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View Full Version : New Skill: Illusionweaving



ShneekeyTheLost
2005-12-17, 04:44 AM
The orcs bellow in rage and give chase, infuriated by the defacement and desecration of the temple to Grummish-One-Eye. The halfling turns a corner, then a shrill, high-pitched shriek, and several ripping and tearing noises emit from where the halfing ran to, followed by a low, hungry growl. As the orcs turn the corner, they find the Halfling's body... or what was left of it. Whatever creature had done this had mauled the one who had re-decorated the temple with graffiti distinctly slurring Grummish and rendered the halfing into so much meat with tattered bits of cloth that are all that remains of it's clothing. Both orcs pull up and cover their noses at the sewer-septic smell of punctured entrails, and turn to go report this to their superiors, wondering what that thing was that did such damage in such a short period of time...

After the orcs left, the halfling's form shimmers, and returns to normal. With a stiffled chuckle, he murmurs a small incant and steps through the dimensional barriers of the place, arriving outside. Running out into the night air, he sends a silent prayer of thanks to Olidammara, well pleased with this night's work.

Some people see illusions as a waste of time. Others see it as a valuable way of tricking your opponent. But a few see it as an art form, and it is these few who can craft the most detailed and realistic illusions... weaving such detailed figments that they seem so realistic that none would ever guess they were not, in fact, real.

Illusionweaving (Int) (bard, cleric, sorc, and wiz class skills. Trained only)

Check:
With a successfull Illusionweaving check, you can increase the difficulty of the DC to disbelieve an illusion, and with a good enough check, you can even prevent an NPC from making a disbelieve check.

In the first instance, an Illusionweaving check is made, DC 15. For every five points over the check, the DC for the illusion is increased by 1.

In the second instance, you may use Illusionweaving as a bluff check vs the NPC's Will Save. If the check succeeds, the NPC will automatically believe the illusion, assuming it can comprehend or discern it (things with no mind, like most slimes, cannot comprehend illusions, and so are still immune to it's effects). Note that this will only work on the sub-colleges Figment, Glamer, Pattern, and Phantasm. It will not work on Shadow subtype spells.

Draak_Grafula
2005-12-17, 05:02 AM
I think this would be to powerfull/unbalancing. Maybe if you're illusion would fizzle altogether if you fail your check but then still a wizard that maxes this skill will prety soon have unsavable ilusions, especialy at higher level.

Harnryd
2005-12-17, 06:05 AM
Hm. Isn't this effectively covered by the Spell Focus feat? +1 on save DCs for a specific school (illusion in this case), increased to +2 if you take Greater Spell Focus as well.


But you could of course remove those feats and make a similar skill, one variant for each school. This would free valuable feat slots and steal valuable skill points.
It would make bards a bit more powerful since they have lots of skill points to spend and no bonus feats. Otherwise it wouldn't change much.

Deleran
2005-12-18, 04:39 AM
IMO, illusions are a bit of a strange beast, because, more than any other resource available to the PC, its only as effective as the PLAYER (and not necessarily the character) who uses it. It makes the ability very uneven and I wouldnt object to an attempt to change it in some what.

Blade-Bearer_Ian
2005-12-18, 10:55 AM
ehh... It seems really unbalanced to me. If I were to put it in my campaign, I'd make it a cross-class skill. And clerics would only get it if they have the trickery/illusion domain.

Everyman
2005-12-18, 05:07 PM
Shneekey, I would never, ever allow this in any of my games as it is written now. It effectively makes Spell Focus (Illusion) obsolete and turns Illusionists into potent casters.

I'd go with Harnryd's idea: make a Spellweaving skill that covers all the schools o' magic, have DC 10 and 20 rolls, and cap the bonuses at +2. If you drop the Spell Focus feats and use this, then it is perfectly reasonable. Otherwise, it's unbalanced.

MrNexx
2005-12-19, 03:26 AM
Hmm... not a bad idea, if you view it as something of a perform skill. Illusionweaving would be a Charisma based skill, and opposed by a Spot check or a Will save. It wouldn't apply to everything... mostly to Figments and Glamers, though, since they do not affect people, but rather the sensory qualities of objects, which people have to detect something wrong with.

ILM
2005-12-19, 05:40 AM
I could go with it if it affected only Figments. Don't let it come close to Shadow illusions, though, nor figments turned to shadow illusions with the 4th level Shadowcraft Mage's ability, specifically).

squishycube
2005-12-19, 06:00 AM
Maybe you could make it so you need to take Spell Focus (Illusion) before you can use the skill and cap the bonus a bit. Or if that's still unbalanced, make them take even another feat after Spell Focus.

I like your fluff btw :)