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Perhaps these might help you out? They are a bit dated, since they are from an older version of the game, but none of the illusion rules changed during the transition, so much of the advice still applies:
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All About Illusions
Article I
Article II
Article III
Article IV
Here are some other threads about illusions and illusionists you might find useful.
Thread I
Thread II
Thread III
Thread IV
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Unfortunately illusion magic requires a great deal of creativity in order to use effectively. Obviously they can be used to fool someone out of combat into believing something, but they can occasionally be used in combat to good effect, tricking people into moving into disadvantageous (or even dangerous) positions.
I.e. my last group knew there was a group of enemies that was about to enter the room they were passing through--a room with a pit in the middle of it. The wizard cast an illusion to make it look like there was not a pit, and in fact put illusory tracks over it that they would follow. The first enemy failed his will save to disbelieve and fell right into the pit, which did enough damage to knock him out (50 ft pit vs a 3rd level mook). The illusionist then dropped that illusion and cast another to make it appear he had created a force cage around the remaining enemies, making them think they were trapped--though the leader made his will save and after a round was able to convince his followers it wasn't real, it did mean the followers lost out on a round of combat.
In a less straight-out-kill-you illusion, you could make illusory copies of yourself in one part of the room while you are hiding in another to create an ambush. Or during combat you could make the illusion that you cast a terrain-altering spell (such as Grease, Sleet Storm, or Entangle) so that your enemies will maneuver around these "hazards" to your advantage.
I'll need to read the articles Ravingdork put up. There's likely a few good suggestions there.
This thread has made me think of another question regarding this. There is a bloodline that fits every school of magic to make that school more effective.
There are even Oracle Mysteries that do that. I just read about the Winter Oracle that can blast people who are immune to cold and still do damage to them with cold spells.
But there is nothing for Illusions. So while illusions are great in the fact they can be applied in any way you can imagine, they are also very limited in regards to who you use them on.
High willpower can make the save.
Spellcraft could recognize it being an illusion when cast.
True Seeing negates it.
Anything that is immune to mind affecting spells negate all the offensive illuson spells.
Have I missed an optimized way to make Illusionists effective at high levels, is there a need for this, or is it a way to balance them (being powerful at lower levels)?
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The biggest problem with illusions is that you really need some agreement from your GM about how they work first.
I mean this. Bring up the topic to your GM and ask him to be REALLY SPECIFIC about what game mechanics he's using. Most people I play with don't know how the GM handles them, so they simply avoid them entirely. But more than any other game effect, GM opinion matters ALOT with illusions.
The big question is: What exactly does "interact with" mean?
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The big question is: What exactly does "interact with" mean?
This does become a *huge* issue, especially in home games. Some GMs take it as little as "looking at it for a couple seconds" while others say you have to physically touch the illusion first. The articles listed there give a good idea what *I* think it should be, but you'll see alot of table variance.
I just wish they came up with a class that makes the illusions work against true seeing, and mind affecting, like how the winter oracle can freeze cold immune people.
You're quite welcome Ishpumalibu.
The big question is: What exactly does "interact with" mean?
A game developer once clarified (unofficially as I recall) that it means spending an action. So if you spend your move action to make a Perception check to "examine the illusion carefully" or if you spend your attack action to "attack the illusion" or if you spend a move action to attempt to "walk across the illusion", etc.
I don't recall if that was a WotC D&D game developer or a Paizo Pathfinder game developer who said that though. I think it might have been Sean K. Reynolds.
Q: how do you properly use illusions?
A: as one of your wizard's opposition schools.
I kid, I kid.
But there is nothing for Illusions. So while illusions are great in the fact they can be applied in any way you can imagine, they are also very limited in regards to who you use them on.
High willpower can make the save.
Spellcraft could recognize it being an illusion when cast.
True Seeing negates it.
Anything that is immune to mind affecting spells negate all the offensive illuson spells.Have I missed an optimized way to make Illusionists effective at high levels, is there a need for this, or is it a way to balance them (being powerful at lower levels)?
A good use of illusions is one where the people involved never get an opportunity to make a save. Make something so mundane that people don't think of interacting with it.
A classic example is an illusionary wall with an ambush behind it, or an illusionary floor covering a pit-trap.
Defensive spells are always a problem with any school of magic, but true seeing is actually rather rare. It's a high-level spell, it has a minute/level duration, and it can be dispelled, so you generally only need to worry about the relatively small number of creatures with it as an at-will ability. Even then, an AMF will prevent the target from being able to see through illusions, so as long as the illusion is outside the field, you're fine.
But the whole point of illusions is what amounts to counterintelligence. Basically, I need to make my opponent think something is going on so she does something I can capitalize on. It's not about hurting my opponent directly, it's about allowing my opponent to hurt herself.
I agree that you want people to not even have the save. One game a couple enemies were running away, I used silent image to stop them by creating an image of a reaper / wraith just in front of them and telling them, "I am close friends with death itself. Stop now or die."
Surprisingly, the enemies didn't want to touch the image that looked like a death spirit...
There are other times I've used it, but I'm sure those articles give plenty of suggestions.
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True story:
I was in a big organized play event, Living Greyhawk. It involved many, many teams working in the same megadungeon with different GMs. My group finished their section and ran to help the team in the next section over. Here's how it went down.
Me: Coming along with me is the silent ghostly figure of a dwarf warrior.
New GM: All right, no problem, join the fray.
(A couple rounds pass)
GM: The monster attacks the dwarf warrior! What exactly is it?
Me: Silent Image.
GM: *Facepalm*
He was considering rolls to disbelieve, until he realized he totally believed it, himself.
If you want to ruin the mooks' day in a novel way Major Image up 12 extra party members. Now the enemies have to deal with a bunch of duplicate people who seem real. I find it helps to get the save out of the way immediately so using scent in your illusion is actually wanted here. Now there should be some enemies flipping out about your "reinforcements" and some who made the save flipping out about their friends being fooled by an illusion. This is one way to use an image spell in combat at least.
I'm still a fan of more subtlety. One of the best that I've seen -- that bit me hard on the ass -- was a chasm crossed by a rickety bridge with a big heavy monster, a stone golem or something, on the other side. "Obviously" it was a safety measure to keep the golem penned in where the dungeon designer wanted it. Also obviously, we could easily take out the golem at range because it couldn't mess with us.
Until the golem charged us across the illusionary barrier.
Surprise is usually what happens when someone misinterprets something he's seen all along. (Thank you, Admiral Harrington.)
I do not personally think that figments are less useful than any of the other illusion types, no.
It's effectiveness boils down to two things for me.
1) - Creativity. - As mentioned above and is probably obvious with these kinds of spells, it all depends on how creative you can be on the spot, or nearly on the spot (take a "bathroom / stretch break").
For some that comes easily, for others maybe not as much. However for those not creatively inclined in these kinds of situations, I'd probably suggest writing down some other ideas, making it your own flavor wise (once again writing them down) and keep that list handy whenever you're playing. Get used to looking over the list whenever a potential opportunity arises to use it. You can even go preparation crazy if you so desire, making contingency plans for certain scenarios you find likely, or even ones you don't.
[Example: I may be held in a jail cell some day. If this happens, and magic is useable, I could attempt to create an illusion that makes it seem like I'm no longer in the cell, by mimicking the back wall of the cell in front of me and ambushing the guard if he opens the door to check where I might be. OR I could do X in this situation.]
2) - DM. - This is quite important. As creative as you might be, you might just have a DM that won't want to play the illusion game, actively having the NPCs or environment interact with illusions when they have no reason to think to do so or just giving checks to disbelieve without interaction. Luckily I haven't had these kinds of DMs. I feel like they exist, but hopefully they are rare. On the other hand, you could have a cool DM that will work with you or at least go with it when you cast those illusions.
Anyways, that's just my take. It's quite possible that illusions aren't for some people, but I do think that one can learn to use illusions effectively if they wanted to.
It helps to have a good Bluff score to back up your illusions. My favourite example of using illusions comes from this story.
Party has to fight goblins who are strategically positioned on an old, rickety, rope bridge. Big heavy PCs dash across the bridge. My gnome illusionist (original, I know) whips off a ghost sound cantrip to create the sounds of creaking and snapping ropes coming from the supports on the goblins' side, and shouts out, "The bridge!" in a scared voice. One goblin knew Common and enough of them failed the Will save for them to vacate the collapsing bridge. Generated a few AoO for the melee people and the goblins lost their strategic position. It worked because the GM valued creativity, and the use of the illusion was totally believable.
Another successful use I had of an illusion was during a night time ambush on a ship. The PCs dashed out of their cabin, one of them falling to the attackers, when a half-Orc ninja with scary-looking weapons also dashed out and covered the fallen ally. The ninja kept missing with its attacks, of course, but the ambushes kept failing their Will saves to disbelieve, and so that 1 illusion ate up about seven attacks and prevented a coup de grace.
Make the illusions believable and describe them in enough detail - make them fun - and I find most GMs will be accommodating.
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I'm currently exploring the uses of Ghost Sound to make horse and dog sounds, and seeing how the goblins react. It's been entertaining.
In general I think it really helps if you know more about your opponent. That will allow you to fit your illusions tighter to your target demographic.
I also think you should be creative at mixing illusions and other techniques, such as traps and summoned monsters. Once people know that the monster that just appeared might be real, they won't be so quick to dismiss it as just another illusion. And once they know that you could disguise a trap as a trap, they'll start treating every illusion as if it might be a live trap.
It might be worthwhile to read up on realworld stage illusionism/conjuration. That involves a lot of misdirection and manipulation of people. Therefore I also second the idea of investing in Bluff.
Finally, I think Third Mind nailed it on the two decisive factors for success as an illusionist.
I came to believe that gnome illusionists are the best.
It´s most probably what i´m gonna play next.
Arcanist with access to wizard schools and sorcerer bloodlines might be a fairly good choice.
Shadow school, shadow wizard arcehtype and serpentine or undead bloodlines are pretty interesting there.
And of course one level in oracle of heavens (beware, most people will regard this as offensive powerplay).
There are also funny feats like the gnome feat that let´s you concentrate on illusions as a move action, threatening illusion and shadow gambit (not sure of the name), which let´s you make damage with a figment.
All in all you can be very versatile there.
It is really too bad though that there is no real illusion bloodline for sorcerers. That could very well be in a gnomes revisited book.
Of course don´t forget threnodic spell metamagic or the rod for it.
The big question is: What exactly does "interact with" mean?
I read an article somewhere (probably a 3.5 article) where interaction is anything where
1 - the illusion does something which should affect you, such as hit you or fall on you, or physically impede your movement.
2 - you spend an action to do something with the illusion, such as scrutinize it ("is it an illusion?" - standard action perception), or hit it, or cast a spell on it, or climb on it.
This means that a passive figment, like a wall or a bonfire or spiderweb, will function like a real barrier/obstacle until someone spends at least 1 action on it, so it's a rather reliable way to delay someone.
An active figment like an illusory monster runs the risk of being completely useless if it attacks or interacts with a creature on round 1, because it warrants a save.
NOTE also that seeing someone else say "hmph! illusion" and walk through an illusory wall grants a free save (at +4, I believe) to disbelieve.
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There is a bloodline that fits every school of magic to make that school more effective. There are even Oracle Mysteries that do that...But there is nothing for Illusions. So while illusions are great in the fact they can be applied in any way you can imagine, they are also very limited in regards to who you use them on.
High willpower can make the save.
Spellcraft could recognize it being an illusion when cast.
True Seeing negates it.
Anything that is immune to mind affecting spells negate all the offensive illuson spells.
Illusion school specialist wizard is a fine option. You get lots of uses of swift greater invisibility at level eight, which is a hard counter to enemies who might have enough Spellcraft to recognize that the spell you’re casting is a figment, among many other applications. The first-level power extending figments past concentration is pretty useful too.
True Seeing is much harder to counter, but as a wizard you’re free to fill a bunch of spell slots with non-Illusion spells, ones that hit other saves and/or bypass spell resistance. At high levels, Mind Blank lets you fool True Seeing creatures with illusions on yourself at least--invisibility, veil, that sort of thing.
However, knowing your DM is the most important aspect of playing an illusionist, not only knowing how she interprets the rules, but knowing what she generally considers funny or cool. Illusions that entertain your GM are many times more likely to be effective.
I last used an illusion (silent image) to drape a shop's windows while we searched it, so our lanterns would not be seen by neighbors or watchmen.
The line from Keep Calm and Carrion, "Illusions that entertain your GM" is perhaps the BEST way of warning you to work on Illusions with your GM. And if your GM is the sort that has more fun when you're having less, reconsider using illusions. Find one of the bulletproof guides to some Flavor of the Month, instead.
I last used an illusion (silent image) to drape a shop's windows while we searched it, so our lanterns would not be seen by neighbors or watchmen.
The line from Keep Calm and Carrion, "Illusions that entertain your GM" is perhaps the BEST way of warning you to work on Illusions with your GM. And if your GM is the sort that has more fun when you're having less, reconsider using illusions. Find one of the bulletproof guides to some Flavor of the Month, instead.
Careful. There are people who will tell you that illusions can't block light. If they did, you could duplicate the effects of higher level darkness or fog spells with just silent image.
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Guns n' Roses released a two part guide in the 90's on how to use your illusion, by the way.
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Ascalaphus.... such a cool use of ghost sound.
Likewise, dwarven marching songs are probably effective at changing the behavior of orcs. Since Ghost Sound mimics the sound of CL * 4 people, after a few levels that sounds like a serious dwarven patrol.
Ghost Sound is nice because it's spammable. You could even cast a GS every round at level > 1, to get more voices going.
This is a spell that rewards knowing multiple languages and perhaps a few points in Perform. Notice also that the line from 3.x saying it can't duplicate intelligible speech, that line has been dropped from the PF edition. You can make a loud booming voice making threats your enemies understand.
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Next time I play a druid I intend to take Two-World Magic to get Ghost Sound on my spell list. Instead of Feral Speech, I'll talk like a Vorlon. First there's a moment of weird buzzing, then a strange disembodied voice says what I wanted said.
Sure, it means talking as a Standard action instead of for free, but hey, style.
And having one of most versatile cantrips is worth something too.
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Dancing Lights is also a nice spell for illusionists. Not only does it make light at a distance, it can also create something vaguely like a Will-'o-Wisp/Fire Elemental/Lantern Archon. If you also occasionally summon something like that, people without good Spellcraft will have to be very careful about any light sources around you.
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I think a big part of illusionism is playing a shell game. Some of what you do is real, some isn't. Enemies need to decide what they're gonna believe and what they'll commit resources against. If you do it right, they'll devote part of their resources against things that don't exist. That means your party has to fight less of the enemy's strength.
Simpler: if you can distract multiple enemies with an illusion with one of your actions, that means net gain in the action economy for your party. You don't have to be killing anyone, as long as you're making it easier for your teammates to do so.
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Well, Ghost Sound can't make intelligible speech.
There was a FAQ.
As I said though, it can still sing harmony.
Doo-wop to your heart's content.
Aww, shucks.
By the way, I think it's a bad FAQ. The spell doesn't say that it can't do it, the FAQ decides so. The only thing the spell says about what sounds are permissible is:
The noise a ghost sound spell produces can be virtually any type of sound within the volume limit.
The spell says the sound can sound like speech. That doesn't imply that it IS intelligible speech, but also doesn't imply that it ISN'T intelligible speech. A radio doesn't actually talk, but it can produce sounds that we interpret as intelligible speech.
The reasoning "it shouldn't be as good as Ventroliquism" is also false. Ventroliquism lets you talk "live", while GS would need to be re-cast every round for every new statement, since you can't change the sound after casting.
You can make Talking sounds (specifically noted), but any observer would be very confused, because apparently it's not talking in any language?
Another way I've used Silent Image was to show the party something I saw.
For example, my rogue scouted ahead and identified enemy markings, rooms, and got a good layout of the area. I came back and used my Wand of Silent Image to effectively replay my scouting mission for them, allowing us to do some serious planning for the next leg of the dungeon.
He also used that wand to make a figment of a dormant giant spider in the underdark, big enough to hide inside (large) while a Drow patrol walked right past us - since giant spiders are perfectly normal in that area and Drow leave them be.
Lastly, he used it to make an image of himself in a waiting room, while in reality he snuck out of the room. Nobody noticed he was gone till he had a 2 round headstart (when he broke line of sight with the illusion).
Unless...magic.
I've heard it said that illusions don't so much as cast shadows, not unless you remember to create an illusion of the shadow too. Little things like that could be the reasoning why a person makes their save against an illusion.
I'm not saying that's the way it is, just that I've heard it argued before.