Pathfinder 1E Some illusion spells for Pathfinder

[Pielorinho]

I'm playing a pathfinder illusionist, and I'd love to create some nifty new spells. I'll throw out drafts here for discussion/criticism/blatant mockery.

Here's the first one, inspired by a great sequence in one of the Dresden Files novels:

Manybody
School illusion (figment); Level bard 3, magus 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
EFFECT
Range close
Target you
Duration 1 min./level
DESCRIPTION
This spell creates a number of illusory doubles of you that move independently. These doubles make it difficult for enemies to precisely locate and attack you.

When manybody is cast, 1d4 images plus one image per three caster levels (maximum eight images total) are created. These images must appear and remain within the spell’s range. With a move action, you may cause them to move to any legal space within the spell’s range and to appear to take actions.

If you use a second move action to move yourself during the same round, you may move simultaneously with the figments. You and the figments may move through one another’s spaces, and any or all figments may be created in your space. The images otherwise mimic your sounds (including intelligible speech) and actions exactly. When you cast a spell, the images appear to cast the same spell and create illusory spell effects. Targets or area-of-effect spells are cast toward the target or area you’ve chosen for the spell, although the illusory spell effects have range limits identical to those of the actual spell cast.

These figments may be attacked and have an armor class of 10. If the attack is a hit, the figment is destroyed. Area spells affect you normally and do not destroy any of your figments. Spells that require a touch attack are harmlessly discharged if used to destroy a figment.

Notes:
1) Obviously it's modeled off Mirror Image. It's less powerful than MI because it doesn't grant a straight dice-based defensive benefit, but it's significantly more flexible, so I bumped it up a level.
2) Compare to the third-level Major Image: it has no smell or thermal effects, and it's much less flexible. On the other hand, it's got a far superior duration and doesn't require concentration. I think it's about equivalent.
3) Regarding the way to move the figments, I'm not sure about how the spell handles this. Having movement be a free action seems a little powerful to me, but maybe it'd be okay; I like the idea of requiring some sort of action cost for making the puppets dance, so to speak. Requiring concentration, however, seems a little steep and prevents fun stuff like moving to new, creepy positions and then casting a spell in the same round--or even combining this effect with one of the Minor/Silent/Major Image spells and using your concentration check for that (e.g., use a move action to make your Manybody run over to a rock wall, and your concentration check to make your Major Image appear to grab a chunk of rock from the wall and hurl it at an enemy). Requiring a move action seems like a good compromise. I left the actions they could take ambiguous; it's an illusion, after all, and those actions should be up to the player's creativity.
4) Part of the spell's not-necessarily-obvious power is in the illusory spell effects it creates: it means an illusionist can use a 3rd-level spell to cast offensive spells and still not have his own location immediately discernible. It's obviously nowhere near as good as Improved Invisibility (although it has a better duration), but I really like the idea of, say, several fireballs shooting out to target the same area. On a related note, it's unclear from the description whether these spell fragments can exceed Manybody's range. I'm inclined to say they can't, but what do folks think it should be?

Thoughts?

 

[Pielorinho]

If you were to make a list of spells never ever cast, Hallucinatory Terrain is at the top of the list (here's where I have my secret list of people that are guaranteed to pop in telling about the awesome time they cast that spell in a campaign--yeah, yeah, with the exception of your game, it's never ever cast). 4th level spell that takes 10 minutes to cast and has no real in-game effect--it's kind of awesome for a villain to cast, but it should be retitled "Set Mood For Battle." Not something that I've ever seen a PC handle.

Here's a rewrite of it with lower area-of-effect, lower duration, lower range, shorter casting time, and specific effects. In short, it forces characters to guess whether the terrain they're going into is safe or not, and if they guess wrong, they suffer penalties (either unnecessarily reduced movement speed, or reflex saves to avoid penalties). It's a weird battlefield control spell.

Lesser Hallucinatory Terrain
School illusion (glamer); Level bard 3, sorcerer/wizard 3
CASTING
Casting Time standard action
Components V, S, M (a stone, a twig, and a green leaf)
EFFECT
Range medium (100 ft + 10 ft./level)
Area 30’ radius spread
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Reflex (See below); Spell Resistance no
DESCRIPTION
You make terrain look, sound, and smell like some other sort of terrain. Structures, equipment, and creatures within the area are not hidden or changed in appearance. Each 5’ square may be changed separately. Terrain changes may have one of several effects, depending both on the change made and on creatures’ approach to the terrain
• Make normal terrain appear as difficult terrain or terrain with an obstacle: creatures may move up to their normal speed without penalty. Initially, most creatures will choose to move at half speed through this terrain, unless they know of the spell’s existence.
• Make difficult terrain or terrain with an obstacle appear as normal terrain: creatures entering such spaces at more than half normal speed immediately end their move action and must make a reflex save or fall prone. Creatures entering such spaces at up to half their normal speed must make a reflex save or end their move action. Creatures moving at a speed of 5’ may automatically succeed at this save.
• Make other terrain appear as difficult, terrain with an obstacle, or normal terrain: creatures entering such spaces at more than half normal speed immediately experience the effect of the terrain. Creatures entering such spaces at up to half their normal speed may make a reflex save to recognize the type of terrain before entering it and may choose to modify their movement path accordingly. Creatures moving at a speed of 5’ may automatically succeed at this reflex save.

Although creatures may not normally move at greater than half speed into difficult terrain or terrain with obstacles, the effects of this spell allow creatures to attempt such movement. If they choose to do so, they face a much greater penalty when they enter actual difficult terrain or terrain with obstacles.

Concerns:
1) Level: I put it at level 3 because it seems in-line with other battlefield control (compare to Web at level 2 or Spike Stones at level 4). It's significantly more useful than Hallucinatory Terrain, but I don't see that as a problem, since Hallucinatory Terrain is so freakin' useless. I almost wonder if 2nd level would be appropriate: it seems weak compared to Stinking Cloud, and maybe about equal to Web, or maybe even a little weaker.
2) No Will Save/Disbelief: Hallucinatory Terrain supplies one; Invisibility, another glamer, doesn't. A reflex save seemed more interesting with the spell (and makes the illusion school less of a one-trick pony). The idea is that even if you know the spell is there, you still are confused by its effects. It also means that the caster has to be careful moving in the area-of-effect.
3) Too complicated: there are basically seven different scenarios with the spell (safe terrain moved through, difficult terrain moved through at 3 different speeds, dangerous terrain moved through at 3 different speeds). Hopefully the different scenarios are intuitive, but it still becomes pretty complicated. Too much so? I hope not; compare to spells like grease or web, with similar complications.
4) Way too complicated: It's not too bad if the PCs cast it, but if an NPC cast it, it requires two different battlemaps: one with the spell cast on it for the PCs to look at, and another for the GM to look at with the actual terrain. This one could be resolved by allowing only one change (i.e., either make everything look safe, or make everything look hampered), and then you'd make a much easier battlemap. But allowing complex changes would be a lot more fun.

What do folks think?