Can someone tell me how a 13th level Illusionist can't just basically insta kill anyone within range of his Mirage Arcane? Based on this explaination https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/06/03/if-i-used-mirage-arcane-to-transform-a-lake-of-water-into-a-lake-of-lava/, an illusionist could use Malleable Illusions, to instantly turn a field with an army on it into a lake of lava, dealing 18d10 per round killing them all. As long as they have cast Mirage Arcane within a mile in the last 10 days.
This seems too overpowered for my 13th level character, but I guess you could argue that the spell requires setup and just makes you, as an Illusionist, insanely powerful within your illusion.
Look, maybe. But the spell itself doesn't mention a lake of lava, and nor does Jeremy in his tweet response. And no rule dictates that this magical illusion lava must do 18d10 damage. This is all within the realms of DM ruling. The spell says "The terrain's general shape remains the same", so can a lake be summoned? Is lava even a "terrain", or is it a hazard that might form an acceptable subsection of some terrain with a volcano.
Personally I might allow this as part of a one-off well planned trap, but not guarantee it works every time. Generally I would probably rule that the terrain changes wrought by Mirage Arcane could create dangerous, even damaging terrain, but would not appear and suddenly cause damage to any creature. Like, an enemy walking over a field could suddenly find themselves trapped on an island surrounded by lava, but not actually drowning in the lava itself. This is my ruling only, but the books say nothing definitive either way.
Yeah I do find it odd how Jeremy doesn't directly respond to the lava part, but his response implies yes, it does cause damage, as he only gives other positive examples. I guess it's fair that there's nothing saying that the damage would be equal to real lava, but I got the impression that these things are actually happening. Like you can die from drowning in the lake, not from psychic damage from you thinking that you are drowning. Obviously the 18d10 is a suggestion for lava from the DMG, not a rule necessarily.
The spell says "The terrain's general shape remains the same", so can a lake be summoned?
The spell does say, "Open fields or a road could be made to resemble a swamp, hill, crevasse, or some other difficult or impassable terrain." So I didn't feel like it was much of a stretch.
I think any ruling to make this not work by a DM is fair, because it's so powerful, but I feel like strictly by the rules stated, it probably would.
In my opinion, this is something that'd be strong against weak, but weak against strong. While it could decimate armies of ordinary soldiers, the spell can also be removed with a single Dispel Magic from a half-decent magic user. It'd also be pretty ineffective against enemies with flight, and creatures with true sight can bypass it altogether. If I was running a war campaign, I'd say that any sizable force would have some magic users, so if the player wanted to use this they'd have to account for enemies that could disrupt it.
I'd say the Dispel Magic and flight negate the usefulness of a lake of lava but...
creatures with true sight can bypass it altogether.
The spell directly says:
Creatures with truesight can see through the illusion to the terrain's true form; however, all other elements of the illusion remain, so while the creature is aware of the illusion's presence, the creature can still physically interact with the illusion.
So, while a creature with truesight can see that it's an illusion, they'd still be subject to any damage if they were stupid enough to walk right into it.
i mean if an wizard following the arcane tradition of illusion just waits one more level they can make their illusions real, and turn their fake lava into actual lava, so not too unreasonable, also you can add oilfactory elements to your illusion, ie you can make people walk on and feel the illusion, but the illusion does not remove the ground so it would be hard to make an sudden convincing lava lake if it is under the terrain or people in it do not seem to fall completely to the ground
also the thing you liked have nothing to do with the subject
also i think what he meant with "creatures can even take damage" is the same as "creatures can fall of an illusory cliff", they very much feel like they are falling, it very much feels like they are drowing, and it very much feels like they are burning alive, and if their brains think this for long enough i assume they might just straight up die from the shock, but mechanically no damage dice is rolled. Rules as written it deals no damage, and them are the rules
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i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
Creatures with truesight can see through the illusion to the terrain's true form; however, all other elements of the illusion remain, so while the creature is aware of the illusion's presence, the creature can still physically interact with the illusion.
So, while a creature with truesight can see that it's an illusion, they'd still be subject to any damage if they were stupid enough to walk right into it.
I was using the tweet to refer to this part. The spell says the creature "can" still interact with the illusion, which according to the tweet, means the creature can decide to, or decide not to. Assuming they have truesight. Which makes things very odd
In my games I have the homebrew rule that you can only use it to trap a creature, but you can trap them with damaging things. So you could not turn the ground under a creature into lava, but you could have them trapped on a little island in the middle of a lake of lava.
In my games I have the homebrew rule that you can only use it to trap a creature, but you can trap them with damaging things. So you could not turn the ground under a creature into lava, but you could have them trapped on a little island in the middle of a lake of lava.
Hello. I hate to necro the thread but I have a player using this and want to get an idea of typical restrictions.
So the last adventure we came upon an area filled with lava that this spell was used to change to acid (the monsters around the lava lake were immune to fire).
So I allowed this as it basically just re-skinned the lava to acid and the creatures took acid damage equivalent to what the lava damage would have been.
This next module coming up is a large under the sea adventure where the battles will be epic in huge ocean areas (DDAL07-17 for reference).
The player with this spell is wondering if he could change the sea area to air thus allowing them to avoid water restrictions (breathing, movement, etc) and also basically killing any sea creature that cannot survive out of water. This one has me thinking no as it would not just be a re-skin but an absolute change of matter basically.
I don't believe it would work that way. It's not a physical transformation like 'Transmute Rock', where you physically change rock into mud or vis-versa. Also, he area of effect is 1 square mile, so he could only change the surface. I suppose you could do the math and covert a square mile into a cubic dimension and allow them to add depth to the illusion. In any event, observing the illusion from the surface, a creature would perceive it as what ever surface/terrain the wizard choose. And, just as likely, anything below the surface that happened to look up, would see what the wizard created, but if they are below the surface, even just an inch or so, they would not be effected by that surface.
Tweets are not official. Yes, Crawford is the guy that wrote most of the rules and the Sage Advice.. But Tweets are basically what he thought of at the time, without spending more than a minute or so on the issue.
Basically, it goes: DM Houserule/over-ride, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, then tweets.
Tweets are not official. Yes, Crawford is the guy that wrote most of the rules and the Sage Advice.. But Tweets are basically what he thought of at the time, without spending more than a minute or so on the issue.
Basically, it goes: DM Houserule/over-ride, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, then tweets.
I guess it depends as I am in Adventurer's League which has to follow RAW.
RAW if a spell doesn’t say it deals damage, it doesn’t, and allowing the spell to kill off hoards of mobs and/or destroy structures is well outside the described effect.
Tweets are not official. Yes, Crawford is the guy that wrote most of the rules and the Sage Advice.. But Tweets are basically what he thought of at the time, without spending more than a minute or so on the issue.
Basically, it goes: DM Houserule/over-ride, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, then tweets.
I guess it depends as I am in Adventurer's League which has to follow RAW.
Nope. RAW was not even on my list, because Raw is a combo of several of those.
Adventure's League goes:
AL rules, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, DM decision, tweet
Tweets are not official. Yes, Crawford is the guy that wrote most of the rules and the Sage Advice.. But Tweets are basically what he thought of at the time, without spending more than a minute or so on the issue.
Basically, it goes: DM Houserule/over-ride, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, then tweets.
I guess it depends as I am in Adventurer's League which has to follow RAW.
Nope. RAW was not even on my list, because Raw is a combo of several of those.
Adventure's League goes:
AL rules, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, DM decision, tweet
Not quite: "AL" rules - mostly from the ALFAQ (but AL tends to stay away from rules except for issues like simulacrum misuse where a specific ruling is specified), Core rule Books (otherwise known as RAW which must include errata since that constitutes the most recent printing of the specific rule) - excluding optional rules except those specified, and DM decision - and thats it.
Sage advice, SAC, tweets are considered completely unofficial and specifically irrelevant in AL. A DM can use them to inform a ruling but there is no requirement to do so. In an AL context, RAW refers specifically to the content of the officially published rulebooks.
Here are the specific rules:
"THE RULES OF THE GAME Adventurers League play uses fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. You can issue rulings to your table when the rules of the game are ambiguous or vague, but you must otherwise adhere to the rules as they are provided in the core rulebooks and can’t change them or make up your own; “house-rules” aren’t permitted for use. You must always use the most current incarnation of a rule. Further, the options and variant rules listed below from the Dungeon Master’s Guide and chapter 2 of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything are available for your use; others aren’t permitted without campaign documentation. In all cases, you should let your group know if you’re going to use one or more of these rules if their use would be applicable to the adventure or when the situation arises. • Variant: Playing on a Grid (DMG) • Variant: Skills with Different Abilities (DMG) • Simultaneous Effects (XGE) • Falling (XGE) • Sleep (XGE) • Adamantine Weapons (XGE) • Tying Knots (XGE) • Tool Proficiencies (XGE) • Spellcasting (XGE) While they aren’t official rules that must be followed, the Sage Advice column, tweets from the D&D Team on Twitter, or even discussions with other DMs on your favorite social media platform can provide good insight on how others adjudicated a particular issue. The rules as written in the rulebooks always take precedence; exceptions are noted in official D&D Adventurers League resources, such as the FAQ."
---------------------------
In terms of the OPs question (which I realize is 4 years old ... :) ), illusions are one of the most difficult things for DM to adjudicate because often the DM and player might have very different ideas of what an illusion does.
In this case, the text of mirage arcane just says that it changes the appearance of a large area and can turn it into difficult terrain. The changes are still an illusion, it isn't real.
"You make terrain in an area up to 1 mile square look, sound, smell, and even feel like some other sort of terrain. The terrain's general shape remains the same, however. Open fields or a road could be made to resemble a swamp, hill, crevasse, or some other difficult or impassable terrain. A pond can be made to seem like a grassy meadow, a precipice like a gentle slope, or a rock-strewn gully like a wide and smooth road.
Similarly, you can alter the appearance of structures, or add them where none are present. The spell doesn't disguise, conceal, or add creatures.
The illusion includes audible, visual, tactile, and olfactory elements, so it can turn clear ground into difficult terrain (or vice versa) or otherwise impede movement through the area. Any piece of the illusory terrain (such as a rock or stick) that is removed from the spell's area disappears immediately.
Creatures with truesight can see through the illusion to the terrain's true form; however, all other elements of the illusion remain, so while the creature is aware of the illusion's presence, the creature can still physically interact with the illusion."
The spell does NOT say that the illusion is REAL and that it will do damage. It includes "audible, visual, tactile and olfactory elements" ... which can impede movement through the area ... and, RAW, that is all this spell does. If an illusionist changed the lake to a lava pool then the creatures might decide to go around it but if they happened to be in it when it changed they would be surprised that it didn't burn them.
The spell does allow the addition of tactile elements ... what capabilities these have is not specified and is up to the DM. They won't do damage since the spell does not specify it unlike other illusion spells that will inflict damage.
However, could the caster create an illusion of a tower? Could this tower be 200' tall? Could a creature decide to climb to the top of this illusory tower? Could the caster use malleable illusions to remove the tower causing any creature on the tower to fall? All of that, would be a DM call and relies on the interpretation of what "tactile" means in the context of the illusion. I'd lean towards allowing it.
On the other hand, the level 14 ability Illusory Reality specifically allows the illusionist to make one object in the illusion actually real. This feature has the statement "The object can’t deal damage or otherwise directly harm anyone."
If something "real" being added to an illusion cast by a level 14 illusionist (who can cast mirage arcane) CAN'T do any damage then there is no way I could interpret the Mirage Arcane spell as being able to harm creatures directly since the spell doesn't state that AND even if the illusionist made some part of the illusion real - it still can't hurt anyone.
As an example, if the illusionist used malleable illusion to cause the tower to appear to fall over AND used illusory reality to make one of the stones of the tower real, that stone would STILL not damage a character if it fell on them.
So .. no .. an illusionist can't turn an illusion of an open plain into a lake of lava to kill off an army ... illusions don't work that way.
Tweets are not official. Yes, Crawford is the guy that wrote most of the rules and the Sage Advice.. But Tweets are basically what he thought of at the time, without spending more than a minute or so on the issue.
Basically, it goes: DM Houserule/over-ride, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, then tweets.
I guess it depends as I am in Adventurer's League which has to follow RAW.
Nope. RAW was not even on my list, because Raw is a combo of several of those.
Adventure's League goes:
AL rules, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, DM decision, tweet
If something "real" being added to an illusion cast by a level 14 illusionist (who can cast mirage arcane) CAN'T do any damage then there is no way I could interpret the Mirage Arcane spell as being able to harm creatures directly since the spell doesn't state that AND even if the illusionist made some part of the illusion real - it still can't hurt anyone.
The other illusions in the game that create elements that feel real, such as Illusory Reality and Major Image specifically specify that they don’t deal damage. This, to me, makes it seem that the intent for Mirage Arcane was that it COULD deal damage, as it leaves out such limitations. That is only reinforced by Jeremy’s tweet stating that you can fall off a fake cliff or drown in a fake lake. I think it was an oversight that it could be affected by Malleable Illusions and be changed instantly.
I agree that my example would be too strong and should be nerfed by a DM, but at the very least, RAW, the lava would feel real. Even if you ruled that it didn’t deal damage, it would certainly be agonizing.
Personally I would rule that you couldn’t directly harm someone, but you could create harmful effects. The lava would deal the damage, but you couldn’t put it directly under someone, they would have to be pushed in. If you removed a tower, they would safely appear at the bottom of the tower, but if you leave the tower, they could be pushed off.
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Can someone tell me how a 13th level Illusionist can't just basically insta kill anyone within range of his Mirage Arcane? Based on this explaination https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/06/03/if-i-used-mirage-arcane-to-transform-a-lake-of-water-into-a-lake-of-lava/, an illusionist could use Malleable Illusions, to instantly turn a field with an army on it into a lake of lava, dealing 18d10 per round killing them all. As long as they have cast Mirage Arcane within a mile in the last 10 days.
This seems too overpowered for my 13th level character, but I guess you could argue that the spell requires setup and just makes you, as an Illusionist, insanely powerful within your illusion.
Look, maybe. But the spell itself doesn't mention a lake of lava, and nor does Jeremy in his tweet response. And no rule dictates that this magical illusion lava must do 18d10 damage. This is all within the realms of DM ruling. The spell says "The terrain's general shape remains the same", so can a lake be summoned? Is lava even a "terrain", or is it a hazard that might form an acceptable subsection of some terrain with a volcano.
Personally I might allow this as part of a one-off well planned trap, but not guarantee it works every time. Generally I would probably rule that the terrain changes wrought by Mirage Arcane could create dangerous, even damaging terrain, but would not appear and suddenly cause damage to any creature. Like, an enemy walking over a field could suddenly find themselves trapped on an island surrounded by lava, but not actually drowning in the lava itself. This is my ruling only, but the books say nothing definitive either way.
Yeah I do find it odd how Jeremy doesn't directly respond to the lava part, but his response implies yes, it does cause damage, as he only gives other positive examples. I guess it's fair that there's nothing saying that the damage would be equal to real lava, but I got the impression that these things are actually happening. Like you can die from drowning in the lake, not from psychic damage from you thinking that you are drowning. Obviously the 18d10 is a suggestion for lava from the DMG, not a rule necessarily.
The spell does say, "Open fields or a road could be made to resemble a swamp, hill, crevasse, or some other difficult or impassable terrain." So I didn't feel like it was much of a stretch.
I think any ruling to make this not work by a DM is fair, because it's so powerful, but I feel like strictly by the rules stated, it probably would.
In my opinion, this is something that'd be strong against weak, but weak against strong. While it could decimate armies of ordinary soldiers, the spell can also be removed with a single Dispel Magic from a half-decent magic user. It'd also be pretty ineffective against enemies with flight, and creatures with true sight can bypass it altogether. If I was running a war campaign, I'd say that any sizable force would have some magic users, so if the player wanted to use this they'd have to account for enemies that could disrupt it.
I'd say the Dispel Magic and flight negate the usefulness of a lake of lava but...
The spell directly says:
So, while a creature with truesight can see that it's an illusion, they'd still be subject to any damage if they were stupid enough to walk right into it.
Not according to this Jeremy Crawford tweet https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/798250210866495488
i mean if an wizard following the arcane tradition of illusion just waits one more level they can make their illusions real, and turn their fake lava into actual lava, so not too unreasonable, also you can add oilfactory elements to your illusion, ie you can make people walk on and feel the illusion, but the illusion does not remove the ground so it would be hard to make an sudden convincing lava lake if it is under the terrain or people in it do not seem to fall completely to the ground
also the thing you liked have nothing to do with the subject
also i think what he meant with "creatures can even take damage" is the same as "creatures can fall of an illusory cliff", they very much feel like they are falling, it very much feels like they are drowing, and it very much feels like they are burning alive, and if their brains think this for long enough i assume they might just straight up die from the shock, but mechanically no damage dice is rolled. Rules as written it deals no damage, and them are the rules
i am soup, with too many ideas (all of them very spicy) who has made sufficient homebrew material and character to last an thousand human lifetimes
I was using the tweet to refer to this part. The spell says the creature "can" still interact with the illusion, which according to the tweet, means the creature can decide to, or decide not to. Assuming they have truesight. Which makes things very odd
In my games I have the homebrew rule that you can only use it to trap a creature, but you can trap them with damaging things. So you could not turn the ground under a creature into lava, but you could have them trapped on a little island in the middle of a lake of lava.
When the DM smiles, it is already to late.
I like that rule
I did this thing myself. It just takes 10 minutes (600) rounds to cast, so it's basically a siege weapon.
Hello. I hate to necro the thread but I have a player using this and want to get an idea of typical restrictions.
So the last adventure we came upon an area filled with lava that this spell was used to change to acid (the monsters around the lava lake were immune to fire).
So I allowed this as it basically just re-skinned the lava to acid and the creatures took acid damage equivalent to what the lava damage would have been.
This next module coming up is a large under the sea adventure where the battles will be epic in huge ocean areas (DDAL07-17 for reference).
The player with this spell is wondering if he could change the sea area to air thus allowing them to avoid water restrictions (breathing, movement, etc) and also basically killing any sea creature that cannot survive out of water. This one has me thinking no as it would not just be a re-skin but an absolute change of matter basically.
What are your thoughts?
I don't believe it would work that way. It's not a physical transformation like 'Transmute Rock', where you physically change rock into mud or vis-versa. Also, he area of effect is 1 square mile, so he could only change the surface. I suppose you could do the math and covert a square mile into a cubic dimension and allow them to add depth to the illusion. In any event, observing the illusion from the surface, a creature would perceive it as what ever surface/terrain the wizard choose. And, just as likely, anything below the surface that happened to look up, would see what the wizard created, but if they are below the surface, even just an inch or so, they would not be effected by that surface.
Tweets are not official. Yes, Crawford is the guy that wrote most of the rules and the Sage Advice.. But Tweets are basically what he thought of at the time, without spending more than a minute or so on the issue.
Basically, it goes: DM Houserule/over-ride, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, then tweets.
I guess it depends as I am in Adventurer's League which has to follow RAW.
RAW if a spell doesn’t say it deals damage, it doesn’t, and allowing the spell to kill off hoards of mobs and/or destroy structures is well outside the described effect.
Nope. RAW was not even on my list, because Raw is a combo of several of those.
Adventure's League goes:
AL rules, Errata, Book, Sage Advice, DM decision, tweet
Not quite: "AL" rules - mostly from the ALFAQ (but AL tends to stay away from rules except for issues like simulacrum misuse where a specific ruling is specified), Core rule Books (otherwise known as RAW which must include errata since that constitutes the most recent printing of the specific rule) - excluding optional rules except those specified, and DM decision - and thats it.
Sage advice, SAC, tweets are considered completely unofficial and specifically irrelevant in AL. A DM can use them to inform a ruling but there is no requirement to do so. In an AL context, RAW refers specifically to the content of the officially published rulebooks.
Here are the specific rules:
"THE RULES OF THE GAME
Adventurers League play uses fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons. You can issue rulings to your table when the rules of the game are ambiguous or vague, but you must otherwise adhere to the rules as they are provided in the core rulebooks and can’t change them or make up your own; “house-rules” aren’t permitted for use. You must always use the most current incarnation of a rule. Further, the options and variant rules listed below from the Dungeon Master’s Guide and chapter 2 of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything are available for your use; others aren’t permitted without campaign documentation. In all cases, you should let your group know if you’re going to use one or more of these rules if their use would be applicable to the adventure or when the situation arises.
• Variant: Playing on a Grid (DMG)
• Variant: Skills with Different Abilities (DMG)
• Simultaneous Effects (XGE)
• Falling (XGE)
• Sleep (XGE)
• Adamantine Weapons (XGE)
• Tying Knots (XGE)
• Tool Proficiencies (XGE)
• Spellcasting (XGE)
While they aren’t official rules that must be followed, the Sage Advice column, tweets from the D&D Team on Twitter, or even discussions with other DMs on your favorite social media platform can provide good insight on how others adjudicated a particular issue. The rules as written in the rulebooks always take precedence; exceptions are noted in official D&D Adventurers League resources, such as the FAQ."
---------------------------
In terms of the OPs question (which I realize is 4 years old ... :) ), illusions are one of the most difficult things for DM to adjudicate because often the DM and player might have very different ideas of what an illusion does.
In this case, the text of mirage arcane just says that it changes the appearance of a large area and can turn it into difficult terrain. The changes are still an illusion, it isn't real.
"You make terrain in an area up to 1 mile square look, sound, smell, and even feel like some other sort of terrain. The terrain's general shape remains the same, however. Open fields or a road could be made to resemble a swamp, hill, crevasse, or some other difficult or impassable terrain. A pond can be made to seem like a grassy meadow, a precipice like a gentle slope, or a rock-strewn gully like a wide and smooth road.
Similarly, you can alter the appearance of structures, or add them where none are present. The spell doesn't disguise, conceal, or add creatures.
The illusion includes audible, visual, tactile, and olfactory elements, so it can turn clear ground into difficult terrain (or vice versa) or otherwise impede movement through the area. Any piece of the illusory terrain (such as a rock or stick) that is removed from the spell's area disappears immediately.
Creatures with truesight can see through the illusion to the terrain's true form; however, all other elements of the illusion remain, so while the creature is aware of the illusion's presence, the creature can still physically interact with the illusion."
The spell does NOT say that the illusion is REAL and that it will do damage. It includes "audible, visual, tactile and olfactory elements" ... which can impede movement through the area ... and, RAW, that is all this spell does. If an illusionist changed the lake to a lava pool then the creatures might decide to go around it but if they happened to be in it when it changed they would be surprised that it didn't burn them.
The spell does allow the addition of tactile elements ... what capabilities these have is not specified and is up to the DM. They won't do damage since the spell does not specify it unlike other illusion spells that will inflict damage.
However, could the caster create an illusion of a tower? Could this tower be 200' tall? Could a creature decide to climb to the top of this illusory tower? Could the caster use malleable illusions to remove the tower causing any creature on the tower to fall? All of that, would be a DM call and relies on the interpretation of what "tactile" means in the context of the illusion. I'd lean towards allowing it.
On the other hand, the level 14 ability Illusory Reality specifically allows the illusionist to make one object in the illusion actually real. This feature has the statement "The object can’t deal damage or otherwise directly harm anyone."
If something "real" being added to an illusion cast by a level 14 illusionist (who can cast mirage arcane) CAN'T do any damage then there is no way I could interpret the Mirage Arcane spell as being able to harm creatures directly since the spell doesn't state that AND even if the illusionist made some part of the illusion real - it still can't hurt anyone.
As an example, if the illusionist used malleable illusion to cause the tower to appear to fall over AND used illusory reality to make one of the stones of the tower real, that stone would STILL not damage a character if it fell on them.
So .. no .. an illusionist can't turn an illusion of an open plain into a lake of lava to kill off an army ... illusions don't work that way.
Character with TrusSight and dispel Magic to make quick work of that bs.
Byte my shiny metal ass
The other illusions in the game that create elements that feel real, such as Illusory Reality and Major Image specifically specify that they don’t deal damage. This, to me, makes it seem that the intent for Mirage Arcane was that it COULD deal damage, as it leaves out such limitations. That is only reinforced by Jeremy’s tweet stating that you can fall off a fake cliff or drown in a fake lake. I think it was an oversight that it could be affected by Malleable Illusions and be changed instantly.
I agree that my example would be too strong and should be nerfed by a DM, but at the very least, RAW, the lava would feel real. Even if you ruled that it didn’t deal damage, it would certainly be agonizing.
Personally I would rule that you couldn’t directly harm someone, but you could create harmful effects. The lava would deal the damage, but you couldn’t put it directly under someone, they would have to be pushed in. If you removed a tower, they would safely appear at the bottom of the tower, but if you leave the tower, they could be pushed off.