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Message: <blockquote data-quote="UniversalMonster" data-source="post: 1852289" data-attributes="member: 1034">Illusions are good for covering escapes or for dividing the enemy.Here's my ideas: [*]Critters: illusionary monsters can do one of two things- intimidate foes or draw fire. Both are risky strategies, but they both sometimes work.  - Intimidators: Beholders, demons, etc. are good. They can move around the battlefield and look menacing. Low-grade opponents should hopefully avoid things like this and run. I'm more of a GM than a player, but one way I'd rule this tactic is to allow the illusionist to make intimidate checks with a +2 (up to +4) illusion bonus to the check.   - Drawing Fire: Anything that fails to intimidate will be drawing fire, so feel free to be creative. I like ghostly figures and constructs myself when I'm really trying to draw fire. [*] Walls and obstructions: illusionary walls of stone, iron, ice, prismatic shifting colors.. can sometimes seal off an escape route. So can patches of writihing shadowy black tentacles, or areas covered in illusionary webs. If your'e up to the Major image spell, you can use walls of fire or crackling electricity. The idea is to conceal or discourage interaction, but by the time anyone egts close enough to determine that he can feel heat from the wall of fire- he's already interacted with it. So having a high saving throw DC would be good as always. The best concealment is just whatever is already in the area- a simple dungeon wall or stand of trees. [*] Window Dressing: I use this when I'm GMing villians, sometimes. It's not especially useful so much as it is "cool" to change the appearance of a location to something weird or disturbing. Change the battlefield to look like a gigantic chessboard with melting clocks or an arena with spiked walls or something. [*] Distraction. Use your IC knowledge. Confront an NPC with an illusionary figment of one of his previous victims or a family member. Yeah, yeah, he gets a saving throw. Still, sometimes it will throw people off for a round or two, even after the illusion cancels. [*]Control the Enemy Formation: Cover the floor in illusionary green slime, randomly surfacing buzz-saws, caltrops, or some other hazard and leave an easy path through it that serves your purposes. A single file path, or perhaps one that takes the enemy through someones threatened area, or within bull-rush range of a fighter and another (real) hazard. [*] Just Being Cool: A dragon in a recent game was explaining where a certain island was. He created an illusionary 3-d map that hovered in mid air as he was explaining it. This could sor t of thing could be used in a lot of ways- team briefings, team huddle strategy sessions, etc. An illusionist can be like the party VCR or instant replay guy, creating a tactical map for everyone to look at while the fighter draws on it like John Madden.</blockquote>

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