In the campaign i'm currently playing, I'm a celestial sorcerer and i know Silent Image, so while i was in the middle of the battle with my friends i decided to try and create an illusion of a bunch of high soldiers wearing armor and with long lances besides one of my companions to scare the enemies, but the game master told me that i had to make a percentage dice to define the precision and the details of the illusion itself. Also when i tried to move it, i had to make another percentage roll and since I made a bad one he told me that i could not move it. This gave me a strange feeling, because i have never heard of something like that in manuals. Is it normal? The spell already keeps me focused and i can't do anything while i'm casting it, moreover moving it is a standard action, so if there's also the possibility of failing when creating the illusion, i might as well let it go.
That is 100% home brew rules your GM either made up or saw someplace. Not in any way RAW.
As above, the percentage chances your GM are rolling are a house rule.
The spell does have a built in 'failure' method of sorts, in that characters interacting with your Silent Image get a Will saving throw to potentially disbelieve the illusion.
Also while there isn't % chance to fail, there also isn't a built in fear mechanic for this illusion. If you were getting a bonus fear effect maybe the GM was balancing that with a chance to see through the illusion?
That is 100% homebrew but I will say as someone who has played an Illusionist Wizard to Level 20, a God Wizard at that, Illusions are really taxing on the DM with the infinite possibilities. What is best is to sit down with the DM and go over all the mechanics and rules together to get on the same page. Something like this could then be easily avoided in the future.
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Your DM made up a house rule on the fly, happens all the time.
In the future remember Silent Image is terrible for that purpose. A bunch of knights would be making all kinds of noises so the fact they are completely silent immediately raises suspicion (and possible reason to spend an action to investigate and take a will save)
Lady Asharah wrote: Your DM made up a house rule on the fly, happens all the time.
In the future remember Silent Image is terrible for that purpose. A bunch of knights would be making all kinds of noises so the fact they are completely silent immediately raises suspicion (and possible reason to spend an action to investigate and take a will save)
I'll keep it in mind, i had not thought about that . Thank you
You would need at least Minor Image from 2nd level to generate a "knightly noise" and with Major Image you can make those illusions indistinguishable from reality except under closest scrutiny.
As for making the illusion "precise and detailed" you shouldn't need to roll anything. The image is as you imagine it though, so if you want to create an Illusion that (keeping these knights as example) displays a specific heraldry, if you don't know what that heraldry look like, it will appear as whatever your character thinks it should appear as... which could be very incorrect.
To avoid the lack of character knowledge you have the Hallucination chain, which while more powerful at creating believable illusions, can affect only a limited amount of targets (while Image line just creates an image and anyone who can see it will)
That percentage thing is completely wrong. Enemies can disbelieve your illusions, but they have to interact with them first. Once they interact with them, they're allowed a Will Save to disbelieve, and if they fail, they think it's real can carry on normally, but if they save, they act accordingly to that as well.
In your case, you summoned a small host of soldiers. If I was your DM, those monsters you're trying to scare would either run or attack (whichever is more applicable to their nature), and if they attack, they would swing at your Silent Image and then make a Will Save to disbelieve.
Silent Image wrote:
Silent Image
School illusion (figment); Level bard 1, magus 1, psychic 1, sorcerer/wizard 1; Subdomain imagination 1
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, F (a bit of fleece)
EFFECT
Range long (400 ft. + 40 ft./level)
Effect visual figment that cannot extend beyond four 10-ft. cubes + one 10-ft. cube/level (S)
Duration concentration
Saving Throw Will disbelief (if interacted with); Spell Resistance no
DESCRIPTION
This spell creates the visual illusion of an object, creature, or force, as visualized by you. The illusion does not create sound, smell, texture, or temperature. You can move the image within the limits of the size of the effect.
In general, rules for illusions are rather complex. Most players and DMs don't fully understand them so they end up being either entirely useless or extremely overpowered.
In game speak, when a spell 'fails' it is usually because the target(s) made their saves. It is assumed the caster made appropriate choices in casting, targeting, etc.
Lady Asharah wrote: You would need at least Minor Image from 2nd level to generate a "knightly noise" and with Major Image you can make those illusions indistinguishable from reality except under closest scrutiny.
As for making the illusion "precise and detailed" you shouldn't need to roll anything. The image is as you imagine it though, so if you want to create an Illusion that (keeping these knights as example) displays a specific heraldry, if you don't know what that heraldry look like, it will appear as whatever your character thinks it should appear as... which could be very incorrect.
To avoid the lack of character knowledge you have the Hallucination chain, which while more powerful at creating believable illusions, can affect only a limited amount of targets (while Image line just creates an image and anyone who can see it will)
"Knightly Noise" is the name of my speed metal Spamalot! cover troupe.
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