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What are some horribly effective and brutal ways to use illusions against unaware enemies? Please help me brainstorm, so that my NPC illusionist can come off as a really cunning and terrifying villain.
Some example ideas I had:
- Illusory bridge over a deep chasm with the illusionist (or an illusory creature) luring one or more of the PCs to their doom. Even if most survive, the illusionist has a chasm with which to allow him to buy time to set up more traps for the PCs while they try and find another way across.
- During a chase scene, the illusionist uses hallucinatory terrain to make it so the PC riders can't see the thick, long hanging branches that would brain them or the scythe blades embedded into said trees at their mounts' knee height, or perhaps to extend the ledge of a nearby cliff.
- Cast disappearance on a monster with swallow whole and send it to gobble up the PCs. From their perspective, their allies are simply disappearing.
- Use scintillating pattern to stun PCs while they are in an area of ongoing damage (such as in a wall of fire or inside a gelatinous cube).
- Cast spells from a project image projection, except both you and your image are hidden inside of hollow pillars with hard-to-spot murder holes and thus are hard to get ahold of.
- Use veil to make the PCs look like the enemies they are fighting while they are in a disorienting fog or other limited-visibility scenario.
- Torment the neighborhood kids with a hallucination of a monstrous clown only they can see. (They are the test subjects for new horrible illusion ideas.)
- Illusory bridge over a deep chasm with the illusionist (or an illusory creature) luring one or more of the PCs to their doom. Even if most survive, the illusionist has a chasm with which to allow him to buy time to set up more traps for the PCs while they try and find another way across.
Alternatively, make the chasm deep but reasonably jumpable (like 20 feet or something). Let the side the players are going to jump to be a man-sized hole in a cliff. Close that hole with a boulder or door. Cast Invisible Item on the boulder/door and watch the first player character trying to jump smash his head against it and fall.
Speaking of boulders: You know the trope with the giant rock ball rolling down the hallway like in Indiana Jones? Now imagine it was invisible...
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It matters how far you want to take this. While it's simple to go so crazy that PCs doubt most everything they see, if they feel overwhelmed that could lead to inaction or retreat to prep anti-illusion capabilities.
So do you want to go crazy and perhaps put some time pressure on them?
Or do you want subtler w/ select, but brutal effects? (Though if too brutal it may lead to the same inaction much like being surrounded by traps)
Or is the illusionist outside their base and acting on the fly w/ available resources (which naturally may favor them)?
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As for options, maybe look at a meta-level.
-Fake support: The bridge you mentioned, but also islands, normal floors.
-Fake hindrances: Walls, pillars, jungle, which mainly give the illusionist more mobility and tactical options than the PCs.
-Hidden threats: The scythes & monsters you mention. (includes Fake Support I suppose)
-Fake threats: Monsters, pits; these could waste party resources or lead to poorer choices on their part.
-Hidden boons: That lich's phylactery or the key the party needs.
-Fake boons for that matter: Lures PCs into danger or distracts. Even simple things like fake doors or windows could suffice.
I'd recommend a few really cool tricks that suit the NPC's style rather than exceptionally brutal ones that feel like you (rather than the NPC) have set things up simply to knock down PCs. One of my favorite low level traps was an effect like a tanglefoot bag, where I felt both the writer & cunning Bugbear leader got us good (the BBEG had been ripe to get charged; oops!), yet nobody was destroyed by it.
Also Project Image from somewhere hidden above may keep them safe longer, though at the levels enemies cast that, maybe not.
(Bit messy, have to go grocery shopping before the crowds.)
I'm currently playing a Sorcerer in Extinction Curse that uses illusions. Would definitely love more ideas from people. His main uses of Illusory Object are to make enemies think he's an earthbender by putting up walls and other similar obstacles when he needs to help him and the party breathe a little from an enemy or two. Also using Illusory Creature to give his martial allies some free flanking, or otherwise an action or two of distraction as the enemies turn their attention to it before it inevitably gets hit and disappears.
Oh, and of course, for his circus performances, lol.
My first thought was to have the BBE mainly cast evocations or mainly cast conjurations so that illusions are less expected. Maybe even giving the BBE a reputation for being a conjurer or evoker.
So even the BBEG's reputation is an illusion.
And that's a good trick, especially if the first creature is a reasonable threat. "Now we have 8 of them?!?!"Plus once he tosses up one Wall of Stone, who's going to test out the others? Or after finding out many are fake, maybe a caster will be thinking "It's okay, I'll just shoot the Fireball through this new fake wall.", except it's not fake. :)
As for the Sorcerer in Extinction Curse, unfortunately you're working on enemy turf so you'll have to improvise every time against a foe that knows their surroundings. Tough to do more than you're doing though you might be able to coordinate more with the abilities of others (or might not if they lack breadth or inclination). If you can research, you might be able to address specific fears or issues from enemies' backstories or rivalries. Research might include capturing enemies to interrogate.
Ventriloquism on an invisible caster is so much brutality. The level 2 version lasts an hour and can alter your voice and the enemy has to interact with it to get a save. If it is cast in advance, the party really has no way of knowing that the caster is not actually in the square where the sound is coming from until they commit resources to seeking it, or casting AoE spells that end up missing the caster.
I recommend making sure that the illusionist remembers the importance of spells like nondection and magic aura if they are really trying to be effective. Alternatively, "not" remembering one of these tactics and leading the party astray is another brutal illusion tactic.
Magic aura is especially mean as a 3rd level spell because the target doesn't get a save. If the illusionist can get the party separated enough to cast magic aura on one of them (silently if they don't realize it), and then illusory disguise on themselves (combined with nondection, perhaps too mean), you can really push the "who's who?" gambit. If not with PCs, than with NPCs to brutal effect.
These are brutal illusion tactics, not necessarily fun ones for the PCs.
Casting a level 3 magic aura on an NPC to make them look like they have been charmed or dominated is also as much fun as casting it on an NPC who has been charmed or dominated and making it look like they haven't been.
Another brutal mean trick is for the illusionist to have trick magic item and some silence scrolls. It can make telling the difference between real and illusory conjurings a real nightmare
how about an illusion of a victim in the 'jaws' of a trap waiting to be sprung if the heroes don't let the villain go. The victim can be an illusion, and the trap real (leading the heroes to try to go in and save the victim, only to set of the real trap). Or the victim could be real, and the trap an illusion, simply there to chew up the heroes actions.
If the victim is an illusion and the trap real, just imagine when the trap goes off, and hurts the hero, and then the victim turns on them and attacks them as well, claiming they won't fall for the heroes ruse of pretending to be saving them.
how about an illusion of a victim in the 'jaws' of a trap waiting to be sprung if the heroes don't let the villain go. The victim can be an illusion, and the trap real (leading the heroes to try to go in and save the victim, only to set of the real trap). Or the victim could be real, and the trap an illusion, simply there to chew up the heroes actions.
If the victim is an illusion and the trap real, just imagine when the trap goes off, and hurts the hero, and then the victim turns on them and attacks them as well, claiming they won't fall for the heroes ruse of pretending to be saving them.
Nice!
Just remember that the most powerful weapon of an illusioninst is if the dventurers don't know they have to deal with one.
ofc, after a point they are going to figure out that most of the stuff isn't real (and we will shift to them actually having to spend actions/exploration to deal with them) but until they figure it out they are in a much worse position.
If the victims of your illusion live long enough to figure out that it's not real and to take appropriate steps against the next one, then maybe it's not quite brutal enough for this thread. :P
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I don't know if it was explicity mentioned earlier, but illusion a defnintely not jumpable gap across a chasm into a fairly easy gap, like 10ft. Just so that the "I can do that" character hops the gap and thusly falls into the chasm. As for the brutality, it is merely how deep is your chasm.
Another option is to illusory a hallway with a fireball trap to lure the party into the trap. Like, have splotches of wall that are illusory scorched and a clean area where the trap actually is.
Illusory a release, control, or other lever to turn off danger only for there to be greater danger in that spot.
illusion: there is an illuminated little hole/aclove with a jewel at the end, perfectly arm sized.
reality: it is just a hole in the wall where a number of arm removing dangers could lurk.
(the key is that it is illuminated)
The best illusions are the small but pivotal details.
I wonder if there are any impromptu illusion scenarios that could be had by players in say, common dungeon or forest environments?
For example, luring a monster into dangerous river rapids by making the river look calm (hallucinatory terrain) and baited (illusory creature) of a woman bathing or something. Even if the monster is familiar with the local environment, it might perceive that the naiad has calmed the waters or something.