Does SR protect your Mirror Images?

[Mendota]

Cleaving Images

What about a fighter with great cleave or supreme cleave. Would destroying the image count as killing the image and thus allowing the fighter to take another whack at the mage?

 

[Felix]

It is a neon sign that shouts "I AM A PROTECTED ARCANE SPELL CASTER, COME ATTACK ME FIRST" and that is exactly what a DM should do. With every gun in his NPC barrel.

I don't think that washes... what about these neon signs:

I AM AN UNPROTECTED ARCANE SPELLCASTER, COME ATTACK ME BEFORE I BECOME PROTECTED

I AM AN ARCANE SPELLCASTER WHOSE PROTECTIONS YOU CANNOT PERCIEVE, BETTER ATTACK ME SOON SO YOU KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

I AM A VISIBLE ARCANE SPELLCASTER, ATTACK ME BEFORE I DISAPPEAR

I HAVE d4 HIT DICE, I DIE QUICKLY

As soon as enemies know he's an arcane caster, there's nothing that a wizard can do to not be the primary target, so what's the difference twixt having mirror image up and not? The only question remaining is "at what point do the enemies know the arcanist is the arcanist"? And that's a metagame question that's very much campaign and DM dependent, so there's no "right" answer to it.

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Re: Magic Missiles and MI, from a non-rules based prospective

Mirror Image is useful to give the arcanist one to three rounds of relative protection from melee and ranged attacks. If Mirror Image forces an enemy mage to cast a 1st level spell to dispel up to 5 images, while only possibly dealing 1d4+1 points of damage to the acutal caster, then Mirror Image has been successful, and it's still a useful spell.

Physical attacks can target the images, so Magic Missiles can too. And if the RAW say otherwise, that's silly, and I fart in that direction while I busy myself with House Ruling it.

 

[Nail]

So, what should have happened is that the player declares which images he's targeting with the MM. You then roll randomly to determine whether or not any of them are targeting the actual dragon.

The one that targets the actual dragon is subject to SR.

This is the option the players lobbied for. I think in the future I will use it.

For the record, I use the FAQ interpretation of where the images are (all in the creature's space), rather than the Spell Description interpretation (all the images are in separate spaces, within 5 feet of the caster or another image). I readily admit the FAQ interp. is a "made up" rule.

What I had forgotten, at least until this thread, is that once you find the "correct" wizard amongst his images, you may freely target him until his next move action. I had (incorrectly) assumed the images are constantly mixing.

Question: Can others take advantage of an ally "finding" the real wizard with an attack? How? Why?

 

[Felix]

For giggles, here's the comparison on the scaling of Magic Missile and Mirror Image, to show how good MM is at removing MI as equal level mages go up...

1 One Missile --- One to Four Images
2
3 Two Missiles --- Two to Five Images
4
5 Three Missiles
6 --- Three to Six Images
7 Four Missiles
8
9 Five Missiles --- Four to Seven Images
10
11
12 --- Five to Eight Images
13
14
15 --- Six to Eight Images
16
17
18 --- Seven to Eight Images
19
20

So pretty much all through the levels Magic Missile is a fair way to pop out Images, with the best effectiveness at level 9. But if a mage wants to spend an action casting a first level spell to counter it instead of casting something else, I say go ahead, it'll work. Or if he wants to spend a 5th level slot casting a quickened MM, same thing goes. Either way, Mirror Images has a good chance at protecting you, it'll do so for a round or two at the beginning of combat, and that's good enough for me.

 

[Nail]

....of course, Shield works better against those pesky magic missles......

 

[Felix]

....of course, Shield works better against those pesky magic missles......

Sure, but Shield won't help your poor images if they get knucked.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Sure, but Shield won't help your poor images if they get knucked.

Knucked?

Is that what happens at hockey games in Vancouver?

 

[Felix]

Not anymore.

 

[KarinsDad]

I don't think that washes... what about these neon signs:

I AM AN UNPROTECTED ARCANE SPELLCASTER, COME ATTACK ME BEFORE I BECOME PROTECTED

I AM AN ARCANE SPELLCASTER WHOSE PROTECTIONS YOU CANNOT PERCIEVE, BETTER ATTACK ME SOON SO YOU KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THEM

I AM A VISIBLE ARCANE SPELLCASTER, ATTACK ME BEFORE I DISAPPEAR

I HAVE d4 HIT DICE, I DIE QUICKLY

As soon as enemies know he's an arcane caster, there's nothing that a wizard can do to not be the primary target, so what's the difference twixt having mirror image up and not?

The difference is that knowledgable foes should now know that not only is he an arcane caster, but he is a protected arcane caster who cannot be readied against.

This is the REAL threat of Mirror Image. A very viable combat tactic has been removed from the arsenal of the opponents: Readying attacks for when the enemy arcane caster casts.

That is the difference. The enemies went from few defenses against the arcane caster to virtually no defenses against him. Previously, they could try to counter him in the short term and take him out in the long term. They no longer have that option and their hand is forced (if they are intelligent opponents).


Another major option denied them is to have one NPC concentrate targeted spells against the PC arcane spell caster. He is now semi-immune to single target spells.

If the Wizard casts Blur, then these anti-Wizard tactics are still somewhat in play and the NPCs are not forced to concentrate their firepower solely on the Wizard.


Mirror Image forces the tactics to change, at least if you play your NPCs to their proper intelligence level (i.e. dumb foes would probably not change their tactics at all).

 

[KarinsDad]

Physical attacks can target the images, so Magic Missiles can too. And if the RAW say otherwise, that's silly, and I fart in that direction while I busy myself with House Ruling it.

It's not silly. What is silly is to have different targeting rules for some spells then for others, even though the spells state the same targets.