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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Gasik" data-source="post: 9747718" data-attributes="member: 6877472">Enchantment and Illusion magic are wildly inconsistent in D&D.  The ability to beguile and trick others with magic could, in fact, be quite powerful, and that's part of the problem, I think.  If an Illusionist pulls off something with a level 2 spell that other casters can only do with higher level spells, many DM's tend to feel like the players are "getting away with something", and we can't have that!There's also something deeply rooted in our psyches that hates to be tricked.  We like to think we're not gullible, that we can't be conned or fooled easily, despite all evidence to the contrary.  You can con people into buying bridges and out of their wealth.  The human eye is the organ we rely on the most, but it's not our most reliable sense.And there are DM's who especially don't like it when their NPC's are being tricked by a silly illusion or enchantment.  Wording a Command or Suggestion properly involves the same kind of legalistic attention of detail one expects from a Wish spell, with everyone looking to exploit a loophole.Many creatures have resistances or even immunities to these kinds of spells as well.  Illusion, in particular, rewards "skilled play" with it's open-ended effects more than most other kinds of magic.  In the hand of a cunning player, with a permissive DM, you can get away with murder.  In less ideal situations, you'd be better off conjuring the real thing with magic than playing around with "fake" versions of other spells.The 1e Illusionist not only suffers from this at many tables, but then you have the added insult that, at the heights of power, you're allowed to cast...low level Magic-User spells!  It really feels like the game books themselves are saying "but you're not a real spellcaster, of course!".And it's not like the Magic-User couldn't cast a good number of Illusions already, just adding to the "why play an Illusionist?" question.Don't get me wrong, I would love to play an Enchanter or an Illusionist.  But past experience has told me that outside of "does exactly what it says on the tin" Illusions like Invisibility or Blur, you can easily avoid the entire school of magic and do just fine.  And Enchantments are even worse!And that's before we even get into the ability to disbelieve in illusions in AD&D!  It shouldn't be this way, but too often, it seems like the deck is stacked against you for no real reason other than nobody wants to be fooled.</blockquote>

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