3 comments:

Brooser Bear said...

I think that you are giving too much power to the Illusionist. Physiologically, just because you think you die, will never mean that you will actually die. That's because human body can not recall physical pain or physiological symptoms. You can stress over it, and perhaps over time stress yourself to death recalling the extreme torture, but not instantly.

Your suggestion would make the Illusionist character a lot more playable. The way it is presented in AD&D, nobody wants it, especially at the lower levels, it is too ineffective. My conceptuion of the character is not an illusuionary pit, but an illusion of the floor covering a pit into which an unwary charcater will fall.

With regards to illusion attacking. Rules clearly state that any hit on an illusion will dispel it. I am fine with characters beig knocked unconscious rather than dead, but I would only let catastrophic failure lead to a real physical damage after a system shock roll.

What you are doing with the illusionist is that you are patterning one aftre a medieval painter. Artists, like Da Vinci were fere following a tradition, where to paint an object was to create a lifelike illusion of one, and to be able to do it successfully, you had to KNOW the object you are painting, so the painters of hat day were the frist natural scientists, stone masons and engineers, before a medieval artist would undertake to paint a country cottage, he would first learn how to build that cottage in real life.

March 6, 2009 at 8:41 AM  

RipperX said...

It takes a considerable level to be able to cast illusions capable of causing injury, the rules that I have described are simply expanded from the Players Handbook. A failed System Shock check is definitely required for the illusion to prove fatal. And an illusion has no reason to disappear if you hit it, because it isn't there. The caster can give damage to the monster, which would make it more believable, but a monster who you hit over and over and nothing seems to happen gives the party a clue that this isn't real, and is probably a programed illusion.

March 6, 2009 at 2:51 PM  

Brooser Bear said...

AD&D description for Mirror Image specifically tells you that each image disappears after taking a hit. Spells like Phantasmal Force deal real damage, but hold on, a 3rd level Illusionist spell Spectral Image only differs from its Phantasma cousin in that it engages the five senses. So, you can not do a stinking growling Ogre at 1st level since the Phantasmal Force is strictly a visual illusion. So, at the level when a Magic User can throw Fireballs and a Druid can Call Down Lightening and breathe underwater, Cleric can animate dead and a magic user can summon 2-8 real live Orcs to fight for him, our illusionist can create an illusion of an ogre or a Bugbea, or if he is wise enough, a red dragon, about evenly match. From round to round, you have to do an INT, WIS or DEX check to see if the illusion is maintained realistically enough to fool others after taking damage. But consider the Pit With Spikes. 1d8 or 1d10 points of damage per 10' fallen, considering spikes. Depending on the Illusionist's angle above the ground, he can do a 10, 20, or even 30 foot drop if he is directly above the spell victim. But if the Illusionist does the Bottomless Pit, it will take he feeling of terminal velocity in the victim and a picture fo the ground rushing to meet the victim. Hold on - bottomless pit/ground rushing in. Two different illusions. A lone thief or a stupid Ogre, yes, ok. But what about a gang of Orcs. They see one or two of their own collapsing and acting weird and they see one dude without armor making gestures. What they do? Start shooting arrows at the wizard to break his cocnentration. Witch doctor shoots a magic missile? Spell is broken. Compare this to a Magic user throwing a Fireball at their midst.

OK, the metaphysics in the AD&D world are different than in ours, I can even justify Illusionist spells doing real damage an d killoing their victims, considerig that an Illusionist is capable of maintaining the Illusion long enough to do damage, so the conclusion of the spell is not at all automatic and each successful it will necessitate a control check on part of the Illusionist, since that orc will see his cpear g through the illusion and not into it, and will see through it and let others know. And it won't work too well on the Elves, who are resistant to charms and hypnotic magics.

What I am leading to is that the body of Illusionist magic is much weaker combatwise when compared to the other classes (nobody in my campaign is really into magic enough to justify me fleshing out different schools of magic), and for players Illusionist class wil only work as part of a multi class. Most Likely, Thief/Illusionist, since I do not have too many demi-humans. One of the thieves guilds will teach it to their thieves. Their magic is not rally outlawed in my gameworld - Necromancy is, and Assassins tradecraft are, along woht slave trade. Of the four thieves guilds currently conceptualised for play, none teach Illusionism, one does Fighter Thieves, the other makes pirates, and third does thieves-acrobats.

March 6, 2009 at 4:53 PM