How powerful is Silent Image? As powerful as mass invisibility?

[Tom McCafferty]

Hi there

Last weekend I was forced to try and adjudicate on the silent image spell. The party were being persued by a group of creatures when they hid in a room. The creatues entered after the illusionist cast the silent image of a wall between the party and the persuers. Effectively making the whole party invisible.

As the persuers had never been in that room before the players argued that they would not know the real dimensions of the room, so they should not be entitled to make a disbelief save.

What do you think I should have done?

Was it good play or was the spell played too powerfully?

Also does anyone know if demons are affected by illusions?

 

[Petrosian]

You might want to look in the section on magic and spells where it goes over the basics of each school. Under Illusions you will find a fairly detailed list of what each type of illusion can do, like figments.

IIRC, figments cannot hide something, just create the illusion of something else.

 

[Marius]

You might want to look in the section on magic and spells where it goes over the basics of each school. Under Illusions you will find a fairly detailed list of what each type of illusion can do, like figments.

IIRC, figments cannot hide something, just create the illusion of something else.

First paragraph under the description for illusion in PHB

"Illusion spells decieve the senses or minds of others. The cause people to see things that are not there, not see things that are there, hear phantom noises, or remember things that never happened."

The spell has a saving throw if the illusion is interacted with. If the monsters touched the wall, or threw something at it, for instance then they should get a will save. It is reasonable to assume that the monsters, depending on intelligence, would be suspicious if a party disappeared suddenly. Given a high enough intelligence, they would probably search for hidden doors, etc. If this is the case, as soon as one of their hands went through a wall, I would have them make an intensely low will save.

 

[Kyramus]

silent image doesn't barr sound. Have the creatures roll a listen check, if they hear the pcs, then give them a will save. If they don't hear the pc's, they think the wall is real and be on their way.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'd say it was good play on their part.

The tactic would have failed if the enemies had known the room well, or if they hadn't been quiet. As it is, it was quick thinking that may have saved the group. Well done!

Of course silent image isn't as powerful as mass invisibility, since they can't go wandering around with the spell on. It is a much more powerful spell than its level suggests though, simply because of the vast flexibility it provides. Very powerful tactically, since you can lay infallible ambushes (you can see them because you know it is an illusion, they can't see you because it looks like a bit of wall or whatever... Great for kobold sorcerers working with kobold rogues)

Cheers

 

[Stalker0]

I think Kyramus said it best. Go with that. And yeah, image spells rock!!!

 

[Darklone]

One of my players tried to save another by casting a Silent Image of him disappearing as he was lying on the ground between three enemies... single digit hp.

Well. The halforc barbarian stood up and tried to hit them, thus ruining the illusion. Otherwise (with a save) it would have worked by me.

==> Dead halforc and the player blaimed me as DM

 

[Marius]

One of my players tried to save another by casting a Silent Image of him disappearing as he was lying on the ground between three enemies... single digit hp.

Well. The halforc barbarian stood up and tried to hit them, thus ruining the illusion. Otherwise (with a save) it would have worked by me.

==> Dead halforc and the player blaimed me as DM

Wouldn't the real character have just appeared as the illusion was disappearing? Or was it recreating the ground etc underneath them as it moved downward? Tricky.

"Me stupid Barbarian, me Smash!"

 

[Pielorinho]

Illusions are one of the hardest types of magic to adjudicate fairly, I think. In a bad player's hands, they're useless; in a good player's hands, they're incredibly good.

This sounds like a fine use of an illusion to me; in fact, I've had a player do almost exactly the same thing IMC. As long as the PCs all stay perfectly still, they have a good chance to get away with it. Of course, if any of the demons have the scent feat or the the track feat or really good ears, the plan is likely to fail; but otherwise, it's a great way to avoid grisly death.

As a general rule, figments can create, but not suppress, sensation. A figment can't make something that is there not appear to be there, and it can't dampen sound, and it can't remove an odor. However, it can create a wall to hide something that is there, and it can create loud noise to drown out quiet noise, and it can create the odor of pepper-laced rotten meat to overpower the odor of human passage.

Daniel

 

[IceBear]

Hehehe - to be a nitpicky fiend - illusions can make something that is there not appear to be there or to dampen sound. Specifically illusionary glamers, of which Silence and Invisibilty belong

Figments don't have such power, no

Edit: Damn - I missed where you said figments. There goes my friendly ribbing

IceBear