Invisibility is a spell for which one can easily buy potions of 'detect invis'. If hide were "unbreakable", so to speak, then some classes would be completely incapable of even noticing that someone (and who) is around. It's completely different.
Sure, you can argue that all you need is to set a trigger to make yourself hidden quickly again after a scan, or another skill, however breaking the hiding in the moment gives a clue to people in the surroundings that you are there. Even people in the area are able to see you around with "where". That gives them the potential sense of danger and gives them the chance to choose to go to somewhere where you cannot hide. Not even giving them this opportunity is, again, beyond OP. It is broken. Aside from that, some skills have lag. Want to eagle eye someone? Lag. Want to cast 'detect invis'? Lag. All of these are small moments of vulnerability to the assassin since he leaves hiding, and they should be there.
Not to mention how much easier it becomes for assassins to go in areas with aggressive mobs if they can just scan freely without worry of being seen and attacked... Again, it's OP. The only class that has the ability to walk around freely unseen are abjuration transmuters, and they sacrifice a lot to be able to do so (meaning they basically don't have offensive power, etc...).
You're basically asking for assassins to possess the ability to stay unseen just as well as abjurers (in the appropriate terrain), while preserving the offensive capacity of assassins (or thieves).
What you describe as “OP” should actually be a core mechanic for assassins and thieves. Giving away constant clues to their whereabouts strips away the element of surprise, and that element is being undervalued here.
Those “small moments of vulnerability” don’t provide real counterplay; they just punish assassins and thieves with endless re-hide spam and weaken the entire point of stealth. Non-stealth classes already have straightforward counters, like terrain where hiding isn’t possible. And nowadays it’s practically impossible to reach zones outside the city without crossing exactly that kind of terrain. If that’s not enough of a clue for someone, I don’t know what is.
Most mobs can detect hidden players, but very few can detect astral or invisibility. I am not really sure what point you were trying to make.
The request is that the hide not be broken by using non-combat skills, spells, or actions.
Stealth classes, like assassins are already punished enough:
- by being forced to move through terrain that doesn’t allow hiding.
- by having to prepare the room where they can perform their endgame assassination skill.
- by having them restricted to physical damage type
