This level 1 spell can set your D&D campaign on fire
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- I've been kicking around this concept in my head for a while - really interesting spell from both a worldbuilding and story crafting perspective!
#dnd #spells #level1
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It also allows a campaign villain to set up a completely innocent noble as the person your players think is the villain. It'd effectively mean that all their work to dethrone this noble was actually doing the villain's work for them. And they may actually completely defeat this person and never know (a noble innocent of one crime may be guilty of others after all - being innocent doesn't mandate that they're a good person), unless they pick up on a single innocuous clue you drop at the very beginning when the story arc is set in this direction.
JRPG players may know this as the "true ending" trope.
The idea of a campaign where the Big Bads turn out to be "just" a cabal of second-level warlock/rogues using Disguise Self is kinda hilarious. Low-Level Illuminati for the win! Though, I would think that in a world with illusion magic, the various security procedures made possible by other spells and abilities would already be in place, unless illusion magic was a new phenomenon.
You should make more like this. The second level Suggestion spell, for example. Particularly when paired with subtle spell.
FMA as seven warlocks of an eldritch power. I like that perspective 🎉
Eloquence Bard gets even more ridiculous than Rogue, since you can get both expertise and a minimum roll of 10 for Persuasion and Deception; later dip potentials depending on stats include Ranger (Fey Wanderer) to add your Wisdom, Cleric for Peace and Guidance, and/or Soulknife.
Aside form the obvious option of Detect Magic, the spell Magic Mouth _might_ prove useful depending on if the DM approves it identifying an illusion.
Also, Sending is not taken into account sufficiently in RAW settings lol
I think there being a whole industry for sending and similar magic headed by House Sivis in Eberron is the best inclusion of sending in any official setting
Dayum, I loved that faux-disguise self using Ken, brilliant xD
I remember in Onward there's a similar illusion spell that lets you impersonate anyone, but if you lie the illusion starts to break with body parts changing back to the original. I think that could be a balance between letting players use it whenever they want initially until the settlement starts to understand illusions are being abused and they need the True Sight lanterns. It's kind of overlooked and even in BG3 I don't think it gets used a ton, the game that showed me how entertaining Speak With Dead and Animals can be in getting more information.
Furiously taking notes to rework my hexblade warlock build 👀
Detect magic is the best counter for disguise self: if the mage feels illusion magic on someone, the physical registration begins.
Troll Answer: But what if you wore a suit of tin foil...
Detect Magic is a viable option, I think. An inconvenient one, it requires at least two casters to alternate between ritual casting and concentrating (or can only be used with delay and/or a few times a day) but viable. I think the real answer might be 'if you're trying to get into a secure location, the physical registration begins', but detect magic is a good option for spotting a potential infiltrator in the crowd, and a detect magic checkpoint where you're asked to account for *any* magic on you is a reasonable precaution in high security areas.
If you select theillusion wizard subclass, you get an ability to make your ilusions real, negating true sight and dispel magic
I'm not sure I would rule it that way. They are still the product of illusion magic, and while tangible, True Seeing specifically says that you "see objects as they truly are". Given that an illusory sword "made real" still can't deal damage under Illusory Reality, it's not ACTUALLY a sword, just a magic construct made of shadow-stuff. One could easily rule that True Seeing can detect illusions-made-tangible as illusions. The same applies to Dispel Magic here. The illusion might be tangible and not require a roll to disbelieve, but it's still the product of a spell and is being sustained by magic (it's only tangible for 1 minute after all) and thus can be dispelled. On top of all this, Illusory Reality only applies to inanimate objects, making it useless for Disguise Self and the like.
@@v0Xx60 Illusory reality makes your illusions tangible, not 'real'. Under True Seeing (as I would rule it) you'd see an object, but made of whisps of shadow.
... also, you're a 14th level wizard, you already have a plethora of options for setting the campaign on fire.
@@basedeltazero714 Is that not what I said? That under True Seeing you would still see it as an illusion despite its tangibility? Or where you responding to the OP (easy mistake to make)?
@@v0Xx60 I was sort of trying to simplify what you were saying. ...I also missed the part where you actually said "One could easily rule that True Seeing can detect illusions-made-tangible as illusions."
@@basedeltazero714 ah, fair enough. I was being rather wordy.
Gold, Ben! GOLD!! 🏅
Thank you!
just for example, in Pathinder2e you can disguise yourself as specific individual only if you're at least 5th level
Illusory Disguise (Two actions)
Illusion, Visual
Cast somatic, verbal
Duration 1 hour
You create an illusion that causes you to appear as another creature of the same body shape, and with roughly similar height (within 6 inches) and weight (within 50 pounds), as yourself. The disguise is typically good enough to hide your identity, but not to impersonate a specific individual. The spell doesn't change your voice, scent, or mannerisms. You can change the appearance of your clothing and worn items, such as making your armor look like a dress. Held items are unaffected, and any worn item you remove returns to its true appearance.
Casting illusory disguise counts as setting up a disguise for the Impersonate use of Deception; it ignores any circumstance penalties you might take for disguising yourself as a dissimilar creature, it gives you a +4 status bonus to Deception checks to prevent others from seeing through your disguise, and you add your level even if you're untrained. You can Dismiss this spell.
Heightened (2nd) The spell also disguises your voice and scent, and it gains the auditory trait.
Heightened (3rd) You can appear as any creature of the same size, even a specific individual. You must have seen an individual to take on their appearance. The spell also disguises your voice and scent, and it gains the auditory trait.
For one, the basic false flag can also be accomplished with stolen/counterfeit uniforms, or whatever other insignia is appropriate.
One noteworthy point is that _Disguise Self_ is an audiovisual illusion, and can possibly be defeated by a patdown. Or at least, the guard would have advantage on the investigate check, I think.
Second level _Alter Self_ doesn't have this problem.
'Apply More Antimagic' is a pretty lame solution and also runs into the problem that _Antimagic Field_ or _Dispel Magic_ are decidedly *not* first level spells, and of course are also a severe inconvenience for the user. It also doesn't stop actual dopplegangers whose transformation is not a magic effect. That said the King could definitely have guards with True Sight or whatnot, but less so random sheriffs.
More reasonably I think this would definitely encourage the development of a security regime not purely reliant on recognition. Passphrases, as you mentioned, signatures, seals and keys - more of a 'modern' approach to security. You could even have magic items that only 'work' for a specific person. What they do is insignificant, just that it only activates in the presence of the actual owner. (I have, in my D&D adjacent Urban Fantasy setting, a 'truename tag' that displays a reliable singular identity for whoever wears it - it's really designed for convenience but also works for security purposes.)
3:50 _Continual Flame_ could very well be the raison d'etre for training vast numbers of wizards. A clean, safe, permanent lightsource is a godsend - people can now do things at night, and that's huge. At second level it's not *that* onerous to learn, though the 50 GP cost is steep, I think this could *also* justify its own industry. But depending on how your world's economics shake out it could also be too expensive to be of practical use to anyone but adventurers. On the other hand, it's permanent. _Continual Flame_ items could almost be treated as a minor magic item, passed down and accumulated for generations, built up over centuries.
Was that an 8bit Dare To Be Stupid by Weird Al that I heard in the beginning?
WOOH! I was right! Huzza! :D
Nailed it!