Illusory Self


Advice

Shadow Lodge

Illusory Self:
Illusory Self [Wizard/Sorcerer?, Bard?, Witch?, Other?]
School:Illusion
Casting Time:1 Standard Action
Duration:1 round/level
Range:Personal
Target:You
Saving Throw:{Will Save}, SR:{No}
Effect:When this spell is cast, you create an illusory double of yourself over yourself. This double mimics your movements exactly, but seems as if it were not real. Any creature who comes into contact with you must make a will save. If they succeed, they do not believe the illusion around yourself is real and believe you are fake, so will not treat you as if you were real. If they fail the saving throw, they believe you are real, but treat you as if you had total concealment. If you do any direct attack against them, and they recognize you as the attacker, then they automatically believe you are real, and you gain no benefits from this spell against them.
What level would be best for this spell, and what might be the best casters to have this spell? The idea behind it is a spell that makes an illusion of yourself to make people think you are fake. Its an idea for a campaign I am making.


The spell "Mislead" is level 6 and seems to be along the lines of what you're looking for.

Mislead

Spoiler:

DESCRIPTION
You become invisible (as greater invisibility, a glamer), and at the same time, an illusory double of you (as major image, a figment) appears. You are then free to go elsewhere while your double moves away. The double appears within range but thereafter moves as you direct it (which requires concentration beginning on the first round after the casting). You can make the figment appear superimposed perfectly over your own body so that observers don't notice an image appearing and you turning invisible. You and the figment can then move in different directions. The double moves at your speed and can talk and gesture as if it were real, but it cannot attack or cast spells, though it can pretend to do so.

The illusory double lasts as long as you concentrate upon it, plus 3 additional rounds. After you cease concentration, the illusory double continues to carry out the same activity until the duration expires. The greater invisibility lasts for 1 round per level, regardless of concentration.

It's a super cool spell, yes. I bring up "Mislead" because the description you have written for the spell you want to try out seems to go against the way the illusion rules work.

Not a direct quote, but basically when you interact with an illusion and have the opportunity to save against the illusion, a successful save means your character knows the illusion to be an illusion and can see through it: The illusory wall really just hiding a passageway that you can now see, the illusory fire doesn't feel hot and so you know it isn't actually fire, or the illusory woman who just ran across the room didn't look quite right and you recognize her as not being real.

You said you're looking at this spell for a campaign you're making. Is it a spell that you want PCs to eventually have access to, or is it a plot hook / plot point for early in the campaign? If you have a sorcerer/wizard in the party who will eventually get level 6 spells, they will eventually have access to the spell "Mislead". If you are looking for this spell to be a plot hook or recurring plotpoint, don't give the PCs a chance to interact with the illusion part of the spell unless you don't mind if they succeed..... because if they "beat" the illusion when you don't want them to, it could throw a wrench in your plot hook.

I made the mistake a couple times as a young GM of asking the players for saving throws when I knew the plot required them to fail the save... so of course someone rolled a natural 20 on the save, and I was left scratching my head with "what now?" It made for an awkward scene, but my players realized what I was trying to do and they wanted to see where the story went, so we just ret-conned the save and continued the game.

Sometimes a "cut-scene" is fine, there are TONS of read-aloud text in published adventures. You want an illusionary NPC to talk to the player characters? Just have the illusion back away when a player gets close to touching her, removing the direct interaction that would give the character a saving throw. Want the PCs to realize the NPC was an illusion after the encounter? Have the NPC melt away as an obvious illusion at the end of the conversation.... alot of illusions are "duration: concentration", and that's basically what happens when you stop concentrating on an illusion.

Anyway, just some food for thought!

Shadow Lodge

laarddrym wrote:

I bring up "Mislead" because the description you have written for the spell you want to try out seems to go against the way the illusion rules work.

Not a direct quote, but basically when you interact with an illusion and have the opportunity to save against the illusion, a successful save means your character knows the illusion to be an illusion and can see through it: The illusory wall really just hiding a passageway that you can now see, the illusory fire doesn't feel hot and so you know it isn't actually fire, or the illusory woman who just ran across the room didn't look quite right and you recognize her as not being real.

Yeah, the campaign's main focus is on the fact that the laws of physics and magic are both deteriorating, and so I intended the spell to break the rules of illusions.
Quote:
You said you're looking at this spell for a campaign you're making. Is it a spell that you want PCs to eventually have access to, or is it a plot hook / plot point for early in the campaign? If you have a sorcerer/wizard in the party who will eventually get level 6 spells, they will eventually have access to the spell "Mislead". If you are looking for this spell to be a plot hook or recurring plotpoint, don't give the PCs a chance to interact with the illusion part of the spell unless you don't mind if they succeed..... because if they "beat" the illusion when you don't want them to, it could throw a wrench in your plot hook.

It is starting out as a plot-hook thing that has been accidentally permanencied on an NPC early on that the PC's meet only permanent because magic is messing up, won't be a PC option, and he'll be the one introducing the campaign, but later on I want to potentially grant PC's access to it. Succeeding won't be an issue because the NPC will admit to it. It will probably wind up being an NPC buff as well for some of the boss fights later on.

So, level 6 seem about right for a Sorc/Wiz/Witch? What would be a good equivalent for a 6-level spellcaster? 4?

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