Does SR protect your Mirror Images?

[KarinsDad]

#2b If the baddies are adjusting all of their stratagy to deal with mirror image (a 2nd level spell) even at high levels I think the spell might be too powerful.

Mirror Image is very useful.

But, the baddies should adjust their strategy for any very useful spell.

For example, Greater Invisibility. Much more potent than Mirror Image because you can cast and then move and the miss chance climbs up near 100% for the entire combat as long as you stay more than 20 feet away from your foes (unless a foe has See Invisible or some other mechanism to find a hidden opponent).

And although Mirror Images miss chance can be as high as 89%, it drops pretty quickly once the caster is actually hit (i.e. it drops to 0% for anyone who was paying attention until the Wizard's next action). Even with 8 images, the odds of not hitting the caster at all at higher level (assuming that each attack hits an image instead) are:

1 89%
2 78% (89% * 88.75%)
3 67% (78% * 86%)
4 56% (67% * 83%)
5 45% (56% * 80%)
6 34% (45% * 75%)

So with the maximum 8 images up (which only happens 25% of the time at 12th level), a higher level Wizard has only one chance in three of not getting hit at all if two enemy ranged weapon opponents target him with 3 attacks per round each (give or take, the odds are slightly better than this due to the ranged weapon opponents missing the images as well).

An enemy spell caster merely needs to Ready an action to target the Mirror Imaged caster when anyone actually hits him and if his entire team is targeting the Wizard, it is good odds that the enemy spell caster can target him within a single round.

PS. The odds of hitting the Wizard increase fairly dramatically if a melee Fighter is willing to shut his eyes while doing a full round attack since he cannot hit an image by accident:

1 50%
2 25% (50% * 50%)
3 12.5% (25% * 50%)

Granted, the Fighter might lose his Dex bonus to AC and could get sneak attacked doing this, but this might not be a problem for a Fighter with the Blind Fight feat (depending on how a DM rules Blind versus Invisible).

 

[Hypersmurf]

They can't use vision to distinguish, and they can't use hearing.

Amusingly, you can't use hearing to distinguish, unless you close your eyes.

-Hyp.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Amusingly, you can't use hearing to distinguish, unless you close your eyes.

-Hyp.

Isn't that how they do it in action movies anyway? Invisible ninjas all around in a room with the curtains drawn at night during an eclipse. So what does our hero do? He closes his eyes and concentrates on hearing his foes...

 

[Liquidsabre]

Isn't that how they do it in action movies anyway? Invisible ninjas all around in a room with the curtains drawn at night during an eclipse. So what does our hero do? He closes his eyes and concentrates on hearing his foes...

Oooo that's always how I imagined that one. As for the FAQ entry for MI, it's a nice houserule that was inserted into the FAQ (as WotC has a tendency to do, most oft times never stating it is in fact a houserule unfortunately to the confusion of many) that I enjoy using for my games when handling MI. Handling the images as being located all in the character's space and treating the images as valid targets makes the spell much easier (and quicker) to handle on the 'Ol battlemat.

 

[Shin Okada]

From SRD "Mirror Image"

Enemies attempting to attack you or cast spells at you must select from among indistinguishable targets. Generally, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment. Any successful attack against an image destroys it.

Magic Missile is not an attack. Thus mirror image is not destroyed via magic missile.

 

[dcollins]

The paragraph is about "Enemies attempting to attack you or cast spells at you". My reading is that the subsequent "Any successful attack against an image destroys it" is shorthand for "attack you or cast spells at you", per the subject of the paragraph.

Admittedly the best way to phrase this would have been "attacks or attack spells".

 

[Scharlata]

It wouldn't matter if you got the FAQ correct or not. It is, more than often, completely incorrect in the way it rules.

Hi, Patryn!
Thanx for being very blunt.

For instance (as you provided):
b) "All figments occupy the same square(s) as the caster of the spell."

From the *actual* spell in question:
Mirror image creates 1d4 images plus one image per three caster levels (maximum eight images total). These figments separate from you and remain in a cluster, each within 5 feet of at least one other figment or you.

But that's just the reason behind my post. The FAQ doesn't have it wrong. It makes sure you can adjudicate the ramifications of the Mirror Image spell better for all purposes, such as the "popping out".

I like the answer in the FAQ.

Kind regards

 

[Shin Okada]

The paragraph is about "Enemies attempting to attack you or cast spells at you". My reading is that the subsequent "Any successful attack against an image destroys it" is shorthand for "attack you or cast spells at you", per the subject of the paragraph.

Admittedly the best way to phrase this would have been "attacks or attack spells".

But in your interpretation, which spell destroys a figment? All the targeted spells? Do you mean that even daze or grease can destroy a figment?

 

[dcollins]

The intent appears to be "attacks or attack spells" which are targeted, i.e., that cause hit points of damage.

 

[Shin Okada]

The intent appears to be "attacks or attack spells" which are targeted, i.e., that cause hit points of damage.

But how can you conclude that spells "that cause hit points of damage" are attack spells? IIRC there is no such definition in the rules.