Editor’s Note: This post is part of a new series of articles we’re kicking off at the Far Reach in which we discuss, dissect, and deliberate the spells of 5.5e.

Overview

“A creature you touch has the Invisible condition until the spell ends. The spell ends early immediately after the target makes an attack roll, deals damage, or casts a spell.” (DnD Beyond Link)

Invisibility is a spell designed for sneaking around guards, eavesdropping, or setting up an ambush. Being invisible grants you advantage on initiative and your first attack roll against a creature that can’t see you, inflicts disadvantage on attacks from opponents that can’t see you, and you are immune to effects that require their target to be seen. This means you can’t be affected by certain mundane items such as alchemist’s fire, holy water, or nets; some magical items such as ropes of entanglement, energy bows, or wands of paralysis; and many spells including charm person, heal, or magic missile even if the user or caster can hear or smell you. Detect magic won’t detect you either, as you have to be visible for the caster to see the aura of the spell affecting you.

As a second-level spell, it’s a Local-Hero Tier ability, soon (and properly) outshined by the bigger and flashier third-level spells. Because invisibility is on the spell list of almost every spell caster (artificers, bards, sorcerers, warlocks, wizards, even some clerics), one has to assume that its use is widespread.

With a casting time of one action, this is a before-combat or out-of-combat buff. Assuming the combat takes three rounds, the advantages gained are likely not better than inflicting damage or battlefield control.

Invisibility has a verbal component. Turning invisible creates noise. You definitely want to become invisible before you start sneaking around, not while you’re sneaking around. It also has a material component, but one that’s not consumed during the casting of the spell, which means you can use your arcane focus to cast it instead. I can picture touching someone with a wand or a staff and them becoming individual, or holding up my orb or crystal to make myself disappear, but what exactly is one doing with artificer’s tools?

Invisibility has a one hour duration, and requires concentration. Again, turn invisible, then go into action. If you take damage, you might become visible, so beware area affects such as fire or gas.

By the rules, invisibility is an illusion. Semantically, this is interesting, as it suggests that you’re not really invisible, you’ve just convinced the people around you that they can’t see you. One could argue you’d show up on cameras and video (if those exist in your setting). Invisibility shouldn’t work against automata, oozes, and other non-thinking entities.

Upcasting the spell lets you turn one other person invisible for each spell slot above 2. That’s a maximum of 8 people with a 9th-level spell. I don’t know of anyone who has ever used a 9th-level spell on invisibility, but I’m sure there’s a time and place for everything. You might use a 5th-level spell slot on a party of four, but generally there are better spells to cast at 4th-level and above. Also, I’m not sure how upcasting works story-wise. Normally, I can only touch one person and make them invisible. Now, in the same amount of time, I can touch everyone I’m adjacent to. That’s like seven extra free actions. Or some really fast high-fives.

Invisibility in past editions

The Dungeons & Dragons Fandom Wiki has a nice breakdown of the OSR versions of the spell. In Orginal D&D the spell lasted until you ended the spell or attacked someone, and it could be cast on a creature or an object. In AD&D in addtion to the material component, they added a chance for highly intelligent creatures to automatically detect invisible creatures, as well as a penalty for attacking a creature that you can detect but not see. In 2nd edition the spell lasts for 24 hours unless made permanent, in which case you become invisible on the next turn where you don’t attack.

3rd edition shortened the duration to one minute a level, limited the object touched to 100lb./level, and restricted making invisibility permanent to objects only. 3rd edition also clarified that items put down become visible, items picked up become invisible, and light never becomes invisible, but its source might. Pathfinder 1.0, based on the 3rd-edition rules, adds that if a stealth check is needed, the invisible creature adds +40 to their roll if stationary, or +20 if moving.

In 4th edition, invisibility is a 6th-level wizard power with a range of 25 feet, and can be sustained for up to five minutes (using a standard action each round). 4th edition also specifies that unseen creatures don’t provoke opportunity attacks. Finally 5th edition limits invisibility to creatures, sets the duration to an hour (with concentration), and mentions that casting a spell also ends the spell.

What is “gum arabic” anyway?

According to our good friend, Wikipedia, gum arabic is a gum exuded from some species of acacia tree that has been used in the Middle East since the 9th century. Because of its viscosity, it’s used in printing and litography, paint, glues, and cosmetics. Imagine carrying a piece of resin with you and mushing an eyelash into it before you wave your hand and mutter the magic words and disappear. Gum arabic might also be handy for creating copies of seals, signet rings, or weirdly shaped keyholes.

How good is invisibility?

I think it’s a solid B-tier spell. Somehow it does a decent job of not stepping on the toes of the sneaky rangers and rogues, mainly because it’s so easy to get advantage in other ways, and because those Stealth checks will still be useful in keeping silent. Being able to cast it on an object would open up all sorts of additional utility and make it an A-tier spell. Even then, it’s not an always-prepare spell (and not quite an always-take spell).

House rules and other thoughts

So many thoughts around invisibility. Can you see yourself? Could you secretly make someone invisible without their knowing with some sleight-of-hand and Silent Spell? What does turning invisible look like? Do you fade out from the edges? Top to bottom? Do you vanish at the snap of your fingers? Do you erase yourself with your hand? Or is it a ritual of shaking rattles that leaves you trapped in the spirit world?

The ability to turn an object invisible opens up so much utility that I want to include it or create another spell to cover the use case. If you can open doors, pick locks, or climb the rigging while invisible, you should be able to cast spells. And I like the idea of turning someone else invisible and persuading them that they’ve died. I’d update the spell like this:

About Spell-by-Spell

Spell-by-Spell is a series of articles where we discuss the spells in Dungeons & Dragons 5.5e. We start with the spell as-written, and we’ll provide our take on how “good” the spell is (S-Tier to F-Tier), and thoughts for using the spell as a player or DM. We offer up suggestions for adding color or flavor to the spell, out-of-the-box ideas for non-combat applications, and occasionally stories from the game-table. We might look the history of a spell and the different versions across editions or even different games. Finally, we weigh in on how well the spell does what it says it does; how well it plays in-game (does it slow the game down, does it steal the thunder of other classes, is it fun); whether it should be banned, nerfed, or boosted; and revisions we’d like to see in theoretical future editions or that we plan to make (or have made) in our own D&D games.

Spell-by-Spell Tier Rankings

• S-Tier: Spells that are so cool or so useful that you want to be able to cast them as many times as possible. Also spells that are so elegant, that they should be help up as examples of game design.
• A-Tier: Spells that you always want to have in your spellbook or spell list. There may be situations where you would choose to not memorize or prepare them, but those cases are rare.
• B-Tier: Good, solid spells. Spells you are often happy you have in your spellbook or spell list, but maybe don’t memorize or prepare every day.
• C-Tier: Spells that are only situationally useful, that do too little damage, or that have some other strange or confusing unexpected flaw. Also poorly-named spells that don’t do what you would think they do.
• D-Tier: Spells that are poorly designed, overshadow the schtick of other classes, or interact with other effects or abilities in ways detrimental to the player or game.
• F-Tier: Spells that are so bad, they shouldn’t be in the game. This includes useless and trap spells, as well as always-spam spells that seem to have been created to cause friction between players and GMs.