Illusion - Best Uses of Illusions & More

[TarionzCousin]

What are some of the best illusions you've seen in games?

Saving Throws and Illusions (Disbelief)

Creatures encountering an illusion usually do not receive saving throws to recognize it as illusory until they study it carefully or interact with it in some fashion.

A successful saving throw against an illusion reveals it to be false, but a figment or phantasm remains as a translucent outline.

A failed saving throw indicates that a character fails to notice something is amiss. A character faced with proof that an illusion isn’t real needs no saving throw. If any viewer successfully disbelieves an illusion and communicates this fact to others, each such viewer gains a saving throw with a +4 bonus.

Emphasis added.


What do you rule is an "interaction"? Touching the illusion? Talking to it if it should be able to respond? Saying "I disbelieve"?

Major Image lasts 3 rounds after you stop concentrating and disappears when struck unless you make it react appropriately. If my illusory Joe Monster gets hit by the fighter's sword and I make Joe shriek in pain, bleed, and retreat, does the fighter get a Saving Throw?

Edit: Mods, move this to Rules if you want; I had originally intended to merely ask about successful and cool illusions PC's or DM's had cast. But I couldn't stop myself from asking about what different DM's think "interacting with the illusion" means.

 

[useridunavailable]

Well, this isn't really a player-created instance, but in one adventure (I believe it was Rappan Athuk 2), a Rakshasa used illusions to confuse the party and make them believe that their allies were actually enemies. The funny thing about that (for us, anyway) was that the only person who successfully disbelieved any of the illusions was the barbarian (the party member with the worst will save), who did so repeatedly. If he had failed, at least one of the other party members would have certainly been slaughtered, but he was able to locate and kill the Rakshasa before anyone died.

 

[TarionzCousin]

I've used the "billowing cloud of yellowish gas coming toward you" trap (illusion) with some good results. Nobody waits around to "interact" with the supposed poison.

PC: What does the cloud smell like?
Me: Do you wait until its close enough to smell it?
All PC's: No, you idiot! We run.

 

[frankthedm]

What do you rule is an "interaction"?

Echolocating, tremorsensing, tasting, touching and shooting.

 

[Merkuri]

We used a silent image in one game to create a fake cave wall. Most of the party hid inside of said wall while the scout ran up to a group of wyverns and threw rocks at one (or something similar) until she got its attention, then she booked it back to where the party was lying in wait. In this way, we were able to separate individual wyverns from the group and pick them off one by one.

Another creative use I can think of was by the DM. This one happened a few years ago, and I had only just joined the group around this time, so I may not have all the details straight.

The party had their own ship, and were on good terms with a lot of the nations in the local area. They had agreed to help a strange pair of people: a talking monkey named Bobo (who claimed to be a person who had been polymorphed by a hag) and a huge hulking mute who was his bodyguard, named Horse. We were taking them to some island when we saw a ship in the distance flying the flags of one of the friendly nations. To our surprise, they started firing at us! We defended ourselves and started firing back, thinking maybe they were pirates who had flown different flags as a disguise, but they escaped before we were able to board and find out the truth.

Later, when Bobo had trapped us on the island by having his men steal our ship, he revealed to us that Horse was actually a sorcerer who had learned to cast without verbal components (Silent Spell feat), and he had cast an illusion to make our ship fly pirate flags. We were now wanted criminals for pirating and firing on an allied vessel.

Sadly, the campaign fell apart around there. We never got a chance to take revenge on that monkey and the Horse he rode in on.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Echolocating, tremorsensing, tasting, touching and shooting.

Do your players often taste something before touching it?

Actually, this is exactly the sort of answer I was looking for. Thanks.

 

[chaotix42]

he had cast an illusion to make our ship fly pirate flags.

Out of curiosity, did anyone get a chance to notice that the ship's flag was suddenly black and emblazoned with a skull and crossed bones?

What do you rule is an "interaction"?

Frank's are quite good. Don't forget detecting, too! Even a lowly detect magic, a few rounds, and a Spellcraft check can work. Might be too late at that point though...

I like the cloudkill illusion. I used an illusory obscuring mist/fog cloud a few times, but the former is much more intimidating.

I've had bandits lay more than ambush by casting an illusion (often from a scroll) of a sacked, wounded, and unconscious innocent in the middle of a road. More often the image is placed in difficult terrain, like bushes, lying on top of a boulder, or perhaps tied up to a tree. Various trouble ensues.

Hallucinatory terrain is great fun too. "That was actually a river?! AND there's an eye of the deep attacking us?!"

 

[Merkuri]

Out of curiosity, did anyone get a chance to notice that the ship's flag was suddenly black and emblazoned with a skull and crossed bones?

I believe we all failed our spot checks. We were also a little distracted, being fired upon by our allies and all.

 

[Voadam]

My best use was in a situation where we knew a bunch of monstrous bad guys who outclassed us would be trying to get to a portal we were guarding with a bunch of paladins.

My wizard (or maybe it was the paladin sorcerer) set up alarm wards down the tunnel we knew they'd be coming down. When it was tripped we moved over to one wall of the tunnel and my wizard cast illusory wall, giving us a false wall between us and the creatures as they came down. I placed it a foot or two in front of the real wall so even if they had glanced over looking for possible enemies and ambushes they only saw the wall they expected to see (just a little closer). All of us knew it was an illusion, interacted with it and were able to see it as translucent, allowing us to view the empty chamber and the monsters as they came in. We buffed up an waited.

We were able to get a coordinated surprise round ambush for our whole party and target their mind flayer and ogre mage leaders with every paladin smiting (some with reach weapons so we could concentrate melee fire on this surprise round), taking them out before they could psychic blast, go invisible, or use movement/escape powers. The rest were tough, but just beasties and warriors we were able to mop up on.

The flayer alone could probably have taken out at least half our assault group (including PCs) in one round.

I was quite proud of my planning and execution on that ambush.

 

[Slife]

I believe we all failed our spot checks. We were also a little distracted, being fired upon by our allies and all.

Wait... you could all see their flags from miles away, but none of you could see your own?


Most powerful use of illusions? Shadowcrafting gnomes.