Moff_Tarkin
First Post
We had an argument in our last game session about illusions and what it means to fail a will save against them.
We opened a door in this dungeon to reveal a vampire sitting on a throne, next to a stone coffin. We kill the vampire, whose gaseous form travels into the coffin. Upon opening the coffin we find the body and decapitate/burn it. One of the PCs noticed the magical kama the vampire attacked us with was not in the coffin, at which point he said, “I think something funny is going on.” He got a chance to disbelieve. He failed his save but still figured something was screwy so he asked the cleric to do a detect magic to determine if there was any illusion or trickery at work.
This is where the argument started. The DM’s stance was that, if you fail your will save, you believe the illusion completely and would no longer doubt it or take any action to expose it. I tried pouring water into the coffin to see if it went into any holes or cracks, and our dragon shaman tried spitting acid into the coffin to destroy it. Both times the DM said that we could not do those things. We had failed our saves and believed completely that the illusion was real, and as such would not attempt to test the coffin to uncover trickery in any way.
I always thought the players had the right to determine what their characters believed. For example, there have been some “shady” NPCs that I didn’t trust. And even if they make their bluff check when talking to me, I can still choose to not trust them. I thought the same worked with illusions. Am I wrong on this?
We opened a door in this dungeon to reveal a vampire sitting on a throne, next to a stone coffin. We kill the vampire, whose gaseous form travels into the coffin. Upon opening the coffin we find the body and decapitate/burn it. One of the PCs noticed the magical kama the vampire attacked us with was not in the coffin, at which point he said, “I think something funny is going on.” He got a chance to disbelieve. He failed his save but still figured something was screwy so he asked the cleric to do a detect magic to determine if there was any illusion or trickery at work.
This is where the argument started. The DM’s stance was that, if you fail your will save, you believe the illusion completely and would no longer doubt it or take any action to expose it. I tried pouring water into the coffin to see if it went into any holes or cracks, and our dragon shaman tried spitting acid into the coffin to destroy it. Both times the DM said that we could not do those things. We had failed our saves and believed completely that the illusion was real, and as such would not attempt to test the coffin to uncover trickery in any way.
I always thought the players had the right to determine what their characters believed. For example, there have been some “shady” NPCs that I didn’t trust. And even if they make their bluff check when talking to me, I can still choose to not trust them. I thought the same worked with illusions. Am I wrong on this?