Greater Invisibility vs. Hide in Plain Sight

[SirCorius]

I am relatively new to playing pathfinder and am conducting a thought experiment to create a Drow or Fetchling ninja character. I have read a lot about taking the Shadow (or Umbral with GM permission) bloodline via Eldrich Heritage to get the Hide in Plain Sight ability. My question is as follows. Is there a point to getting this ability at the 11th level if the ninja can take the invisible blade master trick by level 10? How do the two differ in mechanics? Doesn't the invisible blade master trick kind of negate the point of hide in plain sight minus the whole being able to swap spots with a character? It seems to me a better use to the Eldrich Heritage would be to get a familiar much sooner on rather than trying to cram everything in at later levels. Thoughts?

[The Human Diversion]

You generally have to take an active action (move or standard, depending on the situation) to hide. Improved invis passively affects you, and allows you your full suite of actions.

[Claxon]

Invisible Blade require ki to activate, which is a limited resource. Hide In Plain sight is always passively available. Hide In Plain sight isn't defeated by invisibiilty purge or truesight.

I could go on, but suffice it to say each has it's boons and drawbacks.

Personally, I wouldn't spend the feats to get HiPS (from Eldritch Heritage) when I essentially get the ability to cast Greater Invisibility, but each is uniquely useful.

[Samasboy1]

A one level dip into Shadowdancer will also get you HiPS. The skill requirements aren't an issue for a ninja, the feats can be depending on what you were planning on taking.

[hgsolo]

Samasboy1 wrote:

A one level dip into Shadowdancer will also get you HiPS. The skill requirements aren't an issue for a ninja, the feats can be depending on what you were planning on taking.

Shadowdancer and eldritch heritage require 3 feats each (at least for HiPS), and IMO shadowdancer gives up more than the feats give you.

As for HiPS versus invisible blade, I would generally prefer HiPS. It does require that you be within 10 feet of a shadow, but that is not that hard to get, and invisibility is trumped by some pretty low level spells. I'd rather put my stealth up against someone else's perception than try to beat them at spell selection.

[Samasboy1]

See, that was my point about "depending on what you were planning on taking."

If your ninja build was already planning on taking, say, Combat Reflexes, then it isn't a cost for taking the PrC (you were taking it anyway).

[Xethik]

Hide in Plain Sight is much better for normal, out-of-combat scouting. HiPS does not allow you to get multiple Sneak Attacks in a round without flanking, while Greater Invisibility does.

TL;DR: Greater Invis is a combat trick, HiPS is an out-of-combat and minor combat trick (about as good as Ninja Vanishing Trick before Invisible blade)

[Scavion]

The Human Diversion wrote:

You generally have to take an active action (move or standard, depending on the situation) to hide.

Stealth usually takes no action or as a part of movement.

The different between Move and movement is massive. One requires you to use a move or standard action, the other can be accomplished in a myriad of ways such as a 5 ft step.