Need tips for the effective use of illusions

[EroGaki]

I very recently started playing a beguiler from the Players Handbook 2, and am looking for tips/advice/etc on how to get the most bang for my buck when it comes to illusions. While I am familiar with play mages of all types, I usually avoid illusions and enchantments. Especially enchantments. I decided to play a beguiler as a change of pace, in addition to the challenge it represents.

So how exactly do illusions work? For instance, if I use a silent image to make the illusion of a stone wall, what happens if they interact with it and fail their will save? Do they believe that it is solid, or do they just pass through it because it has no substance?

Any help rendered would be much appreciated.

 

[Dandu]

People who fail the will save will be convinced the illusion is real, yes. Of course, if someone decided to rush through your brick wall, failing the save won't stop them.

The trick is to make it something they don't want to interact with. Such as Cloudkill. Or fire.

 

[Ahnehnois]

For instance, if I use a silent image to make the illusion of a stone wall, what happens if they interact with it and fail their will save? Do they believe that it is solid, or do they just pass through it because it has no substance?

I believe they pass through it unless the spell specifies "tactile" components (silent image does not).

You might want to check about "All About Illusions" in this Rules of the Game Archive.

 

[SolitonMan]

I believe they pass through it unless the spell specifies "tactile" components (silent image does not).

You might want to check about "All About Illusions" this Rules of the Game Archive.

+1 for the Rules of the Game articles. They provide a lot of useful insight.

Also would recommend a review of the description of the illusion school in the PHB or from the SRD Spell Descriptions :: d20srd.org.

Those things will provide good mechanical descriptions of illusions. Using illusions effectively in game is an art, and one I suspect you'll develop well by playing a beguiler. Oh, when you can take it, I'd recommend the spell Serene Visage (p. 182, Spell Compendium) as one of your choices for Expanded Learning if it's available. Can't have too high a Bluff score for the Beguiler.

Without knowing the specifics of your game it's hard to provide ideas for using illusions, if indeed you're interested in any (from your post I gathered your interest was in understanding the basics of illusions). But some of the things I've seen/used illusions for in the past have included:

* Impersonation: use disguise self to look like a specific individual in order to gain entrance to secure areas (helps if you have a good Bluff check)

* Distraction: use ghost sound to draw guards out of position

* Cover: an illusionary fog cloud is just as useful for cover as a real one against opponents who fail their will save - which they most likely won't even get if they're far enough away that they can't interact with the illusion

Obviously there are many more ways to use illusions. They're probably one of the most flexible (and also complex) classes of spell in the game. But they can allow for quite a bit of fun! I hope you have a lot of fun with your character!

 

[UniversalMonster]

NOTE: THis is all 3rd Edition specific.

The main tactical trick with illusions, if you aren't getting too fancy or reaching for DM interpretation all the time (which is risky anyhow) is that you use them to draw off attacks or create 'no-go' areas on the battlefield. The grey area is when/if the bad guys get to disbelieve the illusion.

The most important point is this: "you must take some action that could affect an illusion before you can attempt to make a saving throw to disbelieve it."

So, simply having the illusion appear doesn't mean everyone gets a saving throw. There's an economy of actions (yes, even in 3rd edition). The illusion is 100% real to everyone but the caster until you do one of two things: 1) spend a round observing it carefully. Or 2) interact with it. That means hit it with something, try to talk to it, etc. EVEN if you get informed that the illusion is unreal (and claim the +4 save bonus) you still have to spend an action observing.

Why this is good for your character:

Even if an illusion gets disbelieved it accomplishes the mission of drawing off at least one action- likely from every single enemy on the battlefield. Skip Williams contends that the action taken to observe carefully can possibly be a move action (which is less valuable to draw off than an attack) but it's still worthwhile. And further- if you have invisibility too.. control your illusions from nearby invisibly. You should have a fair chance of drawing off multiple attacks (as long as enemies keep failing saves).


Using No-Go areas:

Sometimes it's important to line the bad guys up in such a way that an area attack (burst, line, cone, spread, etc) can be used to advantage. It's helpful to think of tactical areas in terms of squares. One cool use of the simple 'minor image' spell is to create a massive area of caltrops. Intelligent enemies will rarely knowingly move at full speed through a bed of caltrops. So you pick out which squares have caltrops and leave a convenient clear area (shaped exactly like a line or a cone or whatever you need) and when the bad guys run through, that's when you get them.

If you want to use a major image or have one to spare- the standard is a lava spilled area. The important thing is you need to have a realistic thermal and scent component.

Using an illusion with invisibility:

One of the cool things about the Major Image is it includes a scent component. This is great if you have to go up against someone with the scent ability. Just create an illusionary scent of yourself, and have it much closer to the scenter than you are. Or create an overpowering scent all around the scenter. For added fun, couple it with an illusionary opaque fog and a roaring sound. As long as the scenter fails his save, he's blinded, can't hear, and cannot scent his way out. Being in the middle of all that definitely counts as interaction, but if you can pull it off, you have a helpless victim.

The most evil illusions of all:

Theyre all in the Book of Vile Darkness. If you can get that book cleared, there's om e cool stuff in there.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

The flip side of the no-go area, of course is to cover a dangerous area with an illusion of a safe place; cover the pit, make the cliff edge appear to be 5 feet further away than reality etc.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Those articles would have been nicer if he had addressed two issues that still vex me a bit to this day:

1) He says a caster can automatically disbelieve his own illusions, but more practically, what if the caster wants to belive his illusion? The SRD says a creature can choose ot fail its save if it wants, so I always rule the caster can. But I've had some people vehemently deny that my illusion caster could say...automatically get the full armor class bonus from a shadow conj. Greater Mage Armor. Be nice to have an "official" word of support on allowing auto belief.

2.) Any enemy spellcaster could presumably roll Spellcraft when you cast an illusion spell in its presence, or even upon experiencing the effects of an already cast illusion. With a fairly easy DC, spellcraft says the caster then knows what spell it is, and thus an illusion. I find that unacceptable in just how badly it cripples the usefulness of illusions (many mid to high CR monsters have spellcraft; too many also have True Seeing, but that's an entirely separate gripe). Has this ever been addressed? There's a fun skill trick to play with this in C.Scoundrel, but that's only once/encounter and has pre-reqs some casters are very unlikely to reach. Anything else?
(If a PC makes the spellcraft DC but fails to disbelieve or does not interact with the illusion, my default response is to either pretend he failed the spellcraft roll and can't ID it or to bs some spell similar to what the illusion is mimicking if possible)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm playing what I think is a pretty darn successful illusionist/bard/gnome paragon currently. Given that he's only level 5, he doesn't have a massive spell list (although he did pick up a racial level, as per Races of Stone, which helps a bit). But really, the first two or three levels of illusions are all you'll really ever need. The rest are luxuries at most.

The trick to a successful illusion is to create something that there's no reason to doubt or suspect:

Create a silent illusion of the real wall, just a foot further forward: Voila, instant invisibility for the entire party, so long as nobody sneezes while the guards walk by.

It's a higher level spell, with common spell-specific countermeasures, to go invisible to shadow someone. But use a disguise self spell to look like someone the subject will naturally ignore -- the homeless underclass work well for this, unless you're shadowing a cleric who ministers to the poor -- and they can't see through it with their anti-invisibility spells and they're not inclined to disbelieve it, because you're an expected part of the scenery.

Once you can add minor sounds to illusions, you're even more set. Fire just quietly crackles, but it can stampede an entire herd of buffalo, if needed. A swarm of vermin make little intelligible noise, but can cause people to flee in horror or, at the very least, prevent them from moving through an area.

Illusionary repairs to doors keep guards from becoming suspicious. Illusionary repairs to bridges end in a plunge to one's death -- whether or not they believe in it.

Take the time to develop counterparts to the basic illusions for the other senses. A silent image equivalent that just creates scents will confound many monsters and give you lots of power over guard dogs and the like.

There's a reason that 4E nerfed illusions so darn hard: With a little bit of creativity, they're the most powerful and versatile spells in the game.