I don't have the expert invisibility perk, so I have to use potions. But it doesn't seem right that when I attack someone or even just swing a melee weapon, or steal an item, the spell breaks. If you're invisible you should be invisible and as long as you're not making enough noise to be detected you should be able to steal or attack until the potion wears off (though most any attack would create some noise).

yeah i understand what you're saying, i wish it would last more than 30 seconds, i have the spell since i'm a mage and i use it pretty effectively once in a while....i used it to kill most of the foresworn at one of their camps and it makes it slower progress not having it stay active after you interact with something, but it still works good, you just scout when invisible, thats a big help and you have to be tactical, its still powerful but not excessively.

Um... don't you guys remember 100% chameleon in Oblivion, where you could be perma-invisible?

It was a joke just walk about stabbing people and they couldn't fight back. Worse in Skyrim you have the assasin blade perk, you could just walk around slitting throats even easier than you can already :/

If invisibility would always be in effect it would simply be a +sneak modifier. Now, because that it breaks when you interact, it changes the behavior a little bit by allowing you the first half of a successful sneak but still makes the escape a dangerous (and thus fun) experience.

I get what you're saying though, picking flowers in the wild and breaking the spell seems a bit excessive. But I don't agree that it should always stay on even when you attack someone. Locks ok, pick-pocketing maybe.
Easy to mod I guess.


Dual cast it. I think it becomes 66 or 99 seconds (Not sure atm, 66 makes more sense but I recall something lasting 99 seconds)

Invisibility works well enough. Why would you drink an invisibility potion just to pick flowers or pick a lock? Attacking someone would obviously break the effect because it would be kind of obvious I'm getting my head bashed in by someone even if I can't see them. Picking stuff up while invisible will also not work. I mean, people would surely notice their golden claw floating in mid air on its way out the door.

Because I play a vampire in stage 4 so everything and everyone and their little sister attacks me on sight, there's why.
I don't use potions though, I'm an illusionist. And when I play on master difficulty with 40 HP it kind of helps to be invisible while wondering about through the wilderness. Just in case a dragon shows up, or god forbid a mudcrab.

i don't mind the spell breaking, it was like that in Oblivion, but I kinda hate how invisibility barely hides you at all, It's pretty much a fancy Muffle spell.

Aroo? Is this the case with the magic spell, or is it related to sneak skill levels/modifiers or something? I have the Nightingale Blessing on one character that turns me invisible when I sneak for 120 seconds. It breaks on actions just like the spell, including leaving sneak (although sneaking again restores it). My sneak skill isn't extraordinarily high, and nothing can see me.

This :tup:

I am so glad they got rid of chameleon.

Since its magic to begin with, who says Invisibility should persist for a certain time interval. Perhaps the very best invisibility magic can produce is so tenuous and unreliable that it dissipates with any action other than movement.

Well just because they can't see you does not mean they can't hear you. To get the best out of invisibility you still need a decent sneak level.

The only good luck I had using invisibility was when I had to attack a bandit camp that lots of bandits in it. I was using a bow to pick them off from a distance. Ocassionally they would see me and attack with spells or bows. So I drank a potion and moved to set up a good shot and pick them off leaving the boss. I could not believe being invisible with sneak above level 50 and wearing light armor that I could be detected but it happened.

I haven't really delved much into the mechanics of Sneak skill but hell, even with invisibility and a 75 Sneak on my assassin, I still get caught trying to sneak past people if I stand right in front of 'em.

As for invisibility, that's how it's been in previous games. Activating anything (opening, taking, stealing), attacking anything, causes you to lose your invisibility. That's why there was always Chameleon (almost exactly the type of spell the poster describes he wishes invisibility was) as well, which was far too OP, and I certainly agree with it's removal from Skyrim. IMO what's a bigger deal is expecting to be a sneaky/illusionist type college mage and not having an Open spell, having to rely on thief skills instead.

Exactly, they've finally taken care of thousands of those expliots we could do in Oblivion. And at least difficulty bar is balanced well so the game is actually hard most of the time.

Pick flowers, no. To pick a lock, sometimes yes, so I wouldn't get caught.

I've been thinking about this awhile. An invisibility potion could work by bending light, so there would likely be a field surrounding the subject. An object pulled into the field would then become invisible also. So the person wouldn't see their possessions floating away, just disappearing if they happened to be looking in that direction, or you made some noise. I still think it shouldn't break just because you touch, or activate, something. Of course, your sneak skill should factor in on the noise one makes.

Maybe the magic that makes you invisible is like static electricity and if you touch something it gets released.
I use invisibility a lot and recast whenever I open a chest or pick pockets, etc.
Potions are probably not worth using if you want to interact with a lot of things while staying invisible.

I read in a alteration skill level book in the game that the difference between Illusion magic and Alteration magic is that Illusion magic is all fake, it doesn't actually change things in the world just what people feel/see. Alteration on the other hand does change real stuff in the world. So it can't be possible for you to create a field or have any kind of real "power" with Illusion because it's all in the minds of others that your changing. I guess realistically your invisibility "breaking" when you attack/grab/pick locks is just people breaking free from your illusion you put them in because something in the real world changed.

I don't mind the invisibility wearing off when I do something. What I mind is when I use an invisibility potion and try to run away, the ranged NPCs still know exactly where I am, even if I'm sneaking (and my sneak is about 75 on the character this happened to, and I had the Silent perk and was wearing light armor as well), so it doesn't work so well to try to sneak away... Granted, that only happened once, but it was enough that I think twice about bothering with invisibility now.

I am honestly beging to think that invisblity is bugged, my sneak is maxxed I always wear my Nightingale armor when sneaking so I have muffle, I have tried spells, potions and Nocturnels blessing all seem to do nothing. I should be able to slip right past anyone but the see me like I just walked up a slapped them in the face.

the people who thought chameleon was a joke didn't have to use chameleon. Skyrim is a graveyard of spells and abilties we used to have. Yes, invisibility is in short supply and a limited ability.

Apparently, that's what Bethesda thought we wanted.

edit.

To me, invisibility is to be used as a noncomabat option. It's to be used only in a few situations

1. When your character isn't strong enough to defeat a given opponent(s) that don't need to be killed in order to accomplish the quest
2. When you can defeat said opponents but doing so will exhaust all your resources and end up getting you killed in another part of the same dungeon, leaving you unable to finish the quest.
3. When you can't escape a situation that will definately get you killed

For me personally I want to be able to think my way through the game. In the given situations above I have to carefully consider how my character can accomplish the mission with his given skillsets. But sometimes it's still necessary; especially at lower levels.

Invisibility potions are fine as they are; as previously brought up, the Chameleon armor that you could make and do whatever the heck you wanted to with it was fun, but really game breaking.

It works much like a chameleon spell from Oblivion. It makes you harder to see, but not at all impossible. I use muffle and invisibility and that doesn't let you walk past people. It makes it harder to notice me that's all, but even then I have to sneak. Even if I sneak, people can still potentially see and attack me. This is most especially noticeably if I attack someone and people come at me. I go around a corner, use muffle then invisibility and sneak, and they'll see me right off (even if I don't move). They'll see me from quite a distance away too. The same is true if I am just sneaking around and haven't been noticed yet. Invisibility definitely adds something, but even with muffle you are still noticeable if you get close and you most definitely have to use the sneak button, because those two spells don't cut it by themselves. If I don't sneak with them, then I'll get noticed from far aware.

I have 100 sneak, all the perks, and still get seen. I figured it was either bugged or did not work like it did in Oblivion. makes it about useless.