Illusionist's Guide to Illusionary Illusions - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Illusionist's Guide to Illusionary Illusions

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
Unahim
Feb 29, 2012 13:33:50 I hope the title didn't create the illusion that there'd be a guidebook ready and waiting, for this is more of a "share your experiences and ideas, and learn."

I'm currently playing a Beguiler who's pretty fragile, and who was quite unlucky on her ability rolls(horrid system, I know) causing her to have no stat higher than 14, which(along with a lot of focus on social feats and such) gimped her spell DCs quite a bit. So I decided to mostly focus on illusions, "exploiting" the fact that creatures don't get a saving throw against them unless they have reason to disbelieve the illusion, usually through meaningful interaction with it.

This is a good read if you're not too familiar with illusions(all 4 parts of it): goo.gl/kxc4r

Anyway, here's some of the highlights of what I pulled off myself. I'm currently only up to level 2 spells, so they haven't gotten very elaborate yet, nor did I manage to include one in every fight, either.

Also do note that illusions, more than any other spell(except perhaps wish), rely on the interpretation of your DM. This can make them more or less potent than they are in my game(where the DM is, I find, quite fair.).

1)With Silent Image:
My party members had to race up a spiralling slope to reach a bunch of skeleton archers, who continiously pelted them with arrows. I made the illusion of a few men at arms and let those race up the slope alongside my allies, keeping them on the inside of the slope(thus closer to the archers) while my allies were on the side. This resulted in the first barrage of arrows being fired at these "fake" allies, preventing harm to my real party members. On the next round the skeletons "realised" they were shooting through the illusions, and while they couldn't quite figure out why(mindless, aftr all) they were apparently good enough at the one thing they do(make fleshies bleed) to notice these weren't. So they started firing at the real party members, but those still got concealment from being behind the illusions, which resulted in a few more misses that should've hit.

All in all a pretty good use of a level 1 spell.

2)With Minor Image:
This happened just the other week. My party got ambushed in some street in a half-ruined city, attackers on both sides. I simply cast an illusion of a completely pitch black cloud of smoke - with swirling skull patterns on the outskirt and the sound of moaning and screams - to cover the entire area. I yelled out some sinister "incantation" just prior to casting it, then concealed my actual spellcasting(with the Conceal Spellcasting skill trick) so their mages wouldn't automatically catch on to it. Then I spoke one of my 9 language that I knew the other PCs spoke, but our enemies probably didn't, to tell them "Yo, it's an illusion", which gave them reason to disbelief and a +4 on the roll. All of them easily succeeded except for our Crusader, who failed to convince his mind what he saw wasn't real.

The NPC had no reason to start questioning their eyes. They saw a somewhat necromantic caster(some cool story twists have landed me with 1 extra spell known/spell level, of the necromancy school. Currently have disrupt undead, ray of enfeeblement and control undead as a result) cast something ominous which looks necromantic. The result was that they were all blinded. Sadly, my DM ruled that "being able to see nothing" is not the same as "being Blind" so they only took the "everyone has perfect concealment" penalty, not the penalties for being Blind. I gave in for the session and just showed him the rules for blindness due to light conditions(which I guess everything being black as buck qualifies under) after the session.

The NPCs retreated out of the smoke as best they could(some didn't make it), leaving their dogs behind, then just took defensive positions there. Our Psion made a few Astral Construct, the druid summoned some animal, the crusader(being blind) stormed out of the cloud in confusion and took a buckload of readied actions in the chest, but I was able to save him by moving the area of my spell to include him again(though leaving a space where he could see). The Warlock shot Eldritch Blasts out of the cloud, which I guess the enemy mistook as being part of the spell for a while, but eventually some caught on that we could mysteriously still see inside of the spell, noticed it was an illusion, and tried to convince their allies the smoke wasn't real. They must've rolled their will-save pretty badly, since only one or two bought it, but at that time the Astral Constructs charged forward anyway, quickly winning the match.

I only had to use one spell(and sustain it, bleh) to blind the enemies at first(leading to casualities on their side, and lack thereof on ours) and then provide ample time to prepare our counter-attack. Time the enemy casters used to cast Bless, which didn't quite live up to our preperations. I don't think that battle would've ended well without this neat little trick :p

May seem a bit OP compared to, say Darkness at first, but keep in mind you have to set it up just right to be believable, word of your illusions is bound to get out, you need to sacrifice your standard action to sustain it(so, essentially, nothing else for you to do at that point :p) and it can be disbelieved.

3) This one I haven't done yet, but it's an idea: Summon Illusionary Ghosts. The enemies shouldn't realise it's an illusion just for striking through them... That's what you'd expect for ghosts! They'll catch on when they don't really hit them for a few rounds in a row, but we should be able to make the enemy waste a round or 3, right? :p

4) Following the previous example... Make a copy or 4 of each of your party members, and leave the enemy guessing! They'd have to check them each in turn, or until someone damages something. Once a few of the illusions are disbelieved, could just let them stack into the player's squares, then make them spread out again on when the PC moves, causing the enemy to have no idea again. I'd reason you're able to see through an illusion because you're sure it's fake, once you don't know which one is the illusion again, that advantage is probably gone. We'll see how it pans out :p
#2
w00f
Feb 29, 2012 16:13:47 Illusions are also really good for hiding in if you're good at making them beleivable. Casting a Silent Image of a large rock or statue or whatnot on yourself can sometimes save your skin, particularly if your enemies aren't actively looking for you.
#3
Unahim
Feb 29, 2012 17:03:24
Illusions are also really good for hiding in if you're good at making them beleivable. Casting a Silent Image of a large rock or statue or whatnot on yourself can sometimes save your skin, particularly if your enemies aren't actively looking for you.

Ah yes, indeed! I actually did this at one point... being a fragile changeling beguiler on an undead infested island there were one or two fights where I just couldn't hurt or otherwise affect the enemy(damn those intelligent undead with damage reduction), and my Changeling was in one of her more "scaredy cat" personas at the time(she gets very absorbed in whatever disguise she is wearing) so she just summoned obscuring mist and then made a rock illusion to hide in ^^
#4
koradzi
Mar 04, 2012 13:45:57 This was a 3e thing, but my favorite trick was pairing Mislead with a Quickened Mirror Image. While the enemy is busy trying to figure out which image is the real Wizard, you're sneaking away invisible. This is especially satisfying if you can have something nasty readied for when the last image goes down; I'm a fan of Forcecage, m'self.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Unahim Feb 29, 2012 13:33:50	I hope the title didn't create the illusion that there'd be a guidebook ready and waiting, for this is more of a "share your experiences and ideas, and learn." I'm currently playing a Beguiler who's pretty fragile, and who was quite unlucky on her ability rolls(horrid system, I know) causing her to have no stat higher than 14, which(along with a lot of focus on social feats and such) gimped her spell DCs quite a bit. So I decided to mostly focus on illusions, "exploiting" the fact that creatures don't get a saving throw against them unless they have reason to disbelieve the illusion, usually through meaningful interaction with it. This is a good read if you're not too familiar with illusions(all 4 parts of it): goo.gl/kxc4r Anyway, here's some of the highlights of what I pulled off myself. I'm currently only up to level 2 spells, so they haven't gotten very elaborate yet, nor did I manage to include one in every fight, either. Also do note that illusions, more than any other spell(except perhaps wish), rely on the interpretation of your DM. This can make them more or less potent than they are in my game(where the DM is, I find, quite fair.). 1)With Silent Image: My party members had to race up a spiralling slope to reach a bunch of skeleton archers, who continiously pelted them with arrows. I made the illusion of a few men at arms and let those race up the slope alongside my allies, keeping them on the inside of the slope(thus closer to the archers) while my allies were on the side. This resulted in the first barrage of arrows being fired at these "fake" allies, preventing harm to my real party members. On the next round the skeletons "realised" they were shooting through the illusions, and while they couldn't quite figure out why(mindless, aftr all) they were apparently good enough at the one thing they do(make fleshies bleed) to notice these weren't. So they started firing at the real party members, but those still got concealment from being behind the illusions, which resulted in a few more misses that should've hit. All in all a pretty good use of a level 1 spell. 2)With Minor Image: This happened just the other week. My party got ambushed in some street in a half-ruined city, attackers on both sides. I simply cast an illusion of a completely pitch black cloud of smoke - with swirling skull patterns on the outskirt and the sound of moaning and screams - to cover the entire area. I yelled out some sinister "incantation" just prior to casting it, then concealed my actual spellcasting(with the Conceal Spellcasting skill trick) so their mages wouldn't automatically catch on to it. Then I spoke one of my 9 language that I knew the other PCs spoke, but our enemies probably didn't, to tell them "Yo, it's an illusion", which gave them reason to disbelief and a +4 on the roll. All of them easily succeeded except for our Crusader, who failed to convince his mind what he saw wasn't real. The NPC had no reason to start questioning their eyes. They saw a somewhat necromantic caster(some cool story twists have landed me with 1 extra spell known/spell level, of the necromancy school. Currently have disrupt undead, ray of enfeeblement and control undead as a result) cast something ominous which looks necromantic. The result was that they were all blinded. Sadly, my DM ruled that "being able to see nothing" is not the same as "being Blind" so they only took the "everyone has perfect concealment" penalty, not the penalties for being Blind. I gave in for the session and just showed him the rules for blindness due to light conditions(which I guess everything being black as buck qualifies under) after the session. The NPCs retreated out of the smoke as best they could(some didn't make it), leaving their dogs behind, then just took defensive positions there. Our Psion made a few Astral Construct, the druid summoned some animal, the crusader(being blind) stormed out of the cloud in confusion and took a buckload of readied actions in the chest, but I was able to save him by moving the area of my spell to include him again(though leaving a space where he could see). The Warlock shot Eldritch Blasts out of the cloud, which I guess the enemy mistook as being part of the spell for a while, but eventually some caught on that we could mysteriously still see inside of the spell, noticed it was an illusion, and tried to convince their allies the smoke wasn't real. They must've rolled their will-save pretty badly, since only one or two bought it, but at that time the Astral Constructs charged forward anyway, quickly winning the match. I only had to use one spell(and sustain it, bleh) to blind the enemies at first(leading to casualities on their side, and lack thereof on ours) and then provide ample time to prepare our counter-attack. Time the enemy casters used to cast Bless, which didn't quite live up to our preperations. I don't think that battle would've ended well without this neat little trick :p May seem a bit OP compared to, say Darkness at first, but keep in mind you have to set it up just right to be believable, word of your illusions is bound to get out, you need to sacrifice your standard action to sustain it(so, essentially, nothing else for you to do at that point :p) and it can be disbelieved. 3) This one I haven't done yet, but it's an idea: Summon Illusionary Ghosts. The enemies shouldn't realise it's an illusion just for striking through them... That's what you'd expect for ghosts! They'll catch on when they don't really hit them for a few rounds in a row, but we should be able to make the enemy waste a round or 3, right? :p 4) Following the previous example... Make a copy or 4 of each of your party members, and leave the enemy guessing! They'd have to check them each in turn, or until someone damages something. Once a few of the illusions are disbelieved, could just let them stack into the player's squares, then make them spread out again on when the PC moves, causing the enemy to have no idea again. I'd reason you're able to see through an illusion because you're sure it's fake, once you don't know which one is the illusion again, that advantage is probably gone. We'll see how it pans out :p
#2 w00f Feb 29, 2012 16:13:47	Illusions are also really good for hiding in if you're good at making them beleivable. Casting a Silent Image of a large rock or statue or whatnot on yourself can sometimes save your skin, particularly if your enemies aren't actively looking for you.
#3 Unahim Feb 29, 2012 17:03:24	Illusions are also really good for hiding in if you're good at making them beleivable. Casting a Silent Image of a large rock or statue or whatnot on yourself can sometimes save your skin, particularly if your enemies aren't actively looking for you. Ah yes, indeed! I actually did this at one point... being a fragile changeling beguiler on an undead infested island there were one or two fights where I just couldn't hurt or otherwise affect the enemy(damn those intelligent undead with damage reduction), and my Changeling was in one of her more "scaredy cat" personas at the time(she gets very absorbed in whatever disguise she is wearing) so she just summoned obscuring mist and then made a rock illusion to hide in ^^
#4 koradzi Mar 04, 2012 13:45:57	This was a 3e thing, but my favorite trick was pairing Mislead with a Quickened Mirror Image. While the enemy is busy trying to figure out which image is the real Wizard, you're sneaking away invisible. This is especially satisfying if you can have something nasty readied for when the last image goes down; I'm a fan of Forcecage, m'self.