Illusion spells

[questionmark693]

So somebody correct me if I'm wrong...but (as a newish player) in my experience, they're only as powerful as the DM lets them be. Am I totally incorrect?

[TuggyNE]

The free-form ones, yes, more or less. There are, fortunately, a number of Illusion spells that are a lot less adjudication-dependent, such as invisibility, mirror image, hypnotic pattern, or phantasmal killer.

[Neo Tin Robo]

If you mean in the sense that the DM can throw enemies at you which are immune to them, yes, but a good DM wouldn't do that constantly.

[Fyermind]

I mean, everything is. Fireball only works if the DM says it does. Silent image is less rules dependent though, so you are partially right. Unless I happened to know my DM had it in for me though I wouldn't consider it a weakness.

[Katana1515]

I suppose to an extent its the price you pay for their greater flexibility. even low level illusions like silent image can be awesome if used with some imagination, and you never have to use it the same way twice if you don't want to. The best points to clear up with your DM (preferably before spell selection!) is at what point people get to take will saves against an illusion, what kind of use he considers fun and fair and how illusions interact with things like light levels. (these are all things that i have seen different DMs do differently) but if it becomes a problem things like Invisibility, Improved Invisibility and mirror image mean that the school as a whole is still awesome. hope that helped

[Deophaun]

There are some things you an call out on the DM if he ignores. If you create the illusion of a wall and the enemy does not disbelieve for whatever reason, it would be wrong for the DM to have the enemy just charge through the illusory wall, no questions asked. Mindless enemies will also accept illusions (figments and glamors) at face value, as they have nothing to tell them that walls shouldn't appear out of thin air.

There are rules for disbelieving an illusion. Generally speaking, it requires interaction, which is more than simply seeing/hearing the illusion, or taking a standard action to study it. This means that subjects should spend at least one round dealing with the illusion before they get the chance to save, unless they make a successful spellcraft check to identify it (no action, presents proof that the effect is, indeed, an illusion, so no saving throw is required).