Illusionist healing spells

[moriarty777]

I've made the argument on multiple occasions and believe the the illusionist healing spells cause more harm (confusion) than good when they were introduced in the 4th print PHB. Too much interpretation and debate. My biggest single issue is the save mechanic for the majority of the illusion spells in the game. People can essentially 'disbelieve' the effects. I applaud the rationale of the illusionist different perception of reality and all that... what an illusionist creates is real to him and thus works within the confines of his special view of the world around him.

However... said illusionist casts a healing spell on an unconscious target -- what then?

As a saving throw... the target in this instance would automatically fail right? That means the spell works? But if the spell is illusion and the target is unconscious... wouldn't the spell fail anyway? Does the illusion need 'audience participation'?

What about other witnesses to the event? Does the rest of the party who sees the illusionist trying to heal another become another stumbling block?

No... all of this illusion stuff is a mess. The implications of some of the new spells just raises multiple issues.

However, what I think might be an interesting solution to this would be for the caster to save against himself. Failure meaning that he (the illusionist) doesn't believe in the effects of his own reality he's trying to create in instances such as a Dragon Mount or a healing spell.

I currently don't have any illusionists running around my campaign and maybe that's a good thing. I like the concept and while I like the new spells and the reasoning for trying to make the class a more viable option to play for the average player, I think it's also served to limit the class in other ways.

I could see myself tweaking the class to render it playable again without necessarily axing the healing and other newer spells.

M