Concealment and Glitterdust


Rules Questions


7 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

I've a FAQ question related to Invisibility.

Here is the description for Faerie Fire: A pale glow surrounds and outlines the subjects. Outlined subjects shed light as candles. Creatures outlined by faerie fire take a –20 penalty on all Stealth checks. Outlined creatures do not benefit from the concealment normally provided by darkness (though a 2nd-level or higher magical darkness effect functions normally), blur, displacement, invisibility, or similar effects.

Here is the description for Glitterdust: A cloud of golden particles covers everyone and everything in the area, causing creatures to become blinded and visibly outlining invisible things for the duration of the spell. All within the area are covered by the dust, which cannot be removed and continues to sparkle until it fades.

Given that Glitterdust does not specifically state that the outline negates concealment from darkness, blur, displacement, invisibility, or similar effects, does that mean Invisible opponents who are hit by a Glitterdust still gain Concealment? (And likewise, what of darkness, blur and displacement?)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 32

My knee-jerk reaction is to say 'yes', but the more I think about it, I think the answer might actually be 'no'.

If the answer is 'yes', then glitterdust is a much better spell than see invisibility at the same spell level, mostly because it is still super-useful (blindness is a hell of a debuff) even when you don't meet anything invisible that day. It doesn't work on ethereal things, but they're even less common than invisible things.

And you get to blind the invisible thing, completely turning the tables.

(Compare with faerie fire, which only negates concealment/invisibility, but can't blind or directly hurt the target.)

Telling you what square an invisible creature is in, even if it moves, is a great upside for a spell that primarily causes blindness.

On the other hand, it is a higher level spell than faerie fire, and is worse than see invisibility in several respects (duration massively worse, and glitterdust requires you to guess within 10 feet to mark the invisible guy in the first place.)

Shadow Lodge

I'd say yes. Its an OP spell for the level IMO, you get to ignore one of the best defensive buffs in the game and you get to possibly blind, and all of this at level 3 as a wizard. I believe one of the balancing bits is the small radius. Still, its a good spell.


I read somewhere that glitter dust only affects invisibility. Dedipite magic glitter


i'd say it would negate concealment. it honestly is not THAT powerful of a spell.

1) it's a level 2 spell so not terribly hard to resist the blinding.
2) wizards get it at level 3 but a level 3 wizard needs all they can get to make it to higher levels where they start to rebalance the stark disadvantages they have at lower levels. hybrids don't get it until lvl 4.
3) it functions almost exactly as faerie fire except faerie fire is available at lvl 1 for druids AND it lasts min/lvl rather than rd/lvl making faerie fire a much more desirable and powerful spell at 2-3 lvls lower.
4) this part kind of cinches it for me "Area: creatures and objects within 10-ft.-radius spread" all creatures and objects meaning only tangible things. so the target would be glittery but his mirror images and blur outlines wouldn't be.

it's really not a huge gamechanger. you can get invisibility at lvl 1 with some classes (3 or 4 with others) with a duration of rd/lvl why not a debuff to counter it at similar levels?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Keep in mind a couple of things.

see invisibility lets you see creatures within your vision. That usually means 60 to 120 feet in any direction.

Glitterdust does not actually turn the targets visible, it outlines them. Turning invisible (again) afterward won't negate the spell.

So, if the target is still invis, he can not be seen to benafit from the effects of Mirror Image, though Blur will still work as it does not need to be seen to effect it's protection.

Darkness will conceal the sparkles, but darkvision will allow the outline to be seen by the character. (This, I believe, is a difference between Glitterdust and Fairy Fire)

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