Unseen Attackers and Targets
D&D 5e’s Unseen Attackers and Targets rule is blunt: when you attack a creature you can’t see, you have Disadvantage on the attack roll. The rule adds a further complication most tables skip. Because you can’t see the target, you guess its location, and if you guess wrong, you miss outright before dice even matter.
The common misread is that sound or scent restores parity. It does not. Knowing a target is roughly there lets you pick the right square to attack into. It does not let you aim well enough to cancel the Disadvantage. The penalty tracks visibility, not awareness. Blind the darkness, blind the invisible creature, blind the eyes, and the roll stays at Disadvantage until you can actually see what you’re hitting.
The mirror clause also applies. An attacker you can’t see has Advantage against you. Invisibility and heavy obscurement therefore cut both ways in a single exchange, which is why fights in the dark swing hard on who sees first.
At the table: A rogue swings at an invisible foe. Have the player name the square before rolling. Right square, roll with Disadvantage. Wrong square, the attack misses with no roll.
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