Adjudicating Illusions

[lukelightning]

Of course, speaking of spellcraft, there is always the trick of using bluff to fool the enemy mage. Just bluff that you are casting death ward on yourself, so the evil cleric won't even bother to cast slay living on you.

Or bluff casting mislead. They will think you are actually the illusionary distraction.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I believe that silent image creates a (single) image. That's most easily handled by single object, so the horde of soldiers wouldn't be a valid effect. It's a debatable position (a tv produces a single image that can include a stadium of people). but it should resolve some of this.

Strictly, "This spell creates the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force, as visualized by you."

A soldier is a creature. A horde of soldiers is not 'a creature', it is many creatures; nor is it an object or (in the non-military sense of the word) a force; thus, I wouldn't consider it a valid use of the spell.

-Hyp.

 

[lukelightning]

Strictly, "This spell creates the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force, as visualized by you."

A soldier is a creature. A horde of soldiers is not 'a creature', it is many creatures; nor is it an object or (in the non-military sense of the word) a force; thus, I wouldn't consider it a valid use of the spell.

-Hyp.

That's why I go for "huge black pudding oozing in though the doorway." This is great 'cuz people won't attack it so much with weapons, instead they'll blast it with spells.

 

[phindar]

As a player in that game, I'll say there were some good illusions going around. In the session previous the group used an illusion of a large spider to hide under and plan our next move more or less in full view of the enemy, and later we used one of the higher level illusions (sight, sound, etc) to create a duplicate of my half-orc fighter/barbarian to charge into a room of aranae to suck up all their readied actions. Pretty textbook examples of what illusions are good for, but still fun.

Illusions are one of the harder spell groups to adjudicate on the fly because while MU's can cast fireballs and lightning bolts creatively, they are what they are. But Illusions can be anything (within the parameters of the spell), and that has a lot of potential. There are limits built into them, but a lot of it is buried in the text and that can be easy to miss in the heat of battle.

From a GM perspective, the best way to fool characters with an illusion is to fool the players; don't treat it any differently than you would a real creature, roll their Will Saves in secret, that sort of thing. I find that's pretty fair, as long as you keep the spell within its limitations (silent images aren't described as roaring dragons) and you give the pc's their fair shake at disbelieving when interacting with the illusion, they tend to treat the illusionary creature as a real one. (I still fondly recall the game where the party had fought a lot of illusions, and thought a conjured Huge Fiendish Constrictor was illusionary. They just watched as the party fighter was slowly strangled almost to death. "Come on, dude, its an illusion. Just disbelieve it.")

But the players can't actually fool the GM with an illusion, since the ruse is pretty much up when the player says "I cast Silent Image." So the GM has to come up with a way to be fair and within the capabilities of the npcs so as not to nerf them or the spell. That can be a hard line to walk. The players have it easy, if they never make their secret Will Save and if they never see the illusion do something impossible, then they think its a real creature and treat it accordingly. Even if they completely ignore it, they think they're ignoring a real creature. (I've done that. I was playing a Dodge/Mobility built mage who would run through threatened areas all the time. Fighting a devil one time I was provoking like mad, and it turned out not to matter since it was an illusion. But it was funny because I never got the Will Save because I never paid any attention to it-- though I was tipped off after the 5th AoO it didn't take.)

My favorite quote regarding illusions comes from a 2e game, where a friend of mine and kestrel's was playing a gnome. For those of you who may not remember, in 2e, gnomes could only be illusionists. So when his gnome would run around casting fireballs and lightning bolts, anybody who knew anything about magic, gnomes or illusions pretty much knew the score. This lead to my all-time favorite Illusionist quote. After a long battle against derro or something that just was not buying is fake spells, the player of the illusionist yells out:

Illusions suck! They're NOT REAL!

(I thought it was pretty funny.)

 

[TheGogmagog]

That's why I go for "huge black pudding oozing in though the doorway." This is great 'cuz people won't attack it so much with weapons, instead they'll blast it with spells.

Why would that matter? It would use more resources as spells are (usually) limited per day while sword swings arn't. But a spell or a sword would still be interaction.

 

[TheGogmagog]

As a player in that game, I'll say there were some good illusions going around. In the session previous the group used an illusion of a large spider to hide under and plan our next move more or less in full view of the enemy,..

Not to nitpick examples (I try not to post examples when asking a question because it always becomes about whatever you use). ...But... Illusions cannot make you not invisible, they can conceal you behind solid objects though. So a Huge Slug would hide the group, or a crate, or huge tree trunk the group could fit inside, or a huge curled up dead spider. But they would still be able to see your legs standing amongst the spiders legs if it was a live standing spider.

 

[lukelightning]

Why would that matter? It would use more resources as spells are (usually) limited per day while sword swings arn't. But a spell or a sword would still be interaction.

Well that's kind of the point. The illusion could fool enemy spellcasters into wasting their big blasting spells on it. Sure, they get a save when they interact, but by then they've already used up a flame strike or Lukelightning's Blast of Supreme Ultimate Cheese. Not a bad use of a 1st level spell.

 

[Mistwell]

A failed saving throw indicates that a character fails to notice something is amiss. A character faced with proof that an illusion isn't real needs no saving throw. A character who falls through a section of illusory floor into a pit knows something is amiss, as does one who spends a few rounds poking at the same illusion. If any viewer successfully disbelieves an illusion and communicates this fact to others, each such viewer gains a saving throw with a +4 bonus.

 

[lukelightning]

A failed saving throw indicates that a character fails to notice something is amiss. A character faced with proof that an illusion isn't real needs no saving throw.

Which is also part of my illusonary ooze tactic. "Darn, the fireball didn't hurt it; maybe it's immune to fire?" is hopefully their first thought, not "the fireball didn't hurt it, it must be an illusion."

 

[phindar]

But they would still be able to see your legs standing amongst the spiders legs if it was a live standing spider.

In the interest of brevity, Gog, I can't explain every detail of every encounter. If I say the party hides under a giant spider, you just have to assume that the circumstances were right for a party to hide under a giant spider.

In this particular instance, the enemy was 60' up a cliff occasionally (not actively) looking down on the cavern below, and Large spiders were common in the area, so it was really a perfect storm in terms of hiding under giant illusionary spiders. I could have spent a paragraph explaining all of that, but all that really matters is the party hid under an illusionary giant spider.