Illusions as scouts?

[hcobb]

Put "Maintain Illusion" on your staff and send a copy of yourself to scout 5 MH ahead.

[zot]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Put "Maintain Illusion" on your staff and send a copy of yourself to scout 5 MH ahead.

You know, Maintain Illusion and Image are items I never considered getting but having permanent illusions and images around could be very, very useful, especially for a con artist. Thanks for reminding me about those!

[Axly Suregrip]

Originally Posted by zot

You know, Maintain Illusion and Image are items ...

Maintain Image items require the image must remain within 1 hex. So, this would not be useful for scouting. Maintain Illusion has a 5 MHx range, so it will do nicely.

[hcobb]

Here is how to abuse the fnord out of Maintain Image.

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/Abusive_TF...s.html#Lantern

[zot]

Originally Posted by Axly Suregrip

Maintain Image items require the image must remain within 1 hex. So, this would not be useful for scouting. Maintain Illusion has a 5 MHx range, so it will do nicely.

Good point but I was thinking mainly of illusionary jewelry and other things that a con artist could use to back up a story at need...

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by hcobb

Here is how to abuse the fnord out of Maintain Image.

https://www.hcobb.com/tft/Abusive_TF...s.html#Lantern

My interpretation of illusions and images of fire is that, unlike real fire, they don't actually cast light, so an illusion of a lit torch or lantern would appear to glow, but it would not actually illuminate anything. This is similar to how an illusion of a dragon can't breath fire.

[zot]

Originally Posted by Shostak

My interpretation of illusions and images of fire is that, unlike real fire, they don't actually cast light, so an illusion of a lit torch or lantern would appear to glow, but it would not actually illuminate anything. This is similar to how an illusion of a dragon can't breath fire.

OK, that's a house rule, which is fine.

Page 139, however, says illusionary fire behaves just like the real thing and that "Mages theorize this is true because these few inanimate objects are so often seen as illusions that they have somehow acquired extra power". So if you want to play with the rules as written, illusionary fire casts light and burns paper and illusionary walls block thrown things.

[larsdangly]

Personally, I'm pro 'powerful illusions' because they allow players to use a common spell to solve problems and overcome obstacles in relatively free, creative ways. To me, this is more fun at the table than having them pick through a list of very mechanically rigid spells to select the one that is obviously designed to be used in just such a situation and way. Illusions are a part of the game that lets your group decide what kind of universe they are in - scary? trippy? all just a big con? All of the above?

[Shostak]

Originally Posted by zot

OK, that's a house rule, which is fine.

Page 139, however, says illusionary fire behaves just like the real thing and that "Mages theorize this is true because these few inanimate objects are so often seen as illusions that they have somehow acquired extra power". So if you want to play with the rules as written, illusionary fire casts light and burns paper and illusionary walls block thrown things.

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.

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.

[TippetsTX]

Why do I get the feeling that we probably put much more thought into this - giving weight and meaning to specific words and phrases - than Steve did when he was originally writing it? ;)