Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Roscommoner 03-11-05, 10:37 PM	Being fond of Gnomes and Illusionists, I've come up with some pretty crafty illusion ideas. What are yours? :plotting: What deviously cunning uses have you put your illusion spells to? My personal favorite (although not that clever) came about when my party was entrusted with the defense of a just barely medium sized town smack in the path of a horde of orcs. For whatever twisted reason, gnome illusionist/rogue was placed in charge of defense (a somewhat sensible reason, considering all the nasty traps that can be laid with illusions). Illusions over spear filled pits, mass invisibility placed over strategically placed groups of archers and vats of boiling pitch, several uses of weird (with several meta magic feats), etc etc. Of course, several wands of fireball were also flagrantly overused :evillaugh That was just a large expeditionary force. As none of them escaped, a small orc scout party was sent to find them. I created the glint and glimmer and sounds of a large armored force hiding in the woods to decieve the orcs. That, combined with the large stacks of orc bodies, was enough to convince the scouts that the village was alot more protected than it really was at that point. (We threw everything we had into that first battle. We would have been wiped out had the orcs and their beholder commanders come in force) Of course, illusions are great to torment party members too, especially the egotistical and too-pretty bard in my group. Ghost sound and other cantrips to create the sounds and stench of a wet fart as he is trying to woo a barmaid. One time I used seeming to give his face the appearance of leprosy, and he couldn't figure out why people were literally diving out the tavern windows as he entered.
smrtgmp 03-11-05, 10:43 PM	I had a low-mid level gnome illusionist (using varients from UA and racial substitution levels from Races of Stone) that was the last person standing in the group and running for his life. Thanks to expeditions retreat and a potion of invisibility I was able to hide from my pursuers. From a hidden location, I used major image to make an image of myself casting a spell to make a bridge (actually, I made it look like a piece of stone grew from the cliff face and extend to the other side), which "I" then ran over. The ogres followed the image onto the bridge and into the ravine they fell.
Odin_666 03-12-05, 05:17 AM	I had a low-mid level gnome illusionist (using varients from UA and racial substitution levels from Races of Stone) that was the last person standing in the group and running for his life. Thanks to expeditions retreat and a potion of invisibility I was able to hide from my pursuers. From a hidden location, I used major image to make an image of myself casting a spell to make a bridge (actually, I made it look like a piece of stone grew from the cliff face and extend to the other side), which "I" then ran over. The ogres followed the image onto the bridge and into the ravine they fell. and how many orcs jumped into the river, after they have seen the first one fall?
ehrin 03-12-05, 10:32 AM	IMO, illusions work best when cast in conjunction with real magic. Illusion of a fireball, even a poor one... cast at the beginning of a battle may give you an edge as they enemy ducks and dodges. When they figure out it was an illusion, then hit them with a real one. Chances are, they may even give up their reflex saves, because they think it is an illusion, and don't even bother to duck. Follow up with another illusion, and get them while they are confused. Create the illusion of a shield spell or entropic shield or floating war shields when fighting another mage, and perhaps he will not cast magic missiles at you... create the illusion of a sphere of annihilation, pulsing black energy, black tentacles, etc.. by the time the enemy mage figures out they are not true, he may have made some less than optimal choices, giving you an edge. Add fire or electrical sparks to your party's weapons for additional fear. glow their armor to instill worry. Illusion them as undead, make the enemy waste time turning or rebuking them. create fear by hiding them under a ghoul illusion, or as vampires.
Zitchas 03-12-05, 12:48 PM	A couple ideas I've used... 1) When outnumbered I used silent image and various other spells to create a number of additional wariors to lead the charge into (and through) the enemy lines, intentionally moving in such a way as to provok attacks of oportunity from as many as possible, which enabled our rogue to make it through the lines unscathed to distract the enemy commander/mage. On top of that, after they'd successfully dealt with a dozen or so illusory warriors, and noticed that the only real effect happening to them was from the (real) archer way at the back, they charged right past the actual front of our group, enabling us to take down several of them through AoOs alone. After that point, things disintigrated into confused (for them) melee, as they weren't overly sure what was real anymore and what wasn't. 2) Used a couple illusions to get our opponents used to dealing with illusions in a fairly constant stream, then in the next batch mixed in our enlarged barbarian along with the giants. At the same time, our rogue and our ranger walked up to them inside two of the illusions, which provided them with rather effective cover. This tactic essentially allowed us to take the entire front rank by suprise, as they'd all calmed down and were used to the illusions not doing anything. (And thus were VERY suprised when that giant creamed two of them right off) 3) A variant of the bridge over the very deep gorge tactic: Created the illusion of a bridge, with a wall of force positioned such that we could walk across it, then removed the wall of force, and our pursuers (who were charging enmass) trundled right off the cliff. 4) Another usefull variant of the illusion/wall of force combo is for providing rogues with opportunities to sneak attack (or everyone else for ambushs). This works best in caverns or buildings where the party can get out of a main hallway into a side passage, then cover the entrance with an illusion, prefferably a foot or two back from the edge so there is a noticeable lip/alcove. Now send your decoy (prefferably the rogue/monk or some other fast type monsters would expect to be able to hide quite well). Said decoy lures them back in the right direction, and then dodges into the alcove and through the wall. Immidiatly the wall of force goes up. The monsters, seeing the rogue dodge that direction might suspect an illusion, but when they feel the wall, they hit the wall of force inside it, thus tricking them into believing the wall. Once they stop examining the wall, drop the wall of force and the way is open for the group to act as they see fit. Burning hands and other cone effects are usefull here, as is sneak attack and suprise attacks from barbarians and front line melee types. If there's anyone likely to make noise around (such as the aforementioned melee types), use a silence spell positioned to cover all of them (but not extend into the hallway) to prevent them from providing a warning. Especially important as they go to take that first heavy swing at the nearest monster. If the party is so inclined, do a fast strike, then put the wall of force back up, and repeat once they've calmed again. If you do it fast enough (and have enough spells) one could drop the wall, unleash a barrage of arrows and/or spells and get it back up before they can respond. Depending on your DM, this might require you to drop the wall, wait a round, then ready an action to recast the wall as soon as the last party member shoots or when a monster reacts, as applicable. 5) Using two casters to combine Silent Image and ghost sound can be used to terrify oponents, especially villagers and other lowlevel/ unexperienced types. In this one tavern, our barbarian got into a fight with a local warrior over someone cheating at poker. As luck would have it, the fight was short and to the point: our barbarian acused him of cheating, he replies that the barbarian is a big fat lier, and apropriatly our barbarian lashs out at him with his broadsword and fells him in one crit/crit smash. Me and our other spellcaster promptly team up to create an illusion of death (the traditional figure in black robes carrying a very pale looking sythe with skeletal hands and glowing red eyes, although the rest of the face isn't visible, and lots of black fog around his feet) seeping up out of the fallen warrior's corpse, and peer around the room. Meanwhile, the other caster uses ghostsound to create the hoarse whisper emanating from Death to the lines of "And who shall be next?". Most villagers cower away. After a long pause (next round) one brave warrior steps forward and waves his hand through the illusion, and promptly collapses from the two shadowy bolts (remember: magic missiles can look however you want them to. They don't always have to look like little streaks of white energy) that seem to emanate from death. (I arced them, cast from the shadowy loft down through the top of death and then straight out into said warrior. Death repeats his "And who shall be next?" quote, at which point our friendly rogue decides now is a good time to slpash his dwarven ale (extremely concentrate alcohol, which is highly flameable) over the side of the fireplace, thus the flames quickly extend to include the area immidiatly around the fireplace, and scream that "I don't wanna die!" and start scrambling for the exit, knifing several bystanders as he goes. This starts off the general panic as everyone starts scrambling for the exit. At this point me and our sorcerer fire as many arrows as we can down into the general throng, aiming for the general area of the doors (and windows), we avoid the shooting into melee penalty due to the fact that we don't really care who we hit, just so long as we hit someone. (and the rest of our companions aren't in that general area. Yes, that was an event early on in a purely evil campaign. As I recall, we got visited by some Celestial Deva's for that, although we weren't high level at the time (3rd level, for the most part) so we weren't considered to be set in our ways, and thus given a chance to repent. We haven't as of yet, though. I wonder when the Deva's will show up again. 6) And lastly, an old classic: Ever seen the cartoons where someone draws a door on the wall and walks through, while the guy chasing him runs into it? Using a simple illusion one can do the same thing. Works best when the subject to run into it is running for whatever reason. Works even better when it's a fairly large door and a LOT of people (say, a large tribe) go piling into it. This is a very good way to concentrate a LOT more targets into the area of a burning hands spell than would normally be the case.
smrtgmp 03-12-05, 02:28 PM	and how many orcs jumped into the river, after they have seen the first one fall?Well, none. I was chased by ogers. :) They were running in a group, so my DM gave them a reflex save to halt their forward momentum after they saw the first one go over the edge. As I recall, only one made the save.
ManTimeForgot 03-12-05, 08:48 PM	I think most people believe the shadow spells to be illusions most powerful aspect in D&D. This is in my opinion very clearly not the case. Screen (while being high level) allows me to cause onlookers to believe me and my cohorts simply ceased to exist, teleported out, or any number of possible outcomes. If you don't have access to screen, then veil is usually good enough, but the protection against divination screen provides is invaluable at higher levels. This also allows me to keep my summons out of view before launching a surprise attack. Imagine the look of shock on the face of the merchant who tried to double cross you :eek: as he walks into his study only to be surrounded by monsters not 10 seconds after he gets in the door. Programmed image is quite simply the best lead in to a trap in the game :plotting: Programmed image for "damsel in distress" which runs down the hallway screaming in terror when would-be adventurer enters the place. Have the "damsel" trip on a rock or something just passed an area which is trapped. Adventurer runs over to lend her a hand, and boom trap is sprung. While this specific tactic might not be useful for PC's (it has other uses), it is a favorite of my evil NPCs :evillaugh The lesser cousin of programmed image (permanent image) has its uses for PCs in baiting out encampments of foes into areas where you can work them over. Illusionary wall is a neat little toy. Any BBEG that does not make use of this spell deserves to be caught by adventurers. Using an illusionary wall to cover up holes, make otherwise normal flooring seem special (drives wizard players insane when they come across magical auras that are there for no reason :evillaugh), and make the sanctum of the BBEG just that much harder to find are all mainstays of a smart BBEG. Hallucinatory Terrain and its big brother Mirage Arcana are quite simply killer (like this :ghosted: ) at mid levels (when true seeing is either few and far between or simply unheard of). Hallucinatory terrain can make the local lava in the evil NPC's Mountain of Dread (tm) look like any other part of the structure (just make it look like normal area). This is best used when you make dead ends into DEAD ENDS as in points where people walk off ledges into the lava below :evillaugh by making the ledge look like it actually leads into another section of tunnel or cave area. Mirage Arcana does Hallucinatory terrain one better by allowing you to hide things in buildings or behind structures (its basically hallucinatory terrain + illusionary wall). Mirage arcana is much more PC viable than HT because it lets you create total concealment for everyone out of no where (very useful against archer ambush) and unlike a fog spell this can be used tactically because the caster will be aware of structures that the enemy may not. Mirage Arcana for our BBEG's is quite simply the :devil: Mirage Arcana makes mazes easily ten times harder than they actually are because it prevents you from realizing which ways are real and which ways are not. Imagine the looks of frustration on a party when they spend the better part of an hour ramming face first into walls which they thought were openings and have to feel around illusionary walls for doors or openings in the middle of no where. Mirage arcana also makes traps all the more deadly because you can create cover over trap triggers and thus it will be that much more unlikely that a rogue will even begin a search, let alone finding said traps (because if they can't pierce the illusion they can't see the trap). Combine rainbow pattern with illusionary wall. Create a fake floor over a canyon. Use rainbow pattern on bad guys. Watch as they follow the rainbow out onto the illusionary floor and fall to their deaths. Bad orcs. No saves for you. And last but not least: magic mouth is just the best means of screwing with a PC party psychologically that money can buy. There is just no reason to not have magic mouth spells literally riddling a BBEG's place. Imagine the look of surprise on adventurers who find out that the BBEG has placed magic mouth spells over top openings detailing whether this is the right way to go or not. Even better is you can add to the "horror factor" of your keep by having spooky sounding voices detailing how "doomed" the adventurers are. Magic mouth is keen :) Thank You all and have a nice day. Signed, The Man Time Forgot