell Magic Aura might do in a pinch.

Unfortunately, the size of the bridge kinda puts it outside of that spells limits, unless you did multiple castings on smaller bits.

Magic Aura exactly covers the job. I'm really not sure why everybody isn't chiming in on this.

Magic Aura is exactly what you want to cover up a magic aura. Period.
Possibly could use multiple castings to cover the whole area, or just use a custom larger area Magic Aura spell.
(or have that bridge be ultra-light weight material to fit within the 5lbs/caster level limitation)
It's not on the standard list of Permanency compatable spells, but no reason you can't allow it to work,
or as a day/caster level spell it lasts pretty long as is, if the scenario allows for it to be refreshed twice a month, you're OK.

You might also want a Prestigidation spell to keep it clean of revealing dust, also covered by the Magic Aura.

[Gilfalas]

Monkplayer wrote:

My adventures are coming out of a dwarven stronghold into a huge chasm. The best way to cross this chasm is on a invisible bridge. How can you keep the bridge invisible from detect magic spell, dispel magic spell, see invisibility, etc?

Make the bridge invisible with permanency.

Make the area they come out onto, where they will try to be detecting from, an anti magic area with a custom Antimagic field and permanency.

That way the bridge is invisible but they have no means to detect it, so you don't need to make IT concealed some other way.

Or

Have the bridge be a custom magic item when it was created to be invisible and undetectable. Not ALL magic items are used on adventures.

Or

Have only a significant part of the bridge be invisible such that the bridge looks like 95% of it has collapsed. So the supports on either end are still there but the middle section has 'fallen away' but is really invisible and still there. That way the players may not bother to detect magic the area at all.

[Monkplayer]

wow! There are several goods ideas here!

[Ravingdork]

Sequester is one of my favorites. Why didn't I think of that?

Quandary wrote:

If the lead sheeting is invisible... then you can Detect Magic/Arcane Sight it.

Divinations cannot penetrate lead. Does it say anywhere in the rules that invisibility's aura extends beyond the thing it effects? (Post your response here.)

[Booksy]

The answer is, don't make it invisible. Don't make it there. The bridge is out of phase with the Prime Material Plane, and only summoned to that location with some specific event/item/ritual. Can't detect something magically or otherwise that isn't there.

[Kimera757]

People would notice. It would get dirty. It would block the rain. People might try to go fishing there. Someone would make their Perception check and then try to (slowly) cross it. Animals with poor vision would openly walk on it.

[Quandary]

Quote:

Divinations cannot penetrate lead. Does it say anywhere in the rules that invisibility's aura extends beyond the thing it effects?

The very top layer of Invisible Lead molecules have no Lead covering them up. No penetration required.

If the Invisibility effect does not extend to the point where the material ends, then the material itself is visible.
Magic Aura really takes care of it.

[Gauss]

Use Permanent Image. The aura will mask the lesser, invisible aura.

Heck, you may not even need a permanently invisible bridge if it is concealed with Permanent Image. The Will DC is a minimum of 19 but can easily be 21 since the NPC spellcaster probably has a 20 Intelligence or higher. Can buff that further via Greater Spell Focus for another +2.

CRB p267 Detect Magic wrote:

Magical areas, multiple types of magic, or strong local magical emanations may distort or conceal weaker auras.

- Gauss

[Kayerloth]

Kimera757 wrote:

People would notice. It would get dirty. It would block the rain. People might try to go fishing there. Someone would make their Perception check and then try to (slowly) cross it. Animals with poor vision would openly walk on it.

This gave me a smile as I had this image of every morning a Gelatinous Cube popped out of its cubby hole and went back and forth over the bridge scouring it clean.