Imachination

 

"No, don't you get it? If you die in Canada, you die in REAL LIFE!"

 

 

The marvelous art of illusion is a dying tradition these days. In the past it is said that there were practicioners of the art with unsurpassed cleverness and guile, while now it seems relegated to the most obvious and tired uses possible. It seems the world has outgrown the use of illusion and the creativity it requires; at the very least, the kind of creativity and outside-the-box thinking it requires are punished and repressed in traditional colleges of magic. However, there exist those who remember some of the old tricks and knacks clever magicians invented to fool the unwary. The discipline of imachination is in many ways a modernization of the oldest and (many say) outdated school of magic. But then again, those with surpassing disdain for the marvelous art are often those most at its mercy, for they believe only what their eyes and ears tell them. And as any student of imachination could tell you, your eyes and ears lie to you all the time...

Imachination often involves using material which naturally distorts sensory information to more easily mold an illusion. Prisms to refract light, exotic perfumes and spices, and musical instruments are all common aids to imachination. Any such equipment counts as a masterwork item, and provides a +2 circumstance bonus on the Bluff check made to prepare an imachinary principle. The Full Moon Cello is a legendary instrument which is said to weave colours and sounds together in mysterious ways when played.

Key Skill: Bluff


IMCH 101: Intro to Imachination
Grade: Baccalaureate
Prerequisites: None
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle causes a field of space to give off sensory elements that are not actually there. As part of this principle, you make a Bluff check and target an immobile point in space or an object or creature which will serve as the centre of the effect. This is known as the spatial reference. The reference point gives off a bubble-shaped field of radius 5ft. which has an illusory component to it.

Illusions created with this principle work differently than normal illusions (although please bear in mind that for the rest of this discipline whenever I mention 'illusion' I'm talking about the illusions generated by these principles). They do not offer saving throws to disbelieve them just by interacting with them. Instead, you are allowed a sensory check whenever something about the illusion is unbelievable for some reason. The sensory check is a skill check against a DC of the Bluff check made when this principle was first prepared. The particular skill to use is specified in the sensory output list.

If the sensory check is prompted by an illusion which seems to be missing a sensory component you would normally expect it to have, such as a painting that you can see but not feel, this is called a sensory mismatch. You can make (or the DM will make for you) a skill check against every sensory component present in the illusion, with a +5 bonus on the check for every component that is missing. You gain a +10 bonus on the check for every component which is actually mismatched, which means you are receiving contradictory information (for example, a beverage that tastes like apple juice but smells like rhino urine). You can only make one skill check per day per sensory component present in the illusion.

If the sensory check is prompted by an impossible scenario that you sense, such as a solid wall which a thrown rock goes through, this is called a fundamental disconnect. You can immediately make (or the DM will make for you) a skill check against the unbelievable sensory output with a +20 bonus. You can make as many kinds of checks against the same illusion as you like, but each must have a different triggering event.

Once an illusion is disbelieved, it's sort of like one of those optical illusion 3D puzzles from the 90's. Once you know the trick to it, it's like a switch flips in your head and you can see through it at will. As a free action someone who knows the truth of the illusion can choose to believe or disbelieve the illusion, whichever is more convenient to them at the time. When you disbelieve an illusion, you can still sense a harmless translucent overlay (or echo, or faint whiff...) of it, allowing you to sense what it is and what it's doing.

Illusions can not actually harm people. If for any reason they seem to hurt people or cause a condition that hurts them, or makes them think they're being hurt, they only take nonlethal damage, and then only until they disbelieve the illusion, at which point they laugh it off. That being said, it's entirely possible for an illusion to lead someone to actually hurt themselves, such as an illusionary covering over a pit of lava.

Illusions by default only have one sensory output, but by preparing this principle multiple times you can add extra senses. However, that can end up taking a while for big bubble effects, since you have to prepare it the same number of times for the appropriate size bubble for each sense. So to make things simpler, for every extra sense you want to tack on inside the field, add +30 minutes to each preparation of this principle. You use the same Bluff check for every sensory output in an illusion.

Any illusion created has a sense output, a form, and a function. You choose all three of these components when you first prepare this principle. This principle allows you to make illusions with the following form:

• Additive: An additive form illusion generates a sensory output on top of the sensory output normally coming from the bubble. This could be adding a smell that wasn't there previously, making it feel like there is a wall in the field, or anything else you can imagine. However, it does not remove any sensory component that already existed in the field. So while you could create the image of a hippo, you can't remove the image of the emu that is actually in the space (although you could place the image of the hippo overtop of the emu if you like).

This principle also allows you to make illusions with the following function:

• Static: A static function illusion creates an unmoving, unchanging sensory output. It doesn't change, either with response to stimuli or to your commands after being constructed. They can be mobile if fixed to a spatial reference that is moving, but they do not move themselves. For example, a visual illusion of a hippo fixed to an arrow being loosed would seem like an unmoving and nonresponsive hippopotamus was being shot through the air.

Lastly, when you prepare this principle, you must select one of the following senses to target:

• Auditory: An auditory illusion targets the sense of hearing. It's opposed by a Listen check. Auditory illusions can replicate any kind of sound you can imagine, which seems to be emanating from any point inside the field that you like. Trying to replicate someone's voice or a specific sound requires some kind of check like normal, or something like the mimicry ability (see the kenku racial features for more details). Noises can be pretty damn loud, but not loud enough to cause actual hearing impairment, deafness, headaches, sonic damage, or to shatter glass or crystal. Static examples of auditory illusions could be a looped conversation or message, a repeating noise, and so on. An example of a real-life auditory illusion is the condition of tinnitus.

• Gustatory: A gustatory illusion targets the sense of taste. It's opposed by a Survival check. Gustatory illusions can create any combination of salty, sour, bitter, savoury, or sweet taste sensations in a food which is within the field. This kind of illusion is usually best used when fixed on the food itself as a reference point, since it's pretty useless if the food leaves the area of effect. If you try to replicate a particular taste you are not familiar with, anyone who is familiar with it gets an automatic chance for a fundamental disconnect when they taste it for the first time. An example of a real-life gustatory illusion is a hot pepper.

• Olfactory: An olfactory illusion targets the sense of smell. It's opposed by a Survival check. Anyone without the scent special ability is termed scent-dumb, and takes a -20 penalty on Survival checks against an olfactory illusion (seriously, the difference between a human and a dog smelling things is intense). An olfactory illusion works much the same as a gustatory illusion, except without the five particular components. In general your best bet is to specify particular odors that the area smells like, or mimic the smell of a particular person, creature, location, object, or so on. If you yourself don't have the scent special ability, it's assumed that you're not familiar with any scent you create, as described in the gustatory illusion section. An example of a real-life olfactory illusion is the condition of phantosmia.

• Tactile: A tactile illusion targets the sense of touch, and this is where stuff starts to get a little weird. It's opposed by a Survival check. A tactile illusion makes it feel like there's something in the field of the illusion that is not actually there. Anyone who believes the illusion, for all intents and purposes, treats the tactile component as if it were an actual object. However, it's important to note that this illusion is not actually there. You cannot walk across an illusionary bridge or up illusionary stairs, because it will not actually support weight. But someone who believes that it is real will actually feel like the stairs or the bridge is there right up until they actually try to put their weight on it. For example, someone who believes in an illusionary wall can push against it, lean on it, feel detail in it, all without even generating a disbelief check of any kind, because their own muscles and nerves are lying to them about what's actually there. Their body is actually supporting itself when they lean on the illusion. It's only if they try to jump through the wall, throw a rock through, or anything else that can't be cheated by misfiring neurons, that they will get a chance to disbelieve it. If you don't see the distinction right away, that's okay. This kind of illusion is really strange in a lot of ways, but also incredibly potent, since the victim's own body does the work of convincing them for you. An example of a real-life tactile illusions is the cutaneous saltation effect.

• Visual: A visual illusion targets the sense of sight. It's opposed by a Spot check. Visual illusions are some of the most common and well-known illusions, and for the most part it's the same here. You generate the image of something that doesn't actually exist. If you try to replicate something instead of just making it up, you'll probably have to make some kind of additional Bluff or Forgery or Knowledge or Disguise check like normal in order to show you know your stuff. I wish I could be more specific, but visual illusions are probably the most versatile overall, and there are a million different things you could do with them. In general, if you have to make a secondary skill check for authenticity, anyone with experience with the thing being illusioneered should be able to make an opposing skill check for a one-time chance at a fundamental disconnect. An example of a real-life visual illusion is a rainbow.

Any further principles you learn which augment these three lists can be mixed together when making illusions.

If you try to tether an illusion to an unwilling target, they are allowed a Will saving throw to resist it at the end of the preparation. The Will DC is 10 + 5 for every IMCH principle you know.


IMCH 267: Unbound Expectations
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: IMCH 101, Bluff 8 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like IMCH 101, except that it provides you with two additional forms for your illusions:

• Ablative: An ablative form illusion removes a sensory output which already exists in the field of effect. Depending on the sense used, this could be either removing everything of that sensory output (such as every smell in the area) or particular parts or components of that sensory output (such as removing the taste of almonds from a cup of tea). Static ablative illusions can be a little tricky, and a lot of the time end of being just fields where things become invisible or silenced or whatever when they go inside of them. That being said, more subtle erasures are usually more effective.

• Differential: A differential form illusion alters a sensory output that already exists in the field of the effect. These are some of the most advanced illusions, because they can actually cause subtle variations in the sense, not just blunt extra sensations or removed sensations. For example, a differential gustative illusion could cause all tea in the area to taste spicier than normal, or for someone to seem somewhat taller than they actually are. If you're trying to work out when something is additive, ablative, or differential, just remember that differential illusions usually work with what's there and modify it, rather than just inventing or deleting things whole-cloth.

IMCH 295: Imperfect Images [Specialist]
Grade: Magisterial
Prerequisites: IMCH 101, Bluff 8 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like IMCH 101, except that it provides you with additional functions for your illusions:

• Adaptive: An adaptive function illusion is much like a static illusion, except that it adapts to its surroundings in the same way as something real that it is based on. For example, this can create the image of grass which bends when someone steps on it, or blows in the wind, or which turns brown in the autumn. This doesn't provide any kind of intelligence or interactivity to the illusion, just an added layer of realness.

• Programmed: A programmed function illusion can be either static or adaptive in nature, but it also has explicit programming built into it as well as any number of triggers for the behaviour. For example, this can generate auditory illusions which interact with people speaking to it, illusionary people who can cook an illusionary meal at the request of a real person, and so on. This is entirely a set of triggers and responses which are built into the illusion when you first construct it.

• Controlled: A controlled function illusion is neither static nor adaptive, but instead changes sensory outputs based on the direction of someone who is either standing at the centre of the effect or who is holding an object that the spatial reference is tied to (or who is themselves the spatial reference). At will, as a free action, the controller can modify the sensory output of the illusion. They cannot change the actual sense targetted or the form of the illusion, and they cannot even change the fundamental nature of it (although this is a murky area at best rules-wise, again because of the freeform nature of illusions). In general, controlling an illusion allows someone to control its responses personally, allowing them to decide how the illusion responds to the environment and outside stimuli.

IMCH 334: Nonsensical Senses
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any two IMCH principles, Bluff 15 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like IMCH 101, except that it provides you with obscure new sensory outputs for your illusions:

• Mental: A mental illusion targets the sense of mindsight. It's opposed by a Concentration check. Anyone without the mindsight special ability doesn't even recognise that this sensory component is present, and thus doesn't interact with it in any way. A mental illusion allows you to generate the sensation that there are living intelligent people present in the field of the illusion. These false intelligent creatures can be shaped to seem to be whatever race, class, or alignment you like. They also seem to be present for any effect that would detect their thoughts, which you set when you first invent them.

• Thermal: A thermal illusion targets the sense of thermoreception. It's opposed by a Survival check. Thermal illusions can make something feel hot, cold, tepid, or anything in between. This includes anything like objects, creatures in the field, the air itself, or really whatever you can imagine. It doesn't actually change the temperature, but it can make people think that something is warmer or colder than it actually is.

• Vestibular: A vestibular illusion targets the sense of equilibrioception. It's opposed by a Balance check. The stability special ability grants its bonus to skill checks to detect the false nature of a vestibular illusion. Vestibular illusions interact with the sensations of ascension or descension, like in an elevator. Alternatively, they can make people in the field feel like they are turning, accelerating, or moving in any direction the illusion dictates. Unlike many sensory outputs, vestibular illusions only exist in the minds of people who are actually in the field of effect. Something like a visual illusion can only create visual constructs that are in the field, but those constructs can be seen from far away. A vestibular illusion only exists in the minds of people who are actually inside of the illusion bubble.

• Vibratory: A vibratory illusion targets the sense of tremorsense. It's opposed by a Survival check. Anyone without the tremorsense special ability doesn't even recognise that this sensory component is present, and thus doesn't interact with it in any way. A vibratory illusion can make it seem like any kind of false sensory output you like which would normally be detectable to tremorsense is in fact in the field of the illusion. Vibratory illusions typically must be of something in contact with the ground or a nearby object in order to send the illusionary vibrations through the medium.

IMCH 388: Glamourous Gramarie [Specialist]
Grade: Doctorate
Prerequisites: Any three IMCH principles, Bluff 15 ranks
Target: Spatial reference
Preparation Time: 1 hour

This principle works like IMCH 101, except that it creates illusions that are so realistic that people can convince themselves that they're actually being hurt. As they say, lit on imaginary fire is still lit on fire. Illusions you create can now actually bestow the following conditions until the illusionary nature of them is realised: ability damaged, ability drained, blinded, blown away, checked, confused, cowering, dazed, dazzled, deafened, energy drained, entangled, exhausted, fascinated, fatigued, frightened, knocked down, nauseated, panicked, paralyzed, petrified (yes, really, although they don't actually turn to stone; they just think they did), shaken, sickened, staggered, and stunned. For all intents and purposes they will act as if they actually had these conditions until they are no longer sensing the illusion or they realise its illusionary nature. Damage these conditions or your illusions in general create is now real damage, as the victim's body makes it real for them.

One of the stranger things about this principle is that, quite literally, it's all in your head. So while an illusion really can make you think you're dying of lead poisoning, that only works if you know that lead is poisonous in the first place. In this instance, it's very much a case of what you do know can hurt you. Illusions make you sense something that isn't actually there, but unless you know what the shape of the illusion is, you can't really be expected to know that it can hurt you. It's not reasonable at all to assume that everybody in the game setting is intimately familiar with the capabilities of every monster and can identify them by sight, any more than they should be expected to know toxic chemicals from their smell.

In general, whenever this becomes an issue (that is, whenever the effects of an illusion depend on the subject knowing a piece of trivia), the DM should decide how obscure the knowledge is based on an appropriate Knowledge skill. Recall that really obvious facts typically have a Knowledge DC of 10, basic questions have a DC of 15, and really tough questions have a DC of 20-30. To determine if the subject knows the fact necessary to complete the illusion, have them take 10 on the appropriate Knowledge skill (even untrained) as a sort of 'common sense' check. This is to determine their off-the-cuff knowledge about the subject, and whether they are familiar enough with it to be able to prey on their expectations. Which is, of course, the essence of illusion.