Automatic weapons vs mirror image


Rules Questions

Grand Lodge

5 people marked this as FAQ candidate.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Quote:

MIRROR IMAGE 2

School illusion
Casting Time 1 standard action
Range personal
Duration 1 minute/level
This spell creates a number of illusory doubles of you that inhabit your square. These doubles make it difficult for enemies to precisely locate and attack you.
When you cast mirror image, it creates 1d4 figment images. These images remain in your space and move with you, mimicking your movements, sounds, and actions exactly.
Whenever you are attacked or are the target of a spell that requires an attack roll, there is a possibility that the attack targets one of your images instead. If the attack hits, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment. If it is a figment, the figment is destroyed. If the attack misses by 5 or less, one of your figments is destroyed by the near miss, and an attack that misses you due to a miss chance also destroys an image.
Area spells and effects that don’t require an attack roll affect you normally and don’t destroy any of your figments. Spells with a range of touch are harmlessly discharged if used to destroy a figment.
An attacker must be able to see the figments to be fooled. If you are invisible or the attacker is blind, the spell has no effect. Blindsense doesn’t help distinguish the figments from the real you, but blindsight is sufficient to do so.

OK, so if someone is coming at me with the spell up, and I empty an automatic weapon into them, what happens?


The same thing that happens if you shoot a normal weapon at them. Remember that Automatic as written doesn't let you attack a single creature multiple times - it turns your attack into a cone, where you attack each person in the cone once. A target with mirror image still only counts as one target.


1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

A target with mirror image only counts as one target, but OP's question has more to do with whether or not the figments also count as one target - for example, if the caster has 4 images out, the attack against the caster might target a figment, but does the automatic weapon attempt to target the figments as additional targets? The spell makes it clear it's possible to target a figment somehow, since that's the underlying purpose of casting it.

I've FAQed the post, because the rules don't clarify this - the spell makes it clear figments are targetable, and the rules on Swarm Defenses make it clear that multiple targets sharing a space interact with automatic weapons in ways the automatic weapons rules may not cover, but there's no RAW rule I can find covering this specific scenario.

I would house rule, if I were the GM, that all figments are legal, equidistant targets, and hence the automatic weapons rule would have to be followed accordingly - a caster with 4 images out is 5 equidistant targets sharing a space, so the automatic weapon must attempt to attack all 5 targets; we randomly determine which of the 5 each attempt targets. Because of the unique circumstances, and for ease of play, I would randomly assign the targets prior to hitting, rather than after.


I would be inclined to treat it as an area effect, myself. We know that just because a mirror image is within a damaging effect, doesn't automatically dispel it. It has to be specifically targeted.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Meh, there's enough ambiguity to warrant a button press.

Community / Forums / Starfinder / Rules Questions / Automatic weapons vs mirror image All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Rules Questions