Greetings fellow players and DM's
I have questions concerning the mislead spell.
So in this spell, you simultaneously create a double and become invisible. It has the somatic and verbal components, meaning it can be recognized as a reaction for people with recognize spell skill feat.
Assuming they don't recognize it, can the illusion appear in the same square as the caster and then move away from him using your remaining 1 action to stride?
While it is very clear that you can roll deception to make it seem spells are coming out of the double, what happens when the double gets attacked in melee? Does it have an AC equal to the DC of the spell like illusory creature? Doest it have HP? If not, can you make a deception check in order to make the attacker believe that he has hit you ? (Simulate blood, groan, hunch over, etc)
Assuming they do recognize the spell, does it mean they've automatically disbelieved the illusion despite not rolling a perception check ?
Now posit the following scenario:
My penultimate BBEG Francis du Sablon is a level 20 Wizard. He casts contingency as a level 9 spell every morning to pair with mislead. The activation trigger is: I am the target of a melee or ranged attack.
A badger riding paladin charges Francis with a lance. His Contingency goes off but it's not his turn so he can't move.
Does he:
A: Have a double of himself appear on top of his invisible self, which means it affords no protection to him whatsoever and he takes the attack, but will have the option to confuse his attackers by sending his double one way as he goes another next turn (then if he takes an AoO, maybe he can deception pain as stated above?)
B: Have a double of himself appear on top of his invisible self, which means he is currently undetected and hidden, thus having a flat DC 11 check to be hit, and if the paladin misses, he can then (maybe, TBD) roll a deception check to make her believe she has hit something?
C: The double has to appear next to him, and his square gets attacked, potentially revealing the whole thing immediately, but if she misses she then attacks the double (and then we're back to the AC and deception questions from above)
I know which way i'm leaning but I'd like to get advice from you and how you rule at your table.
Thanks, and let's keep it constructive!
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When you cast Mislead the illusion appears exactly where you are right as you become invisible, otherwise what's the point? You suddenly jumping to the next square over would definitely make everyone think something was up.
When someone strikes at the illusion they make a secret perception check vs your spell DC to realize its an illusion. I personally would only grant the check if they successfully hit your AC, otherwise I would treat it as a miss. You can totally have the illusion act as though they were hit, but they still get a perception check.
You are Undetected as the spell Invisibility. If someone happens to strike the square you're in, the GM would roll a secret flat check to determine if the attack connects with the invisible creature.
It's a monster/foe. Just give them the ability to take a step in conjunction with this: "Misleader's Reaction: When you use a 9th level Contingency spell to cast Mislead, you can also take a 5' step."
It's a monster/foe. Just give them the ability to take a step in conjunction with this: "Misleader's Reaction: When you use a 9th level Contingency spell to cast Mislead, you can also take a 5' step."
I'm also curious from a player's perspective.
Not to mention contingency in itself is a reaction, so this would have to be a free action. Doable but I don't know... less elegant?
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Take a look at the Kobold Dragon Mage who has a very similar ability, just not as a reaction. You could just give the NPC a reaction spell that could be cast once a day that lets them cast Mislead and move at the same time, and say it takes a 9th level spell slot to cast it.
The spell Contingency already breaks the rule regarding the Ready action by allowing an up to 3 action spell to be used. Since they don’t directly acknowledge it in the spell’s description, it leaves the result of the rule break entirely on the GM to adjudicate.
I say to make it work, allow a 5’ step for the “real” one as part of the cast. That also allows a possible recurring enemy to cleverly catch on to this trick and swing for an adjacent square for some dramatic encounter fun.