[Pathfinder] Invisibility vs Detect magic

[EvilPig]

Hello everyone,

How work the spell invisibility when someone is casting a detec magic?

Can the caster of detect magic feel a invisible creature or item presence in the first two rounds?
After three rounds the invisible item or creature is "revealed" for the user?
Also, if someone has a magic item in his hands while invisible, can he be seen with detect magic?

[Crake]

Hello everyone,

How work the spell invisibility when someone is casting a detec magic?

Can the caster of detect magic feel a invisible creature or item presence in the first two rounds?
After three rounds the invisible item or creature is "revealed" for the user?
Also, if someone has a magic item in his hands while invisible, can he be seen with detect magic?

Detect magic doesn't let you "see" items. You can pinpoint their magical aura to a square after 3 rounds, but until then all you see is a magical aura. And unless you pass a spellcraft check, all you know is there's a magical aura, it could be anything. Even if you discover the school of magic, all you get is illusion magic, you don't have a means to know that it's an invisible creature/object. As for the second question, similar rules apply, all you can tell is there are multiple magical auras there.

[tyckspoon]

It works exactly like the rules say. Invisibility magics typically involve a magical aura. This can be detected with Detect Magic. However, remember that Detect Magic only works if you stare at the same area for 3 rounds..

So, what you get is:
Round 1: Hey, there's magic somewhere over here! At this point, you don't know where, how many, or what kind of magic. There is no particular reason to jump to 'something is Invisible', considering the wide variety of magics that could be creating an aura even if you don't immediately see anything. You could even be detecting the Dim aura of a magic that *used* to be there.

Round 2: Number of auras + Strength of most powerful aura. If there is something stronger than 'Dim', then you know that there is *currently* at least one magical effect operating in the area you are scanning. You still do not know exactly where those auras or what kind of magic it is - there might be magical traps in the zone or Alarm/Magic Mouth/Symbol-type spells, or maybe there are Invisible things hanging around.

Round 3: Now, finally, you can determine the actual location and the spell school of the auras you find. At this point, if you successfully determine that something is bearing an Illusion aura and you can't see it normally.. you might conclude that it is under an Invisibility effect.

So.. if you stand in front of a caster using Detect Magic ... for 3 rounds.. then he can figure out with a high probability that you are there and Invisible. Or rather that *something* is there and probably Invisible - he still doesn't see *you* directly, just the magic aura or auras you happen to be carrying.

[EvilPig]

A creature is in the room, she move then become invisible.
The mage cast detect magic.

The creature keep move in room. Can the creature become detected by the mage? Since the mage this time know that the illusion school may be the creature it could be probably done.
Maybe attack with a magic missle?
Whats happen with a ray spell? Still 50% miss or 20% or nothing?
Can the mage point a square to help his party to "track" the invisible creature?

[NNescio]

A creature is in the room, she move then become invisible.
The mage cast detect magic.

The creature keep move in room. Can the creature become detected by the mage? Since the mage this time know that the illusion school may be the creature it could be probably done.
Maybe attack with a magic missle?
Whats happen with a ray spell? Still 50% miss or 20% or nothing?
Can the mage point a square to help his party to "track" the invisible creature?

1) If the creature remains within the same 60 foot cone emanation for three rounds then the faint magic aura can be pinpointed to a specific square. You don't get the spellcraft check to identify the school of magic because invisibility breaks line of sight. You cannot move or reaim the 60-foot cone for the entire three rounds, since it would otherwise reset the round counter (since you are no longer studying the same particular area). In any case, you still do not "detect" the creature -- all you know is that there's a faint magic aura in a particular square, and that's assuming you don't get any interference from other magic auras.

2) You can't target a creature you cannot see (even if magic missile autohits) and the spell text explicitly mention that it only works on targets with "less than total cover or total concealment." (which is basically a clarification of the targeting rules.)

3) If you happen to aim at the specific square the invisible creature is on, he still has total concealment and therefore you still suffer from a 50% miss chance. Of course, if you got the wrong square, it's an automatic miss.

4) I suppose you can pinpoint a square to your teammates while mentioning that you suspect something is there. Of course, you're out of luck if the target moves away from your detection range. And if you move or reaim the cone to keep up with the suspected invisible target, you'll have to go through the whole three round countdown again, as noted in (1).