How about as archers? a arrow flying towards a pc, obviously missing, and "sticking" in the ground, will cause a distraction, or as a caster who looks like its casting a powerful spell?
Can Silent Image be used to create a "phantom opponent" that flanks a creature, allowing you to get a flank bonus to hit/sneak attack damage? If it can, that would be a really good use.
I don't think it can threaten, only distract?
Well if the opponent fails his save and believes the image is real, what would be the difference? But there might be a nuance/errata about the spell i'm not aware of.
Anything, the mere sight of it (without other senses required) would encourage a desired reaction and discourage any further interaction with it: Walls, Pits, Brambles, Razorwire, obviously plague infected corpses.
Also: false floors to make people jump down (into pits e.g.), thinking that it's only a 2 feet drop.
Anything that should make a sound or have a salient smell should be avoided.
Otherwise, if you are the GM, you could make the illusion of a spiked pit in a tunnel, and then put a real trap on the square behind it and cover that one whit a illusionary floor^^
A few words: Threatening Illusion metamagic feat.
Allows your illusions to threaten the enemy and provide flanking. Rogues will love you.
Silent image is silent and can be spellcrafted.
Without a spellcrafter, the illusionist is a very powerful battlefield controller, because victims only get saves when they touch/interact with the illusion.
Summon ghosts and other scary but normally silent, flying monsters to break morale.
Summon walls of Force or Stone to control the battlefield.
Create natural partial or total cover for ranged protection.
Disguise natural hazards like real pits, rivers, etc.
One person mirror image.
Facing a spellcrafter, be more careful, so they don't spoil the fun.
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I once used silent image to make the ground appear to fall away around him so he thought he was stuck in that 5ft square.
I once put an illusion of grass above us to hide our escape from the guards looking down from guard towers.
I created a huge dragonic looking force that "enhabited" the party fighter and got us a killer circumstances bonus to diplomacy / intimidation checks with a dragon cult.
I once used silent image to make the ground appear to fall away around him so he thought he was stuck in that 5ft square.
Unfortunately I don't think you can do this with Silent Image as it is a Figment which cannot make things look like something else. In this case making the ground look like empty space.
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I once used silent image to make the ground appear to fall away around him so he thought he was stuck in that 5ft square.
I once put an illusion of grass above us to hide our escape from the guards looking down from guard towers.
I created a huge dragonic looking force that "enhabited" the party fighter and got us a killer circumstances bonus to diplomacy / intimidation checks with a dragon cult.
could you explain that last on a bit better, I might use that one.
I once used silent image to make the ground appear to fall away around him so he thought he was stuck in that 5ft square.
I once put an illusion of grass above us to hide our escape from the guards looking down from guard towers.
I created a huge dragonic looking force that "enhabited" the party fighter and got us a killer circumstances bonus to diplomacy / intimidation checks with a dragon cult.
"Figments cannot make something seem to be something else."
Most of those are completely improper and against RAW uses of figments, which is what the whole "image" line of spells is.
You can NOT use a figment to re-skin or cover up things, nor can you use it to create a "fake" pit or window.
You can only create freestanding (i.e. not a part of something else) illusions. There are spells (Hallucinatory Terrain for example) that create whole mountains to hide your fort and woods and can cover your army but those are GLAMERS, not FIGMENTS.
You can add a fake fighter but not make a real fighter look like an Ogre by casting the illusion "over top" of the fighter. You can't hide a house with an illusionary boulder either.
ALSO
"Because figments and glamers are unreal, they cannot produce real effects the way that other types of illusions can. "
So NO unless you have the proper feats (shadow gambit, threating illusion, etc) you can not produce real effects, this CAn include not being able to use illusions to get bonuses to die rolls for intimidate etc depending on how strict your GM wants to interpert that rule.
Please read the section on illusion magic and it's sub schools in the core rulebok. Yes an illusionist can be very powerful but there are still rules and game mechanics that apply to them.
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I don't see why I can't make an illusory pit. I can't make the ground look diferent but I can lay the illusion of a different floor over the existing floor. I got the idea from a 3.5 splat book and the silent image spell didn't change.
I can't make a party member look like a tree but I can put an illusory tree in his space.
Maybe so but still think the Illusion of grass above should be legit albeit very point of view specfics (you could have the grass illusion wrap around your space on the side but the moving mound from the side would be a bit noticeable.
Well that's why I said "most" of those uses. Also IMHO it would be an iffy to make the grass suddenly rise 6 feet in the air so PCs can walk under it.
I just wanted to post actual rules since a lot of the examples in the thread are not things you can actually do with Silent Image and it seemed like no one really understood the mechanics and limitations of the spells and if you are dabbling into Illusion and it's subschools you SHOULD know the rules that pertain to them.
Wasn't trying to be a debbie downer, but the spell isn't "whatever I can think up". It's versatile to be sure, it's got it's uses and limits like any spell in the game.
I don't see why I can't make an illusory pit. I can't make the ground look diferent but I can lay the illusion of a different floor over the existing floor. I got the idea from a 3.5 splat book and the silent image spell didn't change.
I can't make a party member look like a tree but I can put an illusory tree in his space.
FIGMENTS:
Figments cannot make something seem to be something else.GLAMERS:
A glamer spell changes a subject's sensory qualities, making it look, feel, taste, smell, or sound like something else, or even seem to disappear.
That's why you can't use Silent Image (a figment) to make a pit or door or dragon out of the floor, the wall, your fighter.
The easiest way to think of it is You can ADD (another fighter, a dragon, a chest) but not alter (make it appear as something else) or change (make it pink or invisible).
They are two different sub schools for two different effects...
Sorry...Dems da rules.
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Saying "Sorry...Dems da rules." Doesn't make you right.
*sigh* We are taking over a thread that wasn't started for this. I don't think I am wrong. It's up toyour GM in the end anyway. So Greyfeather, if you want to illusion up a pit go for it. If your GM says no then regardless of any one elses rules interpretation it's a no go. But I honestly think it should be allowed.
He isn’t just saying “Dem’s da rules”. He’s also quoting the rules. Figments cannot make something appear to be something else. They cannot make a character invisible, for example. Similarly, they cannot make part of a wall or floor invisible. Thus, they cannot make the illusion of a pit.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic#TOC-lllusion-Figment
Your GM may indeed allow you to make an illusion of a pit with Silent Image or another figment spell. Your GM may allow you to use Mount to summon the god Thor and ride him around town. That’s not how the magic works by the rules, however.
Yeah, this. They ARE the rules as per the core Pathfinder rulebook. What your GM houserules (or simply doesn't know) is another matter all together.
ALSO @ OP:
You can't make 40 or 50 illusions using Silent Image...It's IMAGE, singular. If you want to make multiple illusions at the same time I highly reccommend Effortless Trickery (gnome feat), which allows you to concentrate on an illusion as a swift action, therby leaving your standard action available for casting another spell or maintaining another illusion. In fact using the feat effortless trickery allows you to cast an illusion and have it up all day since the concentration is a swift action. Make a dummy of yourself or a fake 1/2 orc barbarian to follow your little gnome around to confuse and misdirect opponents.
Please keep in mind any illusions you cast also affect your allies. They don't automatically see through it just because they are your friends, they might however just come to expect shenanigans if they know you use a lot of illusions, but an illusionary wall blocks their sight as well until the save is made.
Didn't mean to hijack the thread, but it seemed like a lot of misinformation was being posted.
I'll leave you guys to it.
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I find the wording behind "Figments cannot make something appear to be something else".
A literal interpretation of this breaks the game as "Air" is indeed something.
It is of my opinion that the intent behind this statement is to avoid things like making it look like the fighters sword is now a snake. Or making your party become invisible inside a room.
However, I find it perfectly reasonable to use 2D effect illusions to reproduce 3D like images. You could easily make it look like there is a pit on the floor or you could have your party hide behind an image of the back wall that you moved 5 feet forward allowing them to "essentially" become invisible.
It's all a matter of forced perspective, and if the Wizard is concentrating, he can adjust the forced perspective depending on the movements of the person he's trying to fool.
My favorite combo on my Court Bard, whose major premise was that he really, really annoyed the villains, was to use invisibility and mirror image. You know what's worse than having to kill 5 illusions to get to the real guy? Killing 5 illusions and realizing that none of them were the real guy.
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He isn’t just saying “Dem’s da rules”. He’s also quoting the rules. Figments cannot make something appear to be something else. They cannot make a character invisible, for example. Similarly, they cannot make part of a wall or floor invisible. Thus, they cannot make the illusion of a pit.
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic#TOC-lllusion-Figment
Your GM may indeed allow you to make an illusion of a pit with Silent Image or another figment spell. Your GM may allow you to use Mount to summon the god Thor and ride him around town. That’s not how the magic works by the rules, however.
Whether or not that is "how the rules work" depends entirely on how you interpret the rules that are fairly open to interpretation. The rules for a type of magic that generally relies on the creativity of the person casting the spell to work effectively.
It also helps to read the whole rule, and also the one next to it, instead of taking a single sentence out of context. A figment creates an illusionary sensation. A visual thing or a smell or a sound. It's a distinct object that you create that isn't real, but looks real to everyone unless they interact with it and fail a will save. As opposed to a glamer, which is an illusion that changes the properties of an object so it looks/smells/tastes/sounds different.
So if you want to disguise your wagon as a boulder then there's a difference between how a figment and a glamer would go about doing that. A glamer would change the wagon itself. It would look like a boulder and would continue to look like one even if you hitched a horse to it and rode off. A figment would create a boulder where your wagon is sitting. Assuming you could create a large enough figment to hide the wagon it would effectively "make your wagon look like a boulder" even though the wagon itself wasn't affected. If you hitched a horse to the wagon and rode off, the bolder would stay there. You aren't using a figment to make the wagon look like something else, you're using a figment to hide the wagon.
My favorite combo on my Court Bard, whose major premise was that he really, really annoyed the villains, was to use invisibility and mirror image. You know what's worse than having to kill 5 illusions to get to the real guy? Killing 5 illusions and realizing that none of them were the real guy.
I'm not sure thats the correct way to handle MI + Invisibility.
My personal favorite use of silent image, is to use the silent image to fake a closed door.
Step 1: Cast spell to copy the aspect of currently closed door.
Step 2: Have the party rogue or stealthy character open the door smoothly.
Step 3: Shoot fireball, sneak attack with a range weapon, then have the fighter charge while in surprise round.
A pit is NOTHING it is EMPTY SPACE.
Figments must be THINGS, illusory objects.
You are trying to say a level 1 figment can reproduce the effects of a level 4 glamer, Hallucanitory Terrain.
It's not that you can never create an illusionary pit, it's that you can't do it with this spell.
You can NOT make the dirt in the ground appear to not be there. You also don't need to concentrate to maintain perspective, since everyone sees the same image, it's a shared experience by everyone viewing it so if someone walks around behind your dragon it will still look like the rear of a dragon to them.
Silent Image is not a Road Runner-esque black hole you can through on the ground to stop the coyote.
My favorite combo on my Court Bard, whose major premise was that he really, really annoyed the villains, was to use invisibility and mirror image. You know what's worse than having to kill 5 illusions to get to the real guy? Killing 5 illusions and realizing that none of them were the real guy.I'm not sure thats the correct way to handle MI + Invisibility.
Well, it was that or have a bunch of invisible doubles, which is really rather useless.
Assuming you could create a large enough figment to hide the wagon it would effectively "make your wagon look like a boulder" even though the wagon itself wasn't affected. If you hitched a horse to the wagon and rode off, the bolder would stay there. You aren't using a figment to make the wagon look like something else, you're using a...
Of course, since you are concentrating, you could move the image of the boulder with you, within the confines of the spells limits of course.
Which also brings up the value of the often under-appreciated Major Image spell.
Both Silent and Minor image allows you to move the image within the limit of the spells "effect". Which means once you cast it your limited to that final location of the spell.
Major image allows you to move anywhere within the spells "Range". Since the spells range eminates from you, if you move, the images range moves with you.
So, lets say your party needs to travel through a dangerous area. What better protection is there then to have yourself a massive pet dragon following you around :)
A pit is NOTHING it is EMPTY SPACE.
Figments must be THINGS, illusory objects.
You are trying to say a level 1 figment can reproduce the effects of a level 4 glamer, Hallucanitory Terrain.
It's not that you can never create an illusionary pit, it's that you can't do it with this spell.
You can NOT make the dirt in the ground appear to not be there. You also don't need to concentrate to maintain perspective, since everyone sees the same image, it's a shared experience by everyone viewing it so if someone walks around behind your dragon it will still look like the rear of a dragon to them.
Silent Image is not a Road Runner-esque black hole you can through on the ground to stop the coyote.
Looking at it from the other perspective, If a pit is nothing but empty space, then Hallucanitory Terrain could never cover or create pit either since empty space is not "Terrain".
Lets look at this step by step to help my explanation.
Could you not create what looks like a mound of dirt 2 inchs high on the ground?
Within the confines of this mound of dirt, could you not make the top of it look like it falls inward 1 inch?
Could you not, through forced perspective, make this 1 inch drop appear to be a 30 foot drop?
Now when someone tries to jump in the pit, the jig is up because it's only a 2 inch image.
Well, it was that or have a bunch of invisible doubles, which is really rather useless.My favorite combo on my Court Bard, whose major premise was that he really, really annoyed the villains, was to use invisibility and mirror image. You know what's worse than having to kill 5 illusions to get to the real guy? Killing 5 illusions and realizing that none of them were the real guy.I'm not sure thats the correct way to handle MI + Invisibility.
There's been rulings on a Cleave vs MI thread that you cant target the images directly. So my gut tells me that for simplifications sake, that the images are indeed invisible with you. And as such, its a 50/50 shot to hit you or nothing at all.
Looking at it from the other perspective, If a pit is nothing but empty space, then Hallucanitory Terrain could never cover or create pit either since empty space is not "Terrain".
Lets look at this step by step to help my explanation.
Could you not create what looks like a mound of dirt 2 inchs high on the ground?
Within the confines of this mound of dirt, could you not make the top of it look like it falls inward 1 inch?
Could you not, through forced perspective, make this 1 inch drop appear to be a 30 foot drop?
Now when someone tries to jump in the pit, the jig is up because it's only a 2 inch image.
Yes Hallucinatory Terrain can't create a pit per say but it can creat sink holes, natrual wells, crags and chasms.
And YES, in theory you can do what you described, much the way you could make a painting that moved if I understand you correctly. BUT in practice you'd have to have some way you shared the perspective of the person you were comepnsating for, seeing through their eyes, reading their mind, etc or standing next to them, for example. Since everyone shares the figment the perspective would change according to one person, making it obvious to others somethimg was up. Giving them a +4 to their save. In theory it would work but the effort of doing all that versus making a wall or dragon would it be worth it?
Using Silent Image to create wolves, halflings or other creatures is a bad idea. Silent Image is silent, whereas living creatures make sound. Your illusory creatures will be very mysteriously silent. Better use it for inanimate objects that aren't supposed to make sounds. Or ghosts, of course.
But walls are really one of the most useful ways to use Silent Image. Most wall spells are level 4 or 5 or something, yet this most versatile wall spell is only level 1! You can make any kind of wall, and opponents will believe it's a real wall until they interact with it (which probably means touch it, or spend an action studying it). And walls are immensely useful for making your enemies stand where you want them to stand.
If there's a big mob in an open room, a wall (including Silent Image) can make them all believe they have to get through a narrow doorway before they can attack you. Put your fighters at that doorway so they can chop them up one at a time, and 1st level spell basically wins the encounter for you.
I recently had the situation where a big monster with reach and our enlarged polearm fighter where fighting each other while our other tank/big damage fighter couldn't reach the big monster. Polearm fighter went down, and the big monster could basically pick us off one at a time. Only ranged weapons could hurt it. I put a Silent Image of a wall between it an us, and in order to get around that wall, it had to get close to our other fighter, who killed it.
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A pit is NOTHING it is EMPTY SPACE.
Figments must be THINGS, illusory objects.
You are trying to say a level 1 figment can reproduce the effects of a level 4 glamer, Hallucanitory Terrain.
It's not that you can never create an illusionary pit, it's that you can't do it with this spell.
You can NOT make the dirt in the ground appear to not be there. You also don't need to concentrate to maintain perspective, since everyone sees the same image, it's a shared experience by everyone viewing it so if someone walks around behind your dragon it will still look like the rear of a dragon to them.
Silent Image is not a Road Runner-esque black hole you can through on the ground to stop the coyote.
Hallucinatory terrain covers one 30 ft. cube per level and lasts 2 hours per level. Silent image is limited to a much smaller area and only lasts for as long as you concentrate on it.
So yeah, you could use silent image to mimic some of what you could do with hallucinatory terrain, but at a much smaller scale that ties up your concentration.
Whether or not you can create a pit really does depend on the player/DM interpretation of the rules. A pit may be empty space, but it has walls and a bottom. You could argue that you're creating a figment of a shaft leading downward with a bottom that appears to be x feet away, and that you're resting the figment on top of the floor. Or you could skip the bottom and just make it look like "impenetrable blackness" or something. To someone walking up it would look like a pit, and that could delay the victim while they try and figure a way around it. Depending on the complexity of the figment you may be able to trick a person into believing they fell into the pit, or falling in may automatically break the illusion (since you don't actually fall).
Of course, if you want to use an illusion to keep a person in a single spot you're better off creating a "magical force cage" or something around them. If they believe it they'll just have to sit there like a mime trying to escape from their cage. At least for a few rounds, or until they make a will save.
While I can't comment on silent image the most effective use I've seen or done was Major Image combined with other spell casting to make the effect more real.
Long story short the party was getting our ass handled to us by an APL +4 or 5 (don't remember exactly) encounter. Early on in the campaign we found a scroll of Major Image. Much later it was still hanging out in my Sorcerer's handy haversack. In a moment of inspiration she yanked it out and used it to create the image of a Gold Great Wyrm swooping down from the clouds to our rescue than using it's breath weapon on the enemy. She burned a hero point to cast fireball on the target of breath weapon.
The party cleric caught on and burned her fireball domain spell on the next swooping flyby imaginary dragon attack and the enemy broke, demoralized and unwilling to fight an ancient gold dragon. Which saved our asses during that encounter.
Hallucinatory Terrain is a glamor, and so can cause the illusion of absence.
A worked stone pit would not be a natural feature, true--that would require Mirage Arcane. But a canyon, gulley, chasm, fissure, sinkhole or the like would be terrain.
I missed that Hallucinatory Terrain is a glamer, so yes you could hide and create pits without having to resort to forced perspective.
The logical extremity of this is creating an illusory sphere around an enemy’s head that you move with him or her, the inside of which is a perfect 3-D image of the world as you wish them to see it.
A wise GM would draw a line to exclude forced perspective to prevent such abuses.
You made an excellent suggestion for a creative use of a figment. Now, you couldn't encompass just the head without the enemy receiving a will save for interacting with it. But, perhaps a half sphere would suffice. The problem of course would be once the enemy bumps into something as their moving around.
Good Suggestion ;)
Create smoke. Your ally is now partially concealed, and the enemy cannot flank the ally The enemy also now has 20% miss chance.
If Gnome:
Prerequisites: Spell Focus (illusion), gnome.
Benefit: You can use this metamagic feat only on illusion (figment) spells.
A threatening illusion spell causes one target to believe your illusion is a threat. Choose one 5-foot square within the area of your illusion; that square threatens the target as long as it is adjacent. Thus, if you or an ally is on the opposite side of the target, it is considered flanking. Normally the area must contain an illusory creature of Small or Medium size. However, you can select one square of a larger illusory creature to threaten the target. For example, an illusory Large ogre takes up four 5-foot squares; you select one square to be the source of the threat, and its other three squares do not threaten anyone. If the target has reason to believe there is an invisible creature in the vicinity, even an auditory illusion with no visual elements (such as ghost sound) is sufficient to convince the target that the selected square contains an actual threat. As long as you maintain the illusion, you can change the location of the threatening square as a swift action. When you threaten a target with this spell, the foe may make a Will save to disbelieve (DC 10 + threatening spell’s level + your spellcasting ability score modifier). If the target makes this save, the threatening effect of this feat no longer applies to it.
Level Increase: +1 (a threatening illusion takes up a spell slot one level higher than normal.)
Effortless Trickery so you can concentrate as a swift action (instead of a standard action).
SILENT IMAGE
School illusion (figment); Level bard 1, sorcerer/wizard 1
I enjoy Silent Image. In the kingmaker I'm playing in, I've used it to test how aggressive some kobolds would be by making an image of a very pleasant looking man with a sign hanging around his neck saying, "Cursed silent by Cleric." (to explain why he doesn't make any sound.) waving and slowly approaching the kobolds. Now granted the words were in common (trying not to metagame as my character's never seen kobolds before.) so it's entirely possible that since they couldn't read the sign they assumed him an attacker.
Kobold up and attacked him on sight, letting our group know that these were not friendly kobolds. So, the kobolds distracted by the image of the nice man, we surprised and killed the kobolds.
For the future, I plan to possibly use Silent Image to make a floating reaper-esque wraith holding a scythe and slowly approaching an enemy.
Lots of fun things one can do.
I used silent image to conceal the party under a small grassy hill when a dragon flew over head once.
Of course, if you want to use an illusion to keep a person in a single spot you're better off creating a "magical force cage" or something around them. If they believe it they'll just have to sit there like a mime trying to escape from their cage. At least for a few rounds, or until they make a will save.
I'm not sure illusions work like you think they work.
As soon as they touch the illusion, they will have proof that it is not real (IE their hand passes through it) and automatically pass their saving throw. Read the Illusion rules a bit more carefully.
As an aside, force cage is invisible, so utterly useless as a silent illusion.
I'm not sure illusions work like you think they work.
As soon as they touch the illusion, they will have proof that it is not real (IE their hand passes through it) and automatically pass their saving throw. Read the Illusion rules a bit more carefully.
As an aside, force cage is invisible, so utterly useless as a silent illusion.
Please read Core Rule Book, Pages 210 and 211.
Figment: A figment spell creates a false sensation. Those who perceive the figment perceive the same thing, not their own slightly different versions of the figment. It is not a personalized mental impression.
Figments cannot make something seem to be something else. A figment that includes audible effects cannot duplicate intelligible speech unless the spell description specifically says it can. If intelligible speech is possible, it must be in a language you can speak. If you try to duplicate a language you cannot speak, the figment produces gibberish. Likewise, you cannot make a visual copy of something unless you know what it looks like (or copy another sense exactly unless you have experienced it).
Because figments and glamers are unreal, they cannot produce real effects the way that other types of illusions can. Figments and glamers cannot cause damage to objects or creatures, support weight, provide nutrition, or provide protection from the elements. Consequently, these spells are useful for confounding foes, but useless for attacking them directly.
A figment’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier.
This spell creates the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force, as visualized by you. The illusion does not create sound, smell, texture, or temperature. You can move the image within the limits of the size of the effect.
So you can create a force field looking effect. If it is safe to assume people do not regularly attempt to walk through walls, it is just as safe to assume people do not try to walk through force effects in a magical world.
Saving Throws and Illusions (Disbelief ): Creatures encountering an illusion usually do not receive saving throws to recognize it as illusory until they study it carefully or interact with it in some fashion.
A successful saving throw against an illusion reveals it to be false, but a figment or phantasm remains as a translucent outline.
A failed saving throw indicates that a character fails to notice something is amiss. A character faced with proof that an illusion isn’t real needs no saving throw. If any viewer successfully disbelieves an illusion and communicates this fact to others, each such viewer gains a
saving throw with a +4 bonus.
So the way it works:
1: You see an illusion. No save. Simply perceiving an illusion is not enough to grant a save.
2: You decide to study the illusion, or you poke it with a stick. You get a save.
3: Your buddy saves, and you don't. He tells you it is an illusion. You get a save +4.
When do you get to know automatically? Basically, when something egregious enough happens to violate the both laws of physics and magic. You are walking over a floor. You suddenly find yourself falling to the bottom of a pit. Clearly, that floor was an illusion.
You are in a cage, the enemy fighter bull rushes you, passing right through the bars and then knocking you through the bars.
You see someone flying? Not good enough, lots of people fly. You see a ghost? Not good enough, lots of ghosts.
I'm not sure illusions work like you think they work.
As soon as they touch the illusion, they will have proof that it is not real (IE their hand passes through it) and automatically pass their saving throw. Read the Illusion rules a bit more carefully.
As an aside, force cage is invisible, so utterly useless as a silent illusion.
Please read Core Rule Book, Pages 210 and 211.
Figment: A figment spell creates a false sensation. Those who perceive the figment perceive the same thing, not their own slightly different versions of the figment. It is not a personalized mental impression.
Figments cannot make something seem to be something else. A figment that includes audible effects cannot duplicate intelligible speech unless the spell description specifically says it can. If intelligible speech is possible, it must be in a language you can speak. If you try to duplicate a language you cannot speak, the figment produces gibberish. Likewise, you cannot make a visual copy of something unless you know what it looks like (or copy another sense exactly unless you have experienced it).
Because figments and glamers are unreal, they cannot produce real effects the way that other types of illusions can. Figments and glamers cannot cause damage to objects or creatures, support weight, provide nutrition, or provide protection from the elements. Consequently, these spells are useful for confounding foes, but useless for attacking them directly.
A figment’s AC is equal to 10 + its size modifier.
This spell creates the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force, as visualized by you. The illusion does not create sound, smell, texture, or temperature. You can move the image within the limits of the size of the effect.So you can create a force field looking effect. If it is safe to assume people do not regularly attempt to walk through walls, it is just as safe to...
You might want to re-read the post I was responding to. If they're 'like a mime in a cage, trying to escape', there's a pretty strong implication that they're physically trying to force their way out. As soon as he touches the wall, he has proof that the illusion is not real in the same way that a fighter bullrushing through the cage proves that it is not real. Of course, if he just sits there without rattling the bars of his cage, he gets no save.
Besides, 'force' effects in pathfinder are invisible walls of force. Creating an image of an invisible object isn't exactly productive.
You'd have to, as you suggested, create the illusion of something more like a prismatic wall in order to deter people. Even a wall of fire or lightning wouldn't be very effective due to the lack of heat. Perhaps generic 'crackling energy' would be appropriate.
This discussion makes me think that this game really needs some metaphysics.
But concerning the limitations of figments: Create the illusion of a wall or floor just a milimeter above the pit. The wall or floor should count as things.
Concerning pits as nothing: A similar argument can be made against any container or hollow thing being a thing. A pit is just walls surrounding a hollow on all but one side. But: where I want to create the pit, there is already something else (I guess "air" or even "water" do not count as something else in these cases, else illusions would not work at all.
Best tip for Illusion is to place them where no one expect one.
If they think there could be an illusion why should they investigate?
If I were to create a large illusory disk up in the sky at maximum range (let's say, 440 feet for a CL 1 silent image spell) in an attempt to block out the sun, how much land area would be covered in darkness as a result?
If you get the angle, height, and size right, I'm thinking you could have a super-large darkness effect at ground level.
only for the ones that didn't auto disbelieve, and silent image has limited area...
only for the ones that didn't auto disbelieve, and silent image has limited area...
Why would they auto-disbelieve? The illusory disk/cloud/whatever is hundreds of feet in the air. Good luck interacting with it if your stuck on the ground.