You make yourself--including your clothing, armor, weapons, and other belongings on your person--look different until the spell ends or until you use your action to dismiss it. You can seem 1 foot shorter or taller and can appear thin, fat, or in between. You can't change your body type, so you must adopt a form that has the same basic arrangement of limbs. Otherwise, the extent of the illusion is up to you.
The changes wrought by this spell fail to hold up to physical inspection. For example, if you use this spell to add a hat to your outfit, objects pass through the hat, and anyone who touches it would feel nothing or would feel your head and hair. If you use this spell to appear thinner than you are, the hand of someone who reaches out to touch you would bump into you while it was seemingly still in midair.
To discern that you are disguised, a creature can use its action to inspect your appearance and must succeed on an Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC.
At my table it would depend on the context. Wanna disguise yourself as the cabbage seller you spoke to three weeks ago? That’s an intelligence check to see how well you remember his face (relative to how impactful the interaction was, but probably a fairly low DC). Wanna disguise yourself as the guard captain who passed by moments ago? That’s a gimme
If a creature defeats the illusion, is the true form/identity of the caster immediately revealed to the creature, or are they merely made aware that the caster is shrouded in illusion? Is a defeated disguise self spell dispelled (for the interacting creature, or everyone?), or does it persist and require additional investigation (or sufficiently-high save) to discern the identity of the caster?
Okay, what if I made my clothing to look like a ghillie suit? I feel this is dm discretion, but it feels pretty funny
I was thinking the same thing. You could change the coloration and configuration of your attire to help blend in to the background when you're trying to be stealthy. Up to the DM, but you could make an argument for Advantage on some Stealth checks.
Spell Tag... Shapechanging?
Isn't it an illusion?
It's an illusion, but its apparent effect is to change your shape. If you were searching for methods to change your appearance/shape, this search tag makes Disguise Self show up in the list.
If someone discerns that you are disguised with an investigation check, do they realize that it's a magical disguise? Or would they just think that you're wearing a regular disguise? Do they find out your true appearance? I assume that if they know you, and succeed on the check, they recognize you. But if they've never seen you, would they be able to then describe your true form? If they do, and there is someone present who would recognize you but failed the check, and they recognize the description of you, would they then automatically see through the illusion? Or would they simply have to take the describers word that it's you?
This spell can be used to alter the appearance of your equipment, for example making your armor and weapons seem invisible. A good use of the spell would be to simply take all of your companions weapons and hide them, and then just walk past a guard.
What if you're wearing a scarf around your head so that your face is hidden, and then make it look like you're not wearing anything around your face? Then even someone who knows you wouldn't recognize you, even if they succeed on the check.
What if you use disguise self to disguise yourself to look like yourself, and someone then succeeds on the check? Would they think that you actually look different? Would they even realize that you are disguised?
comes with it
If a non-humanoid cast this spell on themself, (like with a spellwrought tattoo or ring of spell storing) would it have to make them look like another creature? Or could they look like an object with the same arrangement of limbs?
It does not say that you necessarily look like a creature. For example, could a slime use this to look like a pool of water or a rock? Could a dog use this to look like a statue of a dog?
1 - Gross. Feels, very fat-shaming adjacent here.
2 - No. Both for the above, and that trained fighters aim center of mass.
Could a character use this spell to "disguise" themselves as a lifelike object?
I'm just thinking of a situation in which the characters are tasked with spying on a secret meeting in a garden, and one of the characters is just standing stock still, pretending to be a topiary or a statue while listening in on the evil plot.
Can you disguise self someone else?
Mask of Many Faces is just so great, thematically and mechanically. Thematically, you are a master of disguises, and a swindler. Mechanically, you are good at wearing the face you need to wear for the current situation, and you remove all the consequences of charming creatures because you can drop/swap a disguise once the charm wears off and your victims realize they were charmed.
Alter self is second level, and it allows you to mimic your voice. Tbh in my experience its better to just not take disguise self and take more useful first level spells then take alter self at second.
Not sure if I would agree with that. When fighting, you hit what you can get. It could be that the opponent exposes and arm or a leg and that is where you hit.
or you could be a changeling
Yes but that's not how 5e works.
You occupy a 5ft square no matter what. If someone swings to hit you, you're size real or fake doesn't matter.
So many people don't read this spell and make some seriously out there reaches.
I am not getting your point. Yes, you occupy a 5 ft square, but where you take damage isn't always in your core. What am I missing?
Most likely, No. Most physical attacks against you would be towards your center mass area. Also, combat is set in 5ft areas. So an enemy mechanically just attacks your 5ft cube.
Would this spell also be able to give the appearance of tattoos? Or make them temporarily disappear?