Morrigan:

Polymorph doesn't need to take level adjustment into account because the spell's duration is not permanent.

I've played Living Greyhawk so I understand the RPGA's time constraints. I can accept the RPGA have had to streamline gameplay but dropping polymorph only encourages the Blast Radius Magi to pick damage-dealing spells. DMs should encourage players to experiment with spells not just relying on ye olde fireball.

 

Quite true.  When was the last time you saw a truly good portrayal of a true illusionist wizard?  Or a sorcerer that relys on nothing but charm and compulsion spells?  I've seen the sort before, and though they are few and far between, some of the most memorable personas are those that can wade through throngs of enemies at will, without having to be aggresive.

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"Apparently getting your ass kicked is now part of a complete breakfast." - Roy Greenhilt, Order Of The Stick


- An Answerer of questions, and Questioner of answers.

I played a great illusionist, he was a good portrayal I think; mainly because the rest of the party never actually saw him, he constantly wrapped himself and his environment with illusions. I think I mentioned him before... his illusions turned on him when he went mad, lost touch with reality...

One of the most useful defense spells is an illusion - mirror image. There is nothing more annoying (or satisfying if its your spell) that seeing a critical hit pop an image.

The difficulty with running an enchanter or illusionist is the number of creatures who are immune to your spell effects. It can be very frustrating, particularly if you are accustomed to laying waste with your magic. Its good strategy to prep a few summoning spells or carry a good crossbow for those encounters where your magic does work (rather than sulking or whining).

Enchantments (unless you are fighting elves) are very useful, low flashbang spells. The draw back is most are purely Will save resisted, which means you have to make an effort to get a high DC otherwise your foe does an impersonation of Watto 'mind tricks don't work on me'. Wisdom sapping poisons are very useful here to make your foes amenable, if you can use them stealthily.

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Nihil est ab omni partum beatum.
(Nothing is an unmixed blessing)

I like useing feeble mind for that. :D

Very useful for capturing prisoners. Another excellent 'you are my pet' spell is Dominate Person, if the game is high enough level for you to have access to it. I've used that spell as a DM, with the player's consent, to lure a PC to the Dark Side. You have to be careful if you are using against characters as their players can get a bit miffed at losing control of their PC. If they're willing to roleplay while dominated, so much the better. Keeping the spell secret can be a very rewarding challenge.

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Nihil est ab omni partum beatum.
(Nothing is an unmixed blessing)

Yeah, I had a Paladin character that put on a suit of armor, shield and sword that had a very powerful curse on it that used Dominate Person as well as a few other spells. The equipment was created by a then destroyed lich which made the person under its control devote their lives to protecting the ruler of the lich's tower, it was currently under the command of a budding necromancer (played by another character) who was surprised to find me swearing my life to him. This was another scheming game where I ended up as the schemers right hand man.

The armor warped the paladin and from that point forward he became a blackguard, in this world magic was very rare and very powerful so the class was modified to a pure melee build (no spells) but he still managed to come to the attention of a pit lord who was trying to get the necromancer to become one of his pawns. I ended up playing this blackguard who became the necromancer's general and was on his way to becoming a death knight, the necromancer's familiar, an imp sent by the pit lord, and the pit lord himself because the dm couldn't pull of cunningly evil as well as I could; I whispered madness in the character's ears like sweet honey.

 

 

FireSpark:

Morrigan:

Polymorph doesn't need to take level adjustment into account because the spell's duration is not permanent.

I've played Living Greyhawk so I understand the RPGA's time constraints. I can accept the RPGA have had to streamline gameplay but dropping polymorph only encourages the Blast Radius Magi to pick damage-dealing spells. DMs should encourage players to experiment with spells not just relying on ye olde fireball.

Quite true.  When was the last time you saw a truly good portrayal of a true illusionist wizard?  Or a sorcerer that relys on nothing but charm and compulsion spells?  I've seen the sort before, and though they are few and far between, some of the most memorable personas are those that can wade through throngs of enemies at will, without having to be aggresive.

One of the problems is that I have encountered with playing Illusionist characters is that some DM's can have differing opinions to the players as to how Figment type spells (Silent Image, Minor Image, Major Image, etc.) should work. One particular DM I had nerfed my character by allowing creatures automatic Will saves and saves every round against my character's Image spells, because he ruled that just seeing the Figment was a form of interaction. If you plan to play an Illusionist, first make sure that both you and your DM are clear and in agreement about how you plan to use your illusions and how they work. It can save a lot of grief.

Other than that particular DM, I have had a lot of fun playing Illusionist-type characters. One of my favourite character combo's is a Gnome Rogue/Illusionist/Arcane Trickster. They make excellent burglars.  

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'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' - Arthur C. Clarke.
'Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.' - Gregory Benford.

Dexam:

One of the problems is that I have encountered with playing Illusionist characters is that some DM's can have differing opinions to the players as to how Figment type spells (Silent Image, Minor Image, Major Image, etc.) should work. One particular DM I had nerfed my character by allowing creatures automatic Will saves and saves every round against my character's Image spells, because he ruled that just seeing the Figment was a form of interaction. If you plan to play an Illusionist, first make sure that both you and your DM are clear and in agreement about how you plan to use your illusions and how they work. It can save a lot of grief.

Other than that particular DM, I have had a lot of fun playing Illusionist-type characters. One of my favourite character combo's is a Gnome Rogue/Illusionist/Arcane Trickster. They make excellent burglars.  

In a situation like that, about the only thing you can do is make life miserable for the DM.  Such as making sure that anything they apply to their NPCs, they allow you to apply, or casting numerous spells that overlap (like numerous castings of fog cloud), or my personal favorite: Start asking for the names of every random NPC you talk to, every inn and tavern you go into, and try your best to capture at least one enemy per encounter to interrogate to the fullest extent.  When your DM throws his hands into the air after being asked for a name to go with "random-halfling-NPC # 463", and asks why, then you are finally in a position to request he re-evaluate his butchering of the D&D rulebook.

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"Apparently getting your ass kicked is now part of a complete breakfast." - Roy Greenhilt, Order Of The Stick


- An Answerer of questions, and Questioner of answers.

It is no longer an issue as I no longer game with that DM, and have not done so for some years now. Being fairly new to tabletop roleplaying at the time, it took me a while to realise that he was actually quite a poor DM. A good storyteller, yes, but a poor DM. One of his favourite sayings was "Don't let the rules get in the way of a good story"; which basically meant that he would spontaneously change the way things worked (particularly magic) in order to achieve what he wanted for the game.

As for making the DM's life miserable - the method you describe above not only makes the DM's life miserable, but all the other players lives miserable too. Personally I wouldn't encourage such behaviour - if there's problems between you and your DM, there's no need to drag the other players into it. You'll just end up with them disliking you or your character.

To a lesser extent this happened with me and that DM - we'd often have disputes over rules interpretations, and the other players disliked how it interrupted the game (but it wasn't thier characters being nerfed). As a result, I got a reputation as being a "rules lawyer", when all I wanted was to play in a fair and balanced game.

Regarding "butchering the rulebook", this particular DM was also very fond of "DM Rule #0 - It's my game, so what I say, goes.". Asking this particular DM to re-evaluate rulings was often an exercise in futility (even when having the PHB open and having him read the exact wording, he'd over-rule).

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'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' - Arthur C. Clarke.
'Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.' - Gregory Benford.

In my last campaign, the Dm had a rule of 'It it's cool, do it.'. I would have a higher chance of hitting the ogre standing in front of me with my crossbow if I was leaping out of it's path at the time. fun campaign, didn't go that far.

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A Good Deed is its own reward.
That, and getting to go to heaven.

A sign of a good DM is to be flexible because the annoying thing about players is that they don't always do what you want and expect them to do.

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Scratchit: But he's a cripple!
Blackadder: He's not a cripple, Mrs Scratchit. Occasionally saying "Phew! My leg hurts!" when he remembers to wouldn't fool Baldrick!

VkmSpouge:

A sign of a good DM is to be flexible because the annoying thing about players is that they don't always do what you want and expect them to do.

Very true, VkmSpouge.

A good bit of advice for novice DM's: when planning an adventure, sit down with a pen and a piece of paper and write down everything possible thing you think the players will do in the adventure. Then take that piece of paper, screw it up, and throw it in the rubbish bin, because your players will very often do things you wouldn't think of or even consider doing.

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'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.' - Arthur C. Clarke.
'Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.' - Gregory Benford.

At crucial bits I've had to sometimes almost force the player's hands to go the route I want with some quick creative thinking. At the same time though I do often reward their thinking, like them managing to talk two Ogres out of attacking them.

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Scratchit: But he's a cripple!
Blackadder: He's not a cripple, Mrs Scratchit. Occasionally saying "Phew! My leg hurts!" when he remembers to wouldn't fool Baldrick!

I once convinced a tribe of goblins I was Maglubiyet... they brought us all their treasure and then had to fight eachother to the death to see who would be my champion... the champion was promptly blown to bits by our wizard... This neatly side stepped a dungeon crawl that would have taken half an hour.

the wizard in my party avoided an encouter with a gang of kobolds with just four words. First word 'Hi!', next three 'food that way', and enougth of the kobolds failed their sense motive check for them to run in the diretion he was pointing...

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A Good Deed is its own reward.
That, and getting to go to heaven.