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View Full Version : Rules Q&A How does Pierce Magical Concealment work in practise?



HammeredWharf
2017-05-15, 04:34 PM
Pierce Magical Concealment is a feat in C. Arcane that


allows you to disregard the miss chance granted by spells or spell-like abilities such as darkness, blur, invisibility, obscuring mist, ghostform, and spells when used to create concealment effects (such as a wizard using permanent image to fill a corridor with illusory fire and smoke).

At first, I figured it lets you disregard spells when they're used to create concealment effects. A wizard casts Obscuring Mist, but with PMC you can see though it as if it wasn't there. However, the feat doesn't actually say it does that. It only mentions miss chances in both its short and long descriptions, not that you see through anything or ignore the concealment itself. So, I can only assume that by RAW, you can't see through spells.

Let's say Maurice the Wizard is inside Obscuring Mist and Darby the PMC Fighter is trying to snipe Maurice down. If PMC doesn't let you see through spells, does Darby still know where Maurice is? Can Maurice attempt a hide check? If Darby can't pinpoint Maurice's location and can only guess the 5ft square Maurice is in, can Darby still ignore the miss chance? What if Maurice is tiny and occupies the same square as Albert the Equally Tiny Rogue? How does easily (hah, good luck with that if Maurice is a wizard) hitting someone you can't see or hear make sense?

Blink is another fun thing to consider. PMC only says "such as", so RAW one could argue either way about it beating blink's miss chance. Assuming Blink isn't as spell "such as" ghostform or blur, there's still this part of Blink's description to consider:


If the attacker can see invisible creatures, the miss chance is also only 20%.

Great, so that's it, then, ri-... oh wait, technically I suppose PMC doesn't let you see invisible creatures.

So, what do you think are the RAW here and how would you rule it, keeping in mind that PMC requires two other feats (Blind-Fight and Mage Slayer) and combined they give you a hefty -8 to caster levels?

Crake
2017-05-15, 04:47 PM
The raw is clear, you only ignore the miss chance, you still need to know where to strike. There are plenty of ways to pinpoint the correct square, ranging from blindsense to a simple listen check (though remember, to pinpoint the exact square, the DC is the listen check DC+20).

I don't think I see any part of the raw even suggesting anything beyond simply omitting the part where you roll a d% to see if you miss or hit.

Psyren
2017-05-15, 06:31 PM
How does easily (hah, good luck with that if Maurice is a wizard) hitting someone you can't see or hear make sense?


As noted, you still need to know the right square, so it's not totally impossible to fool. It also doesn't beat cover, and mages can make plenty of that too.

As for why it works/how it makes sense, note the two preprequisite feats: Blind-Fight, and Mageslayer. Blind-Fight is a combat technique that allows you to (at least somewhat) enhance or even bypass your own senses when dealing with attackers you can't see, while Mageslayer makes you especially skilled at recognizing changes in magical energy near you (thus allowing you to AoO even casters who are being deliberate and careful.) Combine the two and you can effectively see through magic designed to make you miss (typically, but not limited to, illusions.)