Magiker's page

You mean, "if you plan on always being within 30 feet and always giving away the element of surprise in the first round of combat, then Color Spray is the way to go".

That is another way of putting it, yes.

I realize that I'm coming late to the discussion, but the biggest problem with sleep is the one round cast time. With the poor defenses you have at low level, it can be hard to cast the spell successfuly since you are likely to take damage and fail the concentration check.

Sleep does have a range of medium, so if you're outside charging range you shouldn't have a problem. If you plan on always being within 30 feet (i.e. close knit party formation), then Color Spray is the way to go.

I see nothing in the rules saying that figments disappear when touched or attacked.

Look at the spell descriptions for major image and mirror image. WotC did a poor job making the rules for this line of spells clear and concise, which is why silent image has become an "uber" spell at low levels. In reality, its just an OK effect.

P.S. your players should get alot more XP for that encounter...

Ahh, that is where we differ my friend- I love illusions. Particularly the image spells, with a little imagination, you'd be surprised what you can do. For example, did you know that there is no difference between a stone wall and an illusion of one? Until the enemy makes his save that is. Oh- and you only get a save when you interact with the wall- so the enemy would to try to bast the wall down- or scale it mid-battle, to make that save (and even the he can still fail it). And unlike stone wall, it's a first level spell, and has other uses- like faking a summon spell. I usually put at least one image spell on the spell list of any character that can get them.

If figments disappear when struck, and as figments have AC = 10 + size modifier, and since figments (other than mirror image) are often pretty big - then your 1st level "stone" wall is going to disappear the moment a foe so much as taps it. No Will save needed, pretty much a guaranteed hit, bye-bye mighty images...

Silent Image (and its older siblings) is thus possibly the most overrated spell in the game.

Taking the beef out of figments makes the Illusion school a consideration only for defense, color spray, and shadows to try to replace evocation (if it was banned and if you really care). Still not a bad school, but it becomes entirely dispensable (and makes choosing Focused Specialist for conj/trans/necro that much easier).

OK - so this question deals with 3.5. In general, I would like to avoid 3.5 discussion here.

that said

Yep, it does work. Saving vs the effect makes no difference. Watch that the cloud doesn't completely conceal your foe or you've screwed yourself.

The spell "blockade" is also a good candidate for this kind of strategy.

Thank you! I considered 'blockade', which is a great spell, but it has a range of 0 feet so it isn't terribly useful for this effect. 'Stand' seems to be the only viable candidate. Sorry about intruding with my 3.5 question.

Would Cloudy Conjuration work with the "Stand" spell from PHBII, such that a caster could use an immediate action to apply a -2 penalty to a foe's saving throw and then use a save/die spell during the same round? Stand allows a saving throw so if the opponent makes it, does that in any way affect the cloudy conjuration aspect of the action?

Thanks!