Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6256646" data-attributes="member: 42582">I'm not confused about what the term "attack" means in the game. I'm just confused about the fiction that I'm meant to be imagining.   [MENTION=205]TwoSix[/MENTION] repeated my point for me upthread  - I don't see how I'm supposed to immerse into the fiction when this spell is using these apparently wonky mechanics.Because I haven't played much 3E I haven't seen this spell in action since my Rolemaster days - where it is called "Replica Images" creating simple figments about the caster, and the question of which one an attacker targets is resolved via Perception mechanics and common sense based on the fictional positioning of all involved. I saw it used in AD&D too, but back there it just modelled the chaos of melee within a 1 minute round. But this 3E version I don't really get at all!But if there are 8 images plus a warm body within a 5' square, and I'm wielding (say) a great axe, how much space is there that is empty both of the body and of other images? I mean, if I know there's mirror images around it's not like I'm going to muck around with nuanced attacks that are aimed just-so - I can just heave-ho at the lot of them, because a clip is as good as a crit ("The figments . . . disappear when struck"). OK. I think my plate armour wearing, greataxe wielding fighter is happy to run the risk of a 3rd level mage's OA with staff or dagger if that will eliminate an 80% miss chance (assuming a 3rd level caster with 4 images).I just noticed some more weird things from the spell description in the 3.5 SRD:observers can’t use vision or hearing to tell which one is you and which the image. . . An attacker must be able to see the images to be fooled.So why does it not fool me if I'm blind, but if I can see it then it fools my hearing too? Is that some sort of mind control? Well, the spell type says "figment", not "phanstasm", and there's no Will saving throw. So what's up with that? I would have thought Tremorsense or Blindfighting or just a good Perception/Listen skill would be the perfect counter for this spell.And here's something else:Figments seem to react normally to area spells (such as looking like they’re burned or dead after being hit by a fireball).So if I make an attack with a torch or a flask of oil - which is a roll to hit, dealing fire damage - I can destroy a figment; but if I drop a Fireball on the whole lot of them, I can't. Why is the hotter fire of a fireball less damaging than the flame from a torch or lantern oil. Or if a disarmed kobold punches one of them with its puny fist, it pops; but if a dragon lands on the lot of them, triggering an AoE attack with a Reflex save, then it doesn't pop any (they just look very flat). Why is a kobold's fist tougher against Mirror Images than the weight of a whole dragon?Putting the same point in game terms: why does the fiction of Mirror Image differ depending on the mechanical convention adopted to model an attack (saving throw rather than attack roll)? It doesn't really make much sense to me.EDIT: I also just looked at the SRD, which says that Searching a 5' x 5' area (including for footprints) is a full round action, and that says using a skill that takes 1 action usually provokes an OA. I assume that taking a full round action to search therefore would provoke an OA. Nevertheless, as I said, an OA from a 3rd level wizard doesn't sound that fearsome (approx 15% chance to hit through my plate armour, for 1d4 damage or so). Giving up the full round seems worthwhile too if it lets me work out which one to attack (say if the mage provokes an OA by casting next to me), and/or tell my friends which one to attack (if they act after my Search check but before the wizard's next turn).</blockquote>

Verification