3/7/2025
Illusions are strange things. They are absolutely core to fantasy, almost every fantasy story (and many realistic-fiction ones) have dream sequences, hallucinations, or purposeful illusions, but in many respects they are difficult to get across at the table.
Do they operate like secret doors? Does simply searching the room lead one to discover it? What about illusions in combat or in roleplay scenarios. What then? We don’t have time to search, so how are they discovered? Perception checks? In a fight? That might clue off someone that something is off and now the surprise is ruined.
In my opinion, the best way to handle them is the same way you should handle lies.
How do you handle lies at your table?
When an NPC tells the players, “this woman we are about to burn at the stake is a witch,” do they outright believe him? Probably not. They anticipate that there could be social or cultural bias that has led them to believing this innocent woman is a witch and that in actuality she is not a witch and that the adventure is to free the woman. Of course, this leads to a witch being let loose, but that’s someone else’s problem, our terrible work is done.
When an NPC lies, and the players don’t detect it right away, do you let them roll for it? I don’t, and I reckon you shouldn’t either. That’s part of the fun!
It gives the player the chance to read somebody. Are they acting shifty? Have they told the truth in the past? Is this something they’d have a reason to lie about (“I swear, these are only top quality swords here, pay no mind to the rust”)? If they trust them and its a lie, that’s their own fault, and if they don’t trust them and its true, that’s also their own fault!
The classic, “can I roll to see if they’re lying?” needs to be done away with if you haven’t already. My response is always, “do you think it’s a lie?” That seems to get their head out of dice-land and into roleplay-land very quickly.
We, as fallen humans, are lied to every day. So are the characters these players are in control of. They are no better at detecting lies than we are.
Illusions should be treated the same way. They need to use clues and their brains to decipher it’s true form, not dice.
Illusions are just visual and/or auditory lies
When a room has an illusion, treat it as any other. “This room is roughly a 20ft square with a doorway to the right and another doorway on the opposite side you came in on.” Did you hear me mention the illusory wall on the left side?
Pay no attention to it. Why should you? The characters wouldn’t, no matter how experienced they are, they’ve seen millions of non-magical walls in their lives with the few that were illusory being the exception.
This is a lie. Like it any other. Except, it’s not a verbal one, it’s a visual one.
If they search the room, maybe they detect it, it depends on how you want to run things. Maybe they lean on a wall and fall through it. Maybe they accidentally kick a stone through it. Maybe they don’t detect it at all. It could depend on the system, the illusion, and/or the situation.
Monsters that employ illusions or other mind-altering effects
Let’s expand the scope a bit. The players are exploring a swamp and in that swamp is a siren. Her song exists to entice people to come to her resting place so she can eat them. Few D&D players do not know this, and so few D&D players trust strange women singing in swamps and coastlines. Players aren’t horny sailors stuck at see (they may be horny teenagers stuck in high school/college, but the D&D table is no place for such fantasies, take a cold shower, we have business to conduct!)
The siren would know this too. She’s not dumb, and she needs to eat.
What are some other things that could entice the players to come closer, or allow the beast to approach them instead? Maybe they see in the distance the entrance to the dungeon they’re looking for, or a broken cart with gold spilling out. In one of my more recent games, it was a traveler looking for directions.
Something mundane. Something likely to show up on a random encounters table. You can’t eliminate meta-gaming, so play into it. Use it as a weapon.
If you want to make the players afraid with illusory magic, give them something they are actually afraid of. A dragon’s roar mixed with some lightning and stomping 50ft away should do the trick. Again, meta-gaming is your friend here, make the false threat threatening to them.
For these types of illusions, don’t rely on dice. Dice fail you when you need them most. Just describe what it would look like if they failed the roll and let the players determine when what their looking at is fake.
So, you’ve just been charmed, first time?
First, if you’re trying to charm a player, realize that this going to mind-f*** them. Once they realize they’ve been charmed, they’re going to despise their charmer. So, do it in secret.
Roll dice behind a screen if its GM-sided or (this is my favorite) pretend its a roll for something else if its player sided. “Okay, yeah, can you roll me Perception really quick? What number did you get? 4? Yeah, you don’t notice anything special. Anyway…”
A vampire just charmed the whole party? Make that vampire seem like the most trustworthy looking person to the player’s standards. If they’re a funny bunch, make him funny, give him a running joke. If they take things seriously (or at least are for now), have him drop a line that aligns with their character’s politics. “Ah yes, the Talbot family can be quite frustrating, but we must give them a good shake. I have hatred for no man.” You’d be surprised how fast opinions change when people agree with you on what matters but still act as a reasonable moderate, it make you feel more reasonable.
One player passed their check, an outlier has emerged! Well, the charmer can still be charming, but mention something to this other player and make it specific to their character. If its a barbarian that passed the save, maybe this guy just seems to “urban” for their tastes, but not to everyone else. Give them, and only them, a reason to distrust this guy.
Make sure when you do this that you don’t do it in private. Make it public to the table that this specific character noticed this specific thing that they didn’t like.
When the cards are revealed, and it turns out they had a good reason to distrust him, they’ll feel like a genius.
“But what if my players begin to turn on the charmer?” This is when you kick in the GM double-checks. “Are you sure you want to do that?” Usually that stops them in my case.
If they make it past that, bring in the enchantment. “My character laughs in his face and says that I’ll never give him the key.” “Absolutely, you laugh in his face. He thanks you for your time, and opens the door to leave.” “The locked one?” “Yes. You look down and see the key is not on your belt. You look back up and he’s already through the door. You feel no malice towards him.”
If they’re smart they’ll see what’s happening. If they’re still struggling, and try to fight back ask them about that previous roll they made. The 4. Say it wasn’t for Perception. It’ll click.
Illusory combatants and environmental hazards
The villain has the power to conjure illusory warriors to their side! Pretty cool! But how does that work?
Players will have to figure out on their own that what their fighting is an illusion. For me, I make it so the illusory bad guys never hit and never die. They miss and miss and miss, but I roll out in the open for all to see. “Mr. GM, that was a critical hit.” “Yeah, but not for this guy, he misses.” Every hit they take hits them, and describe it like you would for any other enemy, but they just keep coming!
If they have AOE attacks or breath weapons (illusory dragons for example) or can light things on fire, anything that effects the environment, make it look like it did. People are on fire, oil is spilled everywhere, water is frozen from the frost breath, etc.
However, while people (and the illusions) are making tactical decisions based on this new info, it does nothing. The fire is cold, the oil isn’t slippery, you fall right through the ice. All they have to do is come to that conclusion.
The jig is up! Dispelling illusions
My rule of thumb is that an illusion is only dispelled once a player makes a willing interaction to that proves it isn’t real and admits it isn’t real. Here are some examples:
- Walking through an illusory wall on purpose.
- Choke-slamming the friendly old man asking for directions while saying repeatedly that they are a siren (Narrator: luckily, he was a siren).
- Allowing an illusory warrior’s strike to hit them on purpose to test that it isn’t real.
- Walking through illusory flames while telling themselves its fake (it doesn’t count if they think its real and they think they’re being heroic).
At this point I either dispel the illusion or leave it there but remind the players its fake. They solved the puzzle, I’m not going to try and dupe them again.
Telegraphing illusions so that your players aren’t just totally screwed and you (and they) feel bad, you terrible GM and person you
If the players are about to venture into somewhere with a lot of illusions or mind-altering effects, telegraph it so they know what to expect. Have an obvious and simple one occur at the beginning. Maybe a goblin emerges from an illusory wall right away, giving away the illusion but letting you know there are probably more in the future.
Make illusions imperfect. Maybe beneath the illusory floor are rotting corpses on spikes. “You smell something awful. Something rotting.” “Is it coming from behind me or ahead of me? I’m in a blank hallway right?” “It feels like its coming from directly in front of you.” “Huh, weird.”
Give hints later on in the dungeon. Notes left by the inhabitants, conversations between guards about the secret illusory door, creatures that seem to have appeared in an empty room. That sounds like a good reason to re-explore to me!
And finally, use more illusions!
Illusions are cool! I’ve never had players not say, “cool, okay” under their breath upon discovering one or saying, “I knew something was wrong!” after being duped by one.
Secret doors do not just have to be mechanical wonders of the medieval era. Sirens, harpies, and other creatures that pretend to be beautiful women are total giveaways. Being charmed doesn’t have to be obvious!
Get creative! It’s fun!
Thank you for reading!
Until we meet again,
GOOD LUCK ON YOUR ADVENTURES
Ward Against Evil 
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