Clever (ab)uses for enter image

[Ravingdork]

I was hoping we could brainstorm all kinds of fun, rules-legal (ab)uses for the enter image spell.

The classic usage, I believe, is having a bunch of portraits and busts and the like of yourself in your mansion home, with which to better spy on your welcome and unwelcome guests.

Here are some of the ideas I came up with for better uses:

• Cast permanent invisibility on all of the busts and portraits so that they can't be seen spying on people.
  
• Place your portraits behind one-way mirrors, so they are effectively invisible, and don't have a magical aura that can be detected. Using controlled lighting effects, you can even have a looming "man in the mirror" effect to spook your guests.
  
• For casters on the go, have your arcane mark bear your likeness, so you can easily and quickly place your image anywhere (and even make it invisible for free)
  
• If you happen to be a ruler, place your likeness on the local currency; that way you can pretty much spy on anyone, anywhere within range, at any time.
  
• Create a small construct army made up of animated objects bearing your likeness to use as advanced scouts or spies.
  

Does anyone have any other creative ideas for this marvelous spell?

[Ridiculon]

If you spend a week or two Shaping Stone you can have a Mt. Rushmore sized head. Similar idea if you convince some nation to build a giant statue.

Ship's figurehead (although again it may take some convincing). This could be fun for a merchant baron.

Learn to whittle, toss a pocket sized bust into a river for interesting sightseeing. Ditto with Stone Shape and deep ocean areas.

This would have all sorts of fun applications in an intrigue campaign if you printed your face on calling cards or leaflets (but then again everyone would know your face). It would make for a fairly secure spy network, although you would have to keep a disguise on at all times since anyone could see your real face (cap of human guise?)

[james014Aura]

One-way mirrors aren't actually a thing - it's just different lighting using reflections to wash out what people on the lighter side see on the darker. However, with a couple more levels: Illusory Wall (which DOES allow one-way visibility) over glass which is over the image as soon as you stop holding it up to enter said image would do that better.

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Have a cameo brooch or a badge made of your image and have fellow party members, servants, and everyone else wear it wherever they go.

Bonus points if you are a Bard and can mass produce and popularize it to be worn by your fans.

[Ravingdork]

Carve your likeness into the bottom of your boat/ship so that you can see into the waters below. Spot that sea monster before it attacks from the depths.

Ridiculon wrote:

If you spend a week or two Shaping Stone you can have a Mt. Rushmore sized head. Similar idea if you convince some nation to build a giant statue.

SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!

lol.

[Avoron]

Interesting question; that arcane mark idea is pure genius.

What about using this spell with familiars? It's sadly not treated as personal, so you can't use share spells on it, but at a high enough level your familiar could use it with Familiar Spell or a lesser metamagic rod of the same, giving them a ring of eloquence if needed for the verbal components. If they have the necessary appendages, they could also just use a wand.

Once your familiar casts it, though, they can easily concentrate on it as long as they like, which will be extraordinarily useful. They'll be able to constantly monitor the surroundings of all your arcane marks, all your allies and minions and constructed scouts through their little medallions with your familiar's picture on them. But that's not the best part.

The best part is that "each such image has the full range of your normal senses," and some familiars have excellent senses. Plenty of familiars have scent, earth and mud elementals have tremorsense, bats and psuedodragons and aether elementals and voidworm proteans have blindsense, but it's pretty much impossible to top blindsight. If you get a petrifern, ioun wyrd, sin seeker, or popoto dolphin familiar, they could monitor the party's surroundings with perfect accuracy all day long. They can see through invisibility and concealment, locate enemies in fog or magical darkness, and generally serve as the paranoid adventurer's ideal traveling companion.

[Ravingdork]

Please keep in mind folks, that the spell range is only 50 feet per caster level, and special senses, such as blindsight, likely don't extend any farther from the image than they would from the creature or character with the sense in question.

Strap a token to your familiar that bears your likeness. That way, they can fly, stealth invisibly, or whatever while you monitor things from their position.

[avr]

There's a 4th level version, Majestic Image, with 4x the range and some social skill buffs.

A summoned monster could carry your likeness in somewhere too dangerous to send a familiar. For that matter, cast arcane mark on an arrow & get the party archer to make a trick shot to see around a corner or over a garden wall or something.

Since it's not personal you could make it into a potion if you want to have some mook use their likeness rather than disable yourself.

Edit: those two ideas are for Enter Image more than the upgrade. For Majestic Image, get your image painted on the sail of a ship for Intimidate bonuses.

[Avoron]

Ravingdork wrote:

Please keep in mind folks, that the spell range is only 50 feet per caster level, and special senses, such as blindsight, likely don't extend any farther from the image than they would from the creature or character with the sense in question.

But the key advantage is that the blindsight range extends that far from each and every image of the caster within range. So while your petrifern's 30 ft. blindsight might not seem too useful, and while your CL 4 wand's 200 ft.-range might not seem like much, you can put them together to give it perfect vision within 30 feet of every single party member, every piece of important gear, and anything else you've decided to mark with its likeness. When you amplify that by, say, using a lesser rod of familiar spell with your popoto dolphin familiar for 60 feet of blindsense emanating from every image of it within several hundred feet, the area it can cover becomes simply astounding.

With lesser senses such as scent, you could even work the range limitation to your advantage by using multiple images to triangulate the location of invisible creatures and pinpoint their square.

[Ray-gun]

If I remember right, the image just needs to contain your image. So make a portrait of the person you wish to spy on, with people in the background (you as one of those). If it is high quality they could hang it somewhere prominently. Less traceable to you to.

[Plausible Pseudonym]

A 5th level Pageantry discipline Psychic can maintain a concentration spell with a swift action using a discipline ability, so you could maintain this spell while going about your business and keeping a sensor network up at the same time.

avr wrote:

There's a 4th level version, Majestic Image, with 4x the range and some social skill buffs.

A summoned monster could carry your likeness in somewhere too dangerous to send a familiar. For that matter, cast arcane mark on an arrow & get the party archer to make a trick shot to see around a corner or over a garden wall or something.

Since it's not personal you could make it into a potion if you want to have some mook use their likeness rather than disable yourself.

Edit: those two ideas are for Enter Image more than the upgrade. For Majestic Image, get your image painted on the sail of a ship for Intimidate bonuses.

Majestic Image seems overall worse, though, because it doesn't give you the networked scan effect.

[MageHunter]

If only creating a homunculous in your image counted.

[Ridiculon]

MageHunter wrote:

If only creating a homunculous in your image counted.

that would be cool, but its unnecessary. You can just give the homunculous a tattoo of your face on an arm or something.

[Lakesidefantasy]

In my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign, one of the players' characters is using this spell to monitor the city by entering the many wanted posters bearing his image. He actually paid to have hundreds of the posters printed.

I really like the coinage idea. That would be a fun one too if a random coin began talking to you.

[Malignor]

Since you can talk & gesture from your image,

• have trained animals or undead, or dominated creatures near them, so you can give commands remotely.
• put ranks into Disguise so you can mimic voices, or Diplomacy to win people over from a safe distance, or other social skills. You may even be able to Demoralize (Intimidate) remotely this way.
• Get your likeness on an enemy, and make noise to help friendlies locate & track them

Also, there are fun was to plant your likeness somewhere you normally can't get to. Places like a vault, or a king's private chamber. This is extra useful if you want to get familiar with a person or place for spells like Scry, or Teleport. Make the item obscure, like a pill-sized stone (Craft Sculpture is your friend)

• Spectral Hand + Stone Shape to put your likeness in an existing stone
• Apport Object (level 2 spell!)
• get some sovereign glue and stick these "mini-me tokens" on the under-side of the table, or in a dark corner near the ceiling, or other places you would plant a bug in a spy movie.

Also, it would be a great idea to keep a stamp+inkpad of your likeness, so you can quickly leave them in your wake (or make disposable likenesses to toss around corners) when you explore dungeons.

[Plausible Pseudonym]

Malignor wrote:

Since you can talk & gesture from your image,

[list]

have trained animals or undead, or dominated creatures near them, so you can give commands remotely.

Good stuff overall, but you don't need this for dominated creatures, you have an unlimited range telepathic link to them.

[Skorn]

There is a PFS mod that

Spoiler:

a major NPC has crafted dozens of dolls that are in her likeness. She has given each family in town one of these dolls. So now she can spy on each house.

[The Sideromancer]

Malignor wrote:

Since you can talk & gesture from your image,

• have trained animals or undead, or dominated creatures near them, so you can give commands remotely.
• put ranks into Disguise so you can mimic voices, or Diplomacy to win people over from a safe distance, or other social skills. You may even be able to Demoralize (Intimidate) remotely this way.
• Get your likeness on an enemy, and make noise to help friendlies locate & track them

Also, there are fun was to plant your likeness somewhere you normally can't get to. Places like a vault, or a king's private chamber. This is extra useful if you want to get familiar with a person or place for spells like Scry, or Teleport. Make the item obscure, like a pill-sized stone (Craft Sculpture is your friend)

• Spectral Hand + Stone Shape to put your likeness in an existing stone
• Apport Object (level 2 spell!)
• get some sovereign glue and stick these "mini-me tokens" on the under-side of the table, or in a dark corner near the ceiling, or other places you would plant a bug in a spy movie.

Also, it would be a great idea to keep a stamp+inkpad of your likeness, so you can quickly leave them in your wake (or make disposable likenesses to toss around corners) when you explore dungeons.

Invisible Arcane Mark of your face works much better than a stamp.

[Avoron]

The Sideromancer wrote:

Invisible Arcane Mark of your face works much better than a stamp.

Typically, yes, but it will show up easily if anyone casts detect magic. How about using a stamp with invisible ink?

[Malignor]

There's also the problem that many GMs would see that use of Arcane Mark ("it's my likeness, so I can exploit it") as abuse, and simply not allow it.

The stamp idea is immune to the same claim.

[Valandil Ancalime]

How exact an image does it need to be?

[Ridiculon]

someone would have to be able to recognize you from the image/bust, i dont think it needs to be any more specific than that

[Lakesidefantasy]

A white canvas with no image visible versus a white canvas with an invisible image.

The difference is very subtle, no?

Is an invisible image of your likeness really an image of your likeness?

[Kydeem de'Morcaine]

As GM, I'd have to rule against the invisible ink image. But think I'd allow most of the other uses mentioned. I am currently undecided about the arcane mark.

[Ridiculon]

Lakesidefantasy wrote:

A white canvas with no image visible versus a white canvas with an invisible image.

The difference is very subtle, no?

Is an invisible image of your likeness really an image of your likeness?

The answer is yes, it is still an image of your likeness. Just the same as an image behind a curtain still being an an image. Just because the one is obscured by magic does not mean it ceases to exist.

EDIT: third example, white ink on a white canvas

[Ravingdork]

I LOVE these ideas! Keep 'em coming!

[Malignor]

Anyone who has True Sight or See Invisible can certainly attest to a magically invisible likeness.
Therefore it's a likeness.

There is no dependency on visibility... I mean, what if your painting were in an empty room? Or a dark room where nobody has Darkvsion?

[Lakesidefantasy]

No, I get it Ridiculon. I "see" the logic, so to speak. And if we're fishing for rules-legal abuses, then I think this one qualifies.

However, it seems to me an image depends on being visible, otherwise it's not an image at all.

It's interesting to note that the image behind the curtain cannot see images of what cannot see it. I don't know what that means, but it seems important.

[Lakesidefantasy]

I see your point Malignor.

It would be funny (although to whom I'm not sure) if a wizard always cast invisibility before scrying on people. That way, if the person is warded by detect scrying, they would only receive an invisible image of the wizard. :D

[SlimGauge]

Arcane Mark won't work, you're limited to (six) characters.

[VRMH]

A painting with multiple likenesses could be used as "neutral ground" for spellcasters to meet, since they can interact with each other in the picture but not cast spells.

[The Sideromancer]

VRMH wrote:

A painting with multiple likenesses could be used as "neutral ground" for spellcasters to meet, since they can interact with each other in the picture but not cast spells.

The mage guild meets in the group portrait in another guild's room.

[Loren Pechtel]

james014Aura wrote:

One-way mirrors aren't actually a thing - it's just different lighting using reflections to wash out what people on the lighter side see on the darker. However, with a couple more levels: Illusory Wall (which DOES allow one-way visibility) over glass which is over the image as soon as you stop holding it up to enter said image would do that better.

While technically they don't exist it would work. People do hide spy cameras behind one way glass.

[Ravingdork]

VRMH wrote:

A painting with multiple likenesses could be used as "neutral ground" for spellcasters to meet, since they can interact with each other in the picture but not cast spells.

So...what...they would all be hiding in separate rooms of the same inn, but be meeting inside the painting in the common room?

I'd be the guy hiding in the stable after setting fire to the whole inn.

[Ridiculon]

nah man, at 50'/lvl you'd have to set fire to the whole neighborhood

[Plausible Pseudonym]

SlimGauge wrote:

Arcane Mark won't work, you're limited to (six) characters.

6 characters or runes.

For some people you could draw a recognizable abstract image of a person with six lines or simple shapes. I wouldn't allow it but I can imagine it almost working. It wouldn't be much less detailed than old coin portraits.

[Loren Pechtel]

We have an earlier answer suggesting a face in the crowd in the image. We can go much farther than that, though, given a skilled artist.

Lets make a painting of say the king giving money to the poor. How many will notice that one of the coins actually has your image, not the king's?

Alternately, given a sufficiently skilled wizard:

We have the visual spectrum. Some creatures can see more than that, though. This suggests a line of research, what else can be seen? Enough research should lead to some way of seeing ultraviolet light as bees do.

Make a special portrait that has a figure in it that is not you--but paint the face with a special paint that has color in the UV, paint your face on it with this paint.

It most certainly is your image as anyone with the spell you developed can verify. Nobody without the spell can see it, though.

[Decimus Drake]

A while back my current GM and myself were playing a campaign in which he was a ratfolk merchant/businessman (businessrat?)who has business cards and currency with his image on with the intention using this spell. Unfortunately the GM's idea of a campaign is a gruelling never ending assault of ever more powerful (and conveniently adapted to counter our specific skills) enemies with no other NPCs or actual civilisation which wasted both of our characters (I was hedonistic diviner body/caravan guard-turned adventurer he was using an adapted spell thief)on a campaign that didn't really allow for role play.

I still really want to see enter image currency put to use.

[SlimGauge]

I like the image of a crowd. Where's Waldo the high-level mage ?

[Lakesidefantasy]

Ahh, Modern Magic.

[grudgekeyper]

To bad illusions don't count as objects. Think of the fun you could have entering the chain of image illusion spells

[Ravingdork]

grudgekeyper wrote:

To bad illusions don't count as objects. Think of the fun you could have entering the chain of image illusion spells

Yeah, a permanent image of yourself that you could manipulate at will would make for a pretty good fantasy hologram.

[My Self]

Even if you're not a ruler, just do some clever branding and stamp your face all over everything. Try founding some sort of bank, stationary company, textile factory, or other enterprise that will circulate your image. A mail service with your face-stamps may also be a good option. If you craft buttons, put it on the reverse of the button. If you make art (sculpture, painting, etc.), sign your art with a mini-you. If you do blacksmithing or other metalwork, try to include an image. If you own a restaurant, print it on the napkins. If you print books, make sure there's a couple pictures of you in there and on the cover. Put your portrait in your outhouses, in your cellars, on your rugs. Embroider micro-images of yourself on any textiles you produce. Leave Easter Island-style heads everywhere, except maybe smaller. Produce bobbleheads of yourself if mini-constructs are too expensive. Watermark your stationary with your face. Cards, flags, coupons, flyers, etc. are all good mediums as well. A spellbook embossed with your face, then maybe a few prints within, should be a no-brainer. If you have a business that produces a non-perishable good, mark that. Animals as well. Any willing allies could also consider tattooing you somewhere. If you're the cruel type, you can put it on unwilling people as well. If you are planning a heist in the future, consider gifting the mark a valuable but awkward to display item. A chandelier with your face carved into an ornamental section, (assuming the mark already has enough), a medium-sized statuette of yourself, or a tapestry with you somewhere in it might work. You could use this to scout out the treasure room while you are planning the heist. If you have time and money (10 minutes, 4000 gp, lots of uses), you could use Marvelous Pigments to leave stone/plaster busts of yourself everywhere, without having to carry around several hundred pounds of stone or plaster. Crudely carve your face into tree trunks, into latrine buckets, on other people's carriages, in alleyways, underneath tables, onto bedframes, under bridges, on landmarks and tourist destinations, and anywhere you might normally see graffiti tags. Certain high-value locations may be better (and probably creepier) than others - secret meeting rooms/bunkers, private parts of courtrooms, bedrooms, etc.

If you can make some sort of easily heatable, portable brand, that would make your job very easy. Alternatively, a durable stencil and a sharp knife, or a stamp with good wax or really good ink might work.

[avr]

Remember that leaving your likeness everywhere is basically asking people to scry on you.

Images don't have to be permanent. Imagine tracing your image in the dust, snow or dew - if it gets broken by someone stepping on it you won't have to make a perception check to realise someone's there.

[My Self]

avr wrote:

Remember that leaving your likeness everywhere is basically asking people to scry on you.

Images don't have to be permanent. Imagine tracing your image in the dust, snow or dew - if it gets broken by someone stepping on it you won't have to make a perception check to realise someone's there.

The answer is to be paranoid, and go full metal jacket. Revel in your newfound kryptonite resistance. Ensconce yourself in protection from detection.

What I mean: wear a lead coat.

[Create Mr. Pitt]

Become the premier producer/distributor of potions in all the kingdom. Sell them for minimal profit, but put your picture on them like its Newman's Own potion of fly.

[Lakesidefantasy]

I really like the mages meeting in a group portrait. But, I'm getting bored of all the volumetric approaches. Of which, the wizard king's coinage bearing his visage is the best.

Come on people, let's get creative!

I propose a rogue who slips his image under a door to safely scout the other side.

[UnArcaneElection]

Loren Pechtel wrote:

We have an earlier answer suggesting a face in the crowd in the image. We can go much farther than that, though, given a skilled artist.

Lets make a painting of say the king giving money to the poor. How many will notice that one of the coins actually has your image, not the king's?
{. . .}

I would think that even though the probability is low at any one time with any one person, eventually somebody is going to notice, and then a state-sanctioned hunt will be called.

On the other hand, if you are the King or one of the King's Inquisitors, this certainly works -- nobody is going to go on a state-sanctioned hunt for them unless they fall out of favor.

avr wrote:

Remember that leaving your likeness everywhere is basically asking people to scry on you. {. . .}

If you're somebody who is likely to be the object of scrying attempts anyway (like for instance a ruler), you might as well get the benefit.

* * * * * * * *

If you alter your form(*), can you use Enter Image or Majestic Image to enter a likeness of your altered form instead of your own form? If this works, it could cause consternation for somebody trying to find you based upon the image, as long as you make sure that you are protected from Scrying (as well as mundane observation) while you change forms -- then your own true image doesn't have to be anywhere.

(*)Disguise Self (maybe not since it's Illusion and not Transmutation), Alter Self or any other Polymorph spell, Wild Shape, certain racial/monster abilities, and certain abilities conferred by magic items.

[Peet]

Ravingdork wrote:

• If you happen to be a ruler, place your likeness on the local currency; that way you can pretty much spy on anyone, anywhere within range, at any time.

I recall a novel where this was the case. One of the characters went around deliberately stamping an "X" over the eyes of every coin he could get his hand on so that they could no longer be used in this way. The people started calling the coins "blinds."

[VRMH]

The Sideromancer wrote:

VRMH wrote:

A painting with multiple likenesses could be used as "neutral ground" for spellcasters to meet, since they can interact with each other in the picture but not cast spells.

The mage guild meets in the group portrait in another guild's room.

I wonder what kind of interaction is possible. You might have a liaison with the lady next door for years without either of you ever leaving the house during your trysts.

Also: slide a picture of yourself under a door to see what's on the other side. Or throw a small bust of yourself over a wall for a similar effect.