best silent image illusions

[Mark1733]

Considering that silent image is strictly a visual illusion, what examples of the most excellent use of Silent Image do folks have? More than the cliche wall to hide someone, or a fake floor for covering of a pit, what other, more creative examples are there?

 

[knottyprof]

I guess I would go the other way, especially if you are trying to dissuade someone from following you. Maybe a floor strewn with sharp spikes or a cavernous pit that stretches the length of the floor. You could also use this to keep someone entrapped. If the party manages to knock the opponent out, stick him in a corner and then cast the illusion to it appears they are trapped on a ledge and then threaten to leave him there unless he tells the party what they want to know. I would definitely go with illusions that are naturally hazardous as opponents would be less likely to challenge the illusion rather than something like a cage or porticulis.

 

[MarkB]

If you want to really stymie an adventuring group, throw an illusion of a smooth, seamless wall over an actual worn, cracked wall. They'll be there for hours trying to find a secret door.

 

[James the Newbie]

illusion of oil on the floor with an illusory torch in your hand, or one of them can be real

Hiding inside of an illusory monster

It makes forging exact copies of jewelery, signent rings or documents without the person you stole them from seeing - also works for showign people who the villian/criminal you are hunting is

Create a small hill or a crate, or any approriate scenery and hide in it with your rogue, lots of nice sneak attacks before they eventually find your hidey hole, that you should have your nice big hack n' slashers in

cover a small bag of coppers with a big bag of gold, slam it on the counter and get what you want for nothing

illosory medicine, drugs, fine pieces of art, beautiful objects all work well as bribes for information.

Disguise a glass of acid as a glass of water in the desert

Fake bound beings close to the person normally works as a lure to have them run and save there freind/family member

There are some magical siege weapons in Heroes of Battle that do A LOT of damage, they make a nice threat

 

[Kingreaper]

I'm a big fan of *moving* the pit. They see a pit that's just about jumpable/bridgeable; and right where that pit seems to end is where the real pit begins.

 

[Empirate]

A wizard in the group I DM for often used silent images to convey complex optical information quickly. In other words, he took a literal approach to the whole "show, not tell" routine. Instead of telling the other PCs what [some phenomenon] he had seen looked like, he drew them a picture. In the air. In technicolor, HD, 3D, animated.

He did this in a great war council once, creating an illusionary view on a city and the surrounding countryside, to give everybody something to look at and interact with. Kind of like a super-advanced sandbox table, complete with zooming and panning. Actually, the way he described what his illusions were showing sounded a lot like a 3D RTS.
He wasn't entirely "honest" in what he was showing, though. The war council was a bit divided on what sorts of actions to take to defend their city against the attacking horde of enemies. The PCs had rather specific ideas about overall strategy. So the illusions showed what was necessary to reinforce those viewpoints in the minds of the onlookers. The simple fact that the wizard had rendered the city itself in great detail made it seem plausible that the rest of what his "holographic battlemap" was showing was also close to reality.

Simply put, he hid an illusion within an illusion... great work by a creative player!

 

[MarkB]

I'm a big fan of *moving* the pit. They see a pit that's just about jumpable/bridgeable; and right where that pit seems to end is where the real pit begins.

Stepping away from Silent Image for a moment, a similar one I had some kobolds using was a pit that was wide enough not to be easily jumped, with a bar across the mid-point that could be grabbed to extend your leap, and then Invisibility cast on the bar. Anyone who knows the bar is there can use it to boost their Jump check, but anyone who doesn't will slam into it when they attempt the jump.

 

[Starfox]

Spectral undead. Always silent, dangerous, often acting irrationally (which means the illusion's possibly strange behavior wont call as much attention), spectral undead are very good, cheap illusion.

Also, the word spectre can mean illusion: Online Free Dictinary

spectre US, specter [ˈspɛktə]
n
1. (Spirituality, New Age, Astrology & Self-help / Alternative Belief Systems) a ghost; phantom; apparition
2. a mental image of something unpleasant or menacing: the spectre of redundancy

 

[Dwimmerlied]

[MENTION=40176]MarkB[/MENTION] - When someone interacts with the wall, they'd immediately receive a will (disbelieve) check. Even if they fail, the roughness of the wall might give it away. I like the invisible bar trick! Potentially very nasty! I wonder how hard it would be to pinpoint a bar you knew was there but couldn't see?

 

[MarkB]

[MENTION=40176]MarkB[/MENTION] - When someone interacts with the wall, they'd immediately receive a will (disbelieve) check. Even if they fail, the roughness of the wall might give it away.

Absolutely - but then, they're asking themselves "why was there an illusion of smooth stone over this wall?" The obvious assumption would be that it was to hide some form of cache or door.