But, in a world with summoned demons, conjured heavenly fire, and transformations into fantastic creatures, you're telling me that a set of funny stairs would instantly ring "oh, it must be an illusion!"??
What I'm telling you is when a spell says specifically I don't let my players handwave it away.
"Figments cannot make something seem to be something else."
A figment can make a carpet on a floor but it cannot make a floor seem to be a hole.
I'm not sure what kind of check would be required to make someone think a carpet is a hole. Maybe an perception check opposed by your craft check to craft a convincing looking rug? Because ultimately you are not talking about fooling someone with magic, you are talking about fooling them with a picture.
As to creating holes, I see nothing of the sort. It's not a real hole, and falling into it will blatently prove it false (unless you also create the illusion of a short fall, which then becomes obvious to all other onlookers and most definitly calls for a save).
It makes the floor SEEM to be a hole.
"Figments cannot make something seem to be something else."
Now imagine you are either an artist savant with great imagination or a genius with an IQ of over 200. Could you imagine such a hole? What if you could channel power such that anything you imagine would appear? Why COULDN'T you create such an image, since all you need is to imagine it? What more do you think an illusion spell is?
Thus in my next post I suggested I would probably let someone make a craft check versus perception. What you are talking about isn't crafting an illusion of a hole, it's crafting an illusion of a ground cover that looks like a hole. If you are an 'artist savant' then I would assume you have maxed ranks in craft (painting) and skill focus as well. A genius mathematician is not necessarily an master artist also.
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Ok, this thread has degenerated into a sissy slap-fight.
Back on track: I set up a proximity flame trap behind a permanent silent image of a locked chest. The rogue approached first (out of sight of the party of course, because he wanted first dibs) got hit by the trap, went unconscious, and stabilized. The rest of the party ran up to see what happened and found the rogue passed out in front of a chest. Thinking the rogue had triggered it already, two more got hit by the trap when they went to open it before the cleric could cure the rogue up to warn the rest of the party.
No particularly clever, but it was a pretty effective trap due the players greed. I don't think three players would have been hit by it if it were just a trap on a door.
Ok, this thread has degenerated into a sissy slap-fight.
I'm not sure I would call it that but the point of the thread is not to bang rules arguments so I'll let MM have the last word on it.
Here is a curious idea... how about the illusion of a dragon's shadow on the ground. No sound, just a massive shadow. It would be an awesome distraction for players or as a GM you could drive your players nuts looking for a dragon they can't see.
Used the spell to put up an exact copy of the far wall of a room, 5' from the wall. It allowed the party to cross the room without being seen by the creatures at the far end. Please note that it was timed so that none of the creatures were looking when it went up.
As for the "hole" discussion, would it be acceptable if the caster made a copy of the ground, raising it about an inch or two towards where they were going to put the hole, then having the hole start, with it being black in the middle.
To me, this would cover all the perspectives into seeing a hole, with a rim and then blackness. In a fight or other distracted situation, I can see most, if not all, creatures going around it.
In a 2nd Ed adventure in the temple of crazyness, my adventurers started to climb spiral staircase until after 30 feet they reached a wall with writings
"Welcome you've reached the top of this illusionary stairs and managed to go up 30ft by the sheer force of your brain. Now you know that these stairs are illusions."At that time you had to "fail" a roll under intelligence (13) or fall to the ground for 3D6 of damage.... :D
While it's a fun idea, it wouldn't work since the moment you step onto those trees you immediately know it's fake. It doesn't hold any weight. Think that's actually litteraly stated in the rules; that you don't need a saving throw when the illusion clearly proves itself to be an illusion.
The open door in the wall in a post above also is not possible since it's the same as the hole in the ground: You can't fake holes (a door is a vertical hole) where there aren't any. You could make the door plastered over the wall though. And when someone opens it, there will be a blank wall behind it.
There's a different spell for that. Solipsism I think it was called.
Very cool, had our entire party believe there was a bridge across the spasm, except for the INT 18 wizard who kept making his INT roll. The player then convinced us that with such an intelligence he would be able to figure out that he actually could cross the spasm by making himself believe my cleric when he was saying that there was bridge.
An ordinary illusion spell wouldn't work like that, this was a Tought spell I think.
edit: AD&D spell fyi, in the Priest's Spell Compendium (Three books of priest spells!! the awesome!!)
Best way to deal with the hole in the ground would be to put a Silent Image of a hole on top of an actual hole, then they'd be fooled no matter what.
Enemy guards were fleeing back towards the tower we were trying to get into (a notoriously haunted tower) and our wizard had a group of wraiths pour out of the door, turning the fleeing enemies down the road away from both us and the tower.
I have dropped a shimmering silvery mist over a bar-room so my allies and myself could escape while everyone was distracted- it bought us a round or two of being unobserved.
I've created the illusion of a fire elemental opponent when we were fighting a water elemental to draw some attacks.
Setting up an ambush against some gnolls I created the illusion of a bunch of undergrowth to hide most of the party, with the scariest looking of us standing near an illusory hyena corpse. Casting ghost sound the round before, I made it imitate the death rattle of a hyena.
Creating a silent image of myself, I had the image walk around a corner where we knew a ranged attacking opponent was hiding. It drew a lot of fire down, but gave away the opponent's position.
I have used Silent Image, a pouch full of rocks, a genuine gold coin, and a good bluff check before to "pay" a mercenary captain 1 gp and a sack of river rocks. I pulled the coin out of the bag and flicked it to him so he could test it, using the bluff check to convince him the rest were real. The heft of the bag was real, but the glinting sheen of gold coming from it was an illusion. He accepted the bag and left without an issue.
Silent Image and Ghost Sound in conjunction once again, this time the ghost sound is the muttering of spellcasting and the silent image is the spellcaster.
Silent Image can also be used to "capture" someone if they play along, by having them bound with illusory ropes and possibly escorted by illusory guards. I've used the former along with a potion of disguise self to sneak a captive out of an enemy camp. I was wearing heavy cultists robes and muttering to myself the whole time, using my hat of disguise to appear as an orc shaman. The party fighter was wearing full plate and actually physically restraining the "captive," but the bonds around him were purely for show. A nice series of bluff checks from the rogue and we got out of that orc warlord's camp without a fight.
Create a Silent Image of an enemy in flanking position to allow your rogue a sneak attack. It'll probably only work for 1 round.
Use Silent Image to create a bunch of illusory party members. Why weren't they there before? Because, as part of your illusion, you show them emerging from hiding places. Make sure they come out of places a person could actually hide! It's a great force multiplier--- if someone expects four, sees four, then eight, then twelve... it should cause second thoughts and buy you a round or 2.
Really, I look at illusions this way-- It uses up my standard action in exchange for (hopefully) using up multiple standard actions of my opponents. Any time the enemy is NOT attacking the party and either attacking/interacting with an illusion instead, it's a net win for my party. With a little forethought, ghost sound can be included in most uses of Silent Image by casting it before-hand. Remember Ghost Sound has a multi-round duration, so if you choose your sounds appropriately, it may work even better!
For example, say your party needs to scare someone away because you don't have the stamina to deal with them effectively at the moment. You could use ghost sound to make a susurrus gradually gaining in volume and intensity- disembodied whisperings are generally creepy. Combine that with some unhealthy mist bubbling up from the ground and forming into several quasi-humanoid shapes and you've got yourself a wraith ambush! It works particularly well if your party takes advantage of this and runs the hell away, too! Since Silent Image is long range and only takes a standard action to maintain, you may be able to put some serious distance between yourself and whatever you need to get away from in the few rounds such a setup will fool them.
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People should remember that making the save on an illusion means you get to see through it like it was transparent. This means that you can make an illusion of a stone wall and have people put their hand through it, and if fail a save they still see a stone wall (though they could walk through it, if they wanted).
This means you could make something like a magic pink fog surround your foes, and they'd know it was magic, but they'd still be blinded while you could see perfectly (assuming they failed saves).
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That being said, here are some uses of silent image:
-Hunter's Blind. Planning an ambush? How about a perfect cover of an illusion? Simply make it as big as the party, hide inside, keep concentrating, and drop when you attack.
-make illusions of yourself like a poor man's Mirror Image, wasting enemy attacks.
-make illusions of you on your enemies so that their allies attack them.
-make illusions of common spells. Not many people are really going to test if that Wall of Fire is real or illusion. Perfect for barriers, cages, and general control. Illusions of fog are actually better than real fog or spells that create fog since you and your friends can see right through them. Make illusions of summons like shadows or ghosts or other quiet things, fake gates to other worlds, and give the illusion of life to statues or other inanimate objects.
-stationary disguise. Sure, this is no Disguise Self, but if you don't need to exit the area you can wear an illusion like an oversized suit.
-the bridge that isn't. Near a cliff, river, etc? Make an illusion of land or floor that isn't there, and lure enemies there. Heck, a little work with any number of spells and making tiger pits is super easy.
-the guy that isn't. Make an illusion of someone the target trusts, and have the illusion wave them over, flip them off, whatever. Perfect for leading people into traps.
-distractions. All the fun of burning barns without none of that nasty fire. Fights, dancing girls, enemy armies coming through the trees, etc.