How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
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How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
I'm not really sure how I should use spells like Silent and Major image to turn the tides of battle. Could you guys give me some examples?
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Tae_Kwon_Dan
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Re: How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
Putting a guy in a box with Silent Image is always one of my favorites. They can't see through it unless they make their will save and they're guaranteed at least one round of interaction before they are allowed to attemp that Save.
Re: How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
Wouldn't sticking your hand through it be a free action?
Re: How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
Is sticking your hand through an Orc a free action?
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Tae_Kwon_Dan
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Re: How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
I wouldn't allow that. Other than meta-game reasons they have no reason to believe that box isn't real. Sure they could try to feel it and stick their hand through it, but I would count that as their interaction to see it's a glamer.
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Username17
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Re: How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
Silent Image allows you to put literally anything you want in that area, and you can have it do anything you want until your concentration stops.
So you can:
[*] Put a small cloud, drift of leaves, blind of snow, or puff of smoke in the faces of your enemies (and only your enemies). They all get saves immediately, but they become blind if it works and your friends suffer no penalties to tip them a new ass. It's like Blindness, but it requires Concentration, is one level lower, and affects multiple targets.
[*] Put up a wall. You cut off some group of enemies from the battle until they take an attack or search action (both of which are standards), and then make a save. It's like Color Spray, except that they lose an action and then get a save, instead of the other way around. You can cut off any number of enemies.
[*] Summon Shadows or Wraiths. Any enemy with half a brain is going to run the fvck away. Since it's a moving target, they have to attack them and make a save before they can know they aren't real. Considering how many legendary monsters get pwned by a shadow, this trick should be the ultimate muligan unless your DM is being a dick.
Advanced crazy crap:
[*] Extra Dwarves! You can make a bunch of similar warriors to your party standing around with bows and swords. This is normally only of use against a distant enemy, but is basically like Mirror Image for the group.
[*] The two-sided wall. There's no reason for the objects you create to be realistic in any way. A classic trick is to have one side (the side facing the enemy) be a stone wall, and the other side have big tentacles which extend all the way though the heads of the other PCs. That way your friends automatically disbelieve the image without action cost when you first cast it. That means that while the enemies can't see through it and are coughing up at least one action, your friends can and are not. So you concentrate, the enemy sits around like a dumbass for at least one turn, and your friends pepper them with arrows that gain sneak attack.
-Username17
So you can:
[*] Put a small cloud, drift of leaves, blind of snow, or puff of smoke in the faces of your enemies (and only your enemies). They all get saves immediately, but they become blind if it works and your friends suffer no penalties to tip them a new ass. It's like Blindness, but it requires Concentration, is one level lower, and affects multiple targets.
[*] Put up a wall. You cut off some group of enemies from the battle until they take an attack or search action (both of which are standards), and then make a save. It's like Color Spray, except that they lose an action and then get a save, instead of the other way around. You can cut off any number of enemies.
[*] Summon Shadows or Wraiths. Any enemy with half a brain is going to run the fvck away. Since it's a moving target, they have to attack them and make a save before they can know they aren't real. Considering how many legendary monsters get pwned by a shadow, this trick should be the ultimate muligan unless your DM is being a dick.
Advanced crazy crap:
[*] Extra Dwarves! You can make a bunch of similar warriors to your party standing around with bows and swords. This is normally only of use against a distant enemy, but is basically like Mirror Image for the group.
[*] The two-sided wall. There's no reason for the objects you create to be realistic in any way. A classic trick is to have one side (the side facing the enemy) be a stone wall, and the other side have big tentacles which extend all the way though the heads of the other PCs. That way your friends automatically disbelieve the image without action cost when you first cast it. That means that while the enemies can't see through it and are coughing up at least one action, your friends can and are not. So you concentrate, the enemy sits around like a dumbass for at least one turn, and your friends pepper them with arrows that gain sneak attack.
-Username17
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RandomCasualty
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Re: How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
MrWaeseL at [unixtime wrote:1117113702[/unixtime]]Wouldn't sticking your hand through it be a free action?
5' stepping through it is.
And actually there's quite a few good reasons to believe it's not real. For one, illusions don't block sound, so when this box is put around them the sounds of battle are just as loud as they were before. Real walls block sound, illusions don't.
Second, if you throw up the box in the middle of a melee, remember you've got swords clashing and such already, while things are going on. Time doesn't freeze when you throw the box up, so it's likely that someone is probably in midswing when it goes up, meaning the sword is going to hit right into the box, and realize it's an illusion.
Re: How do I abuse the "image" line of spells?
FrankTrollman at [unixtime wrote:1117125498[/unixtime]]Summon Shadows or Wraiths. Any enemy with half a brain is going to run the fvck away. Since it's a moving target, they have to attack them and make a save before they can know they aren't real. Considering how many legendary monsters get pwned by a shadow, this trick should be the ultimate muligan unless your DM is being a dick.
I've combined this one with Frank's blinding cloud/fog option.
Permeate the entire area of the Image spell with a murky mist that has a whole gaggles of wraiths running amok in the mist. Since the colour of the wraiths and the mist are well night impossible to tell apart, no one will notice all the wraiths' "tails" attached by microscopic filaments of figment (this fulfills the legalities of the Image spell).
Nobody in their right mind would enter or stay in a concealment cloud with incorporeal undead surreptiously threatening to hit-&-run you amidst the swirling vapours.
This option is obviously best done with Minor Image, since a slight sibilant sussurous of sound is best accompanying this terror inducing imagery.
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It also helps to roll applicable Knowledge skill checks against the given targets to see if they have any specific cultural, racial, or regional things they fear or have issues with. Knowing such information gives you more options in shaping your figments and getting the results you want out of them. For example, if you find out via a Knowledge check that the Orcs of the Venomous Horn are terribly afraid of the fiendish displacer beasts of the Bullskill Valley - and you've met those displacer beasts - you now have the option of getting a quasi-fear effect out of sculpting an image of those creatures.