Illusionception

[RFLS]

Hey guys, I have a mechanics question I'm not entirely sure about. I've got a dungeon room idea in which the players enter the room, and are immediately trapped in an illusion. The illusion is such that the pathway they are on appears to extend infinitely in both directions, and drops into an endless pit on both sides. Loved ones of the players will appear on either side of the path, just out of reach.
The illusion is broken when a player steps off the path, reaching for a loved one. They will, to the other players, apparently fall. However, when they "fall," the illusion will be broken. They'll step 6 inches off the path onto solid floor. Their team mates will be entirely non-responsive to any contact, and hovering ~6 inches off the floor. (The hovering is flavor; I don't care about the mechanics for that bit)
Two rounds after the first player breaks the illusion, the secondary illusion will kick in. A massive, swinging blade of the cliche-dungeon variety will seem to start swinging at the far end of the room (the room is 40 feet long). It advances down the room at a rate of 5 feet per round, swinging back and forth as it does so. When it reaches the players, they will appear to the party members who have broken the first illusion to be chopped into little pieces.

The point of this is to split the party. Yeah. Crazy, I know. Anyway, how would this be accomplished mechanically? 3rd level party, average t2, mid optimization.

[maximus25]

Well, you're the DM just say it happens.


Silent Image would probably work for the blade, but you'd need some way to get the 'loved ones' to call out the the party.

[Gamer Girl]

Well....the way I would do it:

Don't use Illusions.

1.The path does extend to infinity both ways as it's a 'space loop treadmill like effect.'

2.The real loved ones are teleport abducted.

3.The fall is another 'infinity fall loop'.

4.The blades are real animated objects

[Kelb_Panthera]

How's this sound:

Not one room but three.

Setup: in each of the three rooms is an intelligent magical trap. Each of the traps is in constant communication with the other two. They can all produce permanent image and arcane eye. The center turret can produce telepathic bond and probe thoughts, as well.

The rooms are arranged side-by-side. The central room is 20ft x up to 170ft with the other 2 on either side.

The center room has its trap in the middle of the ceiling. It also has a walkway going right down the middle, raised not-less-than 13 inches from the floor with d-door traps underneath at every 30 ft set to teleport anyone in their LOE to one of the adjoining rooms. The ajoining walls on either side have a 13 inch tall gap all the way along the floor and one 13 inch diameter hole at the middle along the ceiling all covered by permanent sculpted silence affects.

Each side room has its trap next to then opening at the ceiling.


I think that should do it and all still be legal. Requires an illusionist with a way to boost his caster level to 15 or higher for the entire day and craft wondrous item. I haven't price-checked this setup, but I did what I could to keep costs down.

Total cost for this full-scale version with the 170ft central corridor: 288,000gp

[RFLS]

Silent Image would probably work for the blade, but you'd need some way to get the 'loved ones' to call out the the party.

Does mirror image function in a way that would allow this?


Well....the way I would do it:

Don't use Illusions.

1.The path does extend to infinity both ways as it's a 'space loop treadmill like effect.'

2.The real loved ones are teleport abducted.

3.The fall is another 'infinity fall loop'.

4.The blades are real animated objects

This, sadly, doesn't work or make sense in the setting. They're low level characters with an appropriate dungeon; their opponents simply can't warp reality like this.


How's this sound:

Not one room but three.

Setup: in each of the three rooms is an intelligent spell turret. Each of the turrets is in constant comunication with the other two. They can all produce permanent image 2/day and the center turret can produce telepathic bond at will.

The rooms are arranged side-by-side. The central room is 20ft x up to 170ft with the other 2 on either side.

The center room has its turret in the middle of the ceiling. It also has a walkway going right down the middle, raised not-less-than 13 inches from the floor with d-door traps underneath at every 30 ft set to teleport anyone in their LOE to one of the adjoining rooms. The ajoining walls on either side have a 13 inch tall gap all the way along the floor and one 13 inch diameter hole at the middle along the ceiling all covered by permanent sculpted silence affects.

Each side room has its turret next to then opening at the ceiling.


I think that should do it and all still be legal. Requires an illusionist with a way to boost his caster level to 15 or higher for the entire day and craft wondrous item. I haven't price-checked this setup, but I did what I could to keep costs down.

This is mechanically astounding. I like it a lot, and honestly, I wish I could justify doing this to them. Sadly, this sounds like the kind of room this group of low level characters would never, ever get out of. They're...not the most optimized or rules savvy group. Excellent role players, but man....they can't think their way out of the dungeon equivalent of a wet cardboard box.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Does mirror image function in a way that would allow this?



This, sadly, doesn't work or make sense in the setting. They're low level characters with an appropriate dungeon; their opponents simply can't warp reality like this.



This is mechanically astounding. I like it a lot, and honestly, I wish I could justify doing this to them. Sadly, this sounds like the kind of room this group of low level characters would never, ever get out of. They're...not the most optimized or rules savvy group. Excellent role players, but man....they can't think their way out of the dungeon equivalent of a wet cardboard box.

Actually the (encounter?) trap I've described has no leathal components whatsoever. It does present the possibility that the group could be split in three. This can be alleviated by either having the illusion "force" them off of the walkway, or eleminating one of the side rooms. Since the turrets guiding the illusions are intelligent, they can try to arrange things to go a certain way. Obviously how they proceed after the trap divides them depends on the surrounding dungeon, and each room's points of entrance and egress.

EDIT: oops :smallredface: the turret in the central room may need arcane eye at will to see the whole room, and probe thougts at will to get info on the party's loved ones. You can skip probe thoughts if the trap is maintained by someone who can inform the turret. I'll edit my previous post to include these ommisions. As for difficulty in bypassing the whole shebang: Dispel magic can disable the teleport traps, with some reliability, and the dc on permanent image is only 19 since its coming from an item. A 4th level cleric should be able to beat that with a 12, and then he can grant his allies a +4 bonus on their saves.

[Roguenewb]

Veil, Screen, Major Image, and here's the super, super key to this, a little bard spell named "Modify Memory". Look it up, it makes everything hilarious whhen people start failing will saves.

[ShadowPsyker]

How about a modified version of Phantasmal Killer that still plays on their fears but loses the lethal part since the wizard who researched it had to specify loved ones and that's not really gonna kill most people.

[Kelb_Panthera]

I decided to look up the specific rules so I could give you a cost for my setup and discovered that I misused some terms. I also discovered that this setup is way cheaper than I thought.

Bare minimum cost: 124000 if the center room is as small as 60ft long and you only use one adjacent room at only 60 x 30.

Once again I'll edit my original post to reflect a properly worded raw legal setup.