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Date Posted: 10:25:50 02/10/03 Mon
Author: Bob
Subject: Major Image Abuse?

I posted this at 3EBB and got a very reasonable response:

My Query:
I need some advice . . . my gaming group has recently begun using Major Image in a way that seems reasonable but is really broken.

Let me begin here:
This started with me casting it in a hall that we were moving down to make it appear to anyone looking down that hall that we weren't there. I was creating the visual illusion of an empty hall. This seemed like a perfectly reasonable use of the spell at the time.

We then proceeded to put it to greater use, moving through heavily inhabited areas, creating the illusion that a door remained closed, even though we were opening it and going through. Closing with guards at a door and attacking all at once while they were unaware.

Last night we used it to create the illusion that our ship remained at dock while we were, in fact, closing with an Illithid Nautiloid ship to board. With all this going on, me and the DM were looking at each other knowing that we were breaking this spell horribly but at the moment we couldn't think of anything that would outright prevent this from working.

I've considered a few fixes to the problem:
>> Ruling that Illusions can only create not remove. The argument being that we're creating a mobile screen that makes things appear one way even though they are not.

>> Keeping all this going on and properly representing what the world would look like from someone else's perspective is extremely difficult . . . there needs to be some sort of skill or wisdom check to create a believable alteration of this nature. Failure allows Will saves to disbelieve.

>> We make sounds while we move around . . . we had been "illusioning" sounds and scents that would mask out own as we moved about but this too would be really hard to do and might allow Will saves

What are your thoughts and ideas -- we need to fix this without completely crippling the spell.

The Response
Major Image is a figment spell of the illusion school. Figments can create new sensations, but can not make what already exists seem like something else. Figments can not make things disappear (be they footsteps or people) - glammers do that.

If you were to create a screen in front of you that mirrors the world behind you then there would only be a single angle from which the perspective looked right. If two people are standing next to each other then one of them most certainly will recognize the illusion. Too fool them both, the figment would have to show them a slightly different perspective, but figments can't do that.

I think it's a reasonable explanation for why we should take it easy on using MI as a combination Mass Invisibility/Illusion. In simple cases we might use MI to successfully shield ourselves but in complex ones, not.

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