Discharing held spells against illusions...

[Stalker0]

The one problem I have with your analysis Icebear, is not that targetted spells will work in taking out MI, but that magic missile in particular will because its targets are creatures.

Personally, I also let mm do the job, but taking a closer look I'm not so sure now.

 

[IceBear]

Agreed, but it has long been an accepted ability of magic missles taking out Mirror Images. There are a lot of wrinkles that MI throws into the mix, but as long as you're consistent you should be ok.

Basically, if you have 5 MM and 4 MI (5 targets) if we said you can only target the REAL creature and then tried to split up the targets of the MM to cover all the MI, you would immediately know which images were fake when the other 4 failed to target and thus, the images are destroyed.

As far as I can tell, most targetted spells will say Target: One or more creatures, but as far as I know the intent is, if you try casting a targetting spell (like Charm Person) on someone with Mirror Image then you pick an image and cast. If it's not the real creature, then the spell is lost, but the image is also destroyed.

IceBear

 

[Hypersmurf]

As far as I can tell, most targetted spells will say Target: One or more creatures, but as far as I know the intent is, if you try casting a targetting spell (like Charm Person) on someone with Mirror Image then you pick an image and cast. If it's not the real creature, then the spell is lost, but the image is also destroyed.

Ah. Message, the ultimate anti-Mirror Image spell.

Level 1 spell. Targets: 1 creature/level.

-Hyp.

 

[IceBear]

Yeah, good point. Like I said - MI can cause some wonky things

The original wording says that the images disappear when struck - but the Sage adds that spells that target the images does the same thing.

I guess it should be spells that target and do damage cause them to disappear. Those that don't do damage just fail if cast on an image? Makes more sense that way I guess

IceBear

 

[Stalker0]

Ah. Message, the ultimate anti-Mirror Image spell.

Level 1 spell. Targets: 1 creature/level.

-Hyp.

Hehe, I love it. I'm going to stick with mm killing mi out of tradition, and it just better that way. But hell, maybe I'll allow message to just for the hell of it.

 

[IceBear]

Hehehe - the reason why I mentioned MI possibly foiling charm person is because it was debated by people who know the rules better than I.

I think I'll stick with - if it's a target spell and deals damage to the image it will cause the image to disappear. If it doesn't deal damage, then the spell has no effect (maybe it was the real wizard but he made his save?)

It just doesn't sit right that you could have 5 images spread over 30 ft (including the real wizard who is actually around the corner from the furthest image) and have a charm person spell target the image furthest away.

Still, it is magic and it's only a 2nd level spell so I shouldn't read too much into the Sage's ruling I suppose.

I apologize for the rambling - just trying to remember the outcome of that long ago thread.

IceBear

 

[Plane Sailing]

I was behind the original raising of this question, and it turned into a huge debate - certainly worth digging up the old thread if you can

 

[IceBear]

Yeah, that's why I'm trying to avoid this topic and stick with what I like for in my games. I'm starting to HATE huge debates

Can I ask what you do in your games? I respect your knowledge of the rules, and respect your ability to be fair with rulings even more.

IceBear