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This is what the PHB (p. 183) says about Heavy Obscurement:

A heavily obscured area—such as darkness, opaque fog, or dense foliage—blocks vision entirely. A creature in a heavily obscured area effectively suffers from the blinded condition

The Errata released to clarify Heavy Obscurement states:

A heavily obscured area doesn't blind you, but you are effectively blinded when you try to see something obscured by it.

The Errata doesn't specify "suffers from" however while the PHB does.

If I'm attacked from an area of heavy obscurement, am I under the effects of the blinded condition?

An example would be if an archer fired an arrow through Fog Cloud at myself who is not in Fog Cloud.

V2Blast
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Payden K. Pringle
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2 Answers2

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Yes, but so is the attacker.

If you are in a fog cloud and subject to an attack, you are blind with respect to your attacker, and your attacker is blind with respect to you (assuming nobody has blindsight). The same is true if the attack is passing through the fog on its way to you.

In the example you gave, the archer is 'obscured by' the fog cloud from your perspective; but you're obscured by the fog from the archer's perspective as well. You're blind with respect to the attack, so the archer has advantage; but the archer is blind with respect to you, so the archer has disadvantage, so it all cancels out and they're just rolling normally.

That's assuming they can pick the right location to attack, of course. You can hide as long as the attacker's line of sight is obscured, and (depending on the DM) in this situation, the attacker will have to guess where to attack even without you doing an actual Hide action. If they pick wrong you're automatically missed.

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Darth Pseudonym
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  • How does this comply with the "a heavily obscured area doesn't blind you" statement? – enkryptor Sep 07 '18 at 20:42
  • It can't blind anyone in this example because they're not standing in the fog. They just can't see each other, which has the same effect as being blind. – Mark Wells Sep 07 '18 at 20:48
  • @enkryptor "You are effectively blinded when you try to see something obscured by it." Is the archer obscured by the fog cloud? Yes. So you're "effectively blinded" with respect to them. In other words, the blinded rules apply to your interaction with that archer, even if you can still see the guy standing next to you. – Darth Pseudonym Sep 07 '18 at 20:49
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    Why do they have to guess the location if you haven't taken the hide action? – NotArch Sep 07 '18 at 21:07
  • @NautArch Because they don't know where you are. – Mark Wells Sep 07 '18 at 21:49
  • @MarkWells My understanding for that has been that there are 2 components to hiding. Being unheard and being unseen. PHB pg 179: "If you are hidden—both unseen and unheard—when you make an attack..." It would depend on the DM's discretion for how far you can be heard from when not actively trying to hide, I think. – Payden K. Pringle Sep 07 '18 at 22:04
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    Related : https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/107214/how-does-an-npc-guess-where-an-invisible-pc-is-when-attacking – NotArch Sep 07 '18 at 22:07
  • If you don't take the Hide action, they don't have to guess. – András Sep 08 '18 at 07:41
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    @MarkWells everyone always know where you are, unless you take the Hide action – András Sep 08 '18 at 07:42
  • Your answer doesn't consider an attacker with blindsight or in case of mere darkness (no light) an attacker with darkvision. In these cases the attacker wouldn't have disadvantage. – Aguinaldo Silvestre Sep 08 '18 at 11:20
  • Having to guess where your target is, is largely up to the DM. In a technical sense, everyone knows where everyone is unless they are actually Hidden. However, if you're a distance away from your enemy and not visible, and you've moved since you became not-visible, it's entirely reasonable for the DM to rule that the attacker has to guess. That's why I said 'depending on the DM'. – Darth Pseudonym Sep 08 '18 at 18:45
  • @AguinaldoSilvestre I literally mentioned blindsight in my answer, and I really don't think it's necessary to go over every possible source of heavy obscurement and what conditions might negate it. If it's dark and somebody has darkvision, they aren't subject to obscurement, so mentioning it isn't relevant to a discussion of how obscurement works. – Darth Pseudonym Sep 08 '18 at 18:46
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If you're not in the heavily obscured area, then no, you are not effectively blinded, regardless of the status of your attacker.

If an archer is in a heavily obscured area, the archer would be effectively blind and thus unable to attack you.

Brent P. Newhall
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