Originally by Peter Aronson
Originally by Peter Aronson
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1. SUBCLASS = MU
2. SOCIAL CLASS MINIMUM = MMC (21: LMC)
3. ABILITY SCORE MINIMUMS
STRENGTH = 6 (3d6)
INTELLIGENCE = 15 (8d6)
WISDOM = 6 (7d6)
DEXTERITY = 16 (9d6)
CONSTITUTION = 3 (5d6)
CHARISMA = 6 (6d6)
COMELINESS = (4d6)
4. POSSIBLE RACES & MAX. LEVEL ATTAINABLE = deep
gnome (max), surface gnome (max),
human (U)
5. MULTI-CLASS POSSIBILITIES = CI, FI, IT, IA
6. HIT DIE TYPE = d4
7. MAXIMUM NUMBER OF HIT DICE = 10
8. SPELL ABILITY = yes
9. ARMOR PERMITTED = none
10. SHIELD PERMITTED = none
11. WEAPONS PERMITTED = caltrop, dagger, dart,
knife, sling, staff
12. OIL PERMITTED = yes
13. POISON PERMITTED = DM's option
14. ALIGNMENT = any
15. STARTING MONEY = 20-80 gp
16. WEAPON PROFICIENCIES = 1, 1/6 (1st: 1, 7th: 2, 13th: 3)
17. NON-PROFICIENCY PENALTY = -5
18. NON-WEAPON PROFICIENCIES = 3, 2/6 (1st:
3, 7th: 4, 13th: 5)
19. STARTING AGE = human (30 + 1d6), gnome (100 + 2d12)
20. COMBAT = MU
21. SAVING THROWS = MU
22. MAGIC ITEMS = see below
While being equal, or even
slightly inferior, to normal magic-users in most
respects, illusionists have
different and highly effective spells to employ.
* Spellcasting: A
perusal of the number and types of spells usable by illusionists (see
CHARACTER
SPELLS) will reveal that they are at least as powerful as <sic>
normal magic-users and possibly
slightly more potent at very high levels.
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-rnogi), 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
Illusionists are capable
of manufacturing those magical items which create
or sustain illusion. They
may do so at 10th level (Illusionist) and above; this
is done in much the same
manner in which regular magic-users create
magic items.
<DMG: Fabrication of Magic Items, Including Potions and Scrolls>
| Experience Points | Experience Level | 4-Sided Dice for Accumulated Experience Points | Level Title | THACO | Saves | Proficiencies |
| ---- | - | - | - | 20n | 16.17.18.20.19 | - |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 0 ---- 2,250 | 1 | 1 | Prestidigitator | 20n | 14.13.11.15.12 | 1/3 |
| 2,251 ---- 4,500 | 2 | 2 | Minor Trickster | - | - | ^ |
| 4,501 ---- 9,000 | 3 | 3 | Trickster | - | - | ^ |
| 9,001 ---- 18,000 | 4 | 4 | Master Trickster | - | - | ^ |
| 18,001 ---- 35,000 | 5 | 5 | Cabalist | - | - | ^ |
| 35,001 ---- 60,000 | 6 | 6 | Visionist | 19 | 13.11.9.13.10 | ^ |
| 60,001 ---- 95,000 | 7: May hire followers | 7 | Phantasmist | - | - | 2/4 |
| 95,001 ---- 145,000 | 8 | 8 | Apparitionist | - | - | ^ |
| 145,001 ---- 220,000 | 9 | 9 | Spellbinder | - | - | ^ |
| 220,001 ---- 440,000 | 10 | 10 | Illusionist (Master of Phantasms - OSRIC) | - | - | ^ |
| 440,001 ---- 660,000 | 11 | 10+1 | Illusionist (11th level) | 16 | 11.9.7.11.8 | ^ |
| 660,001 ---- 880,000 | 12 | 10+2 | Illusionist (12th level) | - | - | ^ |
220,000 experience points per level of experience beyond the 12th.
Illusionists gain 1 h.p. per level after the 10th.
SPELLS
USABLE BY CLASS AND LEVEL -- ILLUSIONISTS (MAGIC-USERS)
Illusionist
Spell Level
| Illusionist's
Level |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 2 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 4 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 | - | - | - | - |
| 7 | 4 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - | - |
| 8 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - |
| 9 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - | - |
| 10 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | - |
| 11 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | - | - |
| 12 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - |
| 13 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | - |
| 14 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 15 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| 16 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 17 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| 18 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 19 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| 20 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 21 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 |
| 22 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| 23 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 24 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
| 25 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
| 26 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Related Article: Illusionists in the Forgotten Realms
With all the talk about the
future of the various
classes in the revision of
the AD&D® game
books, I have one suggestion.
Remove the illusionist
class entirely. ?Why remove
this class??
you ask. Two reasons. First,
it is one of the
hardest classes to qualify
for. Second, the spell
selection is pitiful.
My solution to this is to
simply incorporate the
existing illusionist class
into the magic-user
class. This would mean the
illusionist-to-be only
has to roll an intelligence
of 9 and a dexterity of
6, as opposed to the 15 intelligence
and 16
dexterity required. This
also allows the illusionist
more choices in magical items.
The next step would be to
merge the two spell
tables. This is easily done,
as most spells are
already available to magic-users.
Some of the
spells left are not exact
duplicates of magic-user
spells, but are close enough
to existing spells to
be redundant (e.g., alter
reality vs. limited wish).
Any spells that are unique
to the illusionist class
can be transposed to the
magic-user table, with
the spell level being two
levels higher than on
the illusionist spell table.
I know there are some of you
who have
played and enjoyed the illusionist
as is; I am not
one of them. I think that
the suggestion given
above can only improve the
play of the AD&D
game.
Kelly Calabro
Walnut Creek CA
(Dragon
#130)
Quote:
In your opinion, what literary
figures would be the appropriate archetype example for the Illusionist
class?
I believe that the best
examples of illusion magic are found in L. Sprague de Camp's "Haorld Shea"
stories, with various practitioners using it, the Finnish wizards most
generally.
there are plenty of others
found in fairy tales such as those of Andrew Lang.
- Gary Gygax
merkholz wrote:
Another quick AD&D
question for you, Gary. The illusionist is a sub-class of magic-user, was
there ever any talk of having other sub-classes such as conjurers or necromancers?
Or did you see the illusionist as a special case?
M
Indeed, I viewed the illusionist
as a very special sort of magic-user, one using magic to simulate magic
as it were.
Conjurers and necromancers in the AD&D system would have been only specialists in forms of regular magic.
Cheers,
Gary
orgcandman wrote:
Gary,
Apologies if these have
been asked before, but I have three questions:
1) Why were illusionists the only specialty wizard mentioned in the PHB / UA?
Howdy, and no problem...even
though those are not Lejendary Adventure game questions.
1) Because illusions are
so distinct from other forms of magic.
Illusion magic is difficult
in all because it is based on the projected images of unreal spells, so
it is twice removed from our actual ken.
Well Dang!
Peter, you did disappear
from the mainstream D&D print vehicles, so I erroneously assumed that
you had dropped out of FRPGing as so many did after a period of active
participation.
your contribution of the
basis for the Illusionist class influenced the AD&D game considerably...and
explaining illusion magic gave me heartburn many a time.
Cogently detailing how phantom
images of something wholly make-believe operate can be a poser.
Anyway, thanks for setting me straight, and great to have you back in the mainstream of RPGing.
BTW, I have an unpublished
book of chess variants I have created. if you are interested, I'll see
if i can find the electronic file and send it to you.
It was posted as a free
download on my old www.gygax.com website,
but that is long gone, and I am not sure if the book was recovered.
Cheers,
Gary
Greg Ellis wrote:
I knew it!
The earnest efforts of a teenager immortalized as gospel by the masses, pondered and debated for eons, ad nauseum.
Peter, please wade into one of the many illusion-related threads in the AD&D forum. We'd love to hear your input, and especially how you grew to interpret and re-interpret (over time) what you had wrought.
And it'll be fun to throw bits of popcorn at your head, of course. After all... you caused all this mess in the first place.
BTW, welcome! So good to see you.
I'll see what I can do to further confuse matters, er, I mean, help (time permitting). Some things to keep in mind, however:
I wrote
the versions that appeared in The Strategic Review and The Dragon -- the
better known versions from AD&D had been edited
by other people;
Even
the original versions had been edited some by Gary (they had to be: my
spelling in those (pre-spellchecker days) was, in the words of one of my
teachers "disturbingly original"; and as icing on the cake, the documents
I had sent him had been inexpertly typed, then photocopied using an early
copy technology that produced translucent brownish sheets with print in
a somewhat darker brown -- I probably owe him a pair of glasses);
My handling
of illusion magic in those days was heavily influenced by the general style
of the extended gaming group which I belonged to, which did not make it
easy for illusion spells to do actual damage;
Many
of the brain cells involved in those projects have since gone south;
On the
other hand, I'm not particularly worried about being made fun of, as I
have two teenagers and am thus used to it.
But I'll look around.
- Peter Aronson
Peter,
Age never was an impediment
to me when looking at something creative.
Joe Fischer was around the
same age as you were when he submitted the Ranger
material for the zine...and I had to do some text editing there as well 
I have located the file of the book of chess variants. Email me at ggygax@genevaonline as to where to send it.
Cheerio,
Gary
Moorcrys
Thanks, and I appreciate
the good words.The illusionist sub-class sprang from my reading. So many
spellworkers in fable and fiction used only the illusory, not "real magic"
that had actual substance and effect, that I thought it would be fun to
include such an option in the game.
Subtilty was indeed a factor in play--and for that reason not a lot of illusionists were active in my campaign. Also, as a "latecomer" to choices, those who did have such PCs were not in the level par with the veteran characters of other class. As I recall, there were a couple of mid-level illusionists, somewhere around 9th-10th level active. Don't recall who played them. Rob might...
As noted previously, I have a gnome illusionish/thief PC, but he is of pretty low level, about 4th in both classes, and I haven't had opportunity to play him for a couple of years, so I'll have the devil of a time finding his character sheet if the opportunity arises.
Cheerio,
Gary
My PCs have fallen many
a time for a clever illusion, and I have similarly duped many a PC thus
when I am DMing.
The trick in using them as a PC is not to have the prospective subjects notice the casting being done, so there will be little reason for them to disbelieve.
I have had an Illusionist PF use illusions of various traps in a dungeon setting to prevent pursuit or slow attacks.
Other than saying that, I've DMed and played so many game sessions clear recollection of outstanding examples not otherwise in a module of essay are not in my easily accessable memory banks :\
Cheers,
Gary
