Illusions as scouts?

[zot]

Originally Posted by Shostak

Later, in the sentence immediately following the one that states that illusions of fire behave just like the real thing, it also says "The same [acting like the real thing] is true for an illusion of a hand-held weapon." Okay, so if they behave the same way, then illusory flames follow the same rules for illusory weapons.

It is important to note the next sentence states that some illusions have "extra power." Since this follows the one about hand-weapon illusions, so those must be some of the illusions that have this extra power.

That's right, illusions of fire, wall, shadow, handheld weapons, and magic rope all behave "just like the real thing" and mages theorize that they must have "acquired extra power".

Originally Posted by Shostak

Now consider that, in the introduction to illusions on ITL 139, we are told that an illusion can leave one "hacked to bits inside your undamaged armor." That's a pretty clear illustration of how illusions don't interact with inanimate objects.

If an illusion of a Myrmidon wielding a hand-held weapon leaves armor undamaged, then it is consistent that an illusion of only the weapon (which we are told acts like the real thing and with some kind of "extra power") wielded by an actual person would do the same. It is then logical to conclude that an illusion of fire interacts with inanimate objects the same way--that is to say, it doesn't. If you interpret the rules to mean that a hand-held weapon wielded does interact with inanimate objects, then you have the sticky problem of why in some instances (and the rules are quite specific on this) they don't.

Maybe the extra power is drawn from the collective unconscious -- it's up to the GM to decide how it works -- but something about illusions of handheld weapons makes them more like summoned weapons (maybe these special case illusions are ad hoc summonings, depends on the GM I guess).

An illusion of a myrmidon, whether or not it's holding a weapon, doesn't get this extra power. It also doesn't contain a separate illusion of a handheld weapon because illusions are indivisible. If an illusionary myrmidon drops its weapon, the weapon disappears, just like fire breathed from an illusionary dragon.

The sections don't contradict each other:

1. If you are damaged by an illusion of a myrmadon (with or without a weapon), your armor is not affected and
2. If a real person hits you with an illusionary handheld weapon, your armor is affected because it acts just like the real thing.

So an illusion can indeed leave you hacked to bits inside your armor, if it's an illusion of a myrmidon.