Disguise/Invisibility/Strategy Advice - D&D 3.5

[Joban]

Hey guys,

I started playing D&D about a month ago. In our campaign, we have a druid (me), a rouge, a sorcerer and a cleric. We are all Lv3.

At 6 (GMT) tonight we face a challenge; we must somehow infiltrate a settlement of Orcs. The things I have come up with so far are thus:


Sorcerer to cast invisibility on a procured large blanket or similar, to guide us through. However, the legitimacy of this would be up to the DM (and he's a stickler).
Sorcerer to cast invisibility on himself; rogue to disguise self; others wait. But boring for others and dangerous if battle ensues.
Just barrell in and die
Go to Silverymoon (oh, it's Forgotten Realms) and seek magical assistance. We're kind of poor, though.



My question is thus; have I missed anything completely obvious that would make this easier? We're all pretty low level still, so I think it's gonna be hard. But I guess that's the point!

Any help is greatly appreciated :smallsmile:

[Fax Celestis]

Casting invisibility on the blanket won't work: it'll just make the blanket invisible, not whatever's underneath it.

Do any of you have silence? Silent image?

[Segev]

What do you as a party know about the orcs? Do they have any particular cultural/tribal customs, beliefs, or habits which can be helpful?

Who is your cleric's god, and what are your cleric's domains? (He doesn't happen to share the orcs' god, does he? Are the orcs in any way likely to venerate nature enough to show a druid respect for being, well, a druid?)

You could get the sorcerer in with either Disguise Self, Alter Self, or Invisibility; the rogue can hide and/or Disguise. The rogue can use Disguise on the rest of the party, honestly. The Druid could send in the animal companion, depending on what it is, and you could play it while doing the infiltration. The cleric is the one most left out. Though if the Sorcerer has Invisibility, he can cast that on the cleric as well as himself. It's not self-only. (4 castings would be a bit much, at 3rd level. ...wait, at 3rd level, he can't cast it at all. He's only got 1st level spells. Disguise Self IS his best bet.)

Do you have Charm Person on any of your spell lists? That could let you Charm a guard or few, combined with some Diplomacy, to get you in legitimately.

What is your goal in this infiltration? What methods of insertion work best to achieve it will vary based on what it is you want to accomplish.

[Joban]

Oh hey thanks, Silent Image could work!

I thought Invisibility might work because
Items dropped or put down by an invisible creature become visible; items picked up disappear if tucked into the clothing or pouches worn by the creature.

But it would be purely on a technicality which is why I didn't think it was a very good idea.

[Joban]

We don't know anything about the Orcs but it would be worth finding out, although the clerics' god is Oghma - I doubt they venerate him. The nature/druid thing is also a good idea, but these orcs have been known to kill druids on a whim so I don't know that it would be worth the risk.

The orcs actually hate our tribe, that's their deal, which is unfortunate.

I apologise for the Invisibility slip up - I was reading up and got confused, I'm only used to my (druid) spells at the minute due to inexperience. I guess Disguise Self would be his best bet. How can Rogues disguise the whole party? I can't find anything about that; I thought it was based on your personal check.

The Sorcerer also has Charm Person... Sorcerers have everything.

Why we are visiting the Orcs is shrouded in mystery; we're being sent there by our tribe leader but no one will tell us anything.

[Fax Celestis]

You can use the Disguise skill on other objects or creatures. The particular sentence didn't make it into the SRD for some inexplicable reason, but the PHB starts the skill entry with:


You can use this skill to change your appearance or someone else's.

Rules Compendium 67 agreesL


Use this skill to change your own appearance or someone else’s. The effort requires at least a few props, some makeup,and 1d3×10 minutes of work. A disguise can include an apparent change of height or weight amounting to no more than one-tenth of the original.

Rules Compendium 106 also covers using Disguise on objects.


You can use Disguise to temporarily change the appearance of an object, so that it isn’t evident what the object is. This use of the skill requires time and materials to dress up the object. The DM makes the Disguise check secretly.

[Segev]

Slipping into the middlish of their camp and using Tree Shape to be a tree for 3 hours, followed by Summon Swarm one or more times to just wreak havoc, could be funny.

[Joban]

Slipping into the middlish of their camp and using Tree Shape to be a tree for 3 hours, followed by Summon Swarm one or more times to just wreak havoc, could be funny.

That's excellent, can't do it yet though, I will bear that in mind for later levels.

Thanks for all your advice guys, we ended up going with disguising ourselves but decided not to face the task just yet anyway.

[Darrin]

How about the "Chewbacca Gambit":

Cleric prepares guidance of the avatar (https://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a). Cast this on the rogue (or whoever has the highest Cha bonus... Sorcerer, maybe?), have them combine it with a little green facepaint to roll Disguise + 20. "Me Orc now. Grrr!"

The rest of the party are "prisoners". Fake-tie them with rope, or weaken the rope so it can be pulled apart without a Str check. You can then "escort the prisoners" to wherever you need to go.

Hmm. Too bad there isn't a Bluff version of the Black Fan (150 GP, Oriental Adventures, +10 circumstance bonus on Diplomacy checks for one hour).

[Segev]

That's excellent, can't do it yet though, I will bear that in mind for later levels.

Out of curiosity, what prevents this? Only one 2nd level spell slot or something? Or just not comfortable having only one Summon Swarm available?

[Joban]

How about the "Chewbacca Gambit"

That is excellent although the bluff thing might be an issue. Also, I'm not sure whether these particular orcs often take prisoners, so it might raise suspicion. But it might be worth trying because it's fun.


Out of curiosity, what prevents this? Only one 2nd level spell slot or something? Or just not comfortable having only one Summon Swarm available?

Yeah, only one 2nd level spell slot. However, we're not heading into the orcs until we've done something else now, so I will probably level up and be able to take your advice. It would be super fun. We have to listen in on an orc meeting, so I could be a tree for a bit and then Summon Swarm if anything kicks off.