Until the start of your next turn, you create an illusion originating in a space you can see within range that performs the Help action. The caster chooses the form of the illusion, but it must fit within a 5 foot square. The illusion may be animated, but may not move from the square it's created in. It can produce sound, but not loud enough to deafen.
You can cast this during combat to give the benefit of the Help action to assist in an allies attack. You target an enemy instead of an empty space. The square you spawn the illusion in can not be more than 5 feet away from that enemy and may also occupy the square an enemy is in (such as painting a bullseye on their forehead, or making it look like their shadow has risen to fight them). The effect is canceled and the spell ends if an enemy moves further than 5 feet from the square the illusion is in, or if they spend an action to investigate the illusion (Investigation vs Spell DC) with the effect continuing on a failed roll.
* - (A bit of fleece)
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Posted Apr 8, 2020Feedback is appreciated!
I had an illusionist wizard in mind and thought it would be pretty cool if in combat his role was doing the help action using illusions. My plan was to Minor Illusion a crude scarecrow made up as a caricature of the creature that yelled "Sneak attack!" or "Over Here!" (as improved minor illusion at 2nd level allows you to do both the visual and audio effect for 1 casting of Minor Illusion) we were fighting that would distract them as the help action would for a split second and allow one of the other's in the team to get advantage on the attack and possibly crit. After looking through the PHB and DMG, there wasn't really anything about Minor Illusion that said it couldn't grant the help action in combat by way of momentarily distracting an enemy, but also nothing explicitly said it could, so it'd really be left up to the Dungeon Master.
I thought about giving it an intelligence save, but decided to instead give an enemy 2 ways to beat it (move away or spend and action investigating as with Minor Illusion), and then it could reasonably be used outside of combat to help an ally with a skill check. An example I could give is an ally is climbing a rocky wall, this would let you create a red arrow pointing out a safe rock to grab, or an ally is attempting to stealth nearby you could help by having loud thunder outside covering their footsteps. An Ally attempting persuasion or deception can be given sad puppy / anime eyes.
I also gave the spell a maximum duration of the start of your next turn because I don't like the idea of this being used to give yourself the help action, and hope it's interpreted that way. It's about 2 things: Forcing an opponent to either spend their action Investigating or potentially getting critted on while I'm at a safe distance (Living my best Wizard life from over here), and giving martial team mates opportunities to do cool stuff in combat (Living their best life over there). To me it feels more in line thematically with what I imagine illusionists doing in a fight, at least until you're making your illusions real or Illusory Dragon.