Image then miss chance.
So if you have 5 images and you for a total of 6 targets and we'll say you are target 1.
If a 2-6 is rolled an image is targeted. If a 1 is rolled you are targeted, check for blur/displacement.
I'd also say "image first".
And that an image always gets destroyed by hitting / missing by 5 or less, no matter the concealment.
The combination is somewhat overpowered, but actually any creature can get around it with simply closing their eyes before attacking - "only" 50% miss chance then.
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I can't recall exactly, but off the cuff I do believe it's miss chance first; if you have concealment and your images don't, it would be pretty easy to determine where the real you is.
Beyond that, isn't there an order of operations for layered effects, and isn't it usually determined by the caster?
I like that FAQ link, especially the part that said...
For most miss chances, such as blur, there’s no need to roll them if an attack would hit a mirror image because a hit and a miss by 5 or less would both pop the image.
That implies that there's some sort of secret rule hidden somewhere that states that a miss due to concealment counts as missing by 5 or less.
I like that FAQ link, especially the part that said...
For most miss chances, such as blur, there’s no need to roll them if an attack would hit a mirror image because a hit and a miss by 5 or less would both pop the image.That implies that there's some sort of secret rule hidden somewhere that states that a miss due to concealment counts as missing by 5 or less.
If I hadn't decided long before 2017 that Paizo's rulings were best interpreted as design insights than instructions, I'd have been very frustrated with Paizo completely running out of cares regarding Pathfinder RPG rule text around then. (See also: the "weapons are manufactured except when they aren't I mean come on it's obvious" FAQ)
Now the question is does the mirror image have a gain the benefit of the miss chance?
A miss chance does not matter what you roll, it is a straight out chance that the attack does not hit you. Why is it assumed that a miss chance is a near miss? It would make sense that if the mirror image duplicates you and you are blurry or hard to see your image would likewise be blurry or had to see. Considering a miss chance can actually stop a critical hit, it should offer some protection to the mirror image.
Why would an illusionary image of you possess anything that would give it a miss chance?
If you have a minor Cloak of Displacement that grants YOU a 20% constant miss chance, what makes you think that pictures of you wearing your minor Cloak of Displacement would also get the 20% miss chance?
They are only pictures of you.
They appear to wear your armor, too, but don't get an AC bonus.
You get the miss chance, not your illusionary images... to try and make it work otherwise is pure cheese.
If you are benefiting from a spell such as Blur, that makes it hard to target you, then your mirror images, which are supposed to be identical to you, should also be hard to target.
Unless you feel that the visual effect of Blur is not shared by your mirror images, at which point, mirror image is useless, because everyone can tell the real one apart from the rest.
Edit: accidentally used the wrong spell for my example, lol.
This is not a police lineup where your enemies can study the difference between each image...
There are between 1-8 images of you, trying to exist within the same space, as you.
Like a glitch in the Matrix, all these images are passing through one another, splitting, merging, moving...
But, sure, they can have a miss chance, too... you know what, just say you are impossible to target "because magic" and be done with it entirely.
No. That's not how it works. And to try make it work that way is pure cheese.
Firstly, why would you ever want to slow down the game that much? Take the hit, or don't, whatever... just let the game continue without a bunch of nonsense extra crap just to deal with your dumb pictures sharing your miss chance. Cool, you weren't hit, yay, but now it's midnight and we have to go home.
Secondly, why don't your pictures get your armor bonus, or why can't they make Reflex saves... because they are images, nothing more, nothing less... just as if you were looking in a mirror.
Does your reflection in a mirror share your miss chance? Does the mirror? No.
Neither do your illusionary images.
Honestly... that FAQ ruling make no sense... and quite frankly doesn't really line up to well with part of the rules text for Mirror Images... The very last line very well does imply that miss chance would apply first... the fact that if you are invisible, so is your mirror image... very much does imply that any effects on you granting a miss chance due to visibility would similarly apply to the image...
Funny enough, the one specifically defined source of miss chance in the FAQ that is ruled to apply first is the one type of miss chance that would make sense to be applied second...
With how Mirror Image itself reads, if you are visually displaced or obscured, so too are your images... as such Miss Chance SHOULD apply first... meanwhile if you're miss chance is from something non-visual such as being incomporeal or physically blinking between the material and ethereal plane, your images shouldn't benefit as they arn't physically changing with you...
And while, yes while invisible your Mirror Images have no effect, the fact that they turn invisible with you straight up says that any and all visual effects applied to you are applied to your images as well...
I have seen several nonsensical FAQ rulings before... but that one really does take the cake...
I stand corrected, then.
Although I don't like it or agree with it, I will see myself out of this argument.
The very last line very well does imply that miss chance would apply first... the fact that if you are invisible, so is your mirror image... very much does imply that any effects on you granting a miss chance due to visibility would similarly apply to the image...
The mirror image copies you and your Blur effect, but the blurry bits of the mirror image are exactly as real as the rest of the mirror image, so if the mirror-blur gets struck it still destroys the image.
This interpretation makes as much sense as anything else about Mirror Image, an illusion spell that can somehow stop an arrow hitting a giant in a narrow corridor.
I like that FAQ link, especially the part that said...
For most miss chances, such as blur, there’s no need to roll them if an attack would hit a mirror image because a hit and a miss by 5 or less would both pop the image.That implies that there's some sort of secret rule hidden somewhere that states that a miss due to concealment counts as missing by 5 or less.
I don't read it that way at all...i read it as a restatement of what destroys an image and its a low key reminder of the order of operations
Roll to hit
(mirror image has to happen here because of an effect on a near miss)
(blur then happens here because you have to have a confirmed hit before rolling for concealment)
Roll damage.
I 100% agree with this order of operations:
Roll to hit
(mirror image has to happen here because of an effect on a near miss)
(blur then happens here because you have to have a confirmed hit before rolling for concealment)
Roll damage.