Quote Originally Posted by NigelWalmsley View Post
Having separate effects for in combat and out of combat causes a lot of problems. If Silent Image does something different to a guy you are fighting than a guy who is simply in the environment, you inevitably create incentives for stupid metagaming. Maybe the combat rules are more favorable, and the players start having the Fighter declare his action as drawing a sword (putting the party "in combat") every time the Wizard casts Silent Image. Maybe the non-combat rules are better, and the players invent increasingly contrived excuses for why the Wizard is totally not in combat right now.
That's definitely a slippery slope issue, though.

We have the exact opposite problem in 5th edition DnD right now, where there's half a dozen ways of using illusions in combat, and no guidance on what that actually means, whether enemies take a swing at illusions and believe they miss, take a swing at illusions and see it as an illusion once their sword goes through, or they just see illusions for what they are immediately in combat.

So if what we have is 0, and you're stating there's a plausible 100, I'd like to dispute that means there's a plausible 50.