as the spell Phantasmal Force can be used on every creature that is not a construct or undead the caster in my group I am dming is using it frequently on monsters. Which I feel is a great tactic as Illusionist - but I came to the conclusion, that especially illiterate monsters like for example Ogres with INT 5 are basically out of the game for 10 rounds if you stick exactly to the spells text.
Lets assume you have a group of three ogres and one gets cast the spell upon him - he does not succeed in the saving throw and gets the illusion of an attacking dwarf in front of him. There is no way a creature with Int 5 would possible doubt anything in that case and would simply attack this illusion over and over. Also his companions will not be bright enough to help him gain traction on the illusion.
Am I right how I play this out as DM? What would you guys do with monsters which have a more normal IQ? Would you allow them to use the Action to examine the Illusion more closely? And if yes, under what circumstances? (e.g. Drow Fighter gets attacked by the illusion of a black panther - would you grant him the Action?)
If the player is exceptionally crafty in what they cast as an illusion, the spell can be very effective. However, when I say "very effective" I mean it might deal it's small damage over most of the rounds of its' duration, or cause a creature to spend some number of actions making Intelligence (Investigation) checks rather than attacking the party.
In your example of ogres, I would say it doesn't matter whether or not the ogre doubts the illusion - it will go on continuing to behave like an ogre. So while it might keep swatting at an illusion of a dwarf attacker, it might also ignore the "puny dwarf" (judged as puny by only doing 1d6 damage each round) to attack another nearby character - and I would say that each time the ogre tries to smash the irritating dwarf, that counts as taking an action to examine the phantasm (a ruling I settled upon so that it is fair to use the same ruling whether it is an NPC or a PC affected by the spell).
If the party are a bit clever and situate things so the phantasm is the only apparent opponent close enough to attack, the ogre will like spend a few rounds frustratedly swiping at nothing before it thinks it's leaving the opponent behind to deal with someone else, or it's allies shout "What you doing, stupid?!" at it and clue it in that they do not see whatever it is the affected ogre is trying to fight.
My advice is not to focus on RPing the Intelligence score in any specific way (vaguely dumber for lower than 10 and vaguely smarter for higher than 10 is good enough - you don't need to set benchmarks like "5 is too stupid to do [insert idea/action]"), and let the mechanics of the spell apply - with the one caveat being that the creature doesn't ever have to think "I wonder if this is an illusion?" and then make a specific declaration of spending an action examining it, because any action that would interact with whatever the illusion is if it were real is a sufficient action to count as examination (such as attacking - if the intelligence (investigation) check fails, the target rationalizes that they must not have landed a hit, but if the check succeeds then the creature realizes the inconsistencies).
Otherwise, in my experience, you'll have players both expecting this lower-level spell to completely invalidate an opponent (because the text of the spell is problematic - how can any examination ever result in noticing the illusion isn't real when "The target rationalizes any illogical outcomes from interacting with the phantasm."), and constantly declaring that their character is attempting to disbelieve this, that, or the other thing that you've described their character perceiving - both of which get old, fast.
In the heat of battle, a low IQ plus them rationalizing irregularities means they are going to have a hard time realizing that it is an illusion. So here is how a player would come to the conclusion that something is an illusion: player swings. Misses. Gets hit. Swings and misses. Gets hit. Swings and misses. Gets hit. Investigates for a weak spot to exploit because this isn't working. Boom. There's your check. Here's the problem is that your average IQ in that situation isn't a stat. It's the actual IQ of the player. A very coning player may not even try to look for a weak spot until 3 misses. A stupid one may reposition themselves a few times or try a new tactic. If the illusion gets hit with an aoe or something utterly undodgable, even in frustration, a smart player would still rationalize it. Oh he must have uncanny dodge or something. If they feel like they have really worn him out they may investigate to see how much damage they have done but won't inspect to see if it is an illusion.
Your simple solution is after each attack, roll a d100 + the characters intelligence saving modifier if need be. If it doesn't equal to say 95, he doesn't have a reason to investigate.
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Hey,
as the spell Phantasmal Force can be used on every creature that is not a construct or undead the caster in my group I am dming is using it frequently on monsters. Which I feel is a great tactic as Illusionist - but I came to the conclusion, that especially illiterate monsters like for example Ogres with INT 5 are basically out of the game for 10 rounds if you stick exactly to the spells text.
Lets assume you have a group of three ogres and one gets cast the spell upon him - he does not succeed in the saving throw and gets the illusion of an attacking dwarf in front of him. There is no way a creature with Int 5 would possible doubt anything in that case and would simply attack this illusion over and over. Also his companions will not be bright enough to help him gain traction on the illusion.
Am I right how I play this out as DM? What would you guys do with monsters which have a more normal IQ? Would you allow them to use the Action to examine the Illusion more closely? And if yes, under what circumstances? (e.g. Drow Fighter gets attacked by the illusion of a black panther - would you grant him the Action?)
If the player is exceptionally crafty in what they cast as an illusion, the spell can be very effective. However, when I say "very effective" I mean it might deal it's small damage over most of the rounds of its' duration, or cause a creature to spend some number of actions making Intelligence (Investigation) checks rather than attacking the party.
In your example of ogres, I would say it doesn't matter whether or not the ogre doubts the illusion - it will go on continuing to behave like an ogre. So while it might keep swatting at an illusion of a dwarf attacker, it might also ignore the "puny dwarf" (judged as puny by only doing 1d6 damage each round) to attack another nearby character - and I would say that each time the ogre tries to smash the irritating dwarf, that counts as taking an action to examine the phantasm (a ruling I settled upon so that it is fair to use the same ruling whether it is an NPC or a PC affected by the spell).
If the party are a bit clever and situate things so the phantasm is the only apparent opponent close enough to attack, the ogre will like spend a few rounds frustratedly swiping at nothing before it thinks it's leaving the opponent behind to deal with someone else, or it's allies shout "What you doing, stupid?!" at it and clue it in that they do not see whatever it is the affected ogre is trying to fight.
My advice is not to focus on RPing the Intelligence score in any specific way (vaguely dumber for lower than 10 and vaguely smarter for higher than 10 is good enough - you don't need to set benchmarks like "5 is too stupid to do [insert idea/action]"), and let the mechanics of the spell apply - with the one caveat being that the creature doesn't ever have to think "I wonder if this is an illusion?" and then make a specific declaration of spending an action examining it, because any action that would interact with whatever the illusion is if it were real is a sufficient action to count as examination (such as attacking - if the intelligence (investigation) check fails, the target rationalizes that they must not have landed a hit, but if the check succeeds then the creature realizes the inconsistencies).
Otherwise, in my experience, you'll have players both expecting this lower-level spell to completely invalidate an opponent (because the text of the spell is problematic - how can any examination ever result in noticing the illusion isn't real when "The target rationalizes any illogical outcomes from interacting with the phantasm."), and constantly declaring that their character is attempting to disbelieve this, that, or the other thing that you've described their character perceiving - both of which get old, fast.
In the heat of battle, a low IQ plus them rationalizing irregularities means they are going to have a hard time realizing that it is an illusion. So here is how a player would come to the conclusion that something is an illusion: player swings. Misses. Gets hit. Swings and misses. Gets hit. Swings and misses. Gets hit. Investigates for a weak spot to exploit because this isn't working. Boom. There's your check. Here's the problem is that your average IQ in that situation isn't a stat. It's the actual IQ of the player. A very coning player may not even try to look for a weak spot until 3 misses. A stupid one may reposition themselves a few times or try a new tactic. If the illusion gets hit with an aoe or something utterly undodgable, even in frustration, a smart player would still rationalize it. Oh he must have uncanny dodge or something. If they feel like they have really worn him out they may investigate to see how much damage they have done but won't inspect to see if it is an illusion.
Your simple solution is after each attack, roll a d100 + the characters intelligence saving modifier if need be. If it doesn't equal to say 95, he doesn't have a reason to investigate.
You only lose if you die. Any time else, there's opportunity for a come back.