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Mirror Image is a great spell. Not only does it provide significant protection to its caster, it also provides drama to the combat as the decoy images are destroyed one by one. And it lacks the disadvantages of roleplaying Invisibility, such as not being able to mark location with a minature, and can be learned sooner than Displacement.
Mirror Image
School illusion (figment); Level bard 2, sorcerer/wizard 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 min./levelThis spell creates a number of illusory doubles of you that inhabit your square. These doubles make it difficult for enemies to precisely locate and attack you.
When mirror image is cast, 1d4 images plus one image per three caster levels (maximum eight images total) are created. These images remain in your space and move with you, mimicking your movements, sounds, and actions exactly. Whenever you are attacked or are the target of a spell that requires an attack roll, there is a possibility that the attack targets one of your images instead. If the attack is a hit, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment. If it is a figment, the figment is destroyed. If the attack misses by 5 or less, one of your figments is destroyed by the near miss. Area spells affect you normally and do not destroy any of your figments. Spells and effects that do not require an attack roll affect you normally and do not destroy any of your figments. Spells that require a touch attack are harmlessly discharged if used to destroy a figment.
An attacker must be able to see the figments to be fooled. If you are invisible or the attacker is blind, the spell has no effect (although the normal miss chances still apply).
Alas, Mirror Image breaks the general principles of illusion spells. It does not allow a Will save to disbelieve any figment. Instead, it invents its own rule that if a decory figment is hit or almost hit, then it is destroyed. An FAQ on Mirror Image declares that targeting a decoy figment with Magic Missile hits the decoyed caster instead. And even if the enemies discover momentarily which image is real, they cannot retain that knowledge for the next attack. Targeting a Major Image figment with Magic Missile has different results, because the spell will fail due to an illegal target and allow a Will save to disbelieve.
People have individual visions of how the decoy figments manage to work as written. For example, in another thread about other uses of spells, Mirror Image was mentioned and Loren Pechtel said, "The missiles go for the real target which reveals which one is real for now. The images move around, you lose track." Mirror Image does not say that the images move around, but perhaps that is implicit in its properties.
I asked in the Rules forum about how Mirror Image and its variant Shocking Image interact: Mirror Image and Shocking Image on Same Character. People had different answers based on how they envisioned the spell.
I am curious about these many ways of envisioning Mirror Image. What are good explanations for how Mirror Image's decoys work? What explains the inability to disbelieve the figments or cast a spell on an individual figment or track the real caster?
While I wrote the first post, Perfect Tommy said in the other thread:
The Pathfinder rules can handle that clearly. The handful of gravel would be an improvised weapon with the scatter weapon quality.. That would be a -4 to hit for improvised and another -2 to hit for scatter. And the scatter weapon quality says that it is not affected by concealment from blur, invisibility, or mirror image spells, so the gravel would miss the figments just as if they were not visible but deal full damage (1d1+Str bonus, I guess) on a hit to the caster.People in older editions used to say things like, "I throw a handful of gravel at the mirror images, destroying them all." And the GM said yes, or no, depending on his mood.
I prefer it when the rules are clear.
The pathfinder rules handle that clearly.
The handful of gravel does not target separate, individuals. It is more akin to an area affect weapon.
Ie., throw a handful of gravel. Its one roll to hit, so at most one image might be affected.
Probably, I'd rule it was akin to a melee touch attack - easy to hit something. But if the player tried to insist it was an area affect weapon hitting everything in the square - then mirror image is immune...
I had forgotten about potential solution of throwing a handful of gravel at the images. What do people think of that, too?
How I envision Mirror Image:
I don't envision completely separate images, there is only one "target" present in the square(s). I looks like a superposition of the caster in different facings, but you can't tell what head belongs with which legs or what torso. You can attack this single target (that is a composite of the actual caster and his images but not as if there are multiple targets). You might miss completely, or you might do damage to the actual caster, or you might degrade the illusion. There are no individual images to "pop".
There is a good illustration out there somewhere on the web, but I cannot lay my digital tendrils on it at the moment.
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Its pretty hard to explain how images are destroyed by damage like effects but you can't pop images with aoe damage, throwing gravel, or swinging a chain through them. A by product of people saying that "its too easy to counter with magic missiles or simple tricks!" and buffing the spell so its no longer what it used to be and is more of a game effect rather than anything that makes sense and requires lots of special rules like this cleave faq: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/m/mirror-image/
For the spell to make sense i think it needs to be changed to act like an actual image effect where you don't pop images but rather determine the real person by testing the other images for validity. If you want it to be fairly powerful you can say the 3 card monty image effect with the caster resets every round. If you think its already powerful enough you say that once you determine the caster then you can track him.
I personally think its an overpowered spell. When you see a ninja activate this as a swift action as often as he wants or see the 40 AC fighter use magic device to set up a group of 35 AC images it seems plenty powerful enough to me.
Images aren't destroyed by damage though, they are destroyed by attacks.
To me it seems pretty obvious that an image is not an independent targetable thing, but rather an obscurement of the actual target creature.
In AD&D, the images shift from round to round, so even if you hit the caster, all the images immediately shuffle around, so you don't know where he is. That's how it used to work. Maybe, the people at Paizo just assumed that when they carried over the spell and forgot to actually put that descriptor in?
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In AD&D, the images shift from round to round, so even if you hit the caster, all the images immediately shuffle around, so you don't know where he is. That's how it used to work. Maybe, the people at Paizo just assumed that when they carried over the spell and forgot to actually put that descriptor in?
I don't have a copy of the AD&D version, but www.d20srd.org provides the D&D 3.5 Mirror Image.
Mirror Image
Illusion (Figment)
Level: Brd 2, Sor/Wiz 2
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal; see text
Target: You
Duration: 1 min./level (D)Several illusory duplicates of you pop into being, making it difficult for enemies to know which target to attack. The figments stay near you and disappear when struck.
Mirror image creates 1d4 images plus one image per three caster levels (maximum eight images total). These figments separate from you and remain in a cluster, each within 5 feet of at least one other figment or you. You can move into and through a mirror image. When you and the mirror image separate, observers can’t use vision or hearing to tell which one is you and which the image. The figments may also move through each other. The figments mimic your actions, pretending to cast spells when you cast a spell, drink potions when you drink a potion, levitate when you levitate, and so on.
Enemies attempting to attack you or cast spells at you must select from among indistinguishable targets. Generally, roll randomly to see whether the selected target is real or a figment. Any successful attack against an image destroys it. An image’s AC is 10 + your size modifier + your Dex modifier. Figments seem to react normally to area spells (such as looking like they’re burned or dead after being hit by a fireball).
While moving, you can merge with and split off from figments so that enemies who have learned which image is real are again confounded.
An attacker must be able to see the images to be fooled. If you are invisible or an attacker shuts his or her eyes, the spell has no effect. (Being unable to see carries the same penalties as being blinded.)
In the D&D 3.5 version, the images reshuffle when the decoyed caster moves. They don't necessarily reshuffle when he or she stays in the same square, hence the phrase, "... so that enemies who have learned which image is real are again confounded."
In game mechanics, that does have the weakness that if a +11 BAB fighter hit a the real caster on his first swing, then he can target the real caster on his new two attacks, followed by all his combat buddies knowing which image to attack, too.
It also hints at the origin of the limit of 8 decoys: in D&D 3.5 the decoys move to their own squares. Nine images total fit into a neat 15 ft by 15 ft square.
How I run it:
They don't really break the usual disbelief rules so much as futz with them. It's a lot like SlimGauge's version above: the illusion in question is blurry and semi-composite and moves too quickly and chaotically to study long enough to pick out the illusion (which would normally allow a save to disbelieve). Reactions from area attacks apply to the original and all images, so there's no way to pick out the fake that way. Magic missiles converge on the entire mess of a target, so you glean no information that way. Only by attack or interacting directly with the mess can one start to pull it apart--once you've watched your sword or arrow strike a specific part of the illusion, that moment of clarity unravels it--rather than reducing it to a faint outline, the spell simply casts off the useless part of itself to keep the rest of the images going.
This has a few edge-case mechanical implications that don't exist RAW, but nothing major that I've come across.
A Colossal dragon can cast Mirror Image on itself. Given that it fills an area 30' across, or 36 squares, I'm not really sure that a few images a foot or two in either direction are going to make a lot of difference when aiming an arrow. Nevertheless, it supposedly works.
The Slimgauge/Blahpers explanation is as good as any I've seen.
So... the AD&D version states;
"When a Mirror Image spell is invoked, the spellcaster causes from two to eight exact duplicates of himself to come into being around him. these images do exactly what the wizard does. Since the spell causes blurring and slight distortion when it is cast, it is impossible for opponents to be certain which are illusions and which is the actual wizard. When an image is struck by a melee or missile attack, magical or otherwise, it dissappears, but any other existing images remain intact until struck. The images seem to shift from round to round, so that if the actual wizard is struck during one round, he cannot be picked out from among his images the next."
Then it goes on to determine the number of images and such. So, Old school rules, you're good until you hit the wizard. The caster is hosed for that round, but the images shift around (like the shell game) and he's protected again the next round. So, better hope that, if he gets hit, it's by the slowest guy in the round.
That's the last version of the spell I've used. That's how I would use it now.
That said, I would assume that the images shift through the caster as well as the others so it looks like the caster is just one of the illusions.
Tell me how it is possible to damage something (intentionally) and not have attacked it.Images aren't destroyed by damage though, they are destroyed by attacks.
To me it seems pretty obvious that an image is not an independent targetable thing, but rather an obscurement of the actual target creature.
Hoo boy. Welcome to Pathfinder.
Tell me how it is possible to damage something (intentionally) and not have attacked it.Images aren't destroyed by damage though, they are destroyed by attacks.
To me it seems pretty obvious that an image is not an independent targetable thing, but rather an obscurement of the actual target creature.
If an attack roll is not involved, then it is not an attack (in the jargon used by Pathfinder rules). The only exception is the Invisibility spell, which defines an attack as an intent to harm through direct action.
I view the destruction of a decoy figment via an attack as a variant of the Will save to disbelieve through interaction with a figment. An attack is a form of interaction
An area-of-effect spell, such as a Fireball, is too indirect to test an illusion, since the figments look like they were singed by the spell. Mirror Image puts all the figments in the same square as the caster, which means they are hit by the same area-of-effect as the caster. The spell simply has to keep the figments looking like the now-singed original to maintain the illusion.
Tell me how it is possible to damage something (intentionally) and not have attacked it.Images aren't destroyed by damage though, they are destroyed by attacks.
To me it seems pretty obvious that an image is not an independent targetable thing, but rather an obscurement of the actual target creature.
You can't. Like I said in the mirror image vs cleave thread. The intent is that you are trying to hit the caster, but you accidentally hit one of the images.
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Tell me how it is possible to damage something (intentionally) and not have attacked it.Images aren't destroyed by damage though, they are destroyed by attacks.
To me it seems pretty obvious that an image is not an independent targetable thing, but rather an obscurement of the actual target creature.
Traps. This is exactly what traps do
Tell me how it is possible to damage something (intentionally) and not have attacked it.
Whenever you are attacked or are the target of a spell that requires an attack roll, there is a possibility that the attack targets one of your images instead.
In this context 'attacked' appears to mean 'attacked with a weapon/unarmed strike'. Otherwise they wouldn't need to specify that spells with an attack roll also count.