SangoProduction
2020-10-26, 03:14 AM
Well, a lot of these have been fairly simple to rank, if more than slightly time consuming. Let's crank things up like...5 notches by bringing in the single most subjective, and creativity-reliant sphere that absolutely requires DM buy-in to work in the first place. The illusion sphere!
Quick note: If your DM is a stickler for rules, and "if the rules don't specifically say you can, then you can't"...I'd probably look for a better defined set of mechanics than you'll find in the illusion sphere. Obvious, but it does bare mentioning. Thankfully, the wiki does give special considerations which can help lead DMs to the right way of thinking, if they are willing to read them specially for you.
As such, I will be making an implicit assumption that you have reasonable DM buy-in.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: You would certainly not complain about having this, especially in the right builds / situations.
(B) Bad: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) No.
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(I) Impossible: Can't be rated because it is just not defined enough to give a meaningful rating - it depends too much on DM ruling. Or it requires much more of a galaxy-brain than I am. I will take a quick guess and just slap it around the general area I think it should be.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
Mechanics
Illusions: These are any of the non-trick effects. For a standard action and spell point, you can create a visual (by default) illusion within close range, which lasts for concentration, up to 1 minute/CL. Every 2-5 levels, double the maximum dimensions of your illusions, and the illusion size even starts off pretty decent at a 5-by-5-by-5 cube. This is pretty useless for most purposes until you at least get Lingering Illusion. Thus it's one of the few base abilities you have to spend 2 spell points to effectively use. I'll rate all illusion effects as though you already have Lingering Illusion.
Tricks: These are the free, cantrip-like effects you can manifest. Unlike their expensive counter parts, these last one minute / level unless otherwise stated. They also take standard actions to cast, unless otherwise specified.
Figment: These are the basic images (or other sensations) which target an area, and are "transparent" (to the given senses) when disbelieved. Spell Resistance doesn't protect against these, and figments can shed as much light as a torch or even cast a shadow. You may create them anywhere in your range without line of sight nor effect, which is incredibly unique for a base ability. Although to make any changes after creation, including moving the area, you might have line of sight.
Glamer: These are illusions/tricks that target other creatures, and are subject to spell resistance. Will saves (by the target) also completely negate them, rather than merely made "transparent." Technically, Glamers can be disbelieved by non-target interactors...but unlike figments there is nothing saying they are "transparent" when disbelieved.
Sensory Talents: These expand the number of senses you can affect. Considering going from Silent Image to Minor Image is a full spell level's worth under D&D's weirdness, this is probably why the base sphere illusion costs so much. No other sphere has such a massive transformation in capabilities with a selection of a talent.
Minor Figment (G-S): Create obviously fake figments. Very useful for...just about anything you want that doesn't involve "fooling" people. Holograms are obviously "fake," but are ubiquitous in sci-fi. No direct combat uses (obviously).
Minor Glamers (G): You can pass notes in class and never have to read it out to the teacher. Also basically Prestidigitation without actually changing things. And everyone loves Prestidigitation.
Illusionary Disguise (B): Disguise attempt as part of casting, with some (free?) lee way for size. 2 spell points for a speedy disguise kit without a bonus is a steep price, and it's foiled by the most passive of anti-magic. I'll assume that making you look like anything else (race/sex/size/etc) implies no penalty, because it's literally an illusion.
-No clarification on what making you appear to be 5x your size actually does. Do attackers just magically always dive under the feet of the dragon to stab at you, sitting in the dragon's hind legs? "I attac- Oh god, where am I going!?" What if you're flying in the center of your magic disguise, and there's literally no way for them to reach you? Can they attack your disguise? They can disbelieve with their swords passing through all they want, Glamers don't care.
Illusionary Sound (S): Pseudo-telepathy as a free trick, plus you can add sounds to your illusions without and stipulations that they must be indistinct like Minor Image forces. No mentions of possibly deafening someone with a roaring dragon right next to their ears. Or inside of them. You don't need line of effect nor sight.
Illusionary Touch x1: (G-S): The first time you take this, you grant texture, temperature, and generally all the non-painful "touch" senses to your illusions. I don't know how you can touch a wall (which doesn't hold weight) and not just pass through, regardless of (dis)belief. So it's definitely a weird example to use. Maybe they subconsciously can't bring themselves to move through it, to the point of holding their body "on" the wall? Or subconsciously stopping you from just squeezing the "door handle" to mush?
Manipulate Aura (<B-G>): In my decades of play, I've literally never had a situation where this would be relevant, but if it is relevant in your game...Um... You can make your illusory disguises not defeated by a level 0 spell. That's nice. It would be much more interesting if, even for a spell point, when you manifest a non-illusion spell effect, you can give it an aura of a different sphere to impose a penalty to spellcraft checks identifying the effect. Could be especially relevant if your DM gets fed up with you using Suppression talent to stay hidden. But he can always casts See Invisible, which this doesn't help with.
Illusionary Odor (B): 2 senses for the price of one. And spontaneously generating fart clouds to go with your illusory whoopie cushions is...a thing. And your disguises can stop your "That guy" from smelling like rotten Cheetos...in game. Only 2 lines of text for this talent though, so all on you and your imagination.
Illusory Touch x2 (<N-B>): Now you get to add "painful" touch...for literally the most inconsequential damage in all of the spheres. It's still a very tiny expansion of the senses you can exploit, giving you a wider range of illusions to make. For example, a river of lava that doesn't even feel painfully hot when you're nearby is probably instant-disbelief. But if they were passing through normal heat to get through there, they probably believed they could get through lava anyway. Also, I'm pretty sure taking damage automatically counts as "interacts," and if it does, this probably should go to n- rating for being counter productive.
Committed Deception (S+): If you can stand not moving, this gets rid of the most significant impediment to Illusion sphere - the cost.
Lingering Illusion (S+): Hey, look. The talent so crucial to the functioning of the sphere that I just assume you have it so I can fairly rate the rest of the talents.
Programmed Illusion (S): Create alarms, make interactive illusions, create a Turing Complete computer. You name it, and you can do it....with enough levels. But this really benefits so much from creativity and preparation. And can even potentially make Illusory Touch x2 not actually detrimental. If that's not a standing ovation, I don't know what is. The processing speed of the illusion's reactions is not made abundantly clear. If it's instantaneous, then you've got a true wonder on your hand. If it's 6 seconds, you might not want to fire your calculators just yet.
Focused Illusion (G): Lets illusions linger for 2 rounds after concentrating, and boosts Lingering Illusion duration to 10 minutes / level. I don't find this too functionally different from 1 minute / level, as both are generally going to get you through a single "scene," save for particularly low levels. But even 10 min/level has a good chance of not getting to the next scene.
Complex Illusion (G): Lets you make much more complex illusions, and have each of the pieces behave independently. And it's also got use as a Mass Glamer. That's all really nice. But hoo boy. Imagine spending 3 spell points on an effect. (Might be neat to make an on-demand hyper-computer with Programmed Illusion though. Especially as the only limit is that the total size can't pass your maximum illusion size. You might need to bring your own punch cards though.)
Enlarged Illusion (G): +1 max size category to your illusions. A bit redundant after a few levels, but you can always retrain.
Synesthesia (<G>): The original probably meant to be dazzled rather than dazed, and the typo was continued through to USOP. (Reasoning for this assertion would take too long here.) By RAW, if you have Overwhelming senses, and a good couple sensory talents, this is cool (especially as things like Blightsight obviate blindness as a penalty). If you fix the typo, then it's nice even without overwhelming senses.
Shadow Infusion (I): Expensive, and the damage is absolutely inconsequential regardless of this, but you can at least justify a wall being able to be "interacted with" without someone just passing through. The will save adjustments depend on DM and your illusion.
Novel Deception (G): The way the effect works doesn't really make sense. But assuming the DM allows it to have its effect, regardless of the fluff, it's a pretty cool way of ensuring an illusion will stick without spending more spell points.
Ranged Illusion (B-G): Close range is pretty short. Medium is nice. I wouldn't complain about taking the talent. I wouldn't go out of my way to do so either.
Overwhelming Sensations (B-G): It's an offensive illusion talent. Pretty much objectively worse than just about any other way to apply the conditions. But I'm giving it lee way in the ratings, because illusion-specialist classes exist. And not everyone wants to shadow-illusion their way to victory.
Selective Illusions (B): For yet another spell point, you can designate any number of targets as being immune to your illusions. Decent. Too expensive for its benefit though. Just use your illusions better.
Windtalker (<B>): Even with a stealth / rogue's guild campaign, this is just not much of an upgrade over Illusionary Sound, throwing your voice to whisper into your allies' ears. Best case scenario for this is something like sound-sensitive zombie apocalypse, and you are using another sense to communicate the message. But D&D and zombie apocalypse is pretty incompatible without very serious changes.
Talented Trickster (<B>): I really can't think of any tricks where you would really care enough about using as a swift action to take this talent, even if it didn't cost a spell point. But if there is one...well, you're spending spell points on very minor tricks. Illusionists don't have a ton to go around.
Inspire Doubt (N-B): a -1 penalty to saves is extremely small. And it's dependent upon them making their disbelief check.
Distracting Phantoms (N-B): Yay. You can have no more than a single phantasmal flanker, which only lasts CL rounds rather than minutes. If you hack this into XCom, you can save one of your units' lives by triggering over watch.
Bestow Focus (N-B): You are be able to allow up to 3 people to maintain their own glamers (with active concentration) by the time you're epic level. Congrats, you probably got scammed into picking this.
Mage Feint (N-): Very minor martial-type tricks which are resisted by will saves. Martial-type tricks aren't generally good at the best of times. But now, instead of hitting a 10 AC, you get to let something make a will save vs your aid another. God. No... No. What? No. (I have a guide to feinting (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?550048-Making-Feinting-work), and the prognosis was absolute garbage.)
Illusionary Labyrinth (G): Grants trick that's not even worth the words used to describe, but as a spell point, you can basically lock down movement in a fairly massive area. Octuply so if your DM rules that the illusion can have its volume divided up into contiguous 5-foot cubes, rather than just existing within a single cube.
Illusionary Terrain (G): Illusionary Labyrinth, but instead of a spell point to stop them with a will save each round, the illusions are just difficult terrain when they aren't disbelieved.
Swift Figments (G): Taken once, they are pretty speedy. Taken twice, and they basically move anywhere you want.
Insistent Illusions (<B>): Swift action to force all currently disbelieving creatures to reroll their will saves to disbelieve. For 2 spell points. This is the most "meh" talent I've seen yet. Its one saving grace is that it's a swift action. The same number of spell points would just create a brand new illusion and have it persist. Also failed illusions would tend to still be pretty obviously illusions, even if reinforced to no longer be transparent, unless you wipe their memories. The rating assumes the DM just says the NPCs forget having ever disbelieved the illusion in the first place.
Patterns (I) I can't think of a single good use for this. But it's illusion sphere. There's probably one niche use out there.
Control Figment (I): My mind is melting trying to come up with a good reason why you would want to control a figment rather than dispel it. But I'm sure there's an extremely niche case where there is one.
Decoy (S): Grants nice tricks, and Mirror Image as an illusion. Major difference! It has no stipulations about the blind being able to ignore the decoys. Has some nice synergies too.
Suppression (S): Invisibility is awesome. Silence makes sniping even easier with Invisibility. Best stealth mage ever.
Blur (G-S): Grants quite substantial miss chance. Your team would need to be extraordinary to just be able to ignore your figment/trick versions, but the main draw is obviously the glamer, which is why it was marked as such.
Hostile Glamers(G): Unfortunately, Oblivious doesn't apply. But darn, you can stack some crazy miss chances on someone, in addition to some neat debuffs. Too bad they get a save every single round. If they didn't, it'd probably be a bit too good at just saying someone can't play. But still.
Oblivious (<G>) Assuming you're in some sort of political intrigue game, it could be pretty interesting to tarnish peoples' reputations with invisible clothes, or anything else your sick mind could imagine. Generally, it's not a truly "useful" effect though.
Masques (<B-G>): If your face needs the bonus, this cool. You've got a couple minutes to make use of it. Probably not necessary, and the bonus is relatively minor. But it's there if you want it.
Greater Illusionary Disguise (B): A nerf from pre-USOP, up until you have at least 3 of the 4 non-aura sensory talents. Still it can make a decently skilled disguise character unbeatably disguised. But so can alteration's Perfect Mimicry which just plain does it better.
Implausible Deniability (S): So, yeah. Getting to add Eliciter's Persuasive bonus to illusions is incredible. Even for a dip, that's twice the effect of Sphere Focus. Plus it inverts insight bonuses. Those aren't very common, but that really is just a side benefit. Just like getting +2 to your Greater Illusionary Disguise.
Superpositioned (G-S): So yeah, your suppression saves so much action economy / spell points, if you like to warp around. Also you get a Decoy for free on warping. All at no additional cost to you.
Suppressed Spell (G): A very interesting metamagic. Basically the only interesting metamagic. Expensive, but interesting. "Hmm, I seem to be losing a lot of blood. Must just be the wind."
Aura Engineering (G): Deceive Dweomer is an advanced talent that you could very easily get a DM to allow. UMD is the favored skill of every batman on the forums. I'm not sure it's as hyper useful as everyone says. Unless it is actually your shtick. Then...of course it is. Because duh.
Vudu (<G>): Hey? Ever want to reenact the zombie survivor trope of someone having to kill their love ones? Well, you already could, but it's much more realistic now! So I'm placing this here because it's funny to mentally torment nonexistent figments of your imagination.
Weird Defense (G): An ablative chance to cause an attack to miss, for a swift action.
Asymmetrical Warfare (G): I'll put aside my opinion on the war sphere, and just say that relative to the war sphere, this is a good upgrade, if you're frequently using glamers on the battlefield.
Blurred Boundary (G): No spell point costs to this feat at all, just bonus effects. That's pretty impressive. Granted, the Barrier thing isn't something I care about, and you still must possess the aegis talents you want to apply. And if you really wanted the aegis effect, you would probably be better served with casting the aegis as an hour/lvl rather than 1 or 10 min/level. But still, Obscurity aegis plus Suppression so that they can't even perceive your stealth boys them until the enemies make a will save. ....You could do that without this... But still! Come on! Give the poor feat a break, it's trying it's heart out.
Wave-Particle Duality (I): I just don't know. If Light is good, then this is decent.
Shade (I): The phrasing is real odd. What does it mean by "your glamers counts as being within your darkness"? Like that your glamers count as areas of darkness? Or is there, for some reason, a particular interaction of illusions being in your darkness which I've yet to notice?
Surreinforcement (B-G): Total Meh. But if even regular illusions with Shadow Infusion count as being made of shadowstuff, then it gains properties off the material. Including, presumably, a wall actually existing and blocking entry. That's petty impressive. Granted, you are required to also have the creation sphere already, and it costs a spell point to use Shadow Infusion, in addition to those for the illusion itself. But much more volume and control to make the illusion with.
Illusionary Blast (B-G): Not that this is a bad feat on its own. Indeed, getting to ignore line of sight and effect is pretty situationally incredible. But You need to not only take a talent you don't really want to get this feat, but also need to spend a spell point (granted, that is fair)
Fool’s Counterspell (I): The effects of someone believing their spell worked when it didn't...It's 2 AM. It hurts my brain. It would require some special circumstances for it to not just become immediately obvious, or circumstances (like you not being dead) obviating the fact of it "working" or not.
Illustrious Light (I): I don't know enough about the light sphere. But there weren't incredible options last I've seen. Adding it to Illusion wouldn't make it much better. Aside from the size-improving one to your glamers.
Deep Cover (N-B): So, this feat might retroactively be making Illusionary Disguise disappear on will save. But that aside, you get to stack Illusionary Disguise with Alteration's better disguise. It is such complete and utter overkill. Nothing can ever match your check (if you have Greater Illusionary Disguise), even if you had 0 ranks in disguise and a 3 in Charisma.
Body Double (N-B): Basically it's a chance to absorb 1 hit for 2 spell points. You can do better....like taking Extra Magical Talent to get the real Decoy talent.
Tactile Illusion (N-B): Telekinesis's weight limit simply is not relevant until real deep into the levels. And this is literally the only synergy between the spheres. And it requires taking Illusionary Touch twice.
Weird Motion (N): There is very little benefit in this. Unless you like provoking by making ranged attacks in melee. Then...I mean, really, I'd just recommend 5 ft stepping, but here's your feat.
Invisible Friend (N): I really do not see a point to this. Why would you ever summon something just to proceed to concentrate in order to maintain it? And this seems like a real complicated and expensive way to just flex a (form) talent on your companion. Not a bunch of (form) talents benefit too heavily from flexing.
Solid Illusions (N-): "Hey! You are dealing inconsequential damage! Quick! Spend spell points to deal even more inconsequential damage more reliably!"
Weird Assault (Wow): Hey. You remember before USOP? Yeah. Those were the good times. Well, congrats on getting to do bugger all now, thanks to having no actual benefits. You didn't even want it when it did anything, so really you're winning here.
Quick note: If your DM is a stickler for rules, and "if the rules don't specifically say you can, then you can't"...I'd probably look for a better defined set of mechanics than you'll find in the illusion sphere. Obvious, but it does bare mentioning. Thankfully, the wiki does give special considerations which can help lead DMs to the right way of thinking, if they are willing to read them specially for you.
As such, I will be making an implicit assumption that you have reasonable DM buy-in.
Ranking system:
(S) Superb: You always want this. It's awesome.
(G) Good: You would certainly not complain about having this, especially in the right builds / situations.
(B) Bad: While perhaps better than nothing, you are giving up something for it, so probably shouldn't without a good reason.
(N) No.
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(I) Impossible: Can't be rated because it is just not defined enough to give a meaningful rating - it depends too much on DM ruling. Or it requires much more of a galaxy-brain than I am. I will take a quick guess and just slap it around the general area I think it should be.
<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
Mechanics
Illusions: These are any of the non-trick effects. For a standard action and spell point, you can create a visual (by default) illusion within close range, which lasts for concentration, up to 1 minute/CL. Every 2-5 levels, double the maximum dimensions of your illusions, and the illusion size even starts off pretty decent at a 5-by-5-by-5 cube. This is pretty useless for most purposes until you at least get Lingering Illusion. Thus it's one of the few base abilities you have to spend 2 spell points to effectively use. I'll rate all illusion effects as though you already have Lingering Illusion.
Tricks: These are the free, cantrip-like effects you can manifest. Unlike their expensive counter parts, these last one minute / level unless otherwise stated. They also take standard actions to cast, unless otherwise specified.
Figment: These are the basic images (or other sensations) which target an area, and are "transparent" (to the given senses) when disbelieved. Spell Resistance doesn't protect against these, and figments can shed as much light as a torch or even cast a shadow. You may create them anywhere in your range without line of sight nor effect, which is incredibly unique for a base ability. Although to make any changes after creation, including moving the area, you might have line of sight.
Glamer: These are illusions/tricks that target other creatures, and are subject to spell resistance. Will saves (by the target) also completely negate them, rather than merely made "transparent." Technically, Glamers can be disbelieved by non-target interactors...but unlike figments there is nothing saying they are "transparent" when disbelieved.
Sensory Talents: These expand the number of senses you can affect. Considering going from Silent Image to Minor Image is a full spell level's worth under D&D's weirdness, this is probably why the base sphere illusion costs so much. No other sphere has such a massive transformation in capabilities with a selection of a talent.
Minor Figment (G-S): Create obviously fake figments. Very useful for...just about anything you want that doesn't involve "fooling" people. Holograms are obviously "fake," but are ubiquitous in sci-fi. No direct combat uses (obviously).
Minor Glamers (G): You can pass notes in class and never have to read it out to the teacher. Also basically Prestidigitation without actually changing things. And everyone loves Prestidigitation.
Illusionary Disguise (B): Disguise attempt as part of casting, with some (free?) lee way for size. 2 spell points for a speedy disguise kit without a bonus is a steep price, and it's foiled by the most passive of anti-magic. I'll assume that making you look like anything else (race/sex/size/etc) implies no penalty, because it's literally an illusion.
-No clarification on what making you appear to be 5x your size actually does. Do attackers just magically always dive under the feet of the dragon to stab at you, sitting in the dragon's hind legs? "I attac- Oh god, where am I going!?" What if you're flying in the center of your magic disguise, and there's literally no way for them to reach you? Can they attack your disguise? They can disbelieve with their swords passing through all they want, Glamers don't care.
Illusionary Sound (S): Pseudo-telepathy as a free trick, plus you can add sounds to your illusions without and stipulations that they must be indistinct like Minor Image forces. No mentions of possibly deafening someone with a roaring dragon right next to their ears. Or inside of them. You don't need line of effect nor sight.
Illusionary Touch x1: (G-S): The first time you take this, you grant texture, temperature, and generally all the non-painful "touch" senses to your illusions. I don't know how you can touch a wall (which doesn't hold weight) and not just pass through, regardless of (dis)belief. So it's definitely a weird example to use. Maybe they subconsciously can't bring themselves to move through it, to the point of holding their body "on" the wall? Or subconsciously stopping you from just squeezing the "door handle" to mush?
Manipulate Aura (<B-G>): In my decades of play, I've literally never had a situation where this would be relevant, but if it is relevant in your game...Um... You can make your illusory disguises not defeated by a level 0 spell. That's nice. It would be much more interesting if, even for a spell point, when you manifest a non-illusion spell effect, you can give it an aura of a different sphere to impose a penalty to spellcraft checks identifying the effect. Could be especially relevant if your DM gets fed up with you using Suppression talent to stay hidden. But he can always casts See Invisible, which this doesn't help with.
Illusionary Odor (B): 2 senses for the price of one. And spontaneously generating fart clouds to go with your illusory whoopie cushions is...a thing. And your disguises can stop your "That guy" from smelling like rotten Cheetos...in game. Only 2 lines of text for this talent though, so all on you and your imagination.
Illusory Touch x2 (<N-B>): Now you get to add "painful" touch...for literally the most inconsequential damage in all of the spheres. It's still a very tiny expansion of the senses you can exploit, giving you a wider range of illusions to make. For example, a river of lava that doesn't even feel painfully hot when you're nearby is probably instant-disbelief. But if they were passing through normal heat to get through there, they probably believed they could get through lava anyway. Also, I'm pretty sure taking damage automatically counts as "interacts," and if it does, this probably should go to n- rating for being counter productive.
Committed Deception (S+): If you can stand not moving, this gets rid of the most significant impediment to Illusion sphere - the cost.
Lingering Illusion (S+): Hey, look. The talent so crucial to the functioning of the sphere that I just assume you have it so I can fairly rate the rest of the talents.
Programmed Illusion (S): Create alarms, make interactive illusions, create a Turing Complete computer. You name it, and you can do it....with enough levels. But this really benefits so much from creativity and preparation. And can even potentially make Illusory Touch x2 not actually detrimental. If that's not a standing ovation, I don't know what is. The processing speed of the illusion's reactions is not made abundantly clear. If it's instantaneous, then you've got a true wonder on your hand. If it's 6 seconds, you might not want to fire your calculators just yet.
Focused Illusion (G): Lets illusions linger for 2 rounds after concentrating, and boosts Lingering Illusion duration to 10 minutes / level. I don't find this too functionally different from 1 minute / level, as both are generally going to get you through a single "scene," save for particularly low levels. But even 10 min/level has a good chance of not getting to the next scene.
Complex Illusion (G): Lets you make much more complex illusions, and have each of the pieces behave independently. And it's also got use as a Mass Glamer. That's all really nice. But hoo boy. Imagine spending 3 spell points on an effect. (Might be neat to make an on-demand hyper-computer with Programmed Illusion though. Especially as the only limit is that the total size can't pass your maximum illusion size. You might need to bring your own punch cards though.)
Enlarged Illusion (G): +1 max size category to your illusions. A bit redundant after a few levels, but you can always retrain.
Synesthesia (<G>): The original probably meant to be dazzled rather than dazed, and the typo was continued through to USOP. (Reasoning for this assertion would take too long here.) By RAW, if you have Overwhelming senses, and a good couple sensory talents, this is cool (especially as things like Blightsight obviate blindness as a penalty). If you fix the typo, then it's nice even without overwhelming senses.
Shadow Infusion (I): Expensive, and the damage is absolutely inconsequential regardless of this, but you can at least justify a wall being able to be "interacted with" without someone just passing through. The will save adjustments depend on DM and your illusion.
Novel Deception (G): The way the effect works doesn't really make sense. But assuming the DM allows it to have its effect, regardless of the fluff, it's a pretty cool way of ensuring an illusion will stick without spending more spell points.
Ranged Illusion (B-G): Close range is pretty short. Medium is nice. I wouldn't complain about taking the talent. I wouldn't go out of my way to do so either.
Overwhelming Sensations (B-G): It's an offensive illusion talent. Pretty much objectively worse than just about any other way to apply the conditions. But I'm giving it lee way in the ratings, because illusion-specialist classes exist. And not everyone wants to shadow-illusion their way to victory.
Selective Illusions (B): For yet another spell point, you can designate any number of targets as being immune to your illusions. Decent. Too expensive for its benefit though. Just use your illusions better.
Windtalker (<B>): Even with a stealth / rogue's guild campaign, this is just not much of an upgrade over Illusionary Sound, throwing your voice to whisper into your allies' ears. Best case scenario for this is something like sound-sensitive zombie apocalypse, and you are using another sense to communicate the message. But D&D and zombie apocalypse is pretty incompatible without very serious changes.
Talented Trickster (<B>): I really can't think of any tricks where you would really care enough about using as a swift action to take this talent, even if it didn't cost a spell point. But if there is one...well, you're spending spell points on very minor tricks. Illusionists don't have a ton to go around.
Inspire Doubt (N-B): a -1 penalty to saves is extremely small. And it's dependent upon them making their disbelief check.
Distracting Phantoms (N-B): Yay. You can have no more than a single phantasmal flanker, which only lasts CL rounds rather than minutes. If you hack this into XCom, you can save one of your units' lives by triggering over watch.
Bestow Focus (N-B): You are be able to allow up to 3 people to maintain their own glamers (with active concentration) by the time you're epic level. Congrats, you probably got scammed into picking this.
Mage Feint (N-): Very minor martial-type tricks which are resisted by will saves. Martial-type tricks aren't generally good at the best of times. But now, instead of hitting a 10 AC, you get to let something make a will save vs your aid another. God. No... No. What? No. (I have a guide to feinting (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?550048-Making-Feinting-work), and the prognosis was absolute garbage.)
Illusionary Labyrinth (G): Grants trick that's not even worth the words used to describe, but as a spell point, you can basically lock down movement in a fairly massive area. Octuply so if your DM rules that the illusion can have its volume divided up into contiguous 5-foot cubes, rather than just existing within a single cube.
Illusionary Terrain (G): Illusionary Labyrinth, but instead of a spell point to stop them with a will save each round, the illusions are just difficult terrain when they aren't disbelieved.
Swift Figments (G): Taken once, they are pretty speedy. Taken twice, and they basically move anywhere you want.
Insistent Illusions (<B>): Swift action to force all currently disbelieving creatures to reroll their will saves to disbelieve. For 2 spell points. This is the most "meh" talent I've seen yet. Its one saving grace is that it's a swift action. The same number of spell points would just create a brand new illusion and have it persist. Also failed illusions would tend to still be pretty obviously illusions, even if reinforced to no longer be transparent, unless you wipe their memories. The rating assumes the DM just says the NPCs forget having ever disbelieved the illusion in the first place.
Patterns (I) I can't think of a single good use for this. But it's illusion sphere. There's probably one niche use out there.
Control Figment (I): My mind is melting trying to come up with a good reason why you would want to control a figment rather than dispel it. But I'm sure there's an extremely niche case where there is one.
Decoy (S): Grants nice tricks, and Mirror Image as an illusion. Major difference! It has no stipulations about the blind being able to ignore the decoys. Has some nice synergies too.
Suppression (S): Invisibility is awesome. Silence makes sniping even easier with Invisibility. Best stealth mage ever.
Blur (G-S): Grants quite substantial miss chance. Your team would need to be extraordinary to just be able to ignore your figment/trick versions, but the main draw is obviously the glamer, which is why it was marked as such.
Hostile Glamers(G): Unfortunately, Oblivious doesn't apply. But darn, you can stack some crazy miss chances on someone, in addition to some neat debuffs. Too bad they get a save every single round. If they didn't, it'd probably be a bit too good at just saying someone can't play. But still.
Oblivious (<G>) Assuming you're in some sort of political intrigue game, it could be pretty interesting to tarnish peoples' reputations with invisible clothes, or anything else your sick mind could imagine. Generally, it's not a truly "useful" effect though.
Masques (<B-G>): If your face needs the bonus, this cool. You've got a couple minutes to make use of it. Probably not necessary, and the bonus is relatively minor. But it's there if you want it.
Greater Illusionary Disguise (B): A nerf from pre-USOP, up until you have at least 3 of the 4 non-aura sensory talents. Still it can make a decently skilled disguise character unbeatably disguised. But so can alteration's Perfect Mimicry which just plain does it better.
Implausible Deniability (S): So, yeah. Getting to add Eliciter's Persuasive bonus to illusions is incredible. Even for a dip, that's twice the effect of Sphere Focus. Plus it inverts insight bonuses. Those aren't very common, but that really is just a side benefit. Just like getting +2 to your Greater Illusionary Disguise.
Superpositioned (G-S): So yeah, your suppression saves so much action economy / spell points, if you like to warp around. Also you get a Decoy for free on warping. All at no additional cost to you.
Suppressed Spell (G): A very interesting metamagic. Basically the only interesting metamagic. Expensive, but interesting. "Hmm, I seem to be losing a lot of blood. Must just be the wind."
Aura Engineering (G): Deceive Dweomer is an advanced talent that you could very easily get a DM to allow. UMD is the favored skill of every batman on the forums. I'm not sure it's as hyper useful as everyone says. Unless it is actually your shtick. Then...of course it is. Because duh.
Vudu (<G>): Hey? Ever want to reenact the zombie survivor trope of someone having to kill their love ones? Well, you already could, but it's much more realistic now! So I'm placing this here because it's funny to mentally torment nonexistent figments of your imagination.
Weird Defense (G): An ablative chance to cause an attack to miss, for a swift action.
Asymmetrical Warfare (G): I'll put aside my opinion on the war sphere, and just say that relative to the war sphere, this is a good upgrade, if you're frequently using glamers on the battlefield.
Blurred Boundary (G): No spell point costs to this feat at all, just bonus effects. That's pretty impressive. Granted, the Barrier thing isn't something I care about, and you still must possess the aegis talents you want to apply. And if you really wanted the aegis effect, you would probably be better served with casting the aegis as an hour/lvl rather than 1 or 10 min/level. But still, Obscurity aegis plus Suppression so that they can't even perceive your stealth boys them until the enemies make a will save. ....You could do that without this... But still! Come on! Give the poor feat a break, it's trying it's heart out.
Wave-Particle Duality (I): I just don't know. If Light is good, then this is decent.
Shade (I): The phrasing is real odd. What does it mean by "your glamers counts as being within your darkness"? Like that your glamers count as areas of darkness? Or is there, for some reason, a particular interaction of illusions being in your darkness which I've yet to notice?
Surreinforcement (B-G): Total Meh. But if even regular illusions with Shadow Infusion count as being made of shadowstuff, then it gains properties off the material. Including, presumably, a wall actually existing and blocking entry. That's petty impressive. Granted, you are required to also have the creation sphere already, and it costs a spell point to use Shadow Infusion, in addition to those for the illusion itself. But much more volume and control to make the illusion with.
Illusionary Blast (B-G): Not that this is a bad feat on its own. Indeed, getting to ignore line of sight and effect is pretty situationally incredible. But You need to not only take a talent you don't really want to get this feat, but also need to spend a spell point (granted, that is fair)
Fool’s Counterspell (I): The effects of someone believing their spell worked when it didn't...It's 2 AM. It hurts my brain. It would require some special circumstances for it to not just become immediately obvious, or circumstances (like you not being dead) obviating the fact of it "working" or not.
Illustrious Light (I): I don't know enough about the light sphere. But there weren't incredible options last I've seen. Adding it to Illusion wouldn't make it much better. Aside from the size-improving one to your glamers.
Deep Cover (N-B): So, this feat might retroactively be making Illusionary Disguise disappear on will save. But that aside, you get to stack Illusionary Disguise with Alteration's better disguise. It is such complete and utter overkill. Nothing can ever match your check (if you have Greater Illusionary Disguise), even if you had 0 ranks in disguise and a 3 in Charisma.
Body Double (N-B): Basically it's a chance to absorb 1 hit for 2 spell points. You can do better....like taking Extra Magical Talent to get the real Decoy talent.
Tactile Illusion (N-B): Telekinesis's weight limit simply is not relevant until real deep into the levels. And this is literally the only synergy between the spheres. And it requires taking Illusionary Touch twice.
Weird Motion (N): There is very little benefit in this. Unless you like provoking by making ranged attacks in melee. Then...I mean, really, I'd just recommend 5 ft stepping, but here's your feat.
Invisible Friend (N): I really do not see a point to this. Why would you ever summon something just to proceed to concentrate in order to maintain it? And this seems like a real complicated and expensive way to just flex a (form) talent on your companion. Not a bunch of (form) talents benefit too heavily from flexing.
Solid Illusions (N-): "Hey! You are dealing inconsequential damage! Quick! Spend spell points to deal even more inconsequential damage more reliably!"
Weird Assault (Wow): Hey. You remember before USOP? Yeah. Those were the good times. Well, congrats on getting to do bugger all now, thanks to having no actual benefits. You didn't even want it when it did anything, so really you're winning here.