Invisibility & combat

[venger]

To clarify something:

DMG pg. 70 "Invisible Opponents"-- "Invisible opponents are always at an advantage. They can only be attacked if they are attacking or otherwise detected somehow."

An invisible person attempting to flee from fighters with attack routines shouldn't be subject to attack before initiative.

And as far as missile fire and spells with individual targets-- invisible creatures are not valid targets.

[Ginger]

I feel like "otherwise detected somehow" would be the case for a fighter in melee. As an attack sequence isn't just one hit, but a series of thrusts, feints and parries, I think you should still be engaged with the foe.

[Wolfgar]

I think if someone is in melee, drinks a potion and hasn't had a chance to move yet then they are still in combat. Once they have moved that would no longer be the case.

[venger]

Invisible Opponents: Invisible opponents are always at an advantage. They can only be attacked if they are attacking or otherwise detected somehow. These opponents always cause the attacker to attack at a -4 on “to hit” rolls because of the invisibility. They can never be attacked from flank or rear positions unless the attacker can see them (thus they are, in fact, visible!).

this rambling, disjointed post made sense when I was typing it

[venger]

Here's my compromise:

Allow detection (in melee) of opponents who become invisible (in melee).

Disallow attack routines which automatically split the attacks of invisible opponents, unless said invisible opponents are attacking.

If an invisible creature is actually detected*, and isn't attacking, it may be attacked once during the rolled initiative segment at a -4 to hit.

Cannot charge an invisible creature.

*Drawing a distinction between detection of invisible creatures ("what was that noise?") and the ability to see invisible creatures ("look at that cute invisible stalker"). Actually seeing invisible creatures negates all penalties - as it renders them visible creatures.