I need illusions!

[qwertyu63]

I am building an illusion master, likely to be a wizard. I need to know about more good illusions.

To be clear, when I say illusion, I don't mean "spells from the Illusion school", I mean "spells that lie to the senses". All such spells I know of are in the Illusion school, but basically I'm looking Figment and Glamour spells. Other spells are welcome if they fit the theme.

A special bounty is out on a spell I remember that, in essence, tricks someone into thinking they passed a Will save against an illusion when, in reality, they failed a Will save against this spell.

I will be putting the Shadow Conjuration/Evocation spells on the list, but I do not plan to use the Shadowcraft Mage. Other Shadow spells are welcome, if there are others in other books.

To start the list of spells I plan to use:
0- Ghost Sound
1- Silent Image
1- Disguise Self
2- Minor Image
2- Invisibility
3- Major Image
4- Shadow Conjuration
5- Persistent Image
5- Seeming
5- Shadow Evocation
6- Permanent Image
6- Programmed Image
7- Shadow Conjuration, Greater
8- Shadow Evocation, Greater

[Gruftzwerg]

I would suggest "invisible spell" metamagic feat. It has no spell-lvl increase, so you can basically add it to any/all desired spells without downsides. You just need the feat.

You could summon invisible monsters & fireballs.
Or invisible Illusions to play dirty mind games with the enemy caster (my favorite :smallwink: )

PS: beware of the pile of rulebooks the DM has in arm-reach ;)

[Eisfalken]

I am building an illusion master, likely to be a wizard. I need to know about more good illusions.

To be clear, when I say illusion, I don't mean "spells from the Illusion school", I mean "spells that lie to the senses". All such spells I know of are in the Illusion school, but basically I'm looking Figment and Glamour spells. Other spells are welcome if they fit the theme.

A special bounty is out on a spell I remember that, in essence, tricks someone into thinking they passed a Will save against an illusion when, in reality, they failed a Will save against this spell.

I will be putting the Shadow Conjuration/Evocation spells on the list, but I do not plan to use the Shadowcraft Mage. Other Shadow spells are welcome, if there are others in other books.

To start the list of spells I plan to use:
0- Ghost Sound
1- Silent Image
1- Disguise Self
2- Minor Image
2- Invisibility
3- Major Image
4- Shadow Conjuration
5- Persistent Image
5- Seeming
5- Shadow Evocation
6- Permanent Image
6- Programmed Image
7- Shadow Conjuration, Greater
8- Shadow Evocation, Greater

Wow, really? You apparently missed some of the best ones:

0-level: message (they really are hearing things); prestidigitation (just... read the spell, there's a million uses for this thing)

1st-level: animate rope (is that rope really moving or is it just another illusion?); obscuring mist (throw in alongside other illusions for double perception blocking goodness); unseen servant (it can move things, you should have picked this one up for sure)

2nd-level: alter self (you didn't pick this?!); blur (miss chance, plus they can't make out any details on you, watch episodes of The Flash to know how to work this); darkness (self explanatory); fog cloud (see obscuring mist); glitterdust (in case they try to do similar things to you); mirror image (you didn't pick this?!); misdirection (totally misdirects scrying attempts); obscure object (stops scrying attempts); rope trick (holy crap, best hiding spot spell ever); whispering wind (they really are hearing voices)

3rd-level: blink (they can't even use magic to "see" through it, but there's an equal chance to miss for you too); daylight (can be used to blind); displacement (super blur!); gaseous form (you're just a cloud of fog rolling by...); nondetection (you are not an illusionist without this); sleet storm (even better than fog)

4th-level: hallucinatory terrain (area-wide illusion); illusory wall (great because it's permanent, so even if one disbelieves it the others might not); minor creation (it's real but temporary); polymorph (literally change into other living things); solid fog (better than either of the earlier fog spells); stone shape (change stone structures around)

5th-level: baleful polymorph (hey, wasn't our buddy going to check out this room, why is there a chinchilla in here?); fabricate (turn a bunch of wood, stone, metal, etc. into something else, but you need good Craft checks); major creation (real but temporary but longer lasting than minor cration); mind fog (you didn't take this?!); mirage arcana (when you positively need them to think the princess is in another castle); Mordenkainen's private sanctum (pretty dog-gone good for keeping yourself from being spied on); passwall (open a big tunnel, escape, close tunnel, enemies wonder where the hell you teleported to); sending (the voices won't stop coming no matter where I go!); telekinese (looooong range moving heavy stuff around); transmute mud to rock (how'd they get past that mud hole that we set up to slow them down?); transmute rock to mud (how did they tunnel through solid bedrock under our keep?); wall of stone (can be shaped thus can be made into all kinds of weird stuff)

6th-level: acid fog (drop regular fog spells first, then this just to be mean); control water (how are we drowning when the water was so low a minute ago?); flesh to stone (self explanatory); mislead (you didn't take this?!); move earth (where did this hill come from?); shadow walk (great little spell when you need to get there quick but not instantly); veil (you didn't take this?!)

7th-level: ethereal jaunt (you're kind of like a ghost, boo!); limited wish (duplicates even non-wizard spells up to a certain level, costs XP but could be clutch to do something tricky); Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion (great temporary hideout, but make sure the door is in a place nobody will think to look); phase door (like passwall but better); project image (seriously, how are you missing all the great defensive illusions?); reverse gravity (bonus points for putting anything yucky on the floor so it falls on them when they hit the ceiling); simulacrum (very great, but can be expensive in resources to keep one going); statue (not that great if you get smashed to bits, but awesome if nobody knows what you look like)

8th-level: incendiary cloud (like acid cloud but it burns them with fire, now you're just showing off); mind blank (...and you didn't even list this one as a possible 8th); polymorph any object (good both for yourself/allies and enemies); screen (even better for privacy than private sanctum was); temporal stasis (ultimate spell to take prisoners with)

9th-level: etherealness (like ethereal jaunt but longer for more boo); shades (ultimate shadow conjuration); shapechange (like polymorph, but you can actually be a fire-breathing dragon now and have other neat powers/abilities); time stop (does exactly what it says); weird (area-effect killing illusion); wish (can be almost any kind of spell up to certain levels, or whatever else you need...)

That's just the PHB. In general, you want to look for three things:

1. Conjuration spells that summon something up even for a short time that provide an actual obstacle to vision, hearing, etc.
2. Illusion shadow spells, which create 'quasi-real' stuff.
3. Transmutation spells that dramatically alter areas so they are real but totally different.

Edit: Forgot #4 - Illusion spells that give different defensive abilities (miss chance of any kind, greater mirror image from PH2, etc.) than just AC or saving throw bonuses.

[qwertyu63]

I would suggest "invisible spell" metamagic feat. It has no spell-lvl increase, so you can basically add it to any/all desired spells without downsides. You just need the feat.

You could summon invisible monsters & fireballs.
Or invisible Illusions to play dirty mind games with the enemy caster (my favorite :smallwink: )

PS: beware of the pile of rulebooks the DM has in arm-reach ;)

I'll look into it. No need to fear the DM, this character will likely end up as the BBEG in my game.


Wow, really? You apparently missed some of the best ones:

0-level: message (they really are hearing things); prestidigitation (just... read the spell, there's a million uses for this thing)

1st-level: animate rope (is that rope really moving or is it just another illusion?); obscuring mist (throw in alongside other illusions for double perception blocking goodness); unseen servant (it can move things, you should have picked this one up for sure)

2nd-level: alter self (you didn't pick this?!); blur (miss chance, plus they can't make out any details on you, watch episodes of The Flash to know how to work this); darkness (self explanatory); fog cloud (see obscuring mist); glitterdust (in case they try to do similar things to you); mirror image (you didn't pick this?!); misdirection (totally misdirects scrying attempts); obscure object (stops scrying attempts); rope trick (holy crap, best hiding spot spell ever); whispering wind (they really are hearing voices)

3rd-level: blink (they can't even use magic to "see" through it, but there's an equal chance to miss for you too); daylight (can be used to blind); displacement (super blur!); gaseous form (you're just a cloud of fog rolling by...); nondetection (you are not an illusionist without this); sleet storm (even better than fog)

4th-level: hallucinatory terrain (area-wide illusion); illusory wall (great because it's permanent, so even if one disbelieves it the others might not); minor creation (it's real but temporary); polymorph (literally change into other living things); solid fog (better than either of the earlier fog spells); stone shape (change stone structures around)

5th-level: baleful polymorph (hey, wasn't our buddy going to check out this room, why is there a chinchilla in here?); fabricate (turn a bunch of wood, stone, metal, etc. into something else, but you need good Craft checks); major creation (real but temporary but longer lasting than minor cration); mind fog (you didn't take this?!); mirage arcana (when you positively need them to think the princess is in another castle); Mordenkainen's private sanctum (pretty dog-gone good for keeping yourself from being spied on); passwall (open a big tunnel, escape, close tunnel, enemies wonder where the hell you teleported to); sending (the voices won't stop coming no matter where I go!); telekinese (looooong range moving heavy stuff around); transmute mud to rock (how'd they get past that mud hole that we set up to slow them down?); transmute rock to mud (how did they tunnel through solid bedrock under our keep?); wall of stone (can be shaped thus can be made into all kinds of weird stuff)

6th-level: acid fog (drop regular fog spells first, then this just to be mean); control water (how are we drowning when the water was so low a minute ago?); flesh to stone (self explanatory); mislead (you didn't take this?!); move earth (where did this hill come from?); shadow walk (great little spell when you need to get there quick but not instantly); veil (you didn't take this?!)

7th-level: ethereal jaunt (you're kind of like a ghost, boo!); limited wish (duplicates even non-wizard spells up to a certain level, costs XP but could be clutch to do something tricky); Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion (great temporary hideout, but make sure the door is in a place nobody will think to look); phase door (like passwall but better); project image (seriously, how are you missing all the great defensive illusions?); reverse gravity (bonus points for putting anything yucky on the floor so it falls on them when they hit the ceiling); simulacrum (very great, but can be expensive in resources to keep one going); statue (not that great if you get smashed to bits, but awesome if nobody knows what you look like)

8th-level: incendiary cloud (like acid cloud but it burns them with fire, now you're just showing off); mind blank (...and you didn't even list this one as a possible 8th); polymorph any object (good both for yourself/allies and enemies); screen (even better for privacy than private sanctum was); temporal stasis (ultimate spell to take prisoners with)

9th-level: etherealness (like ethereal jaunt but longer for more boo); shades (ultimate shadow conjuration); shapechange (like polymorph, but you can actually be a fire-breathing dragon now and have other neat powers/abilities); time stop (does exactly what it says); weird (area-effect killing illusion); wish (can be almost any kind of spell up to certain levels, or whatever else you need...)

That's just the PHB. In general, you want to look for three things:

1. Conjuration spells that summon something up even for a short time that provide an actual obstacle to vision, hearing, etc.
2. Illusion shadow spells, which create 'quasi-real' stuff.
3. Transmutation spells that dramatically alter areas so they are real but totally different.

Edit: Forgot #4 - Illusion spells that give different defensive abilities (miss chance of any kind, greater mirror image from PH2, etc.) than just AC or saving throw bonuses.

If it doesn't fit the theme, I left it off, even if it will wind up in the characters spell book (e.g. Mind Blank). So type 1 and 3 spells are things I don't want here. I also avoided 9th level spells, but I'm not sure why; likely won't use them (depends on the level I wind up building to), but they are good to know.

Going through the ones in there that do fit the theme, these are all good.
2- Mirror Image
4- Hallucinatory Terrain
5- Mirage Arcana
6- Mislead
6- Veil
7- Project Image
9- Shades

[Gruftzwerg]

I'll look into it. No need to fear the DM, this character will likely end up as the BBEG in my game.



Well then, here's the big deal:
Cast an invisible Permanent Image of a Ghost (Devil, Daemon or whatever looks like a powerful), who looks like pulling the strings behind the actual caster (who would look like the puppet in this scenario).

Now you need an opportunity before the main fight for the groups caster to "Detect Magic" on the BBEG and let him see the aura of something invisible. When he than casts see invisible he will see the Ghost and drew false conclusions.

The dirty mind trick is set. The group will now believe that the actual enemy is the Illusion of the Ghost and will waste actions and ignore the actual caster in the meanwhile.

Add other layers of vision tricks to further enhance your trap. Darkness / Fog / Wall of Gloom will cost em further actions, before they even can target the caster.

[Venger]

A special bounty is out on a spell I remember that, in essence, tricks someone into thinking they passed a Will save against an illusion when, in reality, they failed a Will save against this spell.
you are thinking of "cruel disappointment," from book of vile darkness. one of my favorites.

I'm a little unclear on what the "theme" you've got in mind is. could you elaborate?

also in vile darkness is one of my favorite spells, curse of the putrid husk. should definitely be added to your list.