This schtick deals with the basic things we perceive, light and sounds. The illusions created with this schtick are actual light and sound projections, similar to holograms. They also work upon the suggestibility of targets, and can have an actual physical effect on creatures who believe them to be the real thing.
Illusions are real, but not solid. While in many ways similar to the effects of Creation and Polymorphism, illusory creations lack all substance. Any hard impact will dispel a freestanding illusion. They can affect living creatures significantly if enhanced by the power of belief, but their power over inanimate objects is very limited.
The difficulty of most illusions is equal to the Body or Mind attribute of whatever you are trying to imitate. So, creating an illusion of a large man (Body 9) has a difficulty of 9, creating an illusion of an average car has a difficulty of 12, or so and so on. Objects that derive a large part of their Toughness from their construction materials, like a tank, use a difficulty based solely on mass. See Body Benchmarks for guidelines.
Mind is used as an indicator of complexity and beauty of the illusion, making more complex illusions more difficult to create. Making an image of a beautiful person has a difficulty around 7, while a super-model, famous actor, or great work of art has a difficulty around 10.
For more abstract images, a table is provided.
| O | Simple palm sized object, soft, soft monotone sound. telephone buzz. |
|---|---|
| 3 | Size of a small dog and no more complex. Simple but intelligible speech. raspy voice, pistol shot, small animal, basic gear |
| 6 | Human sized object or something of high complexity. person, basic artwork, normal speech, fancy or large gear |
| 9 | Large or charismatic people, complex images and sounds. Sound of a debate, an inspiring speech, a newspaper complete with articles, simple artwork, a door, a motorcycle |
| 12 | Car, small hut, extremely complex objects such as blueprints. Very complex or extremely strong sound. Monsters, heroic people, ordinary vehicles, sound of plane takeoff, complex artworks |
| +3 | A set of 10 items (can be applied again for 100, 1000 and so on) |
You often want to create a set of illusions, such as a square full of people. This can be done as a multi-target action, but because repeating an illusion is so much simpler, there is a special modifier that facilitates things.
If you suffer backlash, the illusion manifests, but is hugely unrealistic, so that anyone nearby realizes it is fake, and in addition get a +10 bonus to resist any of your illusions for the rest of the fight.
Illusion Effects
Displacement
By displacing location, creating illusory images of yourself or other simple trickery, you can defend using your Sorcery as Dodge, either actively or passively. You get a +5 Dodge bonus on any Active Defense. You can use Displacement as an active defense for others, but this is the usual 3-shot action. However, you can invoke this effect over someone else ahead of time. They can then use your Sorcery as their passive Dodge for the rest of the fight.
Fata Morgana
The most powerful form of illusion, the Fata Morgana is a complete takeover of the target's senses. Everything he perceives is controlled by you, effectively he is in a dream world of your making. This is more of a plot device than a practical spell. You need a helpless target, or one knocked out using the Spectral Blast or Mind Blast.
If you want complete control of the target's world, you have to concentrate, but you can then cause him to act upon the false images, making him strike the wrong people and so on. He never has an effective Action Value for any skill higher than your Sorcery when striking out in this manner.
Invisibility
You can make someone invisible by bending light and muting sound. He can sneak using your Sorcery Action Value, and need not move under cover to do so. You can maintain continuous actions while doing this, but if you perform new actions, the effect ends. Multiple targets can be affected by invisibility with the normal penalties.
Mirage
This is the basic effect of illusion, an image and a set of sounds designed to fool the senses, or simply to create an artistic effect.
The effects last for a number of Sequences equal to the Outcome of the Sorcery check. This can be increased to minutes if the mirage remains absolutely still for the whole duration or at a cost of one Magic point. Both factors increases the duration to hours.
All mirages work in a way similar to Deceit, trying to trick targets into believing in them. Mirages thus use the normal rules for Interaction Stunts. Calculate this Outcome versus the target's Deceit, Sorcery or Perception.
The GM is advised to modify the effectiveness of mirages prodigiously based on the situation, especially if the sorcerer tries to get away with using an easy, "cheap" mirage.
Controlling a mirage as it goes through complex antics requires new actions spent directing the mirage.
Mask
Instead of creating an illusion out of thin air, you can change the appearance of something that is already there. The effect is similar to a Mirage, but it can be even more confusing; making a friend appear as a foe. Most of these effects are about as confusing as a Mirage, while others can be used to negate invisibility, darkness, blinding light, blurred form and other special defenses. A simple hit against the target's Dodge will do the trick.
Move Image
Swapping the images of two people can cause endless confusion. You can also separate a persons image from his physical self, making him appear to be in another place; this is effectively a combination of Invisibility and Mirage, but does not suffer any multi-stunt penalties.
Power of Belief
At the cost of a single Magic point, you can transfer control of an illusion to the collective subconscious of those present. This means you no longer have to concentrate or perform continuous actions to control the illusion, and it will behave as everybody present and believing in it expects it to act. Thus, an illusion of a guard will continue his duties, but could be relived by other guards or even play a simple game of dice with them. The illusion continues to use your skill, but its effective skill rating can never be higher than the number of people who are currently sensing and believing in it. Thus, it is best if you have a couple of bystanders or a score of mooks to give power to your creations.
Silence
You can use a Mirage to mask existing sounds. This is as hard as creating those sounds would have been using Mirage. Silencing speakers uses their Mind as the difficulty, though they can still use Dodge to try and avoid the effect. You can set a higher difficulty in advance, in order to prepare for expected loud sounds.