Stories about playing illusion and enchantment casters

[Throne12]

I like illusion and enchantment magic but in 5e the DM can make them or break them (aka makes fun or just shut down everything).

I'm not looking for advice on how to play them but I want to hear your stories of wht happen when you played them be it good or bad.

As I want to hear cool stories where you used a illusion or a enchantment to cool results.

[Yakmala]

Not my original idea, but this is one of my favorite illusionist tricks...

Cast Illusory Script. 1st level ritual spell. Lasts 10 days. You can make the text whatever you like, it doesn't matter, because...

At 6th level, Illusionists get Malleable Illusions! With an action, you can change that document to be anything you need! Title of nobility? Proof you have been deputized by the local sheriff? A last will and testament naming you as the sole beneficiary? A coupon for free drinks for you and all your party? Change it as often as you like! Spend 10 minutes once every 10 days to re-set.

And for an added bonus, combine this with Detect Thoughts to figure out exactly what the target is expecting/hoping to see on your document and then change it to exactly that!

Congratulations, you are now a Time Lord using psychic paper!

[Riodrian]

Not my original idea, but this is one of my favorite illusionist tricks...

Cast Illusory Script. 1st level ritual spell. Lasts 10 days. You can make the text whatever you like, it doesn't matter, because...

At 6th level, Illusionists get Malleable Illusions! With an action, you can change that document to be anything you need! Title of nobility? Proof you have been deputized by the local sheriff? A last will and testament naming you as the sole beneficiary? A coupon for free drinks for you and all your party? Change it as often as you like! Spend 10 minutes once every 10 days to re-set.

And for an added bonus, combine this with Detect Thoughts to figure out exactly what the target is expecting/hoping to see on your document and then change it to exactly that!

Congratulations, you are now a Time Lord using psychic paper!

That is definitely something I never even came close thinking of. Pure genius. Thank you for sharing that. *makes notes*

[Man_Over_Game]

I've used Prestidigitation to make myself smell like someone I'm disguised as. That, with Mask of Many Faces and Actor, I just kinda went anywhere I wanted to, snuck into places I shouldn't have, watched guards for a minute and then morphed into them during their bathroom breaks. It was pretty crazy, and the most fun I've had playing DnD.

I also played an Arcane Trickster with Ritual Caster. With help from our Bard, we went to towns that had magician schools for easy marks, as we were traveling musicians. Our Bard was the naturally gifted rock star, and I was his delinquent and jealous brother. I used Detect Magic to find a mark, then used my Familiar's senses to watch them as I pickpocketed them with the invisible hand while I wasn't looking in their direction. That way, if I was spotted, they'd just see their stuff floating in the air without anybody suspicious looking their way. This was all while my Minor Illusion was playing a simple drum rhythm inside of the bar (as it can do repetitive sounds) while our Bard was using Dancing Lights and a Performance check with Expertise. I stole most of our magical gear that way, including a Bag of Holding with even more stuff. It was glorious.

Small note people may not be aware of: You can use Minor Illusion to imitate speech from another direction. You could dispute that, but it's actually done in one of the official modules (Princes of the Apocalypse, I think).

[Rentirith]

I have devoted my celestial warlock to a sort of illusory light mage vibe with minor illusion, disguise self and silent image at will, etc. but describing the illusions in enough detail that my dm understands my intent without bogging down the game is a tough balance to find. We are getting into the higher levels of the game (level 12) so most creatures are just rolling their investigation checks left and right, making it difficult to pull off my sneakiness.

I have however, had some good times earlier where I helped run a stage play of goldilocks and the three bears with my illusions, playing as goldilocks and doing the special effects. I was also able to save our group while in the shadowfel from a Young Black Dragon who I was able to catch twice in a row with hypnotic pattern. It melted a bunch of trees looking for us, but with the minute duration we were able to run away.

Using the friends cantrip while disguised as someone else was also fun for a bit, but isn't worth the set-up in my opinion.

It isn't illusion/enchantment, but I was able to pick up druidcraft with my pact of the tome, and use it to distract a basilisk with the scent of rotting meat in a bush to allow my group to catch it off guard.

[da newt]

Mask of Many Faces Chain-Lock / Rogue w/ Persuasion & Deception Expertise was a bunch of fun. They never showed their true form/appearance - always changing into someone else, different sex/species/size/age, something weird (shadow was a handy one, statue was amusing), something innocent looking (little blond girls in dirty pink dress was a staple), etc. Mostly it was just to keep me amused, but sometimes it was very handy for intrigue / combat / infiltration ...

[Callak_Remier]

I find most DM and player issue stem from players wanting illusions to do more than what they say they do. The spell states exactly what it says it does nothing more. To this day Phantasmal force is hotly debated, due to this fact.

Running from a group of ogres in a dungeon I cast minor illusion to make one fork of the hallway into a stone wall. Making into a T instead of an +, fooled he ogres despite the bloodstains from the unconscious fighter.

[Debaterinarms]

Some of the problems are from players wanting the spells to be better than they are, but some are also from players and DMs being bad at metagaming correctly. It is hard for a DM (or player) to be strictly conscientious about what npcs would do when confronted with an illusion because the DM (or player) knows it is an illusion. Even the tendency to roll investigation checks as mentioned above is probably too much. How many times have npcs or monsters rolled investigation checks on something that wasn't an illusion in your games? I would be surprised if most people's answer wasn't 0.

I have had good success describing what I am doing and what the illusion looks like before I then mention it is an illusion, it helps frames things better.

Two of my favorite uses of illusions that come to mind at the moment:

1. The party was being attacked by several flying manticores that were a ways off and had been preying on the local village. I shouted "run and save yourselves, we will hold them off" and then used an illusion spell to show a bunch of villagers running away from us over a ridge line into some trees. That split the manticores as some hunted the (non-existent) villagers while we fought the rest.

2. I had a Warforged Warlock use Mask of Many Faces to blend in by constantly choosing an "average" amalgam of everyone he saw around him. He ended up looking pretty androgynous a lot and once, when we were in a pirate bar, ended up with a strange half-mermaid half-anchor tattoo.

[IChosePoorly]

Arcane Trickster with a Druid buddy, playing Curse of Strahd. I had just made myself a target by stopping a public execution, and RAN around a corner to where the druid was hiding.
"Do you have wildshape left? Turn into a horse."
"Even if you ride me away, they'll keep following us!"
"That's not the plan."
I cast Disguise Self to look like a boring Barovian with a giant hoof print on my face, and yelled "he turned into a horse! Get him!" [Deception Check: nat 20]
The druid ran, broke contact with the pursuers and turned into a squirrel, and we both got away.