How do you handle invisible characters? If a character turns invisible for whatever reason, how do you deal with this in the game? The character is able to be seen by everyone in the game which defeats the invisibility for all practical purposes. Is there some way to stop the other players from seeing that character while it is invisible?
Important is wether you mean player character or non-player character here.
NPC:
As a GM it it's probably easy to just have the character on the GM layer or something similar.
PC:
If you don't dynamic lightning or other more advanced features tied to tokens, you could simply hide the token and secretly communicate with the player where the PC stands.
Another possibility might be to temporally upgrade the player to GM so the token can be movedform visible to invisible by the player.
Some combination of TokenCollision and Trap API might be able to combined in a way that other players only notice the invisible character if they go to the same square, but that would probably mean that the GM needs to move the location of the trap each time the player tells where the PC moved.
I think that moving the player character to the GM layer and secretly communicate with the player is what I'll try. I use Discord for chat and that should work alright. I'm not over familiar with APIs so unless someone knows of one that addresses this issue, then I'll use the GM layer.
For an NPC:
Simple:
Quick and Dirty Invisible Token Tracking Using Basic Fog of War
API solution:
The Bump Script, available through One Click installation.
For a PC:
This is a more difficult solution. There are some scripts that echo token locations across pages, but it requires more than a little bit of pre planning. You could use the text tool to number and letter the grid, allowing the player to whisper "I move from B14 to C 12", but that also requires a bit of setup. There's not a great and simple solution to this, but then again, neither is it easy to do on the tabletop. Some of the suggestions above are probably the best way to go. Hopefully, unless your game features a lot of PVP, it's not something you'll need to deal with often.
Additional API solution:
For PCs I actually use the Bump Script as well. As long as the token is registered to a character sheet the player controls then they will be able to see the blue aura of the invisible token when you bump it to the GM layer (though the effect is ruined a bit if they use waypoints). Then you just bump them back when they are visible again.
If you are using Dynamic Lighting you can just quickly edit the invisible token and add that characters sight parameters and then it works for that as well!
It adds a little uncertainly to where the wizard can drop that fireball without hitting the invisible rogue. :)
You can use a transparent .png file for the character's token, and give it a 5 foot aura that only the player and GM can see. Then the player can see and move his token without having to bug you, and other players do not see where the invisible character is.
You can use a rollable token with one side set as the transparent .png as Rabulias suggests. That way the token stays associated with the character sheet and token sight.
Rabulias said:
You can use a transparent .png file for the character's token, and give it a 5 foot aura that only the player and GM can see. Then the player can see and move his token without having to bug you, and other players do not see where the invisible character is.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the "visible to players" function applies to all players, not just the controllers of the token.
Information is shown in the Wiki about the token features: https://wiki.roll20.net/Token_Features#Auras
I think what Pat is referring to is the ability to set, say a 0 radius aura and leave permission at edit, then use a transparent png. The controlling player (and GM) can see the aura, but no other players can.
"Setting the Edit flag will allow all players who can control the Token (based on the "Controlled By" field, above) to see and edit the values of the bar, or change the radius of the aura drawn on the tabletop."
This is a neat idea that comes up in my game a bit and right now it's just meta knowledge (which sucks when the platform can be made to remove it!)
I'm also curious how people have handled this in RL games? Remove the mini and just pass notes to the DM? I feel like in general most tables would meta-knowledge this too, and thus Roll20 gives us a tool that can go beyond the IRL experience?
I am a tad old school, and I do not do PvP type adventures, so if one PC is invisible, they get to have a little icon on their token, and I expect my players not to metagame.
Sorry I was not more clear. Let me illustrate and expound:
On the Advanced tab of the token:
You want to uncheck showing of Name and Bars, which would reveal the token's location. Also, if the token is emitting light, it will give away its position (which careless players may forget...) so you may want to turn that off, or uncheck the "All Players See Light" checkbox.
On the Basic tab for the token:
Set Aura 1 to 0. This will cover one square and only the controller(s) of the token and the GM can see it.
And, since you are a pro subscriber, if this is a regular occurrence for a player you can use the rollable table token method combined with the player/gm aura method AND account for lighting etc all with a single click macro using tokenMod (or just use Bump...).
Bonus points for having the macro produce a drop-down for turning invisibility on/off! :)
Thank everyone for their input. I'm going to try these suggestions out. I didn't realize that this would be quite the problem that it has turned out to be.
Thanks Evan and Rabulais. I was not aware of this quirk of auras. I'm not in a position where I can test it myself, but it sounds worthy of a Stupid Trick entry.
An invisible creature is unseen; a hidden creature is unseen, and unheard, and unsmelt etc. being invisible fulfils the precondition for hiding - that you cannot be seen clearly - but you still need to take an action to Hide: that's why Hide is an action.
If the character merely turn invisible then everyone knows exactly where they are and can follow their progress as they move. They would attack with advantage and be attacked with disadvantage but could be targeted without a problem.
If they turn invisible and take an action to Hide, then when they move, only people whose passive Wisdom (Perception) with disadvantage (assuming vision is their primary sense) beats their Dexterity (Stealth) can track them. Otherwise the PC must spend an action to Search, engaging active Wisdom (Perception) also with disadvantage, or attack where they think they are.