hakanson@orstcs.UUCP (11/29/83)
#R:dartvax:-41900:orstcs:28500005:000:1997
orstcs!hakanson Nov 27 16:46:00 1983
Naturally, there are many ways of running illusionists. I have yet to find
a good answer to question #1 or to question #2. I play my NPC's just like
they were my player characters, and I'll leave it at that.
In general, illusion is possibly the most powerful form of magic, since
you nearly get "something from nothing." You can get hit by an illusion,
if you believe it is real, and the damage is real. And you can be killed
by an illusion. The damage given by an illusion is permanent, unless
your DM says otherwise. In my case, the only way the damage might become
reversible would be if the rest of the party were able to convince the
damaged character that it wasn't real. However, I don't think that could
remove the trauma suffered by the character. Therefore, in my world, if your
party wants to remove illusionary damage, then you should have a clever cleric
who knew the damage was illusionary give the injured character(s) an
illusionary cure-wounds spell. Therefore, if the character believed that
he/she was being healed, the damage would go away.
Backing up a bit, an illusionist can only make accurate illusions of things
which he/she has actually seen or otherwise experienced. I would allow
someone who has seen one umber hulk to create 1000 of them, but they
would all look suspiciously similar to anyone looking closely. And a
phantasmal force only produces vision, not sound!
I must disagree with the opinion given earlier about walking over a pit.
If the character believes it is there, and blows his saving throw (after
the rest of the party tries to convince him otherwise), he still thinks
it's real. If he tries to walk across it, he will think he has fallen.
However, if someone were to blindfold him and lead him across, you could
get him over without damage (tell him he's on an invisible bridge).
Well, I've gone on long enough. Illusions are fun!
Marion Hakanson {hp-pcd,teklabs}!orstcs!hakanson (Usenet)
hakanson@{oregon-state,orstcs} (CSnet)mwe@astrovax.UUCP (Web Ewell) (12/01/83)
No one has yet expressed the opinion that the Gygax definition of an
illusion is simply too powerful, so I'll come down on that side of the
wall. (Whether I'm inside or outside is left as an exercise to the
reader :-)). How you DM an illusion of course depends on the rationale
for your magic system. In my world, an illusion is simply a visual
deception (add other senses if more powerful) that can have NO PHYSICAL
EFFECTS. If you touch an illusory wall, your hand goes through it,
whether or not you had any notion that it was an illusion. This
means that illusionists can only accomplish things by bluff and misdirection.
You either have to scare off the bad guys, or misdirect their attack, etc.
This seems to be much more in keeping with the concept of illusionists,
and in my opinion does not make them effectively powerless. Then again,
I don't use the tactical nuclear AD&D magic system, so balance is not that
much of a problem. I'll post more details if anyone else is interested in
strictly non-physical illusions.
Oh yes: AD&D and Gygax are trademarks of TSR Hobbies, Inc.
--
Web Ewell Princeton Univ. Astrophysics
{allegra,akgua,burl,cbosgd,decvax,ihnp4,kpno,princeton}!astrovax!mwe