D&D 1E How do you play an illusionist?

[Lanefan]

You can blame Ben Riggs for waking my memory of this old class.

I never tried this class back in the day so curious?

Whom here has played the 1st edition illusionist?

Me. And I loved it!

The main things about playing an Illusionist are that a) you have to be creative as a player and b) the DM has to be reasonable when it comes to opponents' (and your own party's) saving throws. The true illusion spells - Phantasmal Force, Improved PF, and Spectral Force at 1st-2nd-3rd respectively - are your bread and butter; and it's vital to keep in mind what senses each one affects:

PF - vision only. (now called Silent Image, I think)
IPF - vision and sound. (maybe called Minor Image now?)
Spectral - all five senses. (I forget what its modern name is)

Yes, Spectral affects all five senses, which includes touch, which means Spectral can in theory make the victim think they've taken damage! Also, these spells last as long as you can keep concentrating on them (a direct precursor to 5e's concentration mechanic) which gives you lots of time to operate if needed.

But even a simple PF can make a difference and be a lot of fun. One move I remember fondly is when our party was in a dungeon acting as spies/infiltrators. We'd done fine until we got to an open well-lit chamber that we had to sneak across, and the chamber had a bunch of guards taking their ease who couldn't possibly have missed us had we tried to sneak through conventionally.

And so, my Illusionist cast PF and spent about ten minutes very slowly "moving" one wall of the chamber about three feet inwards. Then, the rest of the party crept along behind this illusionary wall to the other side, and kept going.

My Illusionist then slowly "put the wall back" and dropped the spell......and - Wisdom not being her strong suit - only then realized she had managed to cut herself off from the party. Oops.....

How did it differ from a standard Magic user?

Very limited direct damage (UA spells mitigated this a bit) other than by illusion. But even there, all is not lost: one nasty combo I pulled off was, casting in concert with another player's MU, dropping a series of fireballs into a massed cohort of soldiers - every other Fireball was real from the MU, which made my illusionary ones very very believable...

However, and here's a serious warning: when playing an Illusionist you have to accept that there's going to be numerous situations and even sometimes entire adventures where your character is probably going to be almost useless; and that's if-when the foes are all undead and-or constructs. Illusions don't work against these most of the time, mostly because they don't have enough brains to be fooled.

The flip side: if the foes are all dumb Orcs and Ogres etc., you can often tell the rest of the party to hold your beer while you take care of the problem...

Are there any ways to update this concept in a way that reflects the original 1st edition feel?

I tried hard to bring my 1e Illusionist forward into 3e; and while the result was a wonderful character the whole Illusionist thing didn't work out that well despite hyper-specialization in Illusions and dropping Evokations. 3e (and 4e, and 5e) have nerfed a lot of illusion effects into the ground, and also hammered the above-noted illusion spells in terms of range and AoE.

 

[Lanefan]

2. Review the magic items restrictions- by the letter of the rules, you can use a Ring of Wizardry if you can find it, but the rod/staff/wand restrictions are more severe than you think

Illusionists count as MUs for purposes of what they can use, just like Rangers count as Fighters. I can't offhand think of any rods-staves-wands that a MU can use but an Ill'st cannot; and MUs can use most such items that aren't specific to another class e.g. Rod of Lordly Might which only Fighters (and Rangers, and Paladins, and Cavaliers) can use.

 

[TwoSix]

I've seen two core problems with illusionists, which is why I never play them anymore even though I like the concept.

1) They require the DM to focus. Adjudicating an illusion requires a conversation with the player to make sure they understand the scope of the environment and challenge, and to make sure the DM understands the scope and intent of the illusion. This takes time, and it's time where the other players can't really contribute.

2) Assuming the illusion is effective and does what the illusionist wants, the general impact is to negate encounters. You fool the enemy into not seeing you, or being distracted, and otherwise avoid a confrontation. Depending on the game, negating encounters might not be a desired approach (especially for the DM who planned it).

DMs who let illusionary combat magic do actual effective damage (like the fireball example above) as super rare, in my experience.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Illusionists count as MUs for purposes of what they can use, just like Rangers count as Fighters. I can't offhand think of any rods-staves-wands that a MU can use but an Ill'st cannot; and MUs can use most such items that aren't specific to another class e.g. Rod of Lordly Might which only Fighters (and Rangers, and Paladins, and Cavaliers) can use.

That is not accurate, unfortunately. Gygax was one weird cat, thinking that illusionists were so OP (???!!!??) that they needed to be hit hard with the nerf bat.

Here-

The power of illusionists due to their spells is offset, however, by the limitations placed upon the magic items they can use. The magical items usable by illusionist class characters are enumerated below:

-all potions not restricted to fighters only
-illusionist scrolls and magic-user scrolls which contain spells usable by illusionists
-all rings
-rod of cancellation, staff of striking, and wands of enemy detection, fear, illusion, magic detection, metal & mineral detection, secret door & trap detection, wonder
-miscellaneous magic items usable by every class of characters, crystal balls (but not with any added powers), all robes (excluding robe of the arch-magi), and books and similar written works readable by magic-users
-artifacts which are not proscribed items with respect to illusionists (such as armor, swords, axes, etc.)
-magic daggers

PHB p. 26

As always, I make sure that I provide accurate statements!

So that's actually pretty restrictive is you think about it and look into it, ESPECIALLY the R/S/W (which is a big deal), but also the miscellaneous items.

 

[Alzrius]

I never got a chance to play an illusionist, nor be in a game where someone else was playing one, but the issue with illusions in general (i.e. whenever any spellcaster used one) was that when you flung them at a group, all it took was one enemy making their save to potentially ruin the illusion. Like, the guy makes his save and then yells "Don't worry, guys! It's an illusion!" At that point it becomes a question of adjudicating how his buddies would react to that even if they failed their save, bogging down the game.

It's a lot like having the entire party make checks to stealth their way past an enemy without being detected, in that regard. One bad roll ruins the entire thing.

 

[Lanefan]

That is not accurate, unfortunately. Gygax was one weird cat, thinking that illusionists were so OP (???!!!??) that they needed to be hit hard with the nerf bat.

Here-

The power of illusionists due to their spells is offset, however, by the limitations placed upon the magic items they can use. The magical items usable by illusionist class characters are enumerated below:

-all potions not restricted to fighters only
-illusionist scrolls and magic-user scrolls which contain spells usable by illusionists
-all rings
-rod of cancellation, staff of striking, and wands of enemy detection, fear, illusion, magic detection, metal & mineral detection, secret door & trap detection, wonder
-miscellaneous magic items usable by every class of characters, crystal balls (but not with any added powers), all robes (excluding robe of the arch-magi), and books and similar written works readable by magic-users
-artifacts which are not proscribed items with respect to illusionists (such as armor, swords, axes, etc.)
-magic daggers

PHB p. 26

As always, I make sure that I provide accurate statements!

So that's actually pretty restrictive is you think about it and look into it, ESPECIALLY the R/S/W (which is a big deal), but also the miscellaneous items.

Huh.

I guess we were already ignoring most of that by the time I rolled up my Illusionist. The only way in which we're more restrictive is that Illusionists and MUs can't use each other's scrolls even if it's the same spell on both, as the spells are deemed to be written and cast differently by each class.

Otherwise, we have Illusionists work the same as MUs for what they can use...and as they still only rarely get played, this doesn't seem to have mattered much.

 

[James Gasik]

That is not accurate, unfortunately. Gygax was one weird cat, thinking that illusionists were so OP (???!!!??) that they needed to be hit hard with the nerf bat.

Here-

The power of illusionists due to their spells is offset, however, by the limitations placed upon the magic items they can use. The magical items usable by illusionist class characters are enumerated below:

-all potions not restricted to fighters only
-illusionist scrolls and magic-user scrolls which contain spells usable by illusionists
-all rings
-rod of cancellation, staff of striking, and wands of enemy detection, fear, illusion, magic detection, metal & mineral detection, secret door & trap detection, wonder
-miscellaneous magic items usable by every class of characters, crystal balls (but not with any added powers), all robes (excluding robe of the arch-magi), and books and similar written works readable by magic-users
-artifacts which are not proscribed items with respect to illusionists (such as armor, swords, axes, etc.)
-magic daggers

PHB p. 26

As always, I make sure that I provide accurate statements!

So that's actually pretty restrictive is you think about it and look into it, ESPECIALLY the R/S/W (which is a big deal), but also the miscellaneous items.

Woah, they can't use the Wand of Magic Missile? Fighters can use that!*

*I mean, it literally says (Any) in the DMG!

 

[Lanefan]

I never got a chance to play an illusionist, nor be in a game where someone else was playing one, but the issue with illusions in general (i.e. whenever any spellcaster used one) was that when you flung them at a group, all it took was one enemy making their save to potentially ruin the illusion. Like, the guy makes his save and then yells "Don't worry, guys! It's an illusion!" At that point it becomes a question of adjudicating how they'd react to that even if they failed their save, bogging down the game.

That yell would give everyone a second save at a big bonus, but if memory serves failing that second save means the illusion sticks for that individual no matter what as they just can't shake it off.

It's a lot like having the entire party make checks to stealth their way past an enemy without being detected, in that regard. One bad roll ruins the entire thing.

Not quite, in that illusions affect people individually; and someone yelling "It's fake" in your ear still might not be enough to make you able to disbelieve it.

 

[Alzrius]

That yell would give everyone a second save at a big bonus, but if memory serves failing that second save means the illusion sticks for that individual no matter what as they just can't shake it off.

Not quite, in that illusions affect people individually; and someone yelling "It's fake" in your ear still might not be enough to make you able to disbelieve it.

Right, but how do you adjudicate that in terms of an affected character's reaction (if they fail the subsequent save)? Do they think that their friend is just crazy, and the illusion is really real? Or do they find themselves reacting to the illusion viscerally (i.e. they still flinch if an illusionary monster swipes at them) but can otherwise bring themselves to ignore it in favor of focusing on someone else (e.g. the party)?

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Huh.

I guess we were already ignoring most of that by the time I rolled up my Illusionist. The only way in which we're more restrictive is that Illusionists and MUs can't use each other's scrolls even if it's the same spell on both, as the spells are deemed to be written and cast differently by each class.

Otherwise, we have Illusionists work the same as MUs for what they can use...and as they still only rarely get played, this doesn't seem to have mattered much.

It's not a criticism. I was ... well, let's just say that I was always good with rules.

But as I often remark, get 5 AD&D players to discuss a rule, and you'll get six different recollections of what the rule was (and all of them could be correct, given the table variation). Which is why I always try to confine my comments to the rules as written, not as I remember.