Interesting Monster Psychology

[DreadPirateMurphy]

Rechan gave me an idea for a new type of adaptive camouflaging system not built on manipulation of environmental correspondence but built entirely on exploiting sensory misdirection (that is you would be able to see something is there but not process or understand what it is you were looking at, one thing would appear as another based upon human visual recognition patterns - the immediate effect would only last until the target thought carefully about what he is perceiving, but then again the effect could be both adaptive and cyclical).

As for gaming applications it seems to me that Rechan is really onto something about projecting "sensory confusion" against enemy types depending on their physiology and biology.

Wasn't this part of the premise of 3.x illusion magic? IIRC, an illusion was mind-affecting, i.e., all in the opponent's head. Turning invisible wouldn't make you literally invisible -- other folks just couldn't perceive that you were there. Invisibility sticks in my mind because of all of the angst caused by arguments over how it worked in previous editions.

Now, I could see changing perception in more subtle ways to create interesting effects. There are a number of mental disorders that are downright bizarre in real life. For example, prosopamnesia is a condition where the sufferer cannot remember faces. Everybody seems a stranger to them. How confusing would that be, especially if it was "sudden onset," i.e. magical? Capgras delusion is a disorder where a person believes that a close friend or relative has been replaced with an exact duplicate. In a fantasy world where doppelgangers actually exist, the sufferer might actually be able to convince others that their perception is true!

Real-world disorders would make good fantasy curses, especially plot-driven ones, I think...

 

[Jack7]

Not to go off on a tangent, but...

Your tangent is absolutely correct. It would have to be targeted at least to certain criteria or capabilities of sensory perception. At least in the real world. In a fantasy or sci-fi setting it could probably be made far more flexible in effect.

Wasn't this part of the premise of 3.x illusion magic? IIRC, an illusion was mind-affecting, i.e., all in the opponent's head. Turning invisible wouldn't make you literally invisible -- other folks just couldn't perceive that you were there. Invisibility sticks in my mind because of all of the angst caused by arguments over how it worked in previous editions.

Now, I could see changing perception in more subtle ways to create interesting effects. There are a number of mental disorders that are downright bizarre in real life. For example, prosopamnesia is a condition where the sufferer cannot remember faces. Everybody seems a stranger to them. How confusing would that be, especially if it was "sudden onset," i.e. magical? Capgras delusion is a disorder where a person believes that a close friend or relative has been replaced with an exact duplicate. In a fantasy world where doppelgangers actually exist, the sufferer might actually be able to convince others that their perception is true!

Real-world disorders would make good fantasy curses, especially plot-driven ones, I think...

I never really played 3.x so I don't really know the basis of illusory magic in that situation. That's not exactly what I'm talking about, I'm talking primarily about things like sensory dislocation.

But I like where you're going with your ideas.

 

[Mark]

Now, I could see changing perception in more subtle ways to create interesting effects. There are a number of mental disorders that are downright bizarre in real life. For example, prosopamnesia is a condition where the sufferer cannot remember faces. Everybody seems a stranger to them. How confusing would that be, especially if it was "sudden onset," i.e. magical? Capgras delusion is a disorder where a person believes that a close friend or relative has been replaced with an exact duplicate. In a fantasy world where doppelgangers actually exist, the sufferer might actually be able to convince others that their perception is true!

Real-world disorders would make good fantasy curses, especially plot-driven ones, I think...

I often wondered if there would be a way to link most magical effects to causes that were not truly magical, and this has some promise in that regard.