Post/Author/DateTime	Post
morganm 02-13-06, 09:47 AM	Over your years of DnD; what are some awsome illusions you've seen or cast? In combat and out of combat. Anything clever, usefull, or devistating would be great. Thanks!
tarkin 02-13-06, 10:57 AM	I think I indirectly told you about these already, but I will list it for the other readers. My best two illusions I ever did were: 1) Casting an illusion of a long wall to stop a low level mage from riding his horse to escape. The mage made his save, but the horse failed and refused to jump the wall. It was so cool foiling the DM's plan to have the bad guy escape. 2) convincing a peasant to stop beating his wife by casting a pretty illusion and telling him he was under the effect of the vile Curse of Obedieance.
Seeker of Undeath 02-13-06, 11:03 AM	My favorite was a tandem Silent Image / Ghost Sound. I just picked up the monster manual, opened to a random page and said, "I'll make a Silent Image of this." It turned out to be some hideous tentacled monster. I sent the thing into a tavern, snarling and growling. So many people tried to jump out a window at the same time, they got stuck. Hilarity ensued. Meanwhile our party snuck away from the city guard without incident. :D
morganm 02-13-06, 11:50 AM	Great ideas people, thanks! Keep them coming!
Azezel 02-14-06, 11:47 AM	Illusions are very flexable - the key is to take illusions one or two steps beyond. Most people will think to cover a pit with an illusion of a floor, one step beyond - cover a floor with an illusion of a pit. Two steps beyond, make an illusion of a pit right in front of a real pit hidden by an illusion. Bad guys jump over illusion pit and land in the real one. Don't make an illusion of a monster - get a real monster (summon or dominate) and wrap it in an illusion of the same monster. Bad guy with a high Will save sees the illusion, knows it is an illusion, ignores it and gets eaten. So you're a low level mage with a tough crowd? Well, if your foe has no ranks in spellcraft he cannot tell the diference between the casting of a real Cone of Cold and an Illusion. Talk about bonus to intimidate checks... Same thing in peacetime - any Bard can perform, but a few illusions will outdo WETA workshops in terms of bonus to Perform checks. Special Effects man. Courage failed you and you ran away when no-one was looking? Well, Illusiary wounds can make you look like the last survivor of Fort Bastard. make you wounds fade when Cure is cast on you and no-one is the wiser, you're a hero. Are you an Arcane Trickster who keeps getting beaten at 'find the ball'? Well, put the ball under the middle cup, switch them around abit and cast Mirror image as you do so, Let's see the mark find the ball now. Sometimes Mage Hand is just a bit too clumsy to add that 'Smite Me' sign to the bad-guy's back, so make it an illsiary sign. Make an illusion involving the BBEG's mother, a venerable half-orc a vat of alphabeti spaghetti and no clothes. Even if he makes his will save, it is going to distract him. (Alternatively, make half a dozen illusiary nymphs and driads and open a strip joint - remember, you can look, but you cannot touch). Planning the big raid on Castle Evil? Have no battle map or miniatures with which to explain your tactics? Say no more. Illusion is one of the best schools there is (so sayeth the guy playing an Illusionist) let you imagination free.
Arlechino 02-14-06, 12:22 PM	2 uses for Silent Image: 1) Make an illusory fog bank surrounding the party. Use "code words" to let the party get a +4 on their save. Presto! The party gets total concealment against foes, while foes get NO concealment from party members who make their save. As long as combat is ranged, it's arguable that the foes aren't interacting with the fog, and thus don't get a save (though they may be different opinions on this) 2. Incorporeal creatures are nasty, and don't make noise. If you're goingt o use silent image to create a figment monster, make it an incorporeal one. Another bonus to this is that just because a weapon strike passes through a figment wraith doesn't mean the wraith isn't there. Azazel- your pit idea works well with glamers. You can do the same thing with figments if you've got a pit that's more than 5' wide. Make a figment floor covering part, but not all, of the pit. I wouldn't allow "wrapping a monster in an illusion" to work. Disbelieving an illusion means that you see through it. If someone uses disguise self to look like herself, for example, then disbelieving the disguise self will reveal the true self beneath. I'm not sure how the mirror image trick is meant to work, but it's almost certain to make the crowd angry when they see you make multiple copies of yourself. You can easily win the shell game by making a fake bead with prestidigitation. I think, however, that this game would be unpopular in most medium-to-high magic settings.
Purple Yin 02-14-06, 01:04 PM	am i wrong to interpret 'see-through it' as simply understanding its not real, or does the illusion literally become transparent?
tarkin 02-14-06, 01:40 PM	It is supposed to actually be transparent. Otherwise their would be no need for the save for the illusionary wall of fog concealment trick.
Vanigo 02-14-06, 02:13 PM	Most people will think to cover a pit with an illusion of a floor, one step beyond - cover a floor with an illusion of a pit. Two steps beyond, make an illusion of a pit right in front of a real pit hidden by an illusion. Bad guys jump over illusion pit and land in the real one.Dosen't work with just the standard figments. A figment can make nothing look like something, but it can't make something look like nothing. A pit is a type of nothing. You can do this, however, by employing the illusory pit spell. Don't make an illusion of a monster - get a real monster (summon or dominate) and wrap it in an illusion of the same monster. Bad guy with a high Will save sees the illusion, knows it is an illusion, ignores it and gets eaten.Also doesn't work. When you disbelieve an illusion, you can see through it - and thereby see the real monster hiding inside.
Arlechino 02-14-06, 02:31 PM	Dosen't work with just the standard figments. A figment can make nothing look like something, but it can't make something look like nothing. A pit is a type of nothing. You can do this, however, by employing the illusory pit spell. You can also use Hallucinatory terrain, which is a glamer
Auorix 02-14-06, 07:06 PM	Tarkin didnt tell the dragon summoning illusion...its great :) I wont steal anyones thunder though.
BrutishCelt 02-14-06, 11:47 PM	I had some fun with a spell called "Flicker." Can't recall where I got it, but what it does is cause a target's image to briefly blink out, causing viewers to think that the real target is an illusion. It was a 2e spell, but I'm sure that it could be updated to 3.5 and give the target of the spell the ability to catch foes flat-footed if they fall for it. Also, it's not an illusion, but one of my favorite recent abuses of a low-level spell was using an arcane mark to place a random nonsense rune on a minion's forehead and telling him that it was a cursed mark that would cause horrible pain and eventual death if he betrayed my red wizard.
smrtgmp 02-15-06, 12:47 AM	I've had a lot of fun with illusionists over the years. One illusion that stuck with me was as follows: My party had been descimated by a band of hill giants and my little gnome was running for his life (yeah, expeditious retreat). I got far enough ahead that I was able to hide in some bushes near the edge of a ravine. I used major image to form an image of myself casting a spell that created a bridge, and had the image run accross. The giants came charging after "me" and went right into the cravasse. The last one pulled up in time and was teetering on the edge when a blast from my ring of the ram sent him over the brink. When I got back to the group, I was able to bring the cleric back to conciousness with some cure light wounds potions (took 3, IIRC, cause I kept rolling 1's on my d8's) and he resuscitated the rest of the group. Way back in 2nd edition, I was playing a fairly low level nimbral mage illusionist. Our group was set upon by a mass of orcs and we were sorely outnumbered. I used phantasmal force to "shed my mortal guise," turning myself into a demon. I (as in my character) had no idea what a demon actually looked like, but fortunately the orcs were equally ignorant and I put a lot of flair into the description. My flesh was torn asunder in a shower of blood as sulfurous smoke and fire engulfed my position. When the haze cleared a moment later a horrid creature spawned from my nightmares stood in my place, screaming for the blood and souls of the foolish mortals who dared to raise their weapons against him. Most of the orcs failed their saves and ran for the hills, and my party was able to dispatch those who remained. In my current eberron game, one of my PCs is a gnome illusionist/telepath/cerebromancer. The party's advanced scout spotted a group of forest trolls waiting in ambush in the trees along a trail (waiting for no one in particular) and the gnome created the following diversion. He had a couple of pixies go skipping down the trail, hand in hand, loudly debating (in giant) whether or not forest trolls actually existed. One insisted that they did, while the other maintained that anything so stupid and ugly would surely have gone extinct long ago. The trolls failed their saves and took the bait, hurling their javelins. Bongo (the illusionist) made it seem that one of the pixies was taken through the heart (the death monalogue was hilarious) as the trolls jumped from the trees to finish the job. As they closed on the image, the party archer let fly, and Bongo timed his illuison (had him roll a spellcraft check) perfectly, making the remaining pixie transform into a giant fanged bunny rabbit with a unicorn horn that leapt at the same troll at which the archer fired. The horn struk at precisely the same moment as the arrow. It didnt have any additional effect, but it was certainly entertaining. Illusions are a lot of fun because they really let you flex your imagination. That is the primary reason why I hardly ever drop illusion when playing a specialist. In fact, I only did it once, and that was for flavor reasons. I was playing an abjurer that dropped evocation and illusion because he didnt like the collateral damage associated with the former and despised the deceipt propogated by the latter. While I loved the character, I mourned the loss of my precious illusions time and time again. I never realised how much I relied on invisibility until I was unable to use it.
morganm 02-15-06, 11:52 AM	These are great everyone; thanks! Anyone else care to chime in?
Muffin_Man24 02-15-06, 12:24 PM	I've never had the blessing to be able to run with a good illusionist most in part because groups I've ran in and myself (I believe) were unsure of the proper rules. This thread brings me to a few questions. What happens when: a) you create an illusion of a dragon that breathes fire on a goblin who believes the dragon is real? b) you give somethis illusion that they are on fire? c) you create an illusion of a pit trap and someone jumps on it even though they think the pit is real? d) create an illusion that the room is filling with water and a monster can't swim? e) you blast someone with an illusion of a 'cone of cold'?
kraegor 02-15-06, 11:06 PM	This is a favorite of my swashbuckling wizard: Casts illusion to create a beautiful angelic woman that walks into the bar. All the guys trip over themselves to hit on her, and I get the "real" pretty girls to myself to flirt with all night :)
Mistwell 02-15-06, 11:31 PM	I have been composing a list of creative uses for the various Image spells (silent, minor, major, programmed). Here is what I have found so far (almost all written by others, who I unfortunately do not have the names to credit with their work). I would really like some more ideas for these excellent spells: 1. Silent Image a wall, to persuade opponants to go around; 2. Have your party press up against an existing wall, and silent image an identical wall in front of the party - super cheap mass invisibility, if cast outside the sight of the opponants; 3. Silent Image a box large enough for the party to hide in; 4. Create an illusion of a pit trap with spikes, with already dead bodies in it, about 10 feet wide; 5. Image backup bow-snipers for free for moral effect and extra false targets for the opponants? Let the first 2 die fast, so more shots are wasted on them; 6. Add more trees in a forest to hide behind; 7. Add a grassy hill on top of your party, and ambush from it; 8. Create an image of a sack over the opponent's head. Technically, there's no save until he takes an action to physically interact with the illusion; 9. Image some fire and smoke in a building or hallway to stop or slow a chase; 10. Image obscuring mist (or other fog-like spell). Your group (knowing it is an illusion) can see through it, but your opponants will not; 11. Create an image of a wizard casting invisibility. Opponents with spellcraft will go nuts. Alternatively, the "wizard" can cast spells without obvious effects (stoneskin, resist fire) or ones duplicable by an illusion (fly, blink, mirror image). Intelligent opponents will concentrate on attacking the wizard; 12. Create an image of spirits rising from dead bodies (ghosts, shadows, wraiths, spectres- whatever is appropriate) as a distraction, since your weapons swinging through them will not seem unusual given they are incorporeal beings that are being copied; 13. Have a small pond of acid and use an illusion spell to change the color from green to yellow. It'll show up as a illusion spell to any "smart" PC using a detect magic spell or two. 14. Create an image of utter darkness (which you can see through, as you know it is an illusion); 15. Create an illusion of your party members in other places to split the opposition; 16. Create an illusion of a wall breaking down and a monster entering. If they disbelieve, do it again but this time summon a real creature, and let them ignore it until it does them some damage (might even be able to attack ignoring your dex and dodge bonuses if opponants actively ignore it); 17. Make an illusion of a Blade Barrier - less likely to be touched and interacted with; 18. Make a bridge over a chasm you just crossed and hope opponants try to chase you over it (particularly good if you are fleeing and flying, while you seem to be walking over the birdge - or just hide and create an image of you fleeing over the illusionary bridge); 19. Create an illusionary archer who fires arrows at opponents that always misses. The archer has an AC of 10 + size modifier + range and vision modifiers as appropriate (probably also cover and such); 20. If one of the party members is down or in danger of being swarmed by reinforcements, make an illusion of a few more bad guys and make it appear they are being dealt with and perhaps give them a few minutes to catch their breath; 21. Make what appears to be a patch of entangling ground; 22. Image of a metal cage with sharp pointy spikes covered with dripping poison appearing around the enemy. He doesn't get a save unless he touches it because he hasn't interacted with it and he's not going to touch it because it looks like poison; 23. Create illusionary monsters to intimidate your foes: Beholders, demons, etc. are good. They can move around the battlefield and look menacing. Low-grade opponents should hopefully avoid things like this and run. I'm more of a GM than a player, but one way I'd rule this tactic is to allow the illusionist to make intimidate checks with a +2 (up to +4) illusion bonus to the check; 24. In addition to duplicating dungewon walls, you can copy spells that make sudden walls or objects or obsticles: illusionary walls of stone, iron, ice, prismatic shifting colors.. can sometimes seal off an escape route. So can patches of writihing shadowy black tentacles, or areas covered in illusionary webs. If your'e up to the Major image spell, you can use walls of fire or crackling electricity. The idea is to conceal or discourage interaction, but by the time anyone egts close enough to determine that he can feel heat from the wall of fire- he's already interacted with it. So having a high saving throw DC would be good as always 25. Create window dressing: I use this when I'm GMing villians, sometimes. It's not especially useful so much as it is "cool" to change the appearance of a location to something weird or disturbing. Change the battlefield to look like a gigantic chessboard with melting clocks or an arena with spiked walls or something; 26. Distraction. Use your IC knowledge. Confront an NPC with an illusionary figment of one of his previous victims or a family member. Yeah, yeah, he gets a saving throw. Still, sometimes it will throw people off for a round or two, even after the illusion cancels; 27 Create an image on the floor of green slime, randomly surfacing buzz-saws, caltrops, or some other hazard and leave an easy path through it that serves your purposes. A single file path, or perhaps one that takes the enemy through someones threatened area, or within bull-rush range of a fighter and another (real) hazard; 28. Use image spells as 3-d maps that hover in mid air for team briefings, team huddle strategy sessions, etc. An illusionist can be like the party VCR or instant replay guy, creating a tactical map for everyone to look at while the fighter draws on it like John Madden; 29. Use a a percieved threat as flanking (note - some DMs say this is not allowed because the illusion is not actually threatening the opponants square, while others feel that the perception of the threat is what creates the flanking, not the actual threat); 30. Mis up illusions and reality - For example, you are invisible, then cast an illusion of yourself casting a illusion spell, then the real you appear (as if you were the figment) and cast something, perhaps a spell like transmute rock to mud or wall of fire. Itīs likely that any enemy spellcaster think you and the real spell are the illusions, waste a round on the fake you, and walk like an idiot on the real spell; 31. Make the illusion of the party coming out of a translucent wall. Chances are that the enemies will think they are the real ones, doing the trick of hiding behind a illusory wall, and be fooled. While you are invisible, use the higher level illusion spells (like programmed image) to make a copy of yourself casting illusions, while the real you (invisible) cast Summon Monster N. Maybe they think they really are illusions, and ignore the monsters; if they learn from their errors, start casting illusions of summoned monsters; 32. Make an illusion of a shield guardian protecting you, which should dissuade many opponents from charging. 33. Illusion yourself up a reach weapon, have enemies waste movements on avoiding your 'threatened squares', or, if you have a reach weapon, illusion yourself up a normal one, can you say AoO? 34. If you're a ranged person, make yourself look like a beefy melee person, and have the ranged attacks come from the tiny companion on your shoulder. 35. Facing those dangerous NPC clerics: Make yourself appear to be undead, have them waste time trying to rebuke or command you. 36. Make yourself look like a tank using a wand (Let the npcs think he's got impressive ranks in Use Magic Device). 37. If you're running from a fight and going through a door, move it five feet over, and watch as your pursuers run into the wall. 38. Fleeing from a fight over a bridge, move the bridge over after crossing it. 39. If you have damage resistance from something (e.g. Green Star Adept's DR/Adamantine) make yourself look like a werewolf, so the npcs think you're vulnerable to a different material. 40. Illusion other NPCs surrendering, see if you can make the real ones join suit. 41. Disguise one of your opponants as yourself. 42. Make it look like a trap is triggered making the walls move in, which is quickly disabled, and use the area for sneak attacks. 43. Disguise yourself as one of your opponents (letting your allies know about the tactic in advance, of course - and preffereably find something Dissmissable to cover yourself with....) 44. Disguise yourself as one of your opponents, and your opponent as you simultaneously (Quickened Disguise Self). With luck, they will think you switched places to set up flanking ... and that your now-doppleganger is really a weaking spellcaster.... 45. Hide a cliff by giving the illusion the safe ground reaches 30 ft further than it really does. 46. Create a replica illusion of an existing pit trap right next to that pit trap, and the a second illusion covering up the real pit trap. When your opponants chase you this way, you may be able to lure them into going around the illusionary pit and falling into the real one. 47. Combine illusion and divination spells. People will probably react stronger when they have a personal interest in what your illusion is showing. I once got into a city with two firm guards by doing some scrying and spying to find out that the guards each had a child of about the same age, then casting a Major Image of the two kids just on the other side of the city gates, fighting brutally with each other. The guards of course rushed in to stop it... only for a second, but that was enough.
Arlechino 02-16-06, 08:46 AM	For Muffin Man, and any others interested, I started a thread on rules questions about illusions here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=583028 There's also an "all about illusions" article being run on the wizard's D&D page. As for your questions, MM, this is how I'd rule if I were your DM. a) you create an illusion of a dragon that breathes fire on a goblin who believes the dragon is real? Assuming you're dealing with a spell of the Image chain, not a phantasm or shadow magic, then the goblin will know that he isn't burned. This probably constitutes "proof" that the illusion is fake, so the goblin will immediately disbelieve the illusion. b) you give somethis illusion that they are on fire? With a figment, they'll automatically disbelieve it. For onlookers who fail to disbelieve, it will look really cool- "I am the Dread Pirate Roberts, and I have come to take your souls!" You might be able to create a phantasm that does this, though. c) you create an illusion of a pit trap and someone jumps on it even though they think the pit is real? Again, this probably proves that it's an illusion. Automatic disbelief. d) create an illusion that the room is filling with water and a monster can't swim? Probably, the monster will get out of the room as soon as possible. Note that no existing illusion (to my knowledge) confers "wet feeling", so as soon as the monster touches the water, automatic disbelief. e) you blast someone with an illusion of a 'cone of cold'? If this is through one of the Shadow Evocation series, then follow the rules for that spell. If it's a figment, probably automatic disbelief.
Tyler Do'Urden 02-16-06, 10:38 AM	Dig a 10x10x10 foot hole. Use a silent image to cover the hole with what looks like the surrounding surface. Cheapest trap ever.