I love fooling NPCs with simple illusions, but I'm sometimes frustrated that my silent images can't speak or make appropriate sounds without a prior casting of ghost sounds or the need to continue concentrating on it. Now I know that our esteemed Treantmonk absolutely looooves this spell; even going so far as insisting that it's easily the most desirable of all low level illusions spells. I'm just curious to know why it's so beloved. What are the great uses that others have come up with for this spell?
It makes excellent cover or for misdirection.
Being chased by orcs in a forest? Make a tree and hide inside the trunk. Doing the classic jump in a river/lake/ocean to get away from bad buys? DO that then have a shark eat you... or show the arrows being fired hit you and have your "Corpse" float down river full of arrows. Think that is an ambush up ahead? Make an illusion of your group going into the valley and see if they attack.
The lack of sound can sometimes be an issue, but not always. Overall it is a great catch all for creative random uses based upon a comments from a DM during play. Magic missile pretty mush has one use... Silent Image has limitless visual only uses.
Last session, my group went to deal with this local thug and his minions, since he had abducted the magician apprentice of my illusionist, and silent image was used to great effect during our assault on the bandit lord's house.
When we barged through the back door and had a squad of 12 Korvosan guards with us, it caused one of the minions to flee immediately and another surrendered due to "obvious disadvantage in numbers" ;).
Cardboard box stealth. It works every time.
At least, if your DM is a fan of Metal Gear Solid. ;)
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Cardboard box stealth. It works every time.
At least, if your DM is a fan of Metal Gear Solid. ;)
LoL. I still remember that from the first one on the NES.
I've personally used it to make a stalagmite in a cave (which I promptly hid within), the illusion of an extra 5 feet of room at the edge of a cliff, a picture of a character's ancestral home, and the image of my character walking across a bridge (drawing out bandits)
Ideas that I've had that didn't get actual playtime:
caltrops
obvious traps (swinging scythe)
hiding a body beneath a sudden new piece of furniture
a door where there isn't one
Figments cannot make something seem to be something else.
You can create the illusion of a tree to hide behind, but you cannot make yourself look like a tree, a stalagmite, or anything else for that matter.
You would also have a hard time creating a door where there isn't one since you can't make a wall look like a wall with a door in it (though you could create a wall with a door where there previously was neither).
The spell becomes much more balanced when you actually follow the rules of figments.
In a Council of Thieves game I am in one of our NPC died a nasty death and we had to cart him across the city. We place the body in the cart, tossed old curtains on top of the body, then used Silent Image to make the curtains look like a smelly pile of unwashed clothes. The GM agreed that this was allowable under the rules since the target of the illusion was the curtains and not the body.
Earlier in the day we used Silent Image to mask an open gate to look like it was still closed.
So yeah, I be lovin' the silent image.
You can't make yourself look like a box.
You can make yourself look like yourself in a box.
Figments cannot make something seem to be something else.
You can create the illusion of a tree to hide behind, but you cannot make yourself look like a tree, a stalagmite, or anything else for that matter.
You would also have a hard time creating a door where there isn't one since you can't make a wall look like a wall with a door in it (though you could create a wall with a door where there previously was neither).
The spell becomes much more balanced when you actually follow the rules of figments.
You do not change your appearance. You make a fake tree and step into it. As long as the tree is bigger around then you are, your entire body is hidden. You can put a knothole in the tree to be able to peak out.
Think of a person stepping into a hologram in a futuristic game. They still exist, but are hidden by the light illusion.
Another thing I've noticed. A lot of people are discussing moving images--which is fine--provided you can keep the illusion within the stationary four 10-ft. cubes + one 10-ft. cube/level. Having an image walk the entire length of a long canyon in order to mislead your enemies won't work as you won't have enough cubes to shape.
There seems to be a fair bit of confusion as to what can be accomplished with a silent image. Not to rain on anyone's parade, but as others have pointed out, a lot of these tricks wouldn't work RAW.
our caster silent imaged copies of ourselves standing in the room
we barged through the back door and had a squad of 12 Korvosan guards with us, it caused one of the minions to flee immediately and another surrendered due to "obvious disadvantage in numbers" ;).
Keep in mind that silent image can only create "the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force". So only one creature at a time; no creating armies of soldiers.
Another thing I've noticed. A lot of people are discussing moving images--which is fine--provided you can keep the illusion within the stationary four 10-ft. cubes + one 10-ft. cube/level.
+1. So no traveling across town.
You can't make yourself look like a box.
You can make yourself look like yourself in a box.
+1. Creating a tree or a stalagmite with a hollow large enough to hide inside isn't the same thing as making yourself look like a tree or a stalagmite.
You would also have a hard time creating a door where there isn't one since you can't make a wall look like a wall with a door in it.
Although it's true that you couldn't make the wall look like it has an open or recessed doorway in it, it'd be a simple matter to create the illusion of a door and doorframe resting up against that wall, which should fool most people looking at it; at least until they study or try interacting with it.
Figments cannot make something seem to be something else.
You can create the illusion of a tree to hide behind, but you cannot make yourself look like a tree, a stalagmite, or anything else for that matter.
You would also have a hard time creating a door where there isn't one since you can't make a wall look like a wall with a door in it (though you could create a wall with a door where there previously was neither).
The spell becomes much more balanced when you actually follow the rules of figments.
Agreed on the most misused and abused spells out there.
What about creating the illusion of a pit where the floor used to be? Prevents melee or pursuit until you get out of range.
To a certain degree, allowing creative use of a spell like this is what makes the game worth playing. As one member pointed out, magic missile has one use, and silent image has many. As a DM, I always tried to reward creative thinking, rather than stomp it with a rule that might be open to interpretation anyway. That doesn't mean that I wouldn't give my NPCs a chance to discover the ruse, or maybe even have it backfire on the players if possible.
Great spell, most definitely.
What about creating the illusion of a pit where the floor used to be? Prevents melee or pursuit until you get out of range.
You could create a floor where there's a pit, but not vice versa.
What about creating the illusion of a pit where the floor used to be? Prevents melee or pursuit until you get out of range.You could create a floor where there's a pit, but not vice versa.
Why not? I create the optical illusion of a pit. It has visual gradients in the lighting and appears 3 dimentional. You can do this with paint and trick people, I see no reason why an illusion spell could not be used.
As for hiding yourself inside a tree, the tree is larger than you are. You are still there, and do not appear as a tree. There is just a tree in between your image and the viewer.
A door where there isn't one is easy. You put some molding on there and create the image of the door just over the surface of the wall. You can only do this on 1 side though, since you probably only have line of effect to 1 side. edit: when someone opens the door, you can paint what they see on the other side in 2d, just like the pit.
As for multiple people, I create a singel object that appears as an army. I use an invisible force to connect them. This is no different than creating an image of a person carrying something or wearing clothing.
While I am a firm believer in keeping physics and magic separate (no lightning bolt balls underwater... or lightning bolting an entire large room flooded with one inch of water etc) I do think people need to give some illusions a little bit more credit then they are currently getting.
Below is a link to a website with a guy that does sidewalk art chalk. Everything here is done in 2D on a flat surface. If this can be done, I think a silent image could do a fair job of mimicing some of it. The question is how does it work with perspective and multiple targets.
Why not? I create the optical illusion of a pit. It has visual gradients in the lighting and appears 3 dimentional. You can do this with paint and trick people, I see no reason why an illusion spell could not be used.
It is illegal because you can't make something look like something else. The rules are absolutely clear in this. You can only create a figment in the absence of something.
As for hiding yourself inside a tree, the tree is larger than you are. You are still there, and do not appear as a tree. There is just a tree in between your image and the viewer.
You could certainly hide behind the illusion of a tree and, though I don't like the idea, I guess you could (technically) hide inside of an illusory tree.
A door where there isn't one is easy. You put some molding on there and create the image of the door just over the surface of the wall. You can only do this on 1 side though, since you probably only have line of effect to 1 side. edit: when someone opens the door, you can paint what they see on the other side in 2d, just like the pit.
Really cheesy, but technically legal I suppose.
As for multiple people, I create a single object that appears as an army. I use an invisible force to connect them. This is no different than creating an image of a person carrying something or wearing clothing.
Is there a limitation on how many components you can have in your illusion? I figured you could make nearly anything you wanted within the area.
Why not? I create the optical illusion of a pit. It has visual gradients in the lighting and appears 3 dimentional. You can do this with paint and trick people, I see no reason why an illusion spell could not be used.It is illegal because you can't make something look like something else. The rules are absolutely clear in this. You can only create a figment in the absence of something.
I'm not making anything look like something else. I'm making an illusion of paint overlayed on ground, painted in such a way as to create an optical illusion that tricks the mind. In real life it can be done with paint, so I see no reason why you can't do it with illusionary paint.
As for multiple objects, I have always played that you could, though the spell uses the singular object. I was just pointing out that it is easy to get arround this with creativity.
Why not? I create the optical illusion of a pit. It has visual gradients in the lighting and appears 3 dimentional. You can do this with paint and trick people, I see no reason why an illusion spell could not be used.It is illegal because you can't make something look like something else. The rules are absolutely clear in this. You can only create a figment in the absence of something.
I'm not making anything look like something else. I'm making an illusion of paint overlayed on ground, painted in such a way as to create an optical illusion that tricks the mind. In real life it can be done with paint, so I see no reason why you can't do it with illusionary paint.
As for multiple objects, I have always played that you could, though the spell uses the singular object. I was just pointing out that it is easy to get around this with creativity.
Again, cheesy. (Though I must admit I've considered it myself.)
Oh well, that's no worse than me using stone shape to impale and entire army. ;)
EDIT: I thought I should explain my cheese. If you have the ability to shape 17 cubic feet (the minimum for stone shape), then you could create 467 stone spikes (cones) each 5 feet long, with a 1 inch radius at the base. I used it on an opposing army once.