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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6684598" data-attributes="member: 2011">Many DMs do not allow Minor Illusion (not Minor Image) to create advantage or disadvantage since the spell itself does not give this property. Advantage and disadvantage are huge boosts that shouldn't be handed out willy nilly with a cantrip.The concept of "holes that the halfling can see through, but the monster cannot" and a "hole to attack out through" is a bit lame.Nothing wrong with a solid box. But something wrong with a box that the halfling can see through but the monster cannot.Also, nothing wrong with tactics like a halfling archer being behind a Minor Illusion before the encounter even starts which gives the halfling a chance to interact with the illusion so that he can see through it and can attack through it. But in combat, illusions should affect PCs the same as NPCs (shy of the spell stating otherwise).As for the Shocking Grasp POV, it doesn't take into account balancing damage across the entire party. If the wizard takes the chance of using Shocking Grasp, there are three outcomes: he hits and gets away, he misses and gets hit back, he misses and he gets missed back. His odds of getting the first or third outcome tends to be about 75% or so (100% - 40% he misses * 65% opponent hits him) By using disengage, the wizard has not only given up his action completely (i.e. done nothing for the round), but the damage to the party happening is only slightly less likely. Sure, the melee PCs have better AC, but that's probably only 4 or 5 better than the wizard. Hence, 75% to 80% of the time, the monster damage (or lack thereof) is the same, it's just on a different PC.Shocking Grasp can often be used if the monster just mostly does damage (especially if it does not do a ton of damage). If the monster does more than damage (stun, disease, poison), then disengage makes a lot more sense. But the concept that the Wizard should never take damage or never engage monsters isn't always the best tactic.There are times when that extra Shocking Grasp damage makes the difference between the monster going down before its next initiative and not. Even without that, having the Wizard not hang back and be protected and being hit once in a while is often OK. Not all wizards shy from melee (my current cleric 1 / necromancer 6 is often in melee range).Btw, the entire T-Rex thing assumes that either T-Rexes are found in the campaign world, or that the DM doesn't rule that the PC Wizard has had to encounter a given creature in order to Polymorph someone into it. Polymorph is obviously overpowered in some circumstances (same for various Conjure spells like Conjure Animals if the caster is allowed to pick the exact creature he gets), so it is not unlikely that DMs would force a PC Wizard to at least research before using it. By the time he does (maybe a few levels after the PCs get to level 8), Polymorphing into a CR 8 creature may not be as strong as it was. Polymorphing an ally into a T-Rex (with an Int of 2 which the DM should enforce) at level 8 or 9 is no different of a tactic than Sleep is at first level. It has a fairly small level window of opportunity as an uber tactic.As for Illusory Reality, yes it gives a decent small wall or whatever (15 foot cube, so on a diagonal, a 21 foot long wall), but Silent Image is still a concentration spell. At level 14, monsters can bust through concentration fairly easy (shy of having the Warcaster and/or other feats). Nice, but not quite as nice as you seemed to be making out in the podcast (i.e. "ultimate wizard ability"). Walls are cool and can really mess up action economy, but at those high levels, there are often a lot more going on than simple small moveable walls can control (15 foot tall, 21 foot long max). And Steve was mistaken, Wall of Stone is 5th level. Giving up 12 levels of some other wizard special abilities that the player likes (levels 2 through 13) for a different subclass (invoker, or abjurer, or diviner) in order to gain a special ability at level 14 is costly. The other illusionist special abilities are not that great.By the way, I do agree with much of what you say, I just think that there isn't just one optimal way to play wizards (i.e. casters who rarely use spells with rolls involved and tend to use special tricks to avoid more typical game mechanics).</blockquote>

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