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From: jso@edison.UUCP (John Owens)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: Illusionists
Message-ID: <616@edison.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 21-Nov-85 23:21:31 EST
Article-I.D.: edison.616
Posted: Thu Nov 21 23:21:31 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 25-Nov-85 07:11:24 EST
References: <620@drutx.UUCP>
Organization: General Electric Company, Charlottesville, VA
Lines: 66

> 
> How do illusionist spells work?  How do you play them?  If an
> illusionist uses Phantasmal Force to make a bridge across a chasm
> for his friends, can they walk on it?  If so, how?  Would the 
> illusionist have to cast it secretly, to avoid disbelief by the other 
> players--leading to a sudden descent?  What is reality anyway?  (Sorry,
> I got carried away. :-)
> 
> I have not seen illusionist spells discussed here, and they seem
> to be the most confusing ones around.  Some of them, the high level
> ones, seem VERY powerful.  (Point and you're dead sorts of things.)
> Any tips on DMing illusionists and/or playing them?  Thanks.
> 
>                                      Sue Brezden
>                                      ihnp4!drutx!slb

The key point about illusionists spells is that they are NOT real.
(Yes, whatever that means...)  If an illusionist creates a bridge, no
one can actually walk across it; it would be perfect for fooling
someone chasing you into running into the chasm, though....  (If the
illusion was sophisticated enough, each member of a chasing party could
see the ones in front run across safely, but the DM would have to judge
if the illusionist could carry off the necessary concentration
(probably based on Intelligence and Level)).

As a DM, one has to be careful not to let players get away with having
PCs believe illusions cast by an illusionist either in or helping the
party.  A good ground rule to avoid being taken advantage of: if the
player suspects or knows it's an illusion, so does the PC.

Illusionist spells can be VERY powerful, if played right.  Certainly
NPCs could be scared to death by some things an illusionist might come
up with, but no NPC is going to believe a major demon on the 4th level
of the dungeon of Podunk castle, especially after just running into a
bunch of silly PCs....

As a DM, I base an NPC's disbelief on the quality of the spell, how
many different senses are involved (an illusion of fire that doesn't
crackle and gives off no heat?), and the intelligence/wisdom of the
character.

For PCs, if the player decides he doesn't believe in it, then that's
good enough (subject to a roll, but I don't have any books or tables
with me).  Unless, of course, the player gets into the habit of saying
"I disbelieve" every time he runs up against something too big for him;
then I rule (when the REAL illusion comes up) that his disbelief, being
such a common thing, doesn't have any real power.

An interesting thought: if you play a monk or a cleric with Buddhist or
similar tendencies, does it mean anything at all for the PC to
disbelieve in the reality of something?  {It's all maya, so what's the
emotional difference between maya created by the laws of physics and
maya created by the Will of an illusionist.  (The emotional difference
being what creates the psychic (not necessarily spiritual) energy to
break the effect of the illusion.)}

That's how I play it anyway...

-- 

			   John Owens
General Electric Company		Phone:	(804) 978-5726
Factory Automated Products Division	Compuserve: 76317,2354
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