DM Help: Illusionist's Funhouse

[rgrekejin]

Good evening fellow playgrounders! I'm here once again asking for help - in my next session, my players are going to be requiring the assistance of a gnomish illusionist. Unfortunately, the gnome in question is quite the recluse, and has booby-trapped his home with most of the illusions he has at his disposal. Illusion magic, however, is something I've never much used as a player, and even if it had been, the creation of effective and interesting illusions relies as much greatly on the creativity of the player using them as it does on the mechanics of the spell itself. I, of course, am about as creative as a moldy rock.

You see my problem, no?

So what do you say, you want to help me throw together a batch of deceptions to give my players a memorable session?

Thanks so much!

My intention is that most of the "traps" be attempts to misdirect, divide, and frustrate unwanted visitors, rather than anything explicitly deadly. They can be scary, or even emotionally disturbing, but no Phantasmal Killers and the like. The illusionist in question can cast spells of up to 7th level, so feel free to use whatever you want up to that level, maybe even higher if the effect is really impressive.

Thanks again for your help, and if you want to know anything about my players and their characters, just ask.

[Randomguy]

Illusory wall will probably the most common illusion here. Illusions of walls over doors or corridors are one of the most basic things that can be done.

An illusion of a glass floor with a powerful monster under it trying to break it to get to the players would probably scare them. Pick a monster that's easy to recognise, preferably one that the players have had trouble with before.

A wall of dispel magic or a trap of dispel magic of some sort would be a neat trick, to get rid of True Seeing or other divinations that the players have.

Redundant illlusions are also neat: A broken stairway, with an illusion over it to make it look like a broken stairway. If the party detects that it's an illusion, but not what's covering it, and assume the stairs aren't actually broken, then try to climb them and fall through the break.

A shadow conjuration wall of stone (over a pit in the floor) is a good way to divide the party: the characters that make the save fall through it, and the rest walk over it.

[Hawkings]

A shadow conjuration wall of stone (over a pit in the floor) is a good way to divide the party: the characters that make the save fall through it, and the rest walk over it.

Tried this DMing in one game and it worked beautifully. highly recommend it.

That's by far my favorite illusion trick, it punishes mage's who walk into an illusionists house and thinks they're nigh immune to the will save marathon.

It's really funny to see the fighter standing on thin air arguing with the mage that the bridge he's standing on is there and the mage says it isn't.

[rgrekejin]

Redundant illlusions are also neat: A broken stairway, with an illusion over it to make it look like a broken stairway. If the party detects that it's an illusion, but not what's covering it, and assume the stairs aren't actually broken, then try to climb them and fall through the break.

How would this actually work? I was under the impression that if the party disbelieved the illusion, they could by default see what it was concealing.

[Slipperychicken]

Illusions are strongest when combined with the real thing. Like real summoned monsters fighting next to illusory counterparts. Or illusory pit traps combined with real ones.



How would this actually work? I was under the impression that if the party disbelieved the illusion, they could by default see what it was concealing.

When presented with proof that something's an illusion, you don't need a saving throw. It's up to you whether detecting an aura of Illusion qualifies as proof.

[nedz]

If he really doesn't want to be disturbed then he would probably do the following.
Permanent Illusion over his house so that it looks like something else.
Permanent Illusion over something else so that it looks like his house.
Quite what something else is depends on three things: Location, Location, Location.
Both houses should have other protections of course, but the fake one should make it appear that he is out.

[jackattack]

Don't forget Hallucinatory Terrain. A 7th level Illusionist can make 189,000 cubic feet of natural geography (including cave interiors?) look, sound, and smell like any kind of natural terrain he wants.

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Something that might play well would be four identical rooms with connecting doors (two in each room) that lead in a circle.

Each room has an illusion of a previous room overlaid on it. This means that when the party starts putting marks on the walls or leaving trinkets behind to mark where they've been, they'll encounter them again before they get back to the room where they actually made a mark or left a trinket. If the overlaid illusion shows the room immediately previous, they'll see themselves leaving the room they are entering.

Obviously, one of the four rooms has the door they came in through, but that gets covered by an illusion when they enter the second or third room in the circle. The fourth room has the door leading onward, also covered by an illusion.

Played creatively, a party of four might end up in four different rooms, one real character with three illusory characters, trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

[Slipperychicken]

Hallucinatory Terrain to look/sound/smell/feel like magma (the fake magma is blocking a door). Several layers of illusory magma, so they keep peeling off layers of illusions until they start assuming it's all illusions. At the bottom? real magma, with real magma-sharks.

Shadow Conjuration, for great lulz.

Illusory Walls and clever monsters can ruin their day.

[Gamer Girl]

1.Enhance the Danger This is where you make the bad stuff look even worse. For example add some broken human bones in front of a dark hole. Add effects like blood or rippled clothing. Lots of illusions can make a monster look worse, an orc covered with bloody spikes, for example.

2.Distract from the Danger This is where you add safe looking things around the danger. Such as plants, ducks or fish in a pool of acid. Or to add a couple illusionary snakes out in the open so the folks move around them and go right past the real hiding snakes.

3.Add Fluff One of the best uses for illusions is to add too much fluff. If there are six boulders in a room, add two more illusionary ones. The idea is that you want them to start to think that 'everything could be an illusion' and worse when they forget to check that and you can sneak in a real encounter.

4.Smells Remember that illusions can have smells. This can be great with simple things like making the 'smell of fresh air' to fool folks into picking the wrong tunnel. Bad smells can make folks avoid an area.

5.Lures This is where you make something, like treasure, to get a foe to walk into a trap.