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goken04
2008-06-21, 01:55 AM
What are the best and most clever illusions you've ever seen used by a PC or baddie either in or out of battles? I want to hear your stories!

KazilDarkeye
2008-06-21, 04:26 AM
I have posted this elsewhere, but I like it. Technically it isn't an illusion, but it is using magic to fool someone by making something appear as something else, so I'm putting it here.


My group was trekking through Yuan-Ti Forest and had split into 2 parties. This story consists of one party:
NPC: Human (Archery) Ranger
My Friend: Duergar Barbarian
My Sister: Aasimar Bard.

They were walking along when they heard two voices calling out to them

Yuan-Ti: Tresspasserssssss will be killed...
Bard: Hey, they are about 180 f.t away, right?
Me (DM): Yeah, about.
Bard: So we can do stuff before they get here?
Me: Yeah, you could hide.
Barbarian: Not a bad idea.
Bard: I'm gonna cast some spells.
Me: Sure
Bard: First I'll cast Light on my headband.
Me: Right...
Bard: Next I'll cast Summon Monster to summon a Celestial Owl, and cast Light on it as well.
Me: Right....
Bard: I'll tell it to hold on to my back.
Me:O.K.....
Bard: Now I'm gonna use Bardic Knowledge. What's the name of a REALLY powerful angel?
Me: I dunno.....Celestius?
Bard: That's a boy's name.
Me: Fine.......Celestia?
Bard: Great. Now Bluff check (natural 20)
STOP! I AM CELESTIA!

.................................................. ...................................
:smalleek:
<Yuan-Ti start bowing>

Adonis1x23
2008-06-21, 04:00 PM
We once 'destroyed' the Tarrasque by putting a Screen over a Gate then used a Mirage Arcana in the shape of a large city made of cake and glass to transport it to Plane of Seemingly Peaceful Flowers.


The idea started as a joke. After the 2nd time we barely dodged a TPK we thought "what the hell".

mabriss lethe
2008-06-21, 10:46 PM
There was a bard who filled the roll of chief assassin and spymaster to the king. Everyone just assumed he was just another womanizing lech. One of the many decadent hangers-on in the kings court. What no one realized was that the entire staff of chambermaids, among others, was in his employ as spies, saboteurs or worse. He would use illusions to disguise his debriefing sessions with them to make everyone think he was just having a roll in the proverbial hay. Doesn't mean he didn't have a tumble or two with them from time to time, but that was more to keep up appearances than anything else when there was no business to discuss.

quiet1mi
2008-06-22, 12:34 AM
whoever said,"don't mix business with pleasure has never met anyone with levels in the bard class...":smallamused:

TheOOB
2008-06-22, 12:57 AM
I once called a giant hand to come through a part in the clouds shining with golden light and accompanied by a chorus of angels, that then proceeded to flip my enemy off. It may have taken one of my two 3rd level spell slots at the time, but convincing them I was a cleric with a direct line to god was worth it :P

Eldritch_Ent
2008-06-22, 02:18 AM
Okay, so there was this pit, you see. Deadly poison spikepit. The spikes had DEX poison, but there was also a permanent cloudkill trap that went off whenever someone was inside the pit. At the end of a corridor, with only a 5 foot ledge with a (fake) treasure chest on the other side.

And there was this kobold, see, smartypants wizardly type. Known for his humility, but usually grossly understimated by his foes. This was me.

And there was this red half-dragon. This was one of those "Everyone gets an evil counterpart" type things. He was a berzerker, a warrior poet- Natural 18 to Everything. Saves like a god. And his defining characteristic? Extreme arrogance in the "I KNOW I'm better than you." vein. Him and the others of his antiparty had just come into the dungeon looking for us. I was his target.

I'd led him down another corridor using Mirror Image, but that only gave me three turns to prepare, and I was in a dead-end corridor.

So he backs me into a corner. I cast two illusions - Greater image, of a Kobold cowering in the end of a blocked hallway, complete with whimpering noises and random undercommon-y gibberish. This I placed over the pit, so the Kobold was standing over it.

Then I cast Silent image, and purpousefully made it look bad. Sketchy. Hasty. Cartoonish, obviously fake. I made this a simple wall in front of the Kobold. I then hid behind the REAL illusion, behind the treasure chest, and readied Wall of Stone.

The dragon came in, assumed he'd seen through my "pitiful ruse", and did a leaping charge attack right at the illusory Kobold.

He charged right into the pit, and before he could fly out, I simple Wall of Stone'd him in. Well, Floor of Stone'd him in, I guess. Then I went and shivering Touch'd an enemy rogue just as he was about to finish off our Swashbuckler. After my party escaped, I came back the next day via teleport and retrieved the half dragon's corpse. Got his equipment and sold his deliciously magical corpse (Dragon parts make good reagents for... Anything!) for scrap. Good times.

Jack_Simth
2008-06-22, 09:12 AM
Shadow Evocation can be funny - duplicate a light spell, and anyone who beats the save doesn't get the benefit of the light.

So can Greater Shadow Conjouration - Duplicate Wall of Stone to make a bridge - and you now have an instantaneous, non-magical illusion of a bridge that has a 60% chance of doing the non-damaging effect of supporting anyone who goes over it and makes the save (and a 40% chance of not doing the non-damaging effect of supporting them).... and it permits SR to be completely unaffected. Great for when you're being chased by a golem, and quite wonderful for making traps against high-will-save critters (no save until you interact with it - which is automatic when walking over it, and people don't generally examine the floor closely - except Rogues, but they generally have low Will saves).

mabriss lethe
2008-06-22, 03:33 PM
Shadow Evocation can be funny

Shadow spells were my assassin/spymaster bard's (was actually a DMPC single class bard) bread and butter.

Using SC to mimic Sepia Snake Sigil is possibly one of the most overlooked applications of the spell. And fun. Sure, it requires two saves but doesn't have that nasty material component cost attached. great for spamming. The spymaster used it as his signature on a lot of documents that were vulnerable to theft.

When in combat, he'd spam multiple types of summons, shadow spells and outright illusions. You'd never know what sort of nastiness was real and what wasn't. (rod of many wands is an amazing toy)

Jack_Simth
2008-06-22, 04:36 PM
Shadow spells were my assassin/spymaster bard's (was actually a DMPC single class bard) bread and butter.

Using SC to mimic Sepia Snake Sigil is possibly one of the most overlooked applications of the spell. And fun. Sure, it requires two saves but doesn't have that nasty material component cost attached. great for spamming. The spymaster used it as his signature on a lot of documents that were vulnerable to theft.

When in combat, he'd spam multiple types of summons, shadow spells and outright illusions. You'd never know what sort of nastiness was real and what wasn't. (rod of many wands is an amazing toy)
If you're paying enough attention, you can tell which ones are which within two rounds in around 90% of cases, without interacting with them - even from a Wand, a full Summon has a 1 round casting time; the Illusions and the Shadow Conjurations are standard-action. Meanwhile, an Image spell requires concentration to maintain - which means the caster isn't doing anything else (especially casting more). It's a tracking nightmare, mind, if you're not putting down tokens on the battle-mat, mind, but it's doable in-character within the mechanics of the game simply by knowing enough about the spells.

Edit:
But yeah - Sepia Snake Sigil and Wall of Iron are nifty ones for Shadow Conjuration and Greater Shadow Conjuration. You can also use Shades to get Magnificent Mansion, or Greater Shadow Evocation to get Contingency, no problem. Better for a Sorcerer than a Bard, though.

mabriss lethe
2008-06-22, 08:58 PM
If you're paying enough attention, you can tell which ones are which within two rounds in around 90% of cases, without interacting with them - even from a Wand, a full Summon has a 1 round casting time; the Illusions and the Shadow Conjurations are standard-action. Meanwhile, an Image spell requires concentration to maintain - which means the caster isn't doing anything else (especially casting more). It's a tracking nightmare, mind, if you're not putting down tokens on the battle-mat, mind, but it's doable in-character within the mechanics of the game simply by knowing enough about the spells.

Edit:
But yeah - Sepia Snake Sigil and Wall of Iron are nifty ones for Shadow Conjuration and Greater Shadow Conjuration. You can also use Shades to get Magnificent Mansion, or Greater Shadow Evocation to get Contingency, no problem. Better for a Sorcerer than a Bard, though.

That's where the rod of many wands comes in. Load it full with wands of shadow conjuration, a summon monster 1-4, and a silent/minor/major image wand. Using the rod is a full round action and takes a number of charges from each wand to activate equal to the number of wands stored in the rod. Use the rod to call up a small army in a single round. You only have to maintain the image while the summoned monsters and shadow monsters can run amok. good times... good times.
It's especially great when you make them all the same monster. hurray for a very large pack of celestial mastiffs (riding dogs) (the trick is to position the real and shadow critters on the outer edges of a solid formation while filling in the central gap with fully illusory units.

Chronos
2008-06-22, 09:04 PM
You can also use Shades to get Magnificent Mansion, or Greater Shadow Evocation to get Contingency, no problem.I'm still not convinced on the Contingency bit. It seems to me that a person doing something to activate my contingency is interacting with it, and can therefore cause it to not work if they make a Will save. Yeah, yeah, you can pump your save DCs, but I'd still rather not have even a 1 in 20 chance of failure on my "if all else fails" button.

Foxtale
2008-06-22, 09:24 PM
When someone passes the save on a Shadow: Light spell though, don't they still see a faded outline of the illusion, and thus benefit from its light?

FMArthur
2008-06-22, 10:12 PM
Clever Illusion: Being a changeling factotum 5/chameleon 8 and infiltrating the DM's rival party. My illusions and boosted Disguise/Bluff checks allow me to impersonate the leader to get close to (and behind) one of the enemy and make a full TWF attack on him with my +1 keen scimitar and kukri, and because of factotum Sneak Attack, my Martial Aptitude Focus's +4 to attack, damage, and strength (essentially +6 to attack/damage), and the spell Greater Magic Weapon with my boosted chameleon caster level (+4 weapons...), I kill him instantly with a couple crits.

Wash/repair his clothes, and it's an instant identity theft! So I can now impersonate one of the enemy in front of all of them at once, and I join them on their adventure to go get some treasure that my party is also headed for. I murder one of the remaining four in the night (the wizard :smallbiggrin:), and with my beautiful Bluff bonus, I convince the two remaining that the rogue did it. We easily kill the rogue, because he rolls poor initiative. The following night, I kill off the barbarian, unfortunately alerting the monk. He runs for it, but is killed by Solid Fog in conjunction with something else I can't remember (it's not important; Solid Fog did the real work).

I honestly think of this now as a shining example of things not to do in D&D. I mean, I ruined the DM's session plans and story, and basically made the rest of the party feel redundant (they only got a random encounter in the woods while I did this). At least it wiped the smile off of the face of our Wizard 5/Archivist 5/Mystic Theurge 3, who laughed at my total lack of direct-damage spells (seriously!).