D&D 5E Minor illusion cantrip question

[ECMO3]

He would like this cantrip (the lowest level magic in the Game) to do things like instant walls > negating ranged attacks, or instant fog > granting mass invisibility; that kind of thing. He would like to bring back the heady days of our teen years where an illusory pit could kill if the target thought it was real etc, etc, etc.

RAW I have used it to put up walls inside a window twice, once out of combat so I could look through it and watch the room behind. A second time in combat, and it was really unique. We had an enemy spellcaster who was blurred and behind cover and there was 0 chance I was going to hit him with my Eldritch Blast. So I put up an illusory wall. I could see him, but he could not see me so I got advantage to cancel the disadvantage. It would not "stop a missile" though. The DM ruled he knew it was an illusion as soon as I fired through it, but still said he would need to take an action to see through it.

I have also used the sounds a lot.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I use it from time to time. Underwater it does well at creating a cloud of "squid ink" to hide behind that you can shoot out of safely for quite a while (well, several rounds).
Shrubs/bushes/grasses work for a round or two before the lack of movement becomes noticeable. A boulder quickly fails any tests.

It is very handy for hiding a familiar with a fairly small change, excellent for a simple lookout (or to peer through their eyes).

I have also mixed it with Move Earth (also no verbal component) to create real pits and conceal them.

Naturally you have to do this when no one is looking or you have some other distraction.

 

[Clint_L]

Did you know Minor Illusion is one of only 8 spells in the PHB that doesn't require a verbal component? (I was looking into the viability of a mute bard. Prognosis: Terrible.)

I would 100% allow a mute bard or any other caster who signed the verbal component. I’m not gonna run a campaign where deaf or speech impaired folks can’t be spellcasters.