Thanks, Ceb, for looking that up and clarifying your points. I agree about the "only rolling once for System Shock." And, YES, ruling illusions has been, and always will be, a royal pain in the sphincter! But I will admit they offer the most flexible spell choices around, granting a multi-faceted purpose in the right...mind...of the wizard.
I think we had some great discussion on this thread, and appreciate everyone's input. If anyone has something they wish to contribute on this thread, I look forward to reading more.
There is no "You are dead over and over and over again; make System Shock rolls until you are dead ." effect going on. To get such a result relies on the illusionist to generate yet another death effect over and over and over.
Please let me clarify. As Lanthorn mentioned above, it will generally take a while before the unconscious PC awakens from the illusionary death, so it is most likely that the illusion is long over by that time. However, it is possible that a comrade awakens the PC before the duration of the initial illusion has ended. For example, let's imagine that a wizard casts a combination of low-level spells like Audible Glamour and Silent Image. Together, they create a(n admittedly poor) illusion of a giant lizard that strikes from the brush and ambushes the party's Thief scouting in advance of the party. The wizard causes the illusion to rip a chunck of flesh out of the Thief's side. The Thief character (being only 1st level) fails her save to disbelieve and dies from the damage. The party's fighter makes his save, however, and runs up to slap the Thief awake in the next round. As the rest of the party engages the evil wizard's kobold bodyguards, the wizard maintains the illusion and, as the Thief awakens, she notes the massive damage she has taken and has a reasonable chance of still believing that the illusion and its results are true. Thus, another save to disbelieve is called for and another system shock roll if that save is failed. If the wizard had ended the illusion before the Thief woke up, no further saves would be required as the Thief would awaken to a healed body, likely assuming the Fighter had administered a Healing potion or the party's Cleric had healed her.
I'm only arguing this scenario in a situation where the initial illusion remains in effect when the victim regains consciousness. A DM would also be perfectly reasonable to allow whatever bonuses to such a second save as s/he felt appropriate to the circumstances.
Quote:
The effect is, "I should be dead, but somehow I am alive. Why is that? Rolls disbelief save immediately to realize that any damage is illusory, and so fully understand the nature of the attack. If still failed, the character simply doesn't understand why they are still alive and is fully susceptible to further illusions, as they have not yet figured out that any further spells will likely be illusions too.
Here, I assume you are refering to the initial save to disbelieve when the illusion is first cast. Otherwise, it sounds like you're agreeing with my rationale for a second save upon regaining consciousness.
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