D&D 1E How do you play an illusionist?

I like the idea of 1st Ed illusionists. Never got to play a high level one.

One tip would be not to tell people you are an illusionist if possible.

If the stats are there (int and dex 17+), then dual-classing assassin then illusionist is one way to go “deep cover” and avoid the unpleasantness of fighting to become (and maintain) the highest assassin levels. If you have a very long-term game then 13 assassin is a good break point - master thief level skills, quintuple backstab, and beating that with 14 illusionist is significant as you attain the highest level of illusionist spells.

For non-evil characters, going thief first also works.

The minimum 15 int and small class spell list by level pre-UA meant you got the ability to learn most/all of the illusionist spells you could come across. Not as much if UA spells are on the menu, mind.

As for moving into later editions, I believe that the beguiller was the attempt to do this in 3.5.

But yes, the DM and the player need to have a “session zero” chat about illusions and what they could and could not do. And that level of agreement should cut both ways for npc and pc illusionists.

Another evil option: the illusionist lich. Good luck finding that phylactery!

Particle_Man said:

Another evil option: the illusionist lich. Good luck finding that phylactery!

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Is it the cake? Nooooo- the CAKE is a LIE!

Their main issue was lack of versatility compared to the magic-user, but within their niche they had some quite powerful spells. I think they got a bad rep b/c players always wanted the freeform illusions to be win buttons, and the DM's kneejerk reaction was to nerf them into the ground. There's a middle ground that makes them perfectly playable. However, even if Phantasmal Force and it's higher level variants were made unusably bad, the rest of their spells (especially post-UA) made for a perfectly acceptable class.

Dannyalcatraz said:

-11, as I recall. But I haven’t looked in literal decades.

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It was a fun bit of design. I remember being shocked at her low hit points but sky-high survivability otherwise. I think that was the first time 1E broke with the "giant sack of hit points" method of making a boss monster.

Oof, that xp value for permanently killing her. Sounds super high, right?. So, Queen of the Demonweb Pits is a level 10-14 adventure (average party 12 according to the adventure, with at least one Thief and two Clerics, and "well-balanced" with regards to Fighters and Magic-Users.*)

Consulting my 1e PHB, that means that a level 12 Thief, who is the only survivor of a successful godslaying, only gets enough xp to go up about 0.56 of a level (level 12-13 requiring 220,000 xp). Sure, the treasure (Q x5, R, X x3) probably covers the rest, but yikes. Kill a God permanently, don't even gain a level of experience! At level 12!

*Amusingly, there's a note that each character should have "magic items appropriate to the level of experience"- which to my knowledge, no metric for this actually exists beyond possibly pages 101-102 of the Fiend Folio, which came out a year after Q1).

There's a phenomenal article by Paul Kerr called "Forced Phantasmals" on page 110-149 of the Footprints #25 magazine (June 2021) hosted at Dragonsfoot (pdf link). It starts specifically looking at phantasmal force, but it transitions into a very deep dive into illusions more generally as they've been interpreted in various sources throughout D&D's history. It's a 39-page article so it's not a super fast read.

He points out the problematic "mini-game" of disbelieving illusions existing in an ambiguous rules space, certain rulings that have nerfed the power of illusions. etc.

His conclusion describes five approaches to illusions that GMs can use:

KISS (closer to 0D&D) – limits the gotchas and power organically in the game logic, and the disbelief mini-game is removed and replaced with saves

Simple Plus (Simplified AD&D) – adds in a little of the disbelief mini-game with certain illusion spells marked "Save: special" allow a disbelieve save if the player requests one

Full Meta (Traditional AD&D) – emphasizes the GM presenting illusions as puzzles with little hints that players can discover, which then gives them the prompting to request a disbelief save

Frankly Speaking (Official mid-AD&D rulings) – Frank Mentzer approaches illusions as a blend of purely mental and visual/auditory holograms. Similar to the Simple Plus disbelieve save, but Mentzer denies, delays, or modifies saves based on personal judgment...and sometimes requires the illusion to first be detected before it can be disbelieved.

It’s All in Your Head (Late AD&D, Closer to 2e) – The late 1e / 1.5e interpretation seems to be that illusions are purely mental so that an illusion has no actual visual/auditory reality independent of the viewer's mind. Eventually this becomes 2e's illusions/phantasms that deal actual damage.

James Gasik said:

Woah, they can't use the Wand of Magic Missile? Fighters can use that!*

*I mean, it literally says (Any) in the DMG!

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Well, technically, they could.


Source: Peter Aronson, in: The Wild Hunt 19 (1977)

For the purpose of which we shall magnanimously assume that "(ALL)" stands for "(any)".

All of which is a good thing, for otherwise I'd have to retroactively kill off the Illusionist I played, um..., some time ago.

As a DM I run things closer to the Frank end of the spectrum.

Illusions are a unique form of magic that blends aspects of conjuration, enchantment, and pure sensory experience. Illusionists have a connection to sources of conjurable energy/substance that aren't fully understood. Chromatic orb, color spray, and prismatic X appear to come from one souce, while the "shadow" spells come from another.

Almost all illusions have a real sensory component that anyone can detect--with a couple of exceptions called out as being purely mental. Therefore they don't disappear if you "save" but they become fainter.

An illusory wall or monster is still opaque but more obviously unreal because the observer is no longer filling in fine details. An illusory light source radiates real light but faint.

However, if you accept the illusion, either because you have no particular reason to doubt it or you fail your save, then it affects you mentally as if it were real. In 5e lingo I would call this psychic damage. But I don't go so far as saying: "if you think you fall into an illusory 100' pit, you die". There will be a moment of terror but low-level illusions aren't capable of reproducing the full, sustained sensory experience--and very few illusions can stimulate senses like kinesthetics and body awareness. So at most the psychic damage from the phantasmal X sequence is somewhat less than a damaging MU spell of the same level. The advantage of illusions is their flexibility, and their ability to deter/confuse, not their direct damage potential.

ilgatto said:

Well, technically, they could.

View attachment 369691
Source: Peter Aronson, in: The Wild Hunt 19 (1977)

For the purpose of which we shall magnanimously assume that "(ALL)" stands for "(any)".

All of which is a good thing, for otherwise I'd have to retroactively kill off the Illusionist I played, um..., some time ago.

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Well, there's a small issue with that.

Illusionist by Peter Aronson, Strategic review v.1 #4 (Winter 1975)-
Items that Illusionists can use:
Illusionists Scrolls (or those with Magic-User Spells otherwise employable by this class)
Crystal Balls (not with ESP or Clairaudience)
Fear Wand
Paralyzation Wand
Illusion Wand
Magic Detection Wand


Illusionist Additions (Dragon # 1, June 1976) by Peter Aronson-
No magic item additions.


A New Look by Illusionists by Rafael Ovalle, (Dragon #12 February 1978)
This is the last TSR look before the PHB.
Specifically the illusionist can use Rods of Rulership, Cancellation and Beguilement; all Wands of Detection; Wands of Illusion, Fear, Polymorph and Negation; Staffs of Command and Striking; Crystal Balls, Talismans of the Sphere and the Wizard’s Robe for hypnosis and polymorph. Illusionists cannot use any other magic-user items, even the cursed ones.


Player's Handbook-
The power of illusionists due to their spells is offset, however, by the limitations placed upon the magic items they can use. The magical items usable by illusionist class characters are enumerated below:

-all potions not restricted to fighters only
-illusionist scrolls and magic-user scrolls which contain spells usable by illusionists
-all rings
-rod of cancellation, staff of striking, and wands of enemy detection, fear, illusion, magic detection, metal & mineral detection, secret door & trap detection, wonder
-miscellaneous magic items usable by every class of characters, crystal balls (but not with any added powers), all robes (excluding robe of the arch-magi), and books and similar written works readable by magic-users
-artifacts which are not proscribed items with respect to illusionists (such as armor, swords, axes, etc.)
-magic daggers

PHB p. 26


The items are enumerated. The Illusionist is restricted to the rods, staffs, and wands that are listed.

Now, I have no issue with this being houseruled; it is a bizarre rule! But it is the text of the rule.


ETA- I realized after I posted this that it might appear unduly negative. While I think that the analysis is correct, I also would like to thank @ilgatto as I was not previously aware of the Wild Hunt article.


Second edit- I apologize for not being more explicit, since I had already raised this before. The reason we know that the PHB is a specific restriction (and does not allow the wand of magic missiles) is two-fold. First, it states that it is a specific enumeration, and is followed by a list.

Next, the list includes
(1) rod of cancellation (ANY)
(2) wands of enemy detection (ANY);
(3) magic detection (ANY)
(4) metal & mineral detection (ANY)
(5) secret door & trap detection (ANY)
and (6) wonder (ANY).

Which means that it was deliberately listing the wands, including the "useable by all classes" wands, that the illusionist could use. Again, its a bizarre and stupid rule, and just another example of Gygax taking the nerf bat to a class that didn't need nerfing.


GYGAX!!!!!!!!!