What are the limitations of Major Image in regards to speech? I'm creating a situation where there is a look-a-like of another player and the rest of the party doesn't know which is the real one. This is all going to be happening in combat, the players wont see me create the image. Could the image and the real player have a back and forth of "i'm the real one. No i'm the real one."?
Yes, Major Image specifically lists conversation as one of the things that the caster of the image can cause it to do: "Similarly, you can cause the illusion to make different sounds at different times, even making it carry on a conversation, for example." Please note that the illusion has no autonomy or agency itself, it doesn't see, hear, think, etc. The spellcaster controls all of that, so they'll need to be in range (within 120 feet), and somewhere they're able to follow along with the conversation. One way of reading the second paragraph would imply that the caster can only cause it to make sounds by using their action... but because such a reading would pretty much render a conversation impossible, that's not a preferred reading, really the action requirement is probably just for moving distance.
Other party members can determine it is an illusion by 1) taking an action to examine the image, prompting an intelligence save, OR 2) physically interacting with the object, which will reveal that things pass through it. Hint: Feel free to exploit #2 there by having the caster cast Minor Illusion (which doesn't require concentration) to make it look like something passes through the real character, which should give the other characters a false sense of assurance that they've spotted the fake!
It was the using your action part that was throwing me off. In real life we're all taking turns but in game everything happens simultaneously so to have a conversation in the middle of combat is awkward in real life.
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What are the limitations of Major Image in regards to speech? I'm creating a situation where there is a look-a-like of another player and the rest of the party doesn't know which is the real one. This is all going to be happening in combat, the players wont see me create the image. Could the image and the real player have a back and forth of "i'm the real one. No i'm the real one."?
Yes, Major Image specifically lists conversation as one of the things that the caster of the image can cause it to do: "Similarly, you can cause the illusion to make different sounds at different times, even making it carry on a conversation, for example." Please note that the illusion has no autonomy or agency itself, it doesn't see, hear, think, etc. The spellcaster controls all of that, so they'll need to be in range (within 120 feet), and somewhere they're able to follow along with the conversation. One way of reading the second paragraph would imply that the caster can only cause it to make sounds by using their action... but because such a reading would pretty much render a conversation impossible, that's not a preferred reading, really the action requirement is probably just for moving distance.
Other party members can determine it is an illusion by 1) taking an action to examine the image, prompting an intelligence save, OR 2) physically interacting with the object, which will reveal that things pass through it. Hint: Feel free to exploit #2 there by having the caster cast Minor Illusion (which doesn't require concentration) to make it look like something passes through the real character, which should give the other characters a false sense of assurance that they've spotted the fake!
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
It was the using your action part that was throwing me off. In real life we're all taking turns but in game everything happens simultaneously so to have a conversation in the middle of combat is awkward in real life.