| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Pretty simple. Would something with true sight know there is an illusion he's seeing through? Or would he simply not sense the trick? Similarly would he and a guy with see invisibility know the thing they're looking at is supposed to be invisible to them?
I've wondered about this too, the mental image I always had was, let's say Lini the iconic druid is wild shaped into a T-rex. Do I see a little gnome, stomping around, gnashing her teeth? Is she floating in the air around center mass? Always amuses me, but I don't know the answer.
With an illusion, I always thought you see the transparent outline, like you would if you disbelieved it. I imagine Polymorphs would be the same.
Spells for reference
You can see any objects or beings that are invisible within your range of vision, as well as any that are ethereal, as if they were normally visible. Such creatures are visible to you as translucent shapes, allowing you easily to discern the difference between visible, invisible, and ethereal creatures.
The spell does not reveal the method used to obtain invisibility. It does not reveal illusions or enable you to see through opaque objects. It does not reveal creatures who are simply hiding, concealed, or otherwise hard to see.
See invisibility can be made permanent with a permanency spell.
Pretty straight forward. The spell explicitly says you can distinguish between them because invisible creatures are made to look different.
You confer on the subject the ability to see all things as they actually are. The subject sees through normal and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic, sees the exact locations of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects, sees invisible creatures or objects normally, sees through illusions, and sees the true form of polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things. Further, the subject can focus its vision to see into the Ethereal Plane (but not into extra-dimensional spaces). The range of true seeing conferred is 120 feet.
True seeing, however, does not penetrate solid objects. It in no way confers X-ray vision or its equivalent. It does not negate concealment, including that caused by fog and the like. True seeing does not help the viewer see through mundane disguises, spot creatures who are simply hiding, or notice secret doors hidden by mundane means. In addition, the spell effects cannot be further enhanced with known magic, so one cannot use true seeing through a crystal ball or in conjunction with clairaudience/clairvoyance.
This is...less straight forward. There are a couple of serious questions that are left unanswered by this.
1) Is the creature also aware of what they *should* be seeing (polymorph disguises, illusions etc), or does the spell give them have nothing about it at all.2) For transumation effects, how does the creature perceive transmutations. Things like 100ft long dragons standing in a room under Alter Self.
However, there is this:
True Seeing: Does this spell protect you from phantasmal killer?
Yes. True seeing lets you "see all things as they actually are." Because phantasmal killer is an illusion (phantasm) spell and creates an image directly in the target's mind, a target with true seeing would (mentally) see the image and (physically) see that there is nothing really there, and would therefore immediately recognize that the mental image is actually unreal. Because phantasmal killer says the target "gets a Will save to recognize the image as unreal," the creature with true seeing automatically succeeds at that saving throw (no roll needed), and therefore never has to deal with the Fort-save aspect of phantasmal killer.
along with this
Phantasm: a phantasm spell creates a mental image that usually only the caster and the subject (or subjects) of the spell can perceive. This impression is totally in the minds of the subjects. It is a personalized mental impression, all in their heads and not a fake picture or something that they actually see. Third parties viewing or studying the scene don’t notice the phantasm. All phantasms are mind-affecting spells.
The reasoning of the FAQ is that the subject of a true seeing spell can mentally see the image, but can physically see that there is nothing there. Note that it does not say that the creature sees nothing because they have true seeing up. Generalizing this, True Seeing still lets a creature be mentally aware of what they should be seeing, but they see what it actually is without magic. How you make this mesh with polymorph effects is something I leave to you, but the fact that the creature is aware of what everything should look like anyway makes it more of a flavor thing than anything else - you shouldn't be able to shrink objects then use them to hide from creatures with True Seeing, so there are (hopefully) no gamebreaking options opened up regardless of the way you resolve the issue.
Yes.
A successful saving throw against an illusion reveals it to be false, but a figment or phantasm remains as a translucent outline.
True Seeing and See Invisiblity automatically prove the illusions they're keyed to pierce to be false, no saving throw required. This is the closest RAW answer to your question, however.
I really rather like the idea that people under the True Seeing effect no longer see what they were supposed to see; it can make for some rather nifty trickery. But the rules are silent on the matter.
FAQ'd.