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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pielorinho" data-source="post: 3434317" data-attributes="member: 259">I love illusion magic. Karinsdad's points are well taken, but they can be expressed in positive guidelines as well as in negatives:* Use illusions against non-magic-using opponents.  Animals, magical beasts (for the most part), fighter types, many undead, and the like are great targets for illusion magic.  Keep in mind that when you use them in this sense, you don't need to duplicate actual spell effects.  If you create a spikey wall atop which fiery spearment wait for the enemy's advance (an effective illusion I once created), the low-Int undead that are attacking you won't know that this isn't a core sorcerer spell; if you summon a huge elemental with a standard-action illusion, many warriors will have no idea that this is impossible (and even a spellcaster who fails the Spellcraft check may figure you have a funky power that enables this effect).* Illusions are best when the enemy isn't going to think to interact with them.  A wall of fire used to keep a rat horde at bay is effective (as i found in a game that I DMed).  A wall of fire used to surround a PC to keep him out of hte battle is not effective (again, as I found in a game I ran:  PCs are generally more suicidal than rats and therefore more willing to leap through the wall of fire).* Subtle effect illusions are wonderful.  I love the idea of squeezing up against a wall and casting a wall over the opening to prevent an attack.  I once DMed a game in which first-level PCs survived the attack of a huge animated object by using exactly this trick.  The animated object had no reason at all to interact with the wall behind which they hid, and so it received no save.* In general, an illusion is best at wasting an emey's time for a round or two.  When I DM, my very vague rule of thumb is that an illusion ought to waste at least one round for at least one enemy unless it was cast very stupidly.  The more clever the illusion and the more appropriate to the situation, the more powerful it can be.  It's definitely a school of magic that rewards the imaginative player, and I think that's perfectly appropriate.Daniel</blockquote>

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