How to use Hallucinatory Terrain?

[Eaglejarl]

I'm trying to decide if Hallucinatory Terrain is a useful spell or not. It changes terrain type but does not conceal "structures, equipment, [or] creatures". Here are some potential uses; I'm not sure which are legit:

- Dig a pit, cover it with HT to make it look like a field

- HT up a copse of trees. Hide behind the trees.

- To hide a small building, HT up some trees, or a hill, to block LOS. The building will still be visible if anyone walks into the trees, but they won't see it from a distance.

Do these work? What else can you / have you used it for?

[Segev]

It can be used to make new structures or the like appear to be present, or to alter them to appear to be something different. It cannot make them appear to be absent. It cannot change creatures into something else.

It could make an oasis appear to be in a desert, make a natural spring appear and smell to be a fetid swamp, make a room look long-abandoned rather than recently-occupied (or vice-versa), or create the illusion of structures that are not there. You can't hide inside said structures, but you can appear to occupy them naturally. Arguably, you could use Hallucinatory Terrain to allow the use of the Hide skill, but it does not inherently hide anybody (as the spell says).

[Psyren]

Covering up pit traps is the specific example given in the PHB so I'd say your first example is fine.

[Eaglejarl]

Covering up pit traps is the specific example given in the PHB so I'd say your first example is fine.

Ah, good. I was reading it on the SRD which doesn't have examples.