Playing a 6th level illusionist. Any suggestions?

[tylermo]

My friend has us playing 6th level characters for a sort of C&C one-shot this weekend. Any suggestions for spells and how many of each? I'm also playing a bard(both characters are Gnomes).

[koralas]

Ok, Captain Obvious here, but Minor Image and Major Image are musts, IMO. Of course you need to make sure of how your CK is adjudicating illusions. These spells are limited in use only by your imagination, and are of course the bread and butter of the Illusionist.

Light, Detect Illusion, Message are great 0-level spells.

Beyond that for using on friends...

Wards Temporary Strength - can make someone get an extra +1 perhaps, huge bonus (+5% chance to hit, nothing to sneaze at) and can stack to get someone up to str 20.

Faeries Glammer - Imagine making your tank look like the Illusionist and have him boldy call out a challenge to the big baddy

Invisibility - Let that thief get that critical sneak attack

Of course Dragon Armor/Blur

For perhaps saving posteriors when time to run...

Ghost Sound, Illusionary Hounds, Obscuring Mist, Fog Cloud, Misdirection, Rope Trick, and Illusionsary Hounds are invaluable.


There are direct damage dealing spells, I tend to avoid those and leave that to our mage and warriors, but they are effective if you want to use those. I just feel that with a good CK and a good imagination pure illusions are more useful, and quite possibly much more deadly (all things being considered), than just damage dealing spells. Some combat spells like color spray and hypnotic pattern are great pure combat type illusionist spells that fit the fluff.

Same goes for healing... if your group embraces illusionists as healers, then a must, our group doesn't like it so much. That doesn't mean you can't take them unless outright banned, but think of the fluff of the character not pure min/max.

[Omote]

...Ghost Sound, Illusionary Hounds, Obscuring Mist, Fog Cloud, Misdirection, Rope Trick, and Illusionsary Hounds are invaluable.


There are direct damage dealing spells, I tend to avoid those and leave that to our mage and warriors, but they are effective if you want to use those. I just feel that with a good CK and a good imagination pure illusions are more useful, and quite possibly much more deadly (all things being considered), than just damage dealing spells. Some combat spells like color spray and hypnotic pattern are great pure combat type illusionist spells that fit the fluff.

Same goes for healing... if your group embraces illusionists as healers, then a must, our group doesn't like it so much. That doesn't mean you can't take them unless outright banned, but think of the fluff of the character not pure min/max.

All of this, and then some.

Best advice I can give is to sit down and read through the illusionist spell list, and think aboiut what you can do with it. If your CK is accomidating, you can really tweak out how the illusions work as many of the spell descriptions are vague about what the illusion can and can't do. Don't go too crazy on this as the CK will hate you, but a little creativity can go a long way with the C&C Illusionist.

This excercise will teach you why the illusionist is the most powerful class in the C&C game.

Good luck and great delving!

~O

[Rikitiki]

FWIW - years ago a friend of mine had a Gnome Illusionist and had cast
on himself a permanent illusion that he was 6 feet tall. Usually meant he
avoided first attacks since fists or weapons swished above where his
actual head was.

[tylermo]

Amazingly enough, I don't think I've played an illusionist in all my years of gaming. Gotta finish making my character sometime tonight. Also have to finish my gnome bard. Thanks, guys. I thought of some of these, and I'll put the good advice to use.

[koralas]

This excercise will teach you why the illusionist is the most powerful class in the C&C game.

+5 to this, I was always laughed at when even back in the 1st Ed. days I swore by the Illusionist being the most powerful character in the game. That is until we started talking practical application...

[Sir Osis of Liver]

I played a slightly lower level illusionist in seskis's midnight game at GaryCon this past year. The majority of my mischief was caused with 0- and 1st level spells. When you're invisible, and there's an intelligent target whose mind you want to screw with, Ventriloquism works really well. Trophies on the wall, weapons in the scabbards, and lanterns make for great things to start conversations with the target. I'm a big fan of silent/minor/major image spells as well. You can have some serious fun with those.

[tylermo]

Very cool.