Illusionist's "Improved Minor Illusion" ideas

[Pielorinho]

I've seen variants of this topic done before, but I wanted to zero in on a specific question: what effects are you likely to achieve through creative use of Improved Minor Illusion (minor illusion with both sights and sounds, gained through the illusionist subclass of wizards), and what illusions will achieve those effects?

The illusion must be mostly static, although Jeremy Crawford tweeted that he'd allow a minor illusion clock's hands to move, so I think teeny movements might be okay.

I'm thinking that, in combat, there are three main things you can get enemies to do:

1) Waste an action (usually an attack, possibly a spell). Illusions that might achieve this effect would include:
-An enormous black egg arising from the ground, with cracks shot through the shell and the muffled sounds of an immense creature within
-A 5' preying mantis statue facing the enemy, chittering madly (could be a reared-back snake, but I figure an insect is more plausibly still)
-A floating 3' skull, screaming
-A sudden mound of broken earth beneath which is coming the sounds of furious digging
-Muddy footprints that appear ostentatiously, either 10' distant with the sounds of spellcasting, or next to the enemy with the ring of a sword being drawn, as though there's an invisible enemy there.
and the like

2) Lose a reaction/provide cover/provide concealment. Any wall effect can do this, but you may as well make it fun, like:
-A rippling wall of maggots that squelches and burbles
-A wall of green briars with sticky crimson thorns, whispering, "Closer, come closer, my sweet!" in a susurrus like a breeze.
-Bigby's Interposing But Entirely Illusory Hand, and a sonorous voice intoning, "DIRECT ME, MASTER, WHOM TO CRUSH!"

3) Get the hell out of Dodge. Just needs to be scary enough. The skull or egg or broken earth might work, as might:
-A statue of a goblin holding a bomb, with the sound of a fuse burning, or the sound of something revving up. Or just a bomb, depending on the world.
-A deep purple summoning circle, with a demonic laugh emanating from within, rapidly increasing in volume.
-A Magic-looking door that shows up against a wall, with insanely loud banging and roaring coming from the other side, and the door begins to splinter/crumble.
-A spiral of Snickers bars with drops of blood between them. (Okay, I don't know if this one would work, but my kindergarten daughter suggested it, and I wanted you to know what it's like raising Wednesday Addams).

In general, I think that influencing a character to lose an attack or force a move is in keeping with the power of other cantrips (which do damage and sometimes have minor debuffs).

Are there other big categories I've missed out on? Have others come up with good uses for Improved Minor Illusion--that is, uses with both visual and auditory components?

 

[Damuri]

I've seen variants of this topic done before, but I wanted to zero in on a specific question: what effects are you likely to achieve through creative use of Improved Minor Illusion (minor illusion with both sights and sounds, gained through the illusionist subclass of wizards), and what illusions will achieve those effects?

The illusion must be mostly static, although Jeremy Crawford tweeted that he'd allow a minor illusion clock's hands to move, so I think teeny movements might be okay.

I'm thinking that, in combat, there are three main things you can get enemies to do:

1) Waste an action (usually an attack, possibly a spell). Illusions that might achieve this effect would include:
-An enormous black egg arising from the ground, with cracks shot through the shell and the muffled sounds of an immense creature within
-A 5' preying mantis statue facing the enemy, chittering madly (could be a reared-back snake, but I figure an insect is more plausibly still)
-A floating 3' skull, screaming
-A sudden mound of broken earth beneath which is coming the sounds of furious digging
-Muddy footprints that appear ostentatiously, either 10' distant with the sounds of spellcasting, or next to the enemy with the ring of a sword being drawn, as though there's an invisible enemy there.
and the like

2) Lose a reaction/provide cover/provide concealment. Any wall effect can do this, but you may as well make it fun, like:
-A rippling wall of maggots that squelches and burbles
-A wall of green briars with sticky crimson thorns, whispering, "Closer, come closer, my sweet!" in a susurrus like a breeze.
-Bigby's Interposing But Entirely Illusory Hand, and a sonorous voice intoning, "DIRECT ME, MASTER, WHOM TO CRUSH!"

3) Get the hell out of Dodge. Just needs to be scary enough. The skull or egg or broken earth might work, as might:
-A statue of a goblin holding a bomb, with the sound of a fuse burning, or the sound of something revving up. Or just a bomb, depending on the world.
-A deep purple summoning circle, with a demonic laugh emanating from within, rapidly increasing in volume.
-A Magic-looking door that shows up against a wall, with insanely loud banging and roaring coming from the other side, and the door begins to splinter/crumble.
-A spiral of Snickers bars with drops of blood between them. (Okay, I don't know if this one would work, but my kindergarten daughter suggested it, and I wanted you to know what it's like raising Wednesday Addams).

In general, I think that influencing a character to lose an attack or force a move is in keeping with the power of other cantrips (which do damage and sometimes have minor debuffs).

Are there other big categories I've missed out on? Have others come up with good uses for Improved Minor Illusion--that is, uses with both visual and auditory components?

I am almost positive that an actual moving object as opposed to an object that has a small predictable moving element are different.
Frankly most DMs I know do not allow ANY sort of movement.
Jeremy Crawford's line for movement is somewhere between "hands of a clock" (good) to a "fountain of water" (bad).

Most of the best uses of improved minor illusion are situational.
Some uses:

I create a statue archer at one end of my range, far enough away that a perception check is not necessary) and the sound of a passing arrow right next to the ear of someone with a ranged attack, preferably a caster. This will frequently draw an attack from someone.

You are being chased by more monsters than you can handle, you come to a fork in the dungeon while being pursued, create the illusion of a rock face camoflauging one tunnel and the sound of footsteps going down the other tunnel. Your pursuers follow the sound of scurrying footsteps down the other tunnel and you beat a hasty retreat.

Enemy enchanter has your barbarian under hypnotic gaze. Put a bag over his head and create a loud ringing sound so he can no longer see nor hear the enchanter. Dismiss it

Another good way to use improved minor illusion is to split the minor illusion into two elements.

I use the visual component the way I normally would with minor illusion to create obscuration and use the sound component somewhere else to try and distract an an enemy.

I sometimes steal stuff with it. I create an image of what i will be stealing right over the object and then create a sound to distract the owner while I pilfer it.

I like having kids play ilussionists and i use the following home brew rule for them.
My homebrew rule for minor illusion is that illusionists can cast the regular version as a bonus action or the "improved" version as a regular action. This gets them casting an illusion almost every round. Without this, they don't really get much more out of minor illusion than anyone else that can cast minor illusion, the "improvement" doesn't really do enough to increase the use of the cantrip by a whole lot.

 

[Lanefan]

My favourite, if my illusions can't move (and whose ridiculously stupid idea was that?! Damn 5e and their spell nerfs!) is to 'extend' the deck of a ship or the side of a bridge or the edge of a cliff such that an enemy walking onto what seems to be a solid surface gets a rude surprise.

 

[Guest 6801328]

My homebrew rule for minor illusion is that illusionists can cast the regular version as a bonus action or the "improved" version as a regular action. This gets them casting an illusion almost every round. Without this, they don't really get much more out of minor illusion than anyone else that can cast minor illusion, the "improvement" doesn't really do enough to increase the use of the cantrip by a whole lot.

Really nifty idea.

That makes me think that the ability should have read "If you don't use your action to cast a spell, you may cast minor illusion as a bonus action." I would find that way more useful...and drive way more creativity...than as written.