[RPG] Is magical force visible, generally

dnd-5emagic

A Magic Missile is visible, a Wall of Force is invisible, and a Tenser's Floating Disk is… which? Specific beats general, but what's the general rule for visibility of magical force?

Magic Missile. You create three glowing darts of magical force…. (PHB p.257)

Wall of Force. An invisible wall of force springs into existence…. (PHB p.285)

Tenser's Floating Disk. This spell creates a circular, horizontal plane of force…. [No mention of (in)visibility follows.] (PHB p.282)

This came up at my table when a monk perched on my Tenser's Floating Disk in lotus position; we both believed the disk to be invisible and thought it'd appear to be a nifty monk-ish trick. Others at the table assumed the disk was visible and that it was a pointless waste of a spell. We discovered that some of us had operated for decades, through multiple prior editions, under the assumption that TFD was obviously visible, while others had likewise assumed for decades it was invisible.

Best Answer

I can't find a general rule, but most things that do force damage are visible based on flavor text. Most magic in general have descriptions of a visual appearance.

Tenser's Disk is probably visible:

  • In 4e art from the books, the disk is visible.
  • How can you set things on it, if you don't know where it is.
  • 5e even made Mage Hand visible -- even though the spell itself doesn't say so. This is evident from the Rogue Arcane Trickster subclass. Which has a class feature that specifically says you can turn it invisible, meaning it is visible by default. I'd assume the same to be true of other force spells that don't mention visibility.
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