My general idea was for a coward do get this very flashy force 1 or 2 spell that she could cast on herself, resist, but fall over and play dead. I was hoping that anyone not astrally perceiving could also be fooled into thinking there was another mage in the area. I wanted area effect just for panache and believability for the sizzling attackers. My first thought was that this wouldn't work because area effect and touch range are a tiny bit contradictory, but I wanted to see if DF could make it work before abandoning the concept.

Indirect Illusion similar to Invisibility (cannot take Caster Only on these types of spells). The effect could appear to have her burst into flames and then look burt crispy (or whatever) at F/2 Moderate.

Thats nice, but I kinda wanted the crispy attackers bonus. Like I said I didn't think it was viable.

Uhm, if the spell is Caster Only it will NOT affect anyone else. You will be the only one who gets toasted. Everyone else is 100% immune even if Vulnerable to the elemental effect.

What you're looking for, I think, is just a regular area Elemental Manipulation. Target yourself. Everyone, including yourself, is then toasted.

Right. Please note that I was just checking something I already thought wouldn't work. I'll have to do it with a regular spell if I have my heart set on this rather flawed strategy.

I guess I just don't get what you're trying to accomplish. If you want a spell that's going to hurt other people, you're going to hurt yourself in the process (though you get to put however many dice of Shielding/Spell Defense/whatever on yourself to help resist). If you want one that's just going to trick people and not hurt you, an Illusion (namely Phantasm) is the appropriate way to go.

If you want to do both, your only recourse is to use the rules for casting two spells simultaneously and use both of them in conjunction. Fireball your enemies and use the Phantasm to make the effect look like it nails you, too.

From what I understand, he's looking for a PBAoE fire nuke spell with an extra illusion component that makes it look like he hit himself, as well. The first part is clearly elemental manipulation, and the second is clearly illusion, and shadow run doesn't really cover crossover spells. You could use Trid Phantasm with a PBAoE fire nuke... just cast phantasm first, and have the illusion of you being cooked go off when you cast the nuke. Of course, then you're sustain a spell, with all the problems that go along with that.

JaronK

Illusion spells can mimic any sensory experience, including pain and discomfort. You could probably make an illusion spell that would make those in the area of effect feel the heat of the illusory fireball. Although, I wouldn't think that the discomfort would be enough to impose injury related TN modifiers.

One thing (that might NOT help you) is a thing my GM and I came up with that we call a "Nexus" effect and works exactly like the "Area Effect" modification and raises drain by +1 damage lvl. Here's the fun part, the center of the area is the caster who is unharmed by the spell but everyone around him is hit, very useful if you are surrounded.

The downside is that mostly elemental spells works since your LOS is limited with the other spells, a "Nexus" fireball would take out everyone around you but a stunball would only take out those in your LOS.

Nexus, btw, is just another way of saying PBAoE (Point Blank Area of Effect, a spell that nukes everyone within a certain radius of the caster without hitting the caster).

JaronK

Thanks for all the good advice everyone. I'm going to skip the illusion. LOS would nix the direct illusion (I'd want 360 coverage). Indirect illusions fail when folks leave the area effect ("Hey, wait! I'm not on fire!") and those who resist them immediately know something is up. I think a force 1 fireball is just the thing. Even if it is completely resisted, they still feel the heat. If that was exclusive for drain, would it have 4D drain when cast at deadly, 2D at Serious, etc? I don't really want to kill anybody, but I sure as heck want to confuse them. (Confuse them tactically, not with a confusion power or spell.) Combined with a little acting, I hoping they'll be to worried about the "other mage" to worry about lil' smokey. OOOOH! She just got a name! Lil' Smokey!

One last question: Does the force have to be >= ½OR for secondary effects, or just primary effects? It could light up natural objects. Would it singe or some other color descriptive for man-made objects?

I don't know. Maybe it won't work at all. I'll let you know how it plays out if I'm ever in the right situation.