Illusion

One of the most fundamental magics is the power to deceive others into believing what the magician wants. The Path of Illusion confounds the senses, making its targets perceive things that aren’t there or altering their perception of what is there. Most people trust their senses. “Seeing is believing,” but when an illusionist is nearby, this old adage can kill you.

The Path of Illusion is much less direct in most of its applications than some of the other Paths. Illusionists tend to be clever manipulators, at the least in order to choose just the right false vision for whatever task must be completed. This often requires strange patterns of thought and lateral thinking, leading illusionists to become eccentric over time.

When targeted with the Path of Illusion, avoiding the deception is always a possibility. A Perception + Alertness roll at difficulty (4 + Realism Aspect) for spells, and difficulty (4 + Rank) for rituals reveals the slight imperfections in the illusion. This requires one success for each sense covered by the illusion, though in cases where an essential sense, as determined by the Storyteller, is left out, the number of successes required may decrease. Anyone who makes this roll can tell that what they are perceiving isn’t real, though they perceive both it and the truth. If they alert others to this fact, they can reroll once.

System

Modifiers: –1 to –3 difficulty if using a base similar to the goal (making a table appear differently is easier than making a table appear from nothing)

Aspects: Duration, Number of Targets, and the following:

Senses

•

Affects one sense

••

Affects two senses

•••

Affects three senses

••••

Affects four senses

••••• Full sensory range

Realism

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Completely immobile and fixed; if visual, flat

••

Changes with perspective so the viewer moving doesn’t disrupt it immediately

•••

Illusions can have moving parts, but only large ones

••••

Smaller motions and variations are possible, but there are still subtle tells

••••• Fully immersive, this level completely fools all targeted senses

Price of Failure: Naive magicians think botching an illusion must be no big deal. The spell did nothing real, so nothing real should happen when it goes awry.

35 Chapter One: Hedge Magic

On the contrary, the caster’s perceptions are altered. Worse, most of the alterations are subtle and easily missed. For larger spells, though, there will eventually be a substantial change, likely when most dangerous for the caster to be caught unaware.

36 Sorcerer

Sample Rituals

Cruel Whispers (••)

Illusionists must often be masters of psychological warfare. They can’t create anything truly real, so they play on the fears and anxieties of their targets to control