Greetings all,

I never noticed this before but a player of mine pointed out that indirect illusions can be case at a target or on an area magic rating in meters. The rule is in the paragraph describing Indirect Illusions in the Magic Chapter of SR3.

It came up as follows: he wanted to make four PCs invisible and I said he could do it with four imp. invisibility castings. He countered with the rule paraphrased above. Now, I think that if you're casting invisibility over an area, then the area goes invisible, not just the specific portions of the area that you want. Thoughts?

Also, he swears that the target of a spell can be shifted using a complex action without having to recast the spell, which woud be particularly userful when the area around the people who are to be invisible will change as they move. I've scoured the books for a week now and can't find that reference. Anyone know where I can find that or is he just trying to get out of sustaining 4 spells

~D~

First of all, the Indirect Illusion must be an Area of Effect version of the spell. Invisibility is currently not an Area spell, though it could be made into one (+1 DL). Everything inside the area would indeed become invisible as well.

Somewhere there is a rule that says that the area of a sustained spell can be moved with a complex action, but I'll have to search engine to find it.

Tell him to use Trid Phantasm to cover everyone in the area with perfect camouflage. He'll have to use a complex action every time they move 6 meters, but it will work, IMO.

That's what I told him, too.

I think it'd be too hard to consciously manipulate a spell to make perfect camouflage. Besides, there is already a camouflage spell.

-Joe

Yeah but the rules (perhaps in the faq, can't remember exactly where) state that phantasm can only create images, not make something appear as if it wasn't there. While creating camouflage might seem like it's ok with this, I think it falls outside of the original intent of the spell (hence the existence of the camouflage spell).

-Joe

Plus camoflage only offers a +4 visibility modifier instead of +8 (blind or hidden) like invisibility. I'd side in the favor of camo effect and make the player create a AE invis if they truely wanted that effect.

The rules don't say anything, and for the drain of Phantasm... Simply create a life like poster of the area all around the edges of the area that doesn't include the people in the area.

I must be thinking D&D rules regarding illusions then. Still I'd be careful giving phantasm that sort of flexibility. You could make a black 4'' by 6'' area in front of the eyes of several opponents, effectively rending them blind, but that beats the hell out of the blindness spell too. I don't like the idea of a single spell used to give a mage a bunch of freebie spell points.

-Joe

I'm just saying I wouldn't allow it because it would allow for, in my opinion, too much versitility with a single spell. I have a shamanist in my group and if he started using phantasm for everything, he might conceive of ways to get around his spell category restrictions. I have to be careful not to set a precedent with allowing something of this nature.

-Joe