Detect magic

[Laprof]

Can it detect an invisible creature? This would make the specific spell rather useless. And what about a cursed creature? One of my PCs was affected by a runecurse and asked if she can see, with detect magic, if she managed to get rid of it

[Claxon]

Yes it can, but the creature has to stay in your cone of detect magic and the only information you get the first round is that somewhere in your 60ft cone is magic. Meaning that on round 1 if your friend is also in the cone and has any kind of magic items, that it would also set it off.

So while detect magic will detect invisibility, it's not really a good tool for doing so.

[Kayerloth]

As Claxon has stated it can more or less allow you to detect an invisible creature (or object). But the creature and circumstances definitely have to be fairly cooperative for it to be useful and that usefulness is almost certainly not for in-combat usage.

Round 1 while concentrating with Detect Magic you learn if there are magical auras in the Area of the spells cone.
Round 2 while continuing to concentrate you will learn the number of auras and the strength of the strongest aura in the Area
Round 3 With continued concentration the strength and location of each aura present in the Area. If the aura is within LoS (not LoE) you can make a Knowledge Arcana check to learn the school of Magic involved i.e. Illusion(glamer) in the case of Invisibility, etc., etc..

Lingering Auras might be detected which could be misleading as basically only the aura is there no creature, spell or item is actually present/remaining.

Curses are pretty much in the hand of the DM. I wouldn't necessarily expect each curse to work or detect the same as the last. Lots of DM interaction and decisions involved. Ask your DM about it.

Even with ideal circumstances you've still got a situation where the invisible creature or object has Total Concealment. You've got a 50% miss chance even if you attack the Invisible creature/object. Detect Magic is not See Invisibility (or Arcane Sight or True Seeing etc.)

In short it is essentially unusable for engaging in combat with an invisible foe unless the target is very slow to immobile and not terrible cunning or bright.

[Mysterious Stranger]

It’s pretty clear that after three rounds you detect the location of an aura. But what if the aura moves? Does this reset the rounds, and if so how far back? Also what happens if the aura leaves the cone altogether? It seems like the rules assume that any aura is stationary and does not move.

The way I would handle it is that in order to determine the location of the aura it has to be in the same spot for the full three rounds. So if the invisible person is constantly moving you cannot locate them. If the invisible person leaves the cone it goes back to the beginning and you can no longer even detect it as an individual aura until the person has spent at least two rounds in the cone.

[Kayerloth]

A reasonable call. I would be okay myself as long as the moving aura remained within the cone AoE for the entire 3 rounds. That said it doesn't take much movement to enable the aura to leave the cone and 'reset' the time needed.

[Laprof]

Thank you for your complete answers, I did right at last. An enemy went invisible during combat and the bard wanted to detect him and attack,but I didn't allow it.

I still have to decide about the aura of a crused creature though

[blahpers]

Depends on the curse. If it's caused by a spell effect or magic item, such as bestow curse or gauntlets of fumbling, it'd generally have an aura. If it's merely supernatural, like contracting lycanthropy from a wererat bite, it probably won't show up to detect magic. I can't speak to how the runecurse works as the situation is specific to a particular AP that I've never played or run.

[zza ni]

not a going by the rules.
but as i always was against the idea of a 0 level spell defeating a 2nd level spell purpose. in my games i rule that detect magic doesn't in fact work against invisibility on the following ground.

-im using the old school detect magic theme were when casting it you see the magical aura visibly as a glowing color (maybe themed per magic school.
point is invisible mask ALL the visible parts of the target. say the target normally emit a golden shine. being invisible would hide that, same goes for any other thing that it shines with. including normally invisible magic auras. the magic aura that detect magic would show is in fact hidden\blocked\background mirrored in front (pick however you like to think invisibility work).
and yes the magic that hides auras would also hide its own aura. i mean whoever made the 2nd level spell should know how a 0 level spells work by that point and work around it.

[Azothath]

there are lots of posts on this topic.
As pointed out it can detect magical auras but takes considerable time (3 rounds) to locate specific squares or detailed information within the cone (area of effect).
If the user changes the area he's observing then the 3 r timer restarts.

[Mark Hoover 330]

So cursed items can be identified, albeit with a -10 penalty to the check, so I suppose you could detect THEM with Detect Magic. Spells cast to evoke curses would also be governed under the rules of using Detect Magic for spells being cast/lingering spell effects.

If being afflicted with a magical affliction curse such as Runecurse the curse itself becomes an affliction. You might be able to detect it like a disease, but I would say not with Detect Magic. However if someone offered you a cursed object that would pass the Runecurse TO you, that object could be detected with Detect Magic.

[Laprof]

Thank you. Actually the PC got rid of the runecurse, but wasn't sure about it and asked a NPC to confirm it. So I was wondering how the NPC could do that.

[Azothath]

Advice: overcoming challenges is what role playing and developing drama is all about. In a home game as the GM you don't want to give up this opportunity for character development too easily... players should feel they worked for a solution. On the other hand you don't want to make things too hard so the players feel it's a trial or job. There's a storytelling balance to maintain. They could have to ask a pig farmer who doesn't know anything but on a good diplomacy check the farmer's wife tells them about an old lady that removed a curse from her child... etc etc...
In PFS they are diseases and curses of the pocketbook.

[Laprof]

I am a beginner as a GM, I have so much to learn in balancing the game and making up alternative solutions. I'll treasure the advice you all give me

[Kayerloth]

Azothath wrote:

there are lots of posts on this topic.

As pointed out it can detect magical auras but takes considerable time (3 rounds) to locate specific squares or detailed information within the cone (area of effect).
If the user changes the area he's observing then the 3 r timer restarts.

Indeed, it's a favorite thread topic.

I'll add an additional thought indicating the lack of utility for in combat use.

As the Invisible figure moves he's also leaving a 'trail' of lingering auras behind himself. So move 30ft and there's the square he's currently in plus 5 more squares each indicating a faint lingering aura present. And that's just the current round, assuming a 30ft of movement, that the invisible figure has no other spells buffing (or debuffing) themselves and no other folks or objects are present. In short there are a lot of auras present in very short order to sift through for our Detect Magic user. Most of the lingering auras will quickly fade (d6 rounds for Invisibility for example) but they will be all over the place very quickly if a party of 4 and an invisible creature are moving around in the area.

Detect Magic good for out of combat, static situations.
Detect Magic lousy for in combat, fluid situations.

[Diego Rossi]

zza ni wrote:

not a going by the rules.

but as i always was against the idea of a 0 level spell defeating a 2nd level spell purpose. in my games i rule that detect magic doesn't in fact work against invisibility on the following ground.

-im using the old school detect magic theme were when casting it you see the magical aura visibly as a glowing color (maybe themed per magic school.
point is invisible mask ALL the visible parts of the target. say the target normally emit a golden shine. being invisible would hide that, same goes for any other thing that it shines with. including normally invisible magic auras. the magic aura that detect magic would show is in fact hidden\blocked\background mirrored in front (pick however you like to think invisibility work).
and yes the magic that hides auras would also hide its own aura. i mean whoever made the 2nd level spell should know how a 0 level spells work by that point and work around it.

Invisibility says: "Items dropped or put down by an invisible creature become visible; items picked up disappear if tucked into the clothing or pouches worn by the creature. Light, however, never becomes invisible, although a source of light can become so (thus, the effect is that of a light with no visible source). Any part of an item that the subject carries but that extends more than 10 feet from it becomes visible.

So making the light you carry invisible strengthen the spell noticeably.

Your interpretation stop Glitterdust from working, too.

As an addendum, a spell that requires the invisible target to stand still in its area of effect for 3 rounds hardly "defeat" invisibility. Note that Detect Magic require concentration, so it has a high cost: the one using it can't take standard actions for 3 rounds.

[Dragonchess Player]

One other thing to keep in mind with detect magic (and the higher-level arcane sight): They detect the magical aura from the invisible creature, but they do not make the actual creature visible. This is an important distinction for targeting. The aura can reveal the square of the invisible creature, but the creature is still invisible ("Even once a character has pinpointed the square that contains an invisible creature, the creature still benefits from total concealment (50% miss chance)").