Minor Illusion Guide for D&D 5e

hey gamers Chris here it's no secret that minor illusion is probably my favorite cantrip in the game guidance is really close guidance is also very strong but the big difference between these two can trips is the amount of finesse that's required to use them effectively guidance is an easy can trip to use you're going to use it at level one you're going to use it at level 20 and basically whenever you're not concentrating on anything else and somebody's about to make an ability check that you want to help them out with you're gonna cast it every time easy minor illusion not so much minor illusion has a bunch of different kind of creative uses some tactical uses some of combat uses and we're going to use it a lot at low levels maybe not a lot at high levels certain classes get in other classes don't let's talk about minor illusion let's discuss when we're going to use it and how we're going to use it effectively so welcome to trained monks temple [Music] so here is the minor illusion spell one minute duration spell one option to cast can be cast up to 30 foot range that's not a huge range and it can fill up to a five foot square one important note about the description of this spell is it as a somatic and material component spell which means you will need to be holding an arcane focus or have a free hand and a component pouch to cast this spell another important thing to note about the components is there's no verbal requirement that means that if you are stealth you can still use a minor illusion spell that's pretty useful now the limitations of this spell is you can click either a sound or an image if you are an illusionist you can do both it must be within range and then it lasts for the duration it also ends if you dismiss it as an action or cast a spell again of course you're never going to dismiss it as an action or very very rarely would you want to use an action to actually dismiss a spell now the part of this spell that's really flexible is the sound the volume can change it can include voices it can include language it can be just like a roar of the Dragon pretty much anything you want as long as it's within the range and area that you've chosen we can also choose to have the sound continue throughout the duration of the spell or we can have it make different sounds at different times now if we create an image there's a lot more restrictions it can only be an object which means no mists no living creatures nothing that's moving it also can't create light or smell or any other sensory effect any physical interaction with this solution reveals it to be an illusion to anyone who can see that there was this interaction and and this has been talked about a little bit by Jeremy Crawford if one person interacts with an illusion then anyone who can see them interact with the illusion also realizes the illusion and the way it works is once you realize it's an illusion the illusion doesn't disappear but you can see through it now it becomes kind of a ghostly effect now a creature can use action to examine the sound or image and then they would get an investigation role to determine if it's real this of course is a much more complicated way to determine the illusion than simply your interact with an object building that you can do as a free action on your round now the designers have been pretty clear that this is intended to be a very simple illusion so if you're doing something like a mirror that mirror might have a reflection in it but that reflection couldn't move so if you moved a little bit you would notice that your reflection didn't move with you and it would reveal it to be an illusion this is really intended to be simple simple illusions unless you're using it for sound for sound then you have a lot more complexity so let's discuss the uses of a minor illusion spell and I'm going to bring up an example here so here we have an encounter and as you can see we have some enemies we've got drunk number one right there so that's a Malay or goblin or whatever a second one right there we've got two archers behind them and then in behind them we have an enemy spell caster now our party we have a cleric that looks like it's a male cleric and we have a paladin that is obviously a male character back here we have a bard we can see that bard has a bow and then we have a sorcerer and and for the purposes of this discussion will assume the sorcerer is the one with the minor illusion spell so how does the sorcerer use the minor illusion spell effectively in this combat so when you are playing a low level caster you have to use your spell's conservatively because you don't have a whole lot of them if we consider that this sorcerer is maybe second level then we would be thinking that that sorcerer is probably gonna have three spells to cast now using their sorcery points they could maybe make it up to four spells to cast but that's for the entire day they're not getting anything back on a short rest so in most battles they may not want to cast any spells at all above a can trip so they're stuck with things like using fire bolt the thing about fire bolt though is it's not that good I mean attack hand trips I take them when I play a spellcaster because you need something to do when you have nothing else you can do and so when you cast a fire bolt you're going to be doing five and a half points of damage on average which isn't great but it's something it's at least relevant but if there's anything else useful to do I'm inclined to do that because the bards the clerics the fighters the paladin's they're all doing more damage than I am so I really am looking for other options to contribute so let's consider this battle we're going to assume these characters are second-level we'll say these Gronk's are maybe their orcs and the arches behind them are goblins and the spellcaster we're not sure there may be a human and they might be a cleric they might be a wizard we're not sure maybe we are near the end of the first round of combat cleric and paladin have obviously closed with the two male enemies our barda's maybe inspired one of them and shot an arrow and now it's our turn to decide what to do so we're going to you see how we might use the minor illusion spell in this situation when I use the minor illusion spell I'm thinking blockade distraction alternate targets intimidation or obscure those are the five main uses of the spell so let's take a look at how those would play in combat now a way blockade would work is if we are in a confined area we could use a blockade maybe it's caltrops on on a floor maybe it's a bear trap maybe it's a barbed wire fence that blocks a five-foot passage making it so that enemies might think twice about whether they want to rush right into it now once it's revealed it's no use to anyone anymore but until that point what it might do is it might delay or have enemies take alternate routes that might make them take longer give you some kind of tactical advantage this is a fairly circumstantial use of the spell but it does come up once in a while so I figured I would mention it the second is a distraction so let's say you want to get past some guards you might have somebody screaming for help in the distance and then the guards might turn look at least if not go investigate that maybe gives you a route where you can sneak in past them without being seen those kinds of things so that brings us to our three combat uses for this spell intimidation alternate targets and obscure so let's start with intimidate so maybe they hear the sound of a rushing dragon roaring or or a lion or a tiger or something that they might be concerned about or maybe they hear the sound of allies of the party members call the wizard over I've got fireball already something like that this might distract them it might cause them to want to leave this area and so once they do then their formation is broken and then this gives us a tactical advantage if they fall for it so the next one is alternate targets and you need to be careful with this one I think you really need to know your DM and know your table before you start using this because although it is technically legal by raw it certainly breaks I think the spirit of what the designers were trying to do with the limitations of this spell as I mentioned this spell can only create objects and very early on people thought about using it to create some kind of creature that's maybe behind an enemy and they might turn in and attack it and and of course the response to that was well but that's not an object and then they thought well what if it's like a wax figure of a creature now it's an object yes by raw that is an object so technically speaking you should be able to use minor illusion to create an object it's a statue or like I said a wax figurine or something else that resembles a creature but isn't now I obviously can't move but somebody sees that out of the corner of their eye and they are liable to react to it so I'm gonna mention these uses but again know your table are these kosher if you're not sure I probably wouldn't do it so what I'm going to do is that we're going to take our wax haffley so we cast our minor illusion and a wax halfling appears behind the caster as you can see it has some daggers out so maybe the caster then sees it out of the corner of his eye there's something behind him and he turns and what can he see well he sees that there is a halfling there with daggers out so what does that guys are gonna do well he's probably going to react he might do some kind of spell right at that halfling thus wasting his action and that's kind of the point of that use of the spell so finally let's talk about obscure this is really the primary use of this spell in combat is the obscuration ability so we're in this combat it's the Sorcerer's turn he's got a worry there's a couple archers there there's a spell caster there he could be targeted with some kind of terrible spell if not those arrows alone might be a problem it might force him to use something like a shield spell which he doesn't want to use the whole point of casting can troops in combat is to avoid using spell slots so what's he gonna do well he's going to cast a minor illusion and he's going to create an illusion in front of him now what it is doesn't really matter in this case we're gonna say it's a crate here so he cast minor illusion and this crate appears right here now what's happened is these guys back here now can see a crate but they can't see him so this spell caster wants to cast some kind of spell at the sorcerer and lo and behold this crate is in the way now we can't see the sorcerer at all so this means that unless he wants to attack with disadvantage with something like a scorching ray there's not much you can do and remember a lot of spells require you to see the target any spell that requires this caster to see the target he cannot cast anymore at the sorcerer finally the spell caster can't get at this crate which means there's no way to get a physical interaction I mean he could technically work his way around down here taking attacks of opportunity and the pros and then bringing himself out of the protection that he's created for himself by having all these Gronk's in front of him so it's just not worth it for him to do that he's got to stay back here and he's going to have to find either another target or he's going to have to attack with this advantage with an attack cantrip or something like that I know some attack can trips also require for you to see your target so again those can trips now are right off the table those are the only can trips he's dealing with it's kind of out of luck now these archers certainly are applicable to fire their arrows at the sorcerer but doing so again they cannot see the sorcerer so therefore they have disadvantage on those attack roles now should they attack those arrows will interact with the crate and probably reveal it as an illusion so at that point everyone's going to see that it's an illusion and it's no longer going to provide any defense however this ends up being a deterrent right because the archers see that crate they can't see the sorcerer they know they'll have disadvantage on those attacks so they're more likely to pick a different target probably a better armored target a child with more hit points this is a tactical advantage again for your side and if that happens then what will happen is that crate is not revealed to be an illusion now if your character happens to be the one with a better armor class or the better defenses or maybe the bard has taken a bunch of damage and they're close to going down well then maybe I'm going to put it in front of the bard instead and then it becomes kind of a defensive buff for a party member now the bard doesn't necessarily know that this is an illusion though you can probably guess it's an illusion so what the bard could do is he can interact with an object by just reaching out and touching the crates and immediately realizes it's an illusion so they can now see through it but because no one can see the bard except for the sorcerer it is not going to be revealed to be an illusion to anybody else so that means the bard can now see through the crate but the enemies can't so now the bard could potentially attack with advantage using this bow or whatever on the enemies again if he does so that will likely reveal the illusion but you do get that one attack where you will have advantage and Apple levels that can be a significant boost let's look at one more way this might be useful in combat so let's say for example the paladin wants to get at the spellcaster well what the sorcerer could do if the paladin is the next one to move is they might create some kind of minor illusion like well say a small wall like this maybe it's a wall of ice that does five feet across one way five feet across the other way now neither Gronk can see the Paladin because their vision is obscured by this wall so the Paladin could go around and get to that spellcaster without provoking any attacks of opportunity and they as they normally would from this Grunk up there finally let's say that Gronk got removed maybe the cleric hit that Grunk and it was taken out so now the Paladin wants to get at that spellcaster and they can do so without an attack of opportunity just by moving down through here however what we could do with our sorcerer is we could set up that wall up there beforehand and then the Paladin can move up there interact with that object spellcaster can't see it now the Paladin can attack with advantage and that could be very handy considering the paladin's probably a primary striker and then they can be ensured if they want to say add a smite on top never mind that the chance of a critical is now significantly higher and of course when you crit with a character with smite that's particularly good now if this wasn't a paladin and maybe it was a rogue then you're automatically delivering that sneak attack - which is nice a few more items I wanted to mention as well the first would be that minor illusion doesn't require your concentration so therefore if you're using another spell that requires concentration you can still cast a minor illusion spell furthermore it can be used together with certain spells like for example you could be using your silent image spell and then use minor illusion to give that silent image sound the second thing I wanted to mention was if it should happen that your illusion is not revealed for around then your character can move around on their turn so for example if we have the crate here and the sorcerer can just move to the side and still get a clean line of fire on all the enemies and then after they're done then they move back so if that deterrent of that crate works you end up piling on the advantage of the spell and the effectiveness of the spell every round now keep in mind this bard could also move behind this crate on the end of his turn and then again he can pop in and out to make attacks and then the enemies are really just forced to attack either the cleric or the Paladin or to accept the disadvantage of firing through the crate now depending what the sorcerer in the bard are doing they may not need to come from behind the crate some spells I would imagine would not reveal an illusion to be an illusion so if the sorcerer can see say the Grunk number two he could cast told the dead-on Grunk number two and there's really nothing about that that would reveal this as an illusion so then the sorcerer wouldn't necessarily need to come out of the concealment at all and the final thing I wanted to mention is all this time I was talking about obscure meant I made an assumption that the enemies would know that this crate is an illusion and I think that's a pretty big assumption to make I mean do these Gronk's really know which spells are real and which ones are illusion the vast majority of spells have real effects the magic they've seen probably is almost or entirely real effects and there are certainly spells that can do things like create a crate you could use something like a creation spell conjurer's can actually just actually create a crate even though it would have to be a little bit smaller than that even this spell caster we can't assume would know that a minor illusion was cast there are rules within XANA thar's for identifying a spell if this spell caster doesn't follow those rules they shouldn't necessarily know that that is an illusion now if they have the minor illusion spell they might note that the requirements and the area that the the spell that took place in would fit a minor illusion so they might suspect but unless they identify the spell it shouldn't be sure because certainly there are other magical ways to create this kind of effect and have it be real so I just wanted to add in those few things before I get into my conclusion now what should be clear here is although these are all useful abilities in combat none of them are super powerful so once we're in the point where we're casting higher-level spells and where we can afford to cast spells regularly in combat suddenly my delusion isn't going to be so effective in combat we still might find uses a bit outside of combat particularly the whole distraction idea where we can use sounds - maybe influence how people react outside of combat but in combat it's not going to stay a great spell it's never going to compete with casting an actual leveled spell in combat and eventually once we have a ton of spells we're going to be able to cast leveled spells in combat pretty much all the time suddenly minor illusion isn't gonna be useful very much anymore and in my experience minor illusion at level 1 is terrific level 2 still terrific 3 and 4 still very good by level 5 now it's a pretty minor thing to do I still use it once in a while but now I'm using it less 6 7 8 again less and less and by ninth or 10th level I'm not casting it in combat really at all anymore maybe in a very very rare circumstance where it's very important to me maybe I've maybe we're doing a marathon session through a dungeon and we just can't get a long rest and I need to be very careful with my spells but even then certainly by level 11 now fire bolt is going to do so much more damage compared to the minor effects that minor illusion does because minor illusion unlike that attack Tantra is not scaling so it isn't going to stay great forever but that level 1 through 4 it is so good and so much gameplay is at those low levels now if we look at the adventures out there I mean we have our campaigns that go five levels or less and so then you have minor illusion be effective all the way through now if I was playing say dungeon of the mad mage where we're gonna start at level five and we're gonna go to level 20 minor illusion isn't nearly as essential as a campaign like say dragon heist where we're starting a level 1 and ending at level 5 so you need to think about that minor illusion is one of those spells that starts out as maybe the best can trip in the game and then it declines as you go it's never useless again outside of combat there's always gonna be some uses for it inside a combat though it's going to be a steady decline and at levels 1 through 4 very valuable by level 11 I'm not casting it in combat at all anymore so that is how I use minor illusion in combat kind of things I use it for outside of combat and the levels I figure it's useful at so I hope you find that useful and until next time I'm gonna sit back and relax I'm gonna have some fun because Dee Dee's for everyone thanks guys and I'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Treantmonk's Temple

Views: 80,725

Keywords: Illusion, Minor, Cantrip, Spell, Analysis, Guide, DnD, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, 5e, charop, optimization, character

Id: hdHENRGtsFo

Length: 22min 36sec (1356 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 26 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Collin_the_doodle]

I sort of love how the game mechanics, seemingly by accident, made a cantrip that can make a opaque but substanceless box incredibly powerful.

[u/BookOfMormont]

Any reason you couldn't hide inside your own illusion rather than just behind it? The illusion itself can only be 5 feet tall so most characters couldn't stand all the way up and remain hidden, but my Arcane Trickster is rather fond of his SOP for opening doors that scary things might be behind: Minor Illusion a barrel or something 30' away from the door, crouch inside the illusion (if DM requires that means I'm effectively "prone," that's fine), then get that door open via Mage Hand and wait to see what comes out.

[u/SpikeRosered]

I feel like he downplayed how likely it would be for an enemy spellcaster to spellcraft your use of minor illusion. He mentioned that they would be bound by "mechanics" but all that means is they have to spend their reaction to make an arcana check to identify the casting of a cantrip. Spellcasters rarely use their reactions so why not and it's a pretty low DC.

In short I wouldn't recommend spending a turn casting minor illusion in combat when there's an enemy caster around.

[u/B_Blunder]

Treantmonk changed my whole mindset on what non damage spell casters can do in a game. I have tried out his God Wizard build in my AL game (notorious for being murder hobo-y), and after some initial pushback people started loving my illusionist wizard character.

[u/Outlas]

I was shocked at how much was left out. It seemed so incomplete, especially considering the source.

Putting the crate or barrel right on top of yourself, instead of the square in front of you.

Putting a wall between you and an opponent (or doing the above) while you're in melee, in place of the disengage action. (though it did mention helping other people to do so)

Using it against mounted opponents (they may know it's just an illusion but their horse, or even flying mount, probably won't trust the rider quite that much).

Tip-of-the-iceburg objects. For instance, showing a very large hat extending out of a hole may imply that there's a 40-foot tall giant under it, but the hat itself still fits inside a 5 foot cube.

Out-of-combat uses like using it to show a map, or a painting of someone you've seen. Or signalling someone far away without needing to rely on hand signals.

Using it to do voices along with the Actor feat. It's easy to spook animals with a growl, but might be a bit more difficult to frighten people.

Pointing out that the diagonal of a 5 foot cube is longer than 5 feet. You can actually make a seven foot tall door or wall if you tilt the cube. Even DMs who balk at that will at least let you create a polearm leaning against a wall, even though the polearm is more than 5 feet long.

Depicting a hole or a pit, rather than a solid object.

Depicting a dead body, instead of a statue or wax dummy.

Misconceptions, such as using it as a disguise, or being able to move it. For instance, you can't disguise a body as a carpet so everyone thinks you're just carrying a carpet down the street.

But you can use it to duplicate other objects. Such as putting an illusion of a door on top of an existing door, so that when you open the door it will still appear closed. Or an illusion of an object right before you take the object.

Pointing out that measurements in 5e are not accurate down to the fraction of an inch, they're meant to be fudged. So it's intended that a 'five foot cube' is big enough to hide any medium-size creature, even if it's seven feet tall. And you are usually allowed to make a fake door or bookcase even though they'd have to be more than 5 feet tall to be remotely realistic.

I was left with the feeling that we got only the basics of how concealment works in combat, and completely left out the variety of reasons why this is a favorite spell.

[u/[deleted]]

He makes a strange assumption. The spell says:

Physical interaction with the image reveals it to be an Illusion, because things can pass through it.

He assumes this to mean that the illusion becomes translucent. That's a strange reading.

The rest of the video is quite good, though.