I have an NPC villain who would like to give off the appearance of being significantly larger than he really is, without *actually* changing his size.
Any advice on how he can go about doing this via magical items, spell effects, abilities, whatever?
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Stand behind a desk and on a crate perhaps?
Illusion spells. Unless the characters interact with the image, have some particular reason to believe it's a fake, or use a spell or item that reveals such trickery, they don't get a will save to disbelieve. A good image spell, and don't forget ghost sound to make your voice deeper and louder like a real big bad evil guy.
Try the hat of disguise, or the spell disguise self in order to seem up to 1 foot taller (that is quite a bit taller for humans).
Alter self (lvl 2) is really polymorphing, so this is not what you want, but would work as long as you stay "Medium", which can be quite big.
You could always just use the disguise skill to be larger. You need only be passingly good at it and don't draw attention to yourself or your size. You could fake being a bit larger (a foot or so). Or you could really be Large by taking -10 and walk on stilts.
To minmax Disguise, you have the Keeper of the Veil regional trait to make it a class skill.
Or take the Cosmopolitan trait feat to do the same, but for two skills.
Casting disguise self grants a +10, but it lets you only be a foot taller, so maybe you'd really need a high skill rank as well.
So, it would follow that he could toss a Major Image on himself that makes him appear to be larger than he really is? The illusion would maintain until someone entered the space he "occupies" or touches him/interacts directly with the illusion, as long he's concentrating on it (+3 rounds).
OK. That should work suitably well for me.
Okay, now I'm thinking a Persistent Major Image - that way it makes it just that much more unlikely that he's unintentionally "discovered."
Figments can't make 1 thing into another. They can make a whole new thing though.
PFSRD wrote: 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).
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Is it a PC party of bears?
If so, simply have him wave his arms over his head, and shout a lot.
Beopere wrote: Figments can't make 1 thing into another. They can make a whole new thing though.
PFSRD wrote: 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).
Hide behind a statue with invisibility on, and make your fake image do things. Get real complicated, add mage hand for small interactions to make him look like he's actually picking things up. I never said he had to be *in* the larger figment. For that matter, the image is opaque, he can stand behind an oversized leg. Gnomes are great at hiding behind size large things, and good with illusions to boot.
I was more cautioning Stumblewyk's use of your advice. Namely tossing a "Major Image on himself".
An image interacting with PCs while you hide nearby is perfect. Just don't get examined to closely!
Okay, so what I really need is something from the "Glamer" subschool. None of which seem to really do what I'm looking for - none of which seem to give a visual size increase significant enough for what I want. =/
Ugh.
This is proving to be trickier than I thought it would be.
It's easier to make yourself big with Enlarge Person than to make yourself appear to be big with an illusion spell that mimics Enlarge Person.
There's a spell called Fearsome Duplicate - unfortunately, it's another Figment.
But players won't normally complain if you allow an NPC to cast a custom illusion spell that does something that isn't normally allowed.
You DM. DM god. If you don't like the spells your guy has access to, make a new one. If your illusion spell isn't good enough, un-restrict it. If you want to do x, do x. There are rules for making new spells, follow them if you really want to be fully within the same ruleset as your players. My word, you seem to be under the impression you're supposed to play fair or something. Please allow me to disillusion you.
My favorite boss ever was an illusionist mage. He rigged an entire forest with nasty things that could kill players, and added 3 times as many that were only illusions. The boss was a giant hydra that, when killed, dissolved into sand and reformed with twice as many heads and hitpoints. After which, he appeared and laughed at them. He told them that really, he wasn't even that good at illusions, it was a hobby. His specialty was conjuration and evocation.
He waved his arms and magic symbols appeared around his person, power pulsed and radiated from his body, anyone who approached was held in place with the point of a finger, chains binding their arms and legs firm, paralyzed and helpless before his might as a fireball appeared above the clearing, brighter than the summer sun, hotter than the heart of a forge, they began to sweat and their skin became crispy like rice paper, they closed their eyes against the heat and they could see nothing but the red of their eyields before the world went dark and they felt a strange, thick liquid run down their cheek...
I kept this up for over two minutes, before someone said "I disbelieve".
When he woke up, the wizard was holding a dagger and walking casually toward a nearby party member to slit their throat. He tackled the wizard to the ground and beat him to death bare handed, ending the illusion and saving the party.
No rules were used in the making of this absolutely epic encounter that had the whole table standing and screaming. Best campaign night I ever had, and it was my first as a DM, because I didn't let the rules get in the way of a good story. Nobody asked afterwards what spell he cast to make this happen. Nobody cared. It was epic and awesome and made everyone scared they were going to die, nearly killed a PC, and made at least one guy feel like a bad***. Who needs rules?
EDIT: Alt suggestion? Synthesist Summoner. Nasty powerful, the summon can (usually is) be size large. Anything you can cast on yourself you can cast on your summon. As a synthesist, you wear your eidolon like a second skin, effectively making you size large (or rather, size x in a size large outsider suit), and you can disguise your eidolon to look like you (at that larger size).
How does a heavy set person appear thinner? By standing next to someone who is even heavier. I'm only 5 foot 5 inches tall, however I remember walking through downtown Tokyo in 1977, and on average everybody on the street in front of me came to about my chin. There are taller people in Japan, but on average most are around 5 foot tall. I felt like a giant, whereas in the US, I'm shorter than most people I know. If you're a human adventurer, stand in a party of halflings and you appear tall, at least until the viewer realizes everyone else are halflings as well.
Okay, here's the full setup - my villain is a 12th-level wizard lich. He's a fan of things draconic, and like to affect the form and mannerisms of a blue dragon.
I want him to seem as large as possible. As imposing as possible. The party is already clued-in (thanks to some careful note-keeping by our cleric's player and some clues I dropped earlier in the campaign) that he's not *really* a blue dragon, but I don't necessarily want to give away that he's actually medium-sized (or a lich for that matter, right away). I just want them to suspect that he's not really a blue dragon.
Ah, then there's absolutely nothing that needs to be done. Form of the Dragon 1 makes you a medium blue dragon. Give yourself one more level and you're a size large blue with a 7th level spell, available at wizard level 13.
Silent image, had a gnome caster that used it after I had cast Enlarge Person on one character to make it look like another character was growing large as well.
Shiroi wrote: You DM. DM god. If you don't like the spells your guy has access to, make a new one. If your illusion spell isn't good enough, un-restrict it. If you want to do x, do x. There are rules for making new spells, follow them if you really want to be fully within the same ruleset as your players. My word, you seem to be under the impression you're supposed to play fair or something. Please allow me to disillusion you. I personally think he absolutely should keep his NPC's under the same ruleset as players. I think GM's should play fair.
However, adding a custom spell, which might be called "Greater Disguise Self," would be fair, and it's also fair not to tell players about it right away, or they'll metagame knowing you probably intend to use it.
Once someone recognizes the illusion (Disguise Self does allow a save when interacted with, and a Greater Disguise Self should as well, though it would be perhaps Level 3 and thus have a slightly higher DC), so they recognize the spell exists, then Greater Disguise Self should be available for players to use as well, to the point of letting Wizards replace a spellbook spell or Sorcerers a spell known to gain access to it if they desire.
It might have other improvements over Disguise Self, such as a much longer duration, which would help the NPC keep up the disguise for longer.
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Yeah, I don't like playing by rules that my players don't have access to, as well. And I have no qualms with saying this NPC has spent years/decades/centuries developing his "draconic" appearance, so there's nothing wrong with him having devised a new spell, specifically for himself.
Once the players discover the spell, it's fair game for them as well. But I'm not going to ignore standards for myself that I'm going to hold my players to in the process.
But thanks for the advice, Shiroi.
Fair enough, to each his own. I have plenty of NPC's that stick to the rules as well, I only slide around them when I have a grand, epic idea that can't really be done easily within them. This time I don't feel it's strictly necessary to bypass the rules, because there's so many options for how to do it within the rules. Scrolls of dragon form iii, custom illusion spells you don't mind them having, et cetera. It all works pretty simply for this case.
I don't think there'd be a problem with the PCs learning a 'Greater Disguise Self' illusion spell from a lich's spellbook. It sounds like something that should exist. If the spell is high enough level it could allow you to mimic things like the Fear aura of a dragon.
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I like 3rd level Greater Disguise. Make it an hour/level, extend size to 1 category up or down, and maybe add auditory component. I'd use it and, more importantly, I would be fine with a GM using it on me.
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