The Gaming Den

[K]

Ok, someone PMed my with some requests for what someone can do with open-ended powers like 3e' Cantrip and Silent Image.

So first, I have to tell people that 90% of the abilities are based on circumstances, so it wouldn't do any good to tell you what I did because you'll never be in exactly the same situation. That being said, here are some general and easy uses:

Silent Image:
-Hunter's Blind. Planning an ambush? How about a perfect cover of an illusion? Simply make it as big as the party, hide inside, keep concentrating, and drop when you attack.

-make illusions of yourself like a poor man's Mirror Image, wasting enemy attacks.

-make illusions of you on your enemies so that their allies attack them.

-make illusions of common spells. Not many people are really going to test if that Wall of Fire is real or illusion. Perfect for barriers, cages, and general control. Illusions of fog are actually better than real fog or spells that create fog since you and your friends can see right through them. Make illusions of summons like shadows or ghosts or other quiet things, fake gates to other worlds, and give the illusion of life to statues or other inanimate objects.

-stationary disguise. Sure, this is no Disguise Self, but if you don't need to exit the area you can wear an illusion like an oversized suit.

-the bridge that isn't. Near a cliff, river, etc? Make an illusion of land or floor that isn't there, and lure enemies there. Heck, a little work with any number of spells and making tiger pits is super easy.

-the guy that isn't. Make an illusion of someone the target trusts, and have the illusion wave them over, flip them off, whatever. Perfect for leading people into traps.

-distractions. All the fun of burning barns without none of that nasty fire. Fights, dancing girls, enemy armies coming through the trees, etc.

Cantrip, also known as Prestidigitation:
- the 3e version allows you to transform one small object into another, but the new form was a brittle as chalk. This meant locks and the like were basically never a problem, since you just changed them in something chalky and then broke them. Changed in 3.5 to not do this.

-Make an object. OK, so it makes extremely fragile 1 .lb objects that can't be used as tools, weapons or, spell components(and we assume they can't duplicate spell effects, whatever that means in this context)..... but that's huge. Your DM will have to make the call if any of these things duplicate spell effects like: make a pound of poison, make a pound of gold or gems so you can spend it, make helium or hydrogen balloons to ferry messages up cliffs, make a cap to jam a lock, make fake messages that are perfect forgeries, make a .lb of something that reacts explosively with water like sodium and set up a candle fuse (as a distraction, or a timed firebomb), make obviously magical objects that you bluff people with.... the sky is the limit.

-Flavor things: make a poisonous thing taste like candy, or make candy taste like poison. Feed to monsters and let hijinks ensue.

-Color things: got any coins from another country, world, or plane? Make them gold-colored and spend! Not like anyone knows what Krynn steel coins are in Greyhawk (weights will differ, which can be explained by differing qualities of gold). Make disguises by changing the color of your clothes, make make-up by coloring ash from the fireplace, make your clothes perfectly black or camoed for that circumstance bonus to Hide....

- Move a 1 lb object. From across the room, lift latches, poison drinks, put incriminating objects into people's pockets, set off traps, drop poison needles onto people from a safe distance, etc.

-Chill and warm. Keep ice frozen for those It's Cold Outside spells, make old dead bodies get that new dead body warmth or the opposite, make undead have warm gloved handshakes, pretend to be undead with your cold gloved handshake... go crazy!



OK, so there is a short list to spur ideas in your own game. I could keep going, but as I said a lot will depend on you being creative in your own game and taking advantage of the situation.

For bonus points, imagine what you can do with Shadow Conjuration, Limited Wish, or the other open-ended spells.

[RobbyPants]

[Surgo]

I played with K in a game where he used Silent Image to do a lot of similar shit to what's listed here, and while I knew in theory it was a really useful spell I had no idea how useful until he whipped it out.

K, I don't know how you think so fast sometimes.
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[Lokathor]

[The Man Who Killed Death]

[K]

[K]

[Psychic Robot]

This is all broken! You're doing things outside of the spells' intended effects! Economy of options! Caster and non-caster imbalance! Broken, I say, broken!
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[Bill Bisco: Isometric Imp]

In many ways I think the game would be proved if spells and abilities were written more like Cantrip and Silent Image in that 1 spell has many broad applications. I'd like to see a generic fire spell that can heat or be thrown for damage or something.
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"Real Sharpness Comes Without Effort"

[Orca]

One I used once - little puffs of dust, as of the footprints of someone invisible running away. 'Flaws' in your illusions can be useful ...

[Orca]

[virgil]

Fun idea. We all know that silent image can be used as a poor man's mirror image, and is particularly effective against spellcasters since their single target SoD now has a 50% miss chance compounded.

However, a good con doesn't give the player a chance to win. So when you make the duplicate of yourself, make it a smidgen larger and overlap it over yourself, similar to the suit idea mentioned earlier. While this won't help against melee/ranged attacks, it will still be of use against targeted spells, and the image will even give off sound and other senses just the like the original. It's unlikely even knowing you just cast silent image would reveal what just happened, as nobody will second-guess the wizard who didn't move from his spot.
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[Meikle641]

Also worth mentioning, regarding Prestidigitation: distillation. You can say, make brandy by removing a quantity of water from the bottle. Makes all sorts of things possible.
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[RandomCasualty2]

Yeah, as Robby said, you can't use a figment to disguise another creature, at most you can create something to block line of sight to it with something big, like a wall, but you can't interpose an illusion (at least not a figment) on top of it to make it look like something else.

I mean at that point you have no need of disguise self.

[CatharzGodfoot]

[shau]

I would generally use silent image to drop a fake stinking cloud or cloud kill on top of my own party. They would know it was fake a soon as they tired to breathe and get to see through it. Then everyone starts shooting outwards until someone figures it out. Combine with real cloud spells for best results.

[Crissa]

You can't make something invisible with silent image, but you can cover it up. So a round rock now looks like a round meatball; a guy looks like a girl or vice versa. It won't cover up the teifling's tail, but it can make them look like a dragonborn.

The image totally can cover something else up. It just can't not cover it up - a little more limited than a mundane disguise.

-Crissa

[Ice9]

It might be a bit tricky to cover a rapidly moving thing like a person in combat though. Probably doable when the illusion is significantly larger, like halfling -> rust monster, but covering an elf with a human disguise might show some "graphic artifacts" when the elf started dodging and weaving.

[RandomCasualty2]

[Crissa]

Well, the caster has to concentrate on moving any features other than location. It's not a big abuse.

...I might note that if figments can't be attached to a single object, then you can't have figments in railroad cars or whatnot. Normally it's attached to 'the earth' but I see no reason it can't be attached to 'a rock' or 'that being'.

But the caster still has to totally puppet it if they want it to be active and not repetitive.

-Crissa

[For Valor]

well, seeing as how the earth is spinning ridiculously quickly and hurtling around the sun and our solar system is spinning ridiculously quickly in part of the pattern that makes up the milky way...

figments need to be attached to objects. And attaching them to a person is totally cool, since the caster needs to concentrate on the figment at all times.
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[RandomCasualty2]

[Murtak]

[RandomCasualty2]

[Murtak]