Thoughts on some motivations of Illusionists

[Brickman]

Here are a few notes I began a while back but never fully fleshed out. If anyone finds them interesting I can fill in a lot of the missing explanations. I love the idea of the Complete Illusionists book and totally agree it brings back a bit of 1e back to 2e:



Motivation

One frequent goal of an illusionist (besides obtaining the obvious wealth, power and knowledge) is to seem like anything other than an illusionist. Sometimes this may be acting as another class of character entirely, other times it may be taking some simple precautions. No one wants to be identified as an illusionist since that would tip off spell subjects that it is an illusion they may be witnessing (and consequently disbelieving).

Therefore a careful illusionist will often cast his or her spells out of sight, around a corner, behind a tree, while 'getting firewood' or 'going to the restroom'. For the unfortunate illusionist confronted and face-to-face with a antagonist, she might decide to obscure the somatic components of her spell with a faux-sneeze or a feline stretch, the verbal components in a song or a crazy speaking-in-tongues. Whatever it takes to avoid detection and to aid the suspension of any disbelief of the illusion.

However, traveling with another group of people for any amount of time while slinging illusions is going to make it pretty clear exactly what the illusionist is. While it may not matter much that the other PC's are aware of this fact, the illusionist may feel differently about hirelings or other transient NPC's knowing his true nature.

Through the use of some simple 1st and 2nd level spells an illusionist may easily imitate other classes. Surely the illusionist will only have a small subset of these spells, however it is often enough to convince others of their 'cover story'.

Cover Stories
I'm a thief! Thieves and illusionists have a few overlapping weapons such as daggers, slings and throwing knives. Use of these items would definitely be in synch with pretending to be a thief. Strap on a short sword (not for use, just for show) and memorize a few of the following spells to flesh out the faux-thief-character:
Emulating Pick Pockets:
* Unseen Servant used creatively and with DM approval may be able to lift a key out of a pocket or unhook an unsecured bag from a belt.
Emulating Climb Walls
* Levitate when used while the illusionist is in contact with a wall makes for a 100% successful scaling attempt.
* Feather fall could be useful for descending, while in contact with a wall of course.
* Spider Climb would be the single spell that perfectly imitates Climb Walls.
Emulating Open Locks
* Knock works perfectly for this skill, just make sure you have something that looks like Thieves' Tools and no one will be the wiser.
Emulating Find/Remove Traps
* Locate Object can assist in this task but requires that the illusionist is familiar with a broad range of traps to the extent that he fulfills the terms of the spell.
Emulating Move Silently
* Deafness is a creative way to 'move silently' if there is only a single observer.
Emulating Hide in Shadows - here the illusionist has many options.
* Rope Trick
* Forget
* Darkness 15' radius, Continual Darkness
* Blindness
* Fog Cloud
* Invisibiilty
Emulating Detect Noise
* ESP
* Detect Evil
Emulating Read Languages
* Comprehend Languages

I'm another spellcaster! It is much easier to pretend to be a spellcaster throwing imitations of their spells (fireballs, lightning bolts, magic missiles). In this manner the illusionist doesn't have to worry as much about hiding her magic, unless working against a mage with a healthy Spellcrafting NWP score perhaps.

I'm a fighter! Pulling this one off long term could be tough. But if the illusionist has the following spells in his spellbook, he might be able to pull of the stunt for a short duration. Clearly the illusionist would never want to enter battle as a warrior, but posing as a fighter during peaceful times does throw off suspecting enemies. Don't forget to strap on a typical weapon - a foil or a bow being light enough to trudge around with.
* Alter Self, Change Self - These can allow the illusionist to appear stronger, larger or well muscled.
* Strength - Allows the illusionist to demonstrate their strength, perhaps at arm wrestling or bending bars.
* Scare - If actually called out as a fighter, this spell could be a handy way to 'intimidate' the challenger and preclude actual battle.


Other class-obscuring techniques:

Actor in his own play!
"Oh my gosh, a bugbear! protect me!", "Why do all these crazy things happen to me?"

Pretending to be subject to the same spells that the illusionist unleashes on others helps to misdirect and confuse others as to what is really happening and who is really controlling the manifestation.

Puppet master!
I'm just this other guy's sidekick. Or am I? And how come things always seem to go well for him too?

While it is common for spellcasters to hire fighters for protection, in this case the hireling also pretends to be the boss. The illusionist, stepping and fetching for his hireling while 'suggesting' courses of action to his liege obscures the illusionist's nature very well.
* Message can assist in communicating remotely with the hireling posing as the master, lord or liege.

[Halaster Blackcloak]

Wow! This brings up a whole new dimension to things, Brickman! Motivations for illusionists. I can see it going several ways. For example, the one you gave fits perfectly. An illusionist who wants to portray the illusion that he is anything but an illusionist. He'd be very different from the illusionist who flaunts his ability to confound others and to make them believe he can do the things he does. How about illusionists who want to "debunk" wizards ala Houdini? Perhaps they believe that their illusions are the result of the spell components they use (causing hallucinatory effects) combined with the power of suggestion? I can see this going lots of ways!

See what can of worms you opened? Good idea!

[Brickman]

Wow! This brings up a whole new dimension to things, Brickman! Motivations for illusionists. I can see it going several ways. For example, the one you gave fits perfectly. An illusionist who wants to portray the illusion that he is anything but an illusionist. He'd be very different from the illusionist who flaunts his ability to confound others and to make them believe he can do the things he does. How about illusionists who want to "debunk" wizards ala Houdini? Perhaps they believe that their illusions are the result of the spell components they use (causing hallucinatory effects) combined with the power of suggestion? I can see this going lots of ways!

See what can of worms you opened? Good idea!

Glad you liked it! Megalomaniacal illusion flaunters and mage-debunkers are excellent types of illusionists too. I suppose you could add military illusionists too (reconnaissance ala Invisibility and troop support ala Phantasmal Force and Hallucinatory Terrain, logistical support ala Two D'lusion and so on). There are probably a lot more categories of illusionist as well.

I like describing the motivations for these types of illusionists. It really helps PC's play them as much more interesting characters and is a good counterpoint to just describing the mechanics of illusions for the book.

[Varl]

Good ideas Brickman. I also like requiring the player to keep track of everything they've experienced that they want to remember accurate details regarding, so that when they go about creating illusions of things, both they and I will know whether the character has seen it before. IOW, it's a lot easier for an illusionist that's seen orcs to create an orc than it is for an illusionist that has never seen an orc and tries to create and mimic one from hearsay or other people's descriptions.

As far as the whole "I should disguise myself because I'm an illusionist, and it'll make me more believable" angle, it's a good idea, but I also think considering the very nature of magic removes any potential doubt your target creature may receive because they're not going to know your an illusionist anyway by default.

Mages create all manner of wonderous effects seemingly out the blue to most people; why couldn't an illusionist's magic be similarly believed until led to believe otherwise? The fact that the mage's summoned bear actually can kill you physically by ripping you to shreds is no more powerful or less deadly than the belief that the illusionist's illusory summoned bear can and does rip you to shreds. Both can kill you with equal lethality, the difference is, the illusory bear leaves a lot less mess to deal with. Dead is dead, whether from physically being torn apart or your mind killing you via a heart attack or synaptic overload (aneurysm).

This is how I run illusionists. They don't have anything to hide or obscure necessarily. They're simply mages, but the effects they create are only obvious to those that know the illusionist personally. I never have party members make saves vs. spell for any party member that knows they have an illusionist in the party, unless the player has specifically decided not to reveal his true nature or magical aptitudes to the group. In cases like this, that's the point where roleplaying kicks in, and it's up to the players to make saves against whatever it is the illusionist creates, because they're just as vulnerable as NPCs.

[Brickman]

Heya Varl,

I think we agree 100%. As long as no one uses the term 'illusionist' or 'snake oil man' or whatever phrase makes the illusionist appear to be a charlatan - there shouldn't be any sort of perceivable difference to the common man between a mage and an illusionist.

Now a general mage (let's say an NPC under DM control) is going to be really savvy about the differences between illusion magic and other schools of magic. I think in a case like this, especially if the mage may be an antagonist, the illusionist is better off obscuring his true nature if at all possible.

Anyway, it would be neat to put together several different approaches to playing an illusionist, carefully explaining why they act the way they do and how they see themselves and what their short and long term goals might be.

By the way, I ungraciously forgot who came up with the idea of keeping a journal of witnessed events, creatures, et cetera that the illusionist has seen - but I agree it's a fantastic idea. Sort of a diary of the illusionist's memory at least in terms of how it would affect in-game illusions.

Without getting into too much number crunching, I could see an easy to use modifier based on this journal (for illusions only). Basically, if it is not in the journal a DM could give a -1 to the illusion attempt, if it is in the journal then no modifier, and if the illusionist has *successfully* duplicated with illusion X number of times perhaps a +1 to subsequent attempts. Maybe the modifier applies to saving throws or whatever makes sense in the context of the illusion.

[Varl]

Now a general mage (let's say an NPC under DM control) is going to be really savvy about the differences between illusion magic and other schools of magic. I think in a case like this, especially if the mage may be an antagonist, the illusionist is better off obscuring his true nature if at all possible.

I won't go too far off on a tangent here, because it probably deserves its own thread, but a thought occurred to me while reading this. Illusionists can cast other spells besides illusions, except from their opposing necromancy school. Mages can cast illusions. Let me say that again. Mages can cast illusions. Do you see where I'm going here? Again, this is probably better for another thread, but how does one distinguish the efficacy of an illusionist's illusions vs. a generalist mage's illusions? One specializes in them, and the other merely has access to them. Anyone ever thought about that?

Anyway, it would be neat to put together several different approaches to playing an illusionist, carefully explaining why they act the way they do and how they see themselves and what their short and long term goals might be.

I agree.

By the way, I ungraciously forgot who came up with the idea of keeping a journal of witnessed events, creatures, et cetera that the illusionist has seen - but I agree it's a fantastic idea. Sort of a diary of the illusionist's memory at least in terms of how it would affect in-game illusions.

That would be me.

I wanted a way for an illusionist to logically know how to create something out of magic, and it seemed to me that experience would be his best judge in that. I also wanted to remove that awkward idea of allowing an illusionist to create anything he's never seen. I mean, any illusionist can certainly try to materialize a Fireball if he's never seen one before, but to me it seems any mage worthy of calling himself a mage in the first place is going to know that trying to create something they've only heard rumors about, stories told, or second hand information at best, is not going to create a very believable version using illusory magic. I mean, that seems like illusionist 101 stuff to me.

Without getting into too much number crunching, I could see an easy to use modifier based on this journal (for illusions only). Basically, if it is not in the journal a DM could give a -1 to the illusion attempt, if it is in the journal then no modifier, and if the illusionist has *successfully* duplicated with illusion X number of times perhaps a +1 to subsequent attempts. Maybe the modifier applies to saving throws or whatever makes sense in the context of the illusion.

Nice idea. One could scale those penalties down too, based on the intricacy of the illusion as well, and augment the bonuses based on the experiences of the illusionist. I could easily see illusionists becomes their own specialists, so to speak, in whatever favorites they choose to create based on how the player plays the character. For example, a gnome illusionist may develop a preferetial tick for creating giant badgers, landslides, or erupting showers of fake gemstones! Imagine the chaos he could instill in the enemy!