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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.

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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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  • \$\begingroup\$ How does this comply with the "a heavily obscured area doesn't blind you" statement? \$\endgroup\$
    – enkryptor
    Sep 7, 2018 at 20:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ 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. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mark Wells
    Sep 7, 2018 at 20:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ Why do they have to guess the location if you haven't taken the hide action? \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Sep 7, 2018 at 21:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ Related : rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/107214/… \$\endgroup\$
    – NotArch
    Sep 7, 2018 at 22:07
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    \$\begingroup\$ @MarkWells everyone always know where you are, unless you take the Hide action \$\endgroup\$
    – András
    Sep 8, 2018 at 7:42
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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.

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    \$\begingroup\$ -1, you can attack while blinded, although with disadvantage \$\endgroup\$
    – András
    Sep 7, 2018 at 20:34

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