Illusion

Illusion is a broad field of magic that deals with playing tricks on the minds of those around you. It can be thing as simple as making lights dance to something as complex as instilling an irrational fear into your target. A useful tool, illusion can help in a number of situations and even enhance other schools of magic.

Primary Stats: Charisma, Constitution

Bonus to Skill Checks: Bluff, Concentration, Insight, Intimidation, Perception, Stealth

Basic Abilities

Opening this talent tree grants you the following powers and abilities.

Sights and Sounds: You can cast basic illusory spells. These spells can create sounds and noises nearby or create limited illusions and lights that are controlled by you. At this level the noises will be more effective than the illusions as all illusions will be somewhat ghostly in their appearance.

Enhance Emotion: You can, through very subtle means, enhance emotions to a limited extent, but when done correctly, it can have a profound effect. For example, you could take someone who is mildly annoyed at someone and make them angry at someone. You could take someone who is a bit apprehensive about something and make them fearful. It’s not much, and probably won’t go to extremes unless the person is easily susceptible or already near such emotions, but it can come in handy and will lead to greater things later.

Mastery: Mastery is a measure of your overall power and ability in a given talent branch. Each rank raises your ability a bit higher, and grants you greater power and access to more abilities further down the line. You must purchase each rank in order. Each rank is explained in detail below.

Rank 1: Your powers are slightly enhanced, reducing the energy you need to create illusions. Everything you create has a slightly more realistic quality to it and is a bit more convincing. You can raise and lower emotions to a small extent now. 10 points.

Rank 2: Your powers are slightly enhanced, reducing the energy you need to create illusions. Everything you create has a slightly more realistic quality to it and is a bit more convincing. You can leave illusions in a sort of trap fashion now, readying them to appear after a set of conditions are met. 20 points.

Rank 3: Your powers are enhanced, reducing the energy you need to create illusions. Everything you create has a more realistic quality to it and is more convincing. You can now instill fear by creating an aura of fear around you, though it will have varying effects on people causing some to cower or avoid you, while others might see it as a challenge and step up to confront you. Whichever, the aura is subtle and takes little energy to maintain. You gain a +2 to Charisma. 30 points.

Rank 4: Your powers are greatly enhanced, reducing the energy you need to create illusions. Everything you create seems almost real and is very convincing. You can enhance or diminish the emotions of a small group of people now, to a greater or lesser extent. You also have the ability to “shut off” someone’s mind as a sort of attack, essentially knocking them out for a few moments. 40 points.

Rank 5: Your powers are greatly enhanced, reducing the energy you need to create illusions. Everything you create seems almost real and is very convincing. You can “shut off” a small group of minds, though this is very difficult and, should it work, the time they remain unconscious will vary. You gain a +3 to Charisma. 50 points.

Dual Cast: Many spells require you to channel energy through your hands, guiding the magic. You now have the ability to cast two separate spells from each hand, or use your hands together to cast the same spell making it a bigger spell with different and more powerful effects. This kind of spell casting requires a great deal of energy and can drain you very quickly. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Archmage: You have chosen your path, whatever it may be, or perhaps perfected several different paths of magic. Regardless, you have learned and practiced arcane secrets and rituals throughout your life, always searching for greater knowledge, better control, and more power. You may never stop practicing, you might never achieve your complete goal, but you have become one of the most powerful mages in the world, and other planes. All of your powers are magnified to a great extent, your power usage is reduced to almost 0 for nearly all your spells and you can do wondrous and amazing things. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.

Illusory Branch

10 Points.

Opening this branch of Illusion grants the following abilities.

Doppelganger: You can easily create little clones of yourself. They look as real as you do, but are only simple bits of light. You are not limited to creating clones of yourself, and, provided it is only one object or person, you can use this ability on nearly anything.

Illusory Branch Abilities

Knowing Your Craft: You might not ever become completely immune to illusions, but you have a much better chance of knowing an illusion when you see one. As you grow in power you might even be able to gain an immunity, but with this power you can either sense when something is an illusion or can sort of see that it is. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Blind: You’re very good at bringing light, and this allows you to take it away from small areas, blinding your foes. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Blast of Thunder: A rolling thunder explodes through your enemies, deafening and stunning them. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points.

Brilliant Disguise: You can’t change or shape flesh, but you can certainly make a very convincing illusion on someone. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 20 points.

Solar Flare: An explosion of dazzling light stuns, burns and blinds your enemies. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 15 points.

Hidden Doors: You are very adept at hiding things, including your allies, campsites, and objects. The illusions are subtle, small, and hard to identify, even with magic identifying spells. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Mastery of Sound: You can cast spells from any school of magic silently. You can make the sound of a pin drop as loud as a cannon blast. You can even make yourself entirely silent, making no noise at all as you move. As you gain more power and control you will be able to silence groups of people. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 20 points.

Invisibility: You simply make yourself completely invisible. Using your mastery of sound, you can make yourself silent as well and gain complete stealth. At Mastery Rank 4, you can cast this on large groups of people. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 25 points.

Manyjaws: Several sets of phantasmal shark jaws fly out at an enemy and begins to tear them to shreds. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Phantasmal Assailants: You create phantasmal images of nightmare creatures in your enemy’s mind, visible only as shadowy shapes to you and unseen by all others. Your foe falls back as he is seemingly devoured by the nightmares that envelope him. At Mastery Rank 5, the creatures are real enough to do actual damage. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 25 points.

Spectral Weapon: It takes a bit of doing, but you can manage to make a small weapon, such as a one-handed weapon or a dagger, that can do damage for a short time. It will be as effective as your mastery rank will allow. The bonus to this weapon is that no one can see it but you. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 30 points. 

Mirror Image: You can now summon several images of yourself. They can fight using your abilities and your strategies. They last only a short time before fading away. You can summon up to Charisma modifier of them at one time. Requires Mastery Rank 4 and 35 points.

Touch of Reality: Delving deeper into your ability, you find that you can now instill a bit of actual memory into an illusion. This means that illusions will be able to perform small tasks and act somewhat real for a short time. You can enhance this by having actual knowledge of the illusion – it would be very easy to make a doppelganger of yourself that can have small conversations and react as you would – or you can pull more heavily on the magics and hope for the best. Your chances of success are greater as you gain more power. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 35 points.

Solid Light: Your illusions now feel real. They can be moved and manipulated and even fight. They have no actual power meaning that if you create an illusion of a dragon, it won’t have a breath weapon. They do not last long on their own and require a great deal of energy to create. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.

Charm Branch

10 points.

Opening this branch of Illusion grants the following abilities.

Change Your Mind: You can now, very mildly, affect people’s emotions and mind. If someone is attacking you, have a chance of calming them enough that you could perhaps talk instead of battle. You could enrage an ally so that they frenzy and battle with greater strength and ability. You can instill fear in enemies and make them back down or even flee. Maybe your enemy looks tired, and you simply convince them they need to sleep. You could, perhaps, even convince an enemy to fight for you.

Charm Branch Abilites

Solipsism: You convince an enemy that they are all alone, and the only thing that exists in the world. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Command: You shout a single order to your foe, and they are very inclined to obey. You cannot get them to do much – run, stay, drop their weapon, etc. – and the effect won’t last long. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 10 points.

Steel Mind: Knowing what’s out there, you are much less susceptible to charm effects. This, combined with knowing your craft makes you nearly immune to charm and illusion effects, though not entirely. Your mind is much stronger than others and you gain a +1 to Charisma. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 15 points. 

Fear Monger: You are a master of causing fear in your foes. You can bring it easily with an illusion or a simple spell that alters their state of mind. You can even, to an extent, choose what the target will choose to do when they’re feared. Requires Mastery Rank 1 and 20 points.

Dreadful Stare: Building on your fear abilities, you simply stare at a foe, with a wicked grin, and their mind is assaulted with fear and terrible psychic force, stunning and hurting them. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 10 points.

Calming Influence: A small area reduces almost all emotions to nothing, so attacking enemies that run in suddenly find they can’t remember why they were so keen to hurt you in the first place. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 15 points.

Maddening Rage: A subtle whisper on the wind sends your enemies into a blind rage. They swing wildly around them, unable to tell friend from foe. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 15 points.

Battle Master: Ability and confidence are all things that people believe they have. You help them to believe even more in their own abilities. This aids warriors by ridding them of fear and letting them hit harder, archers hit with more accuracy, even mages have better concentration and find their spells with greater ease. The effects don’t last long, but they are always helpful. Requires Mastery Rank 2 and 35 points.

Turncoat: You make a foe believe they are fighting for your side. At Mastery Rank 5, you can affect large groups of people, instead of only one. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Confused Senses: You fool your enemy’s mind, making it believe there is fire around, or changing the shape of the landscape, or any other number of things that confuses the creature and makes them unable to do anything but try and sort out what the hell is going on. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 20 points.

Commanding Presence: You have a way about you that makes people want to listen to you, enemies and allies alike. You could shout out a single command to a large group of people, and have it likely that they will listen to you. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 30 points.

Thrall: You can now control something or someone. The thrall lasts as long as you continue to concentrate after you successfully dominate the creature. Sometimes thralls will fight for control, others will be completely docile. While this can be dangerous, it can also be incredibly useful. Requires Mastery Rank 3 and 40 points.

Speak Friend: Your charm is incredible, and with a bit of concentration and magic, you could almost convince your worst enemy that you are a great friend. You simply put out a vibe of friendship. Requires Mastery Rank 4 and 40 points.

Manipulator: You excel in changing people’s emotional states. You can take someone who is slightly annoyed and turn them into a raging ball of fury, or take a berserking warrior and make him as mild as a kitten. Emotions are your mainstay and you don’t always even need magic to do it. You gain a +2 to Charisma. Requires Mastery Rank 5 and 50 points.