I DM a campaign where my brother is an Illusionist Wizard. We were talking about Silent Image to make sure we were on the same page about my thought process on illusions. He was spit-balling creatures he would summon in the 15ft cube. I told him, well... if it were me... I'd want a creature you wouldn't want to get close to and wouldn't want to look at to investigate... I was nervous about telling him but enjoy talking to him about it so I told him... "think about a Medusa."
Sooooo... what do I do now. Most creatures without some other sense (eg. blind sense) are not going to want to investigate a Medusa by looking at it. They also probably would not be interested in getting near a fabled powerful creature (CR 6). This assumes they are humanoid or know what a Medusa can do... but what do I do now?
How do you go about having humanoids try and investigate a Medusa? They'd have to try to flank it to get it to look at a friend so they could throw a rock at it to see if it were real.
Thoughts? It just seems like a really powerful Silent Image. How do you justify ranged investigations against creatures with gaze abilities (against humanoids that know of their abilities)?
***Update: The question is not "how do I beat my player's strategy?" The question(s) are: 1) How would humanoids investigate (both the manner and time to do so) and 2) Other than "talk" with the player about it, do you think it is reasonable if he uses it for every encounter? (Not that he has, just in case he does).
Medusas don't just immediately petrify everything that looks at them. You have to be withing 30 feet, and its a beat-able Con save, so sufficiently chuffed enemies might take their chances, or just glare at it from a safe distance
Medusas aren't particularly common monsters, other than the fact that they feature prominently in one real-world fable. If not in an environment to which they are native, a lot of monsters and enemies may not choose to avert their gaze because they don't know what they're looking at.
Even enemies that DO know about medusas may be too curious/startled to help themselves.
Even if they don't look, listening for the medusa, smelling for it, looking for its shadow, etc. all might be ways you can Investigate the illusion without looking at it. Or, just pausing and pondering "why did that suddenly appear there, wasn't there a second ago... and this is a caster I'm fighting... and its not moving or making noise.... hmmmm" could be an Investigation check. It might be reasonable to give a creature Disadvantage on the investigation if they're choosing not to use one of their major senses (sight), but looking straight at the illusion isn't listed as a prerequisite to making the check.
It mostly comes down to what is the goal of creating the creature? It will only be a short matter of time before it become obvious something is wrong. The medusa doesn't make sound or have smell. The medusa doesn't react to the presence of other creatures. Stuff like that. Nothing wrong with it but the distraction would be momentary.
Don't leave out other ideas for illusion - wall of fire, mist, a bear trap, a cargo box, a deep pit.
I DM a campaign where my brother is an Illusionist Wizard. We were talking about Silent Image to make sure we were on the same page about my thought process on illusions. He was spit-balling creatures he would summon in the 15ft cube. I told him, well... if it were me... I'd want a creature you wouldn't want to get close to and wouldn't want to look at to investigate... I was nervous about telling him but enjoy talking to him about it so I told him... "think about a Medusa."
Sooooo... what do I do now. Most creatures without some other sense (eg. blind sense) are not going to want to investigate a Medusa by looking at it. They also probably would not be interested in getting near a fabled powerful creature (CR 6). This assumes they are humanoid or know what a Medusa can do... but what do I do now?
How do you go about having humanoids try and investigate a Medusa? They'd have to try to flank it to get it to look at a friend so they could throw a rock at it to see if it were real.
Thoughts? It just seems like a really powerful Silent Image. How do you justify ranged investigations against creatures with gaze abilities (against humanoids that know of their abilities)?
This could also apply to other creatures with gazes: eg. Basilisk; Babau; Bodak; Nothic; Umber Hulk;
***Update: The question is not "how do I beat my player's strategy?" The question(s) are: 1) How would humanoids investigate (both the manner and time to do so) and 2) Other than "talk" with the player about it, do you think it is reasonable if he uses it for every encounter? (Not that he has, just in case he does).
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
It mostly comes down to what is the goal of creating the creature? It will only be a short matter of time before it become obvious something is wrong. The medusa doesn't make sound or have smell. The medusa doesn't react to the presence of other creatures. Stuff like that. Nothing wrong with it but the distraction would be momentary.
Don't leave out other ideas for illusion - wall of fire, mist, a bear trap, a cargo box, a deep pit.
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