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What's the worst spell?
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<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 7153852" data-attributes="member: 6787650"><p>Blur is better than Mirror Image for anyone who has a high AC already. Blur + heavy armor + shield + Shield will let you tank a platoon of forty orogs (even if they set up a goblin conga line) or githyanki for long enough for your buddies to kill them. Mirror Image will have almost zero effect.</p><p></p><p>In fact, I've been really disappointed with how Mirror Image works out in play. I initially thought it would be nice against single big monsters, especially because there is no concentration cost, but a couple of years of experience later, my main impression is that it's almost never worth casting because anything tough enough that it would be useful is likely to have blindsight or truesight and be able to ignore it. It's probably more worthwhile for lightly-armored AC 13-15 wizards of course, because their threshold is lower for which monsters are "tough enough to need Mirror Image against." But it isn't useful for gishes, and even the lightly-armored wizards are probably better off (IMO) just casting Expeditious Retreat and/or hiding.</p><p></p><p>RE: Magic Mouth, it has interesting potential which I haven't ever seen tapped. "The triggering circumstance can be as general or as detailed as you like, though it must be based on visual or audible conditions that occur within 30 feet of the object," and the enchantment is permanent. It also stacks. So, think of Magic Mouth as a way to create a low-grade AI or expert system. </p><p></p><p><strong>One example usage:</strong> create a tactical spy sensor. Instead of just blinding chasing a kobold into a cave, you toss in the Magic Mouth object, and a second later you hear it say, "There are five... kobolds... in here... There is also one... dragon... in here. There is one... unknown... large creature in here." It would take several castings of Magic Mouth to enchant the object with enough logic to say all the possible things it needs to say, but it's totally doable because the triggering circumstances can be as detailed as you like.</p><p></p><p>Similarly, you could use Magic Mouths as phantom sentries to keep watch at night. You don't even really care WHAT they say, you just care that you can customize the conditions that make them say it. Laying out a dozen or so Magic Mouth sentries will only take a minute or so, and you can have them enchanted to also Marco-Polo their location for easy pickup afterwards. That Stealth +27 Shadow Monk still isn't inaudible (he's just very hard to hear and maybe hard to see), so he's going to set off a shrieking chorus of alerts when he approaches your camp.</p><p></p><p>You can combine these ideas and put a tactical spy sensor on a zombie or skeleton which you send ahead of you into the dungeon as your point guard.</p><p></p><p><strong>Second example usage:</strong> provide a communication method for a creature which cannot otherwise speak. E.g. Moon Druids in beast shape. The druid will have to learn which gestures and movements cause which words to issue forth from the Magic Mouth, but at least now he can "talk" again in a limited sense, even to NPCs, without having to return to human shape. "I'm here to help." "Come with me if you want to live." "Do you require healing?" "Yes." "No." All of these could be useful phrases.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 7153852, member: 6787650"] Blur is better than Mirror Image for anyone who has a high AC already. Blur + heavy armor + shield + Shield will let you tank a platoon of forty orogs (even if they set up a goblin conga line) or githyanki for long enough for your buddies to kill them. Mirror Image will have almost zero effect. In fact, I've been really disappointed with how Mirror Image works out in play. I initially thought it would be nice against single big monsters, especially because there is no concentration cost, but a couple of years of experience later, my main impression is that it's almost never worth casting because anything tough enough that it would be useful is likely to have blindsight or truesight and be able to ignore it. It's probably more worthwhile for lightly-armored AC 13-15 wizards of course, because their threshold is lower for which monsters are "tough enough to need Mirror Image against." But it isn't useful for gishes, and even the lightly-armored wizards are probably better off (IMO) just casting Expeditious Retreat and/or hiding. RE: Magic Mouth, it has interesting potential which I haven't ever seen tapped. "The triggering circumstance can be as general or as detailed as you like, though it must be based on visual or audible conditions that occur within 30 feet of the object," and the enchantment is permanent. It also stacks. So, think of Magic Mouth as a way to create a low-grade AI or expert system. [B]One example usage:[/B] create a tactical spy sensor. Instead of just blinding chasing a kobold into a cave, you toss in the Magic Mouth object, and a second later you hear it say, "There are five... kobolds... in here... There is also one... dragon... in here. There is one... unknown... large creature in here." It would take several castings of Magic Mouth to enchant the object with enough logic to say all the possible things it needs to say, but it's totally doable because the triggering circumstances can be as detailed as you like. Similarly, you could use Magic Mouths as phantom sentries to keep watch at night. You don't even really care WHAT they say, you just care that you can customize the conditions that make them say it. Laying out a dozen or so Magic Mouth sentries will only take a minute or so, and you can have them enchanted to also Marco-Polo their location for easy pickup afterwards. That Stealth +27 Shadow Monk still isn't inaudible (he's just very hard to hear and maybe hard to see), so he's going to set off a shrieking chorus of alerts when he approaches your camp. You can combine these ideas and put a tactical spy sensor on a zombie or skeleton which you send ahead of you into the dungeon as your point guard. [B]Second example usage:[/B] provide a communication method for a creature which cannot otherwise speak. E.g. Moon Druids in beast shape. The druid will have to learn which gestures and movements cause which words to issue forth from the Magic Mouth, but at least now he can "talk" again in a limited sense, even to NPCs, without having to return to human shape. "I'm here to help." "Come with me if you want to live." "Do you require healing?" "Yes." "No." All of these could be useful phrases. [/QUOTE]
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