Rulings on Invisibility

Question

If you cast greater invisibility on yourself, do you gain the same benefits as invisibility as an ability? It does not say so under the spell, but under special abilities it states:

Invisibility:

Visually undetectable. An invisible creature gains a +2 bonus on attack rolls against sighted opponents, and ignores its opponents' Dexterity bonuses to AC (if any). (Invisibility has no effect against blinded or otherwise nonsighted creatures.) An invisible creature's location cannot be pinpointed by visual means, including darkvision. It has total concealment; even if an attacker correctly guesses the invisible creature's location, the attacker has a 50% miss chance in combat.

I know that spells and abilities sometimes work differently but on this case I am not sure.

Can anyone state a ruling on this? Does the spell function like the ability or vis versa? Or is it two different things all together?

Answer 1

Yes.

1. The spell greater invisibility says its effect is just like the spell invisibility.
2. The spell invisibility says it makes you invisible, the condition.
3. The condition "invisible" says to see the ability "invisible".

Note that each step along a chain like this may introduce changes. For example, if any details of a spell contradict the details of the condition it's based on, the details of the spell override the details of the condition.

For a trivial example in this case, the invisibility spell adds the information that the condition ends when the subject attacks, while the ability implies that an invisible attacker can stay invisible: the spell overrides that. (And of course, greater invisibility overrides this part of invisibility again, making the subject stay invisible after attacking.) As another example, greater invisibility and invisibility can be detected by detect magic, while the invisibility ability may or may not be so detected, depending on what type of ability it is in the creature description.