# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games > D&D 5e/Next >  Illusion Sphere (Spheres in Review)

## SangoProduction

*Preamble:*  The illusion sphere has always been fascinating. Illusion is the most free and powerful of all the schools of magic. Illusions can screw with the shared perception of the world itself with a couple of well-used images alone. It is limited only by the fact that even dedicated illusion wizards can only make the most basic of illusions until they get several spell levels under their belts.  Spheres lacks a "spell level" system. You can see the problem this caused in the first iteration of Spheres, where Invisibility (the full thing, with no reservations) was available as a basic talent.
Things got better with the revision. And now it's much more reasonable while still allowing a specialist to get on the train incredibly quickly.
I really want to see what state it is in, in 5e.

_Note:_ The wikipedia page for the illusion sphere, where all of this comes from, has a good several paragraphs before even getting to the sphere. They go over a couple of the most common frictions that happen when using illusions. It's worth a read, since they apply to all illusions, not just spheres, but not something I'll be going over. (Most notably, make sure you and the dm are on the same page. If you aren't, then illusions ill not be fun. They can just be outright ignored since there aren't rules text state that such and such specifically happen. Although at the bottom of the page, there are alternative rules for Figment, which do add more concrete rules interactions, if so needed.)

*Post-Review Analysis:* Interesting. Well, there's the ability to get full out invisibility as a basic talent. Definitely a mistake. But otherwise I kind of like the implementation. Compared to pathfinder, complex illusions with multiple senses take very few talents, but expend more spell points... which I think is actually the reasonable move. 
There's not a lot of mechanical teeth to the sphere... but when the effect comes down to "make up anything," it doesn't really need to.

*Spoiler: Ratings*
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(1) Superb: You always want this if it's relevant to you. And it probably is.
(1.5) Really Good: Particularly useful bits of kit, but aren't quite must-haves. (Kept it decimal, because spreading out Good so far from Superb felt unrepresentative. But I needed a step between)
(2) Good: These make useful additions to the right builds. Among your first picks.
(3) Usable: Doesn't hurt to have. Wouldn't go out of your way for it.

(4) No: It technically has a use, but the cost to take simply doesn't outweigh the benefit.
(5) Never: Theres no non-trivial reason to pick it up, from its mechanics.
(6+) Harmful: Taking/using this is actively detrimental to your character.

<Angle brackets> around a rating indicates situational usefulness, and how good it is in that favorable situation.
[Square brackets] indicate a reliance on the group (players or DM) or campaign youre playing in, and how well it does in those select groups.

Special Ratings:
(C) Cheese: A talent so broken that it will be instantly banned if you use it as you could.
(?) Unrated: I choose not to rate it. Often because it is just so far out of my wheelhouse, or its far too ambiguous.
(F) Flavor: This indicates that the main draw to the talent is going to be its inherent fluff or flavor, rather than raw power or utility.
(D) D***bag: Used for when your character wants to be a D***bag.


Base Sphere contains the abilities you gain from using a talent on the sphere for the first time.
*Spoiler: Base Sphere*
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*Figment (1):* Gives you a nice little cube in which you can create an image or illusory sound as an action. Although it has duration of concentration, it only moves when you spend an action on it. Can be augmented to affect senses simultaneously, increase in size, and persist without concentration. Overall, a fantastic little ability with a huge amount of uses which can't even attemptted to be fully described in words. (Note that turns happen "simultaneously" within the 'scene time,' so even though it's only moving with your action, that still means that it's moving during the entire turn that you're commanding it. It doesn't abruptly stop when it's someone else's turn.)

*Glamer (?)*: The rules here are just the general rules for any (glamer) talent. They attach to your target(s) - moving with them automatically, take an action to cast, and last for concentration, or 10 minutes as an agumentation.



Basic Talents can be selected from the sphere, after you gain the base sphere. They tend to add functionality to the sphere. Each talent you spend can get you one of the following basic talents.
The following are groups of the basic talents.

*Spoiler: Glamer Talents*
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*Obscure (C)*: Grants disadvantage to attacks against them, and \obscured\, which grants disadvantage to perception checks against them, up until  they attack or cast. A defensive stealth buff. Nice... At no spell point cost - now that's impressive.
Augments 1 spell point for full invisibility, though the only change in 5e is that visual perception auto-fails. That's pretty bloody impressive, honestly. I think invisibility might be stronger in 5e than 3.5. Although "real" invisibility in 3.5 was a +20 to stealth, which was basically the same thing until high levels.
Augments yet again (1 sp) so it's not removed on attack.
And again (1 sp) to apply to blindsight and tremorsense. (And can also augment to give disadvantage to smell- and hearing-based perception.)
I think the only reasonable conclusion is that Obscure is obscene and obtuse.

*Decoy (1.5):* Mirror Image. As a free Gamer, you can give the target one decoy, which gives a 50/50 chance of the decoy being targeted instead. As an augment you can give multiple decoys. Combat wise, it's probably one of the best glamers, but... its exclusive use is combat. I would argue even traps would not care about this, unless visually targeting.

*Illusionary Disguise (3, F):* Very solid way to immediately get a disguise down. Sadly, for the same spell point cost, you can just be entirely invisible with the Obscure talent, so even if disguising multiple party members wasn't prohibitively expensive, a good majority of the uses for disguise are obviated by invisibility. Obviously, you still have situations where you do *want* to be seen - just not as you exactly are - thus why it's not a *bad* talent. Just not a good one.
Do note that if you pick up Greater Illusions, you can affect more than sound and video. You can change the taste of poisoned wine (or simply changing gruel or MRE into a fancy lunch). You can hide one's voice, or make someone sound ridiculous. You can make them reek no matter how much they wash (or smell good, even though they are adventurers). All fantastic and flavorful uses, and I love it. I do think it may be overpriced relative to outright invisibility.



*Spoiler: Sensory Talents*
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*Veiled Illusions <1>:* Are you having to walk through a convocation of (anti-)paladins, and deceive them as to your real alignment? Would you really appreciate your illusions not being automatically disbelieved by Detect Magic? Almost never. In fact... literally never in my case. But assuming that you do have a situation in which it is useful... well, it's useful.

*Greater Illusions (2, F):* Expands the senses to include smell touch, smell and taste. Both for illusionary Disguise as well as your Figments. Pretty much everything I mention in Illusionary Disguise, but... well... made from whole cloth rather than having to alter something. Imagine an all-cake diet... illusionary cake that is. With that said, while touch is neat and useful, isn't that game changing as far as your plans against hostiles go. (Notable exception being illusionary fires, with heat adding a lot to the illusion.) Taste and Smell are basically entirely fluff, with barely any real change. So, this really is more of a fluffy talent than a powerful one. But touch is still occasionally useful.



*Spoiler: Other Talents*
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*Illusionary Obstruction (1.5):* For each sense, there is a 1 sp augment. For sight, that sense becomes unreliable and blurry - disadvantage on attacks against anyone in the obstruction. (Very useful.) For all other senses, you basically disable them in the area. Unlike normal Figments, you may not have an Obstruction move. It is stuck where you place it.

*Complex Illusions (1.5):* Being able to create 3 to 6 individual figments (though with a size half that of a normal one), that all move on the same action, is definitely worth its cost. It just expands the options you have so dramatically. It is also for that reason that I tend to not recommend it unless you are very comfortable with illusions, because it can actually get overwhelming. Wait until you actually get into the situations where you wish you had this option, then start picking it up.


*Programmed Illusion (2, C)*: Lets you "store" an illusion cast... permanently (or until dispelled). Now, you won't be able to change any aspects of the canned illusion. But it instantly goes off with no casting, if you activate its trigger condition(s). And these triggers need not be unique. So, just for a really easy example. Let's say you want to have a Figment centered on yourself whenever you start doing a DBZ-style "power-up scream"...which is just 5-foot illusion of yourself, but with floating blonde hair. And then another figment of floating rocks and "energy" so dense that it basically forms a wall behind your image, letting you run off with the decoy in place, or even cast Obscure after the trigger, since talking (or screaming) doesn't normally take an action. (Gives you a good round or two before they even start deploying the anti-invisibility tech, by which point you can be out of line of sight.)
Now, here's where the cheese comes in. It's permanent. The only limiting factor is spell points, and the fact that it's still concentration, unless you spend even more spell points to not need to. But guess what happens at night? Normally nothing. So you spend your remaining spell points, which were basically going to be tossed anyway, as you get the rest of it back when you wake up (unless interrupted). So there is no limiting factor.
There are non-cheesy uses (even when getting to exploit the extra spell points you have left over)... . But simply being able to can an illusionary summon whenever you summon your real pet, or even have a effect be "whenever I heal (Fighter, Monk, or Barbarian), cast Decoy," it's pretty nice. It's good. But not necessarily stupid and ban worthy, or even overly powerful, depending on what it's being used for.


*Selective Illusions (2)*: Getting to say that your allies ignore given illusions is pretty good - especially for Illusory Obstruction. Just imagine having a zone of silence where literally only you and your friends could hear anything, letting you safely carry out a conversation without chance of being overheard. Or an illusory wall, which thus lets you guys see through it, but the enemies can't, until something passes through. You can create an illusion of a perfectly normal bridge overtop a rotten bridge, and now you guys can see where there are real steps, and where there are not, but your pursuers can't. By creating this gap of information between your enemies and your allies is easier when you can select who can see through it immediately. For no additional cost.

*Potent Illusions (4):* God, this is such an expensive talent. I'll grant that it is a concentration effect that can move, with a decent AoE. But this is just so unappealing to actually use. I would recommend just using something other than illusions if you need to directly offend someone in combat. (Note: This does make for a fun disposable item that DMs can pass out - specifically variations on flash bangs.)

*Insistent Illusions (4):* For a spell point, you give one target disadvantage on their next check to examine or disbelieve it. It definitely has a use. It does. Especially for getting past check points. Although, again, outright invisibility is probably more useful for that. In fact it's invariably more useful, and involves no checks... so drop from rating 3 to 4 due to its primary use cases (unless you're just dying to burn spell points) being better solved by a cheaper talent.

*Illusionary Terrain (?):* Lets you alter the appearance of the "terrain itself." Which is strange, because that implies that you couldn't normally...which is not at all implied except by this talent. What does this do that a normal Figment can't?

*Control Figment (?):* Lets you target an illusion, and then change it as though you were the caster. I literally have no idea for why I would particularly want or need that aside from going "Hey, I'm the illusion master here. This is mine now."



Figment talents are optional talents, in case the DM wishes to limit the play field of illusions. It can get a bit out there, after all. Illusions can get out of hand. 
*Spoiler: Figment Talents*
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*Illusionary Cover (1):* Those in your figment are "heavily obscured." Aka, no perception roll to perceive. They just fail to do so. But also, those inside can't see outside (unless you have Selective Illusions). Normal Figment already allows this, so this is only for the optional Figment rule.

*Illusionary Combatants (3):* Each turn, you declare an ally to have advantage to their first attack. Neat. Augment to affect more allies. Which probably makes up for the fact that those making attacks probably get more than 1, after a few levels.

*Illusionary Terrain (3):* Create a small area of difficult terrain. Not super useful. Can be used to "disguise" a small area of the terrain, rather than just cover it up with an illusion. (See comments below for more details.)

*Illusionary Distraction (4):* Target inside of your figment has disadvantage on (all) Perception checks. Neat. Not useful enough though. Especially with Obscure being a thing.



Variants take away functionality and give something else. This s generally for flavor rather than power.
*Spoiler: Variants*
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*Alternative Illusions:* You may no longer include visual elements in your illusions, but gain Greater Illusions as a bonus talent. Visual is the most useful of all the illusory senses. But if you want to swap it out, all the more power to you.

*Imageless*: You can't create normal figments. You may either take a glamer talent or illusionary obstruction.

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## Segev

On Illusory Terrain: it basically lets you do "Illusionary disguise" on terrain and objects within the figment's space. Interestingly, unlike Hallucinatory Terrain, by which it is undoubtedly inspired,  it doesn't preclude a normal figment within.

As the ability notes, a normal figment could put an illusion of a wall of mist in front of a wall of fire, or cover an unappealing chair with a bigger, nicer one. Illusory terrain would let you make that wall of fire look, feel, smell, etc. like that wall of mist without having to make the  mist extend beyond he fire's dimensions, and the "nice chair" would "replace" the ugly one rather than needing to be a big shell over it.

You could do the same with a lot of Illusionary Disguises, but this is with one casting, one concentration, or one 2 sp concentration buyoff.

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## SangoProduction

I still don't truly understand how it is different from a figment, since it's still affecting the same figment area.
Well. OK. I guess I do. Rather than "covering up" the area like a figment, it "changes" it. Which truly is a subtle distinction, but one to be made none the less.

Now the next question would be: What's the utility of making use of the distinction.

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## Segev

Cover a wall of fire with a wall of mist, and you still have a very hot heat source providing sensory info; it may be difficult to cover that up. Turn it to a wall of mist, and people may not realize why their hand is blackening when they stick their hand insiDe it, unless they succeed that investigation check.

Put an illusory shell of a plush bed over a rock slab, and it can only be so soft before the shell of illusion runs into the hard rock. Make the rock feel plush, and the person lying on it feels like he squishes into it as far as he "should." 

Clad a rough cave wall in a painted wooden facade, and you have to keep the facade out in front of the cave's furthest-reaching stone protrusions, lest they poke through the illusory wall. Transform the appearance of the cave wall, and you can smooth it out to being square with its actual position.

You run into some of the same problems one does with the touch-version of Illusionary Disguise when you make, e.g., someone look and feel shorter than they are, but "you didn't successfully make an investigation check" can explain it as failing to notice the parts "removed" by the illusion.

In essence, it allows some level of deletion and attachment to the thing the illusion disguises, rather than requiring cladding that extends beyond it. Same idea as why you can't just use figments to disguise creatures by having the figment cover them with an illusion of a different creature.

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## SangoProduction

hmm. Interesting. I think I get it.

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## JackPhoenix

I'd like to point out Illusionary Disguise is pretty much just a costlier version of Alteration's Blank Form: It costs at least 1 SP to use, while Shapeshift's basic cast is free, BF provides physical changes, while ID requires paying another SP to include the sense of touch (and the change still isn't real, so the practical use is minimal). ID can change voice, but seeing as Shapeshift actualy changes target's physical form, including vocal cords, again, I don't see much of a difference there.

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## SangoProduction

> I'd like to point out Illusionary Disguise is pretty much just a costlier version of Alteration's Blank Form: It costs at least 1 SP to use, while Shapeshift's basic cast is free, BF provides physical changes, while ID requires paying another SP to include the sense of touch (and the change still isn't real, so the practical use is minimal). ID can change voice, but seeing as Shapeshift actualy changes target's physical form, including vocal cords, again, I don't see much of a difference there.


Exactly. It's honestly kind of baffling.

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## Segev

Illusionary disguise does clothing, and can disguise or hide equipment without making it not be there.


Also, note on programmed illusion: it only applies to figments, so couldn't make Obscure turn you invisible as a reaction to a non-action stimulus.

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## SangoProduction

> Illusionary disguise does clothing, and can disguise or hide equipment without making it not be there.
> 
> 
> Also, note on programmed illusion: it only applies to figments, so couldn't make Obscure turn you invisible as a reaction to a non-action stimulus.


Very good catch.

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## JackPhoenix

I just noticed: No coverage for the advanced talents?

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## SangoProduction

> I just noticed: No coverage for the advanced talents?


No, not yet. Advanced talents aren't as interesting for me, since they are, by default, white-list talents. Which means you ask the DM to allow it or not. and so it's less of a consideration for a given build. 
That said, I still have the ongoing Advanced Talents in Review series for Pathfinder, where I analyze it from the GM's point of view (as in helping to answer whether or not to allow it). Kinda just got bored of it honestly.

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