Building Bhakashal - New Classes - Use Your Illusion - The Phantasmist

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Illusionists are hands down my favorite 1e AD&D class. Whenever I play I try to run one, and I have home brewed over 200 new spells for the class for Bhakashal.

Why do I love them so?

Well, here’s the thing. Sometimes people talk about game design and play style. Illusionists occupy the nexus of a particular play style that fits the design of 1e AD&D perfectly. Illusionists are not known for having damage spells, they are known for deception and evasion spells. But to SURVIVE in 1st Edition AD&D, you are almost always better off evading and deceiving your enemies than fighting them directly. So the phantasmist’s strengths push them to game play that is more likely to lead to success. 

In short, a well played phantasmist is VERY powerful, as their primary methods, deception and evasion, are two of the best strategies in a dangerous game world where you can frequently meet things so high above your pay scale that flight is the only real option

Badass.

For Bhakashal I wanted to make a version of the phantasmist that hewed to what was there in 1e, but added some depth to it, cleared up the confusion about adjudication, and explained some of the odd things about phantasmist spells, e.g. that they get many straight up mental manipulation spells that have nothing to do with “illusions”, that they get negative plane energy style spells (e.g. summon shadow), that illusions become more real over time (e.g. shadow monsters) and that they can create real material objects as they get higher level (e.g. minor and major creation). 

I outline a few different systems for illusion adjudication that work at the table, you can pick the one that fits your preferred level of complexity and flavor.

Bhakashal’s phantasmists get all the 1e AD&D spells, plus over 200 new spells, and all fit into the categories mentioned above. This is the most “lore” I have put into any of the classes for Bhakashal, because it is the class I love the most. 

Phantasmists 

The Development of Phantasmist Magic

If you just want the stats, you can skip this section.

Phantasmist magic started out very different. There were no separate phantasmist spells, or specialist schools. Instead, there were a few spells that gave regular warlocks access to the realm of psyche or spirit. Priests used this sort of access to commune with their gods and ask for direct interventions, illusion spells used this access to enter the mind and create phantasms. So, when an illusion was cast on a victim the caster would access the victim’s mind, and either plant an image in their head or make them relive a past memory as if it was real. Illusions were in the mind of the victim only; they would appear to be struggling with an unseen foe while under the effect of an illusion spell. 

The person who focused on extending illusion magic was a Saan warlock named Kahb Rune. He believed that the true path to knowledge involved making alliances with extraplanar beings of great power. However, he did not wish to go the route of some others and form alliances with demons and devils. Instead, he went to the plane of shadow and formed alliances with entities there. The details of Kahb Rune’s journey to the plane of shadow and his negotiations with powerful entities there have been lost to history, but the impact of what he did is understood well today.

Illusion spells had already gained access to the psychic realm, which made it possible to access the mind and create “internal” illusions. The realm of shadow combines darkness and light, negative and positive plane energies, powerful entities from the realm of shadow thus had ancient knowledge of how to balance and manipulate those energies to obtain great power. 

Specifically, these entities gave Kahb Rune the knowledge of how to use access to the psychic realm to create a conduit to the planes of positive and negative energy, one that would allow the caster to bring this energy through to the prime material plane. Because the psychic realm is non-spatial, channeling these energies through the psychic realm means that the caster can bring them on to the prime material plane in any physical form (e.g. ray of light, mist), and in any place within a limited distance of them that they wish. For low level casters, when these energies are channeled to the prime material plane they manifest as colored energy, a mix of light (positive plane energy) and darkness (negative plane energy) for all colors. This can be seen in the simple color spray spell. Khab Rune became the first “phantasmist”.

As the phantasmist becomes more adept with illusions, they get better at mixing the negative and positive plane energy, to the point where they can create positive material objects. In essence, the increasing “materiality” of illusions (they become more tangible at higher levels, doing damage even if saves are made for example) and the ability of phantasmists to create real material objects (e.g minor creation) suggests that they become adept at shaping positive plane energy and negative plane energy into actual prime material plane energy and objects. Illusions thus become real as phantasmists become more powerful.

In addition, since raw positive and negative material plane energy is damaging to living creatures on the prime material plane, illusions, though intangible, can do some damage to victims when they “hit” them. This damage increases with the phantasmists skill (e.g. increases in level). In addition, as the phantasmist increases in level she becomes better at making the mix of positive and negative plane energy mimic the “feel” of the real world counterpart of the illusion. If a low level phantasmist creates an illusion of a soldier and it hits a PC, the PC would feel a sort of numbing jolt with the landing of an illusory sword stroke. The phantasmist uses access to the psychic realm to make the victim’s mind “fill in” the experience, so it feels like a sword hit. At low levels they aren’t too good at it yet, and as a result victims frequently get, and succeed at, their saving throws. As the phantasmist increases in level and experience the balance of energy feels more like a sword stroke when it is experienced, using less and less of the victim’s mind to support the illusion. This explains why many more high level spells have no save or reduced saves. Saving against illusions involves the victim’s mind in several ways, but not necessarily so as the phantasmist becomes more powerful.

Kahb Rune’s work left behind a core of magical spells dedicated to the creation of images (illusions) that were shaped out of light (later experience with manipulating positive and negative plane energy allowed the introduction of sound, temperature, etc. to illusions), could do a base amount of damage to victims (due to the presence of negative and positive plane energy in the mix), and were more likely to be believed due to the phantasmist’s ability to access the psychic realm, and thus victim’s minds. As time goes by phantasmists become better at mixing and balancing negative and positive plane energy and illusions become more tangible, and they can eventually create physical objects (minor and major creation) and creatures that have tangible reality. The phantasmist thus becomes an expert in psychic spells (spells that target the mind, senses), planar energy manipulation spells (e.g. illusions), and their combination. 

The other important development was Kahb Rune’s emphasis on using the phantasmist’s experience and knowledge, in addition to their creative skills, to make their illusions more convincing. Illusions are works of art; they take memories and ideas and shape them into three dimensional images. This works best when the phantasmist has a real world example to draw upon. This is reflected in the phantasmist’s ability to copy either monsters or spells with the “generic” illusions like phantasmal force. Because the phantasmist can turn any experience into an illusion, the more experience, and the more direct the experience, the better the illusion. This also means that every time a phantasmist is hit by a spell or attacked by a monster, if not lethal, those experiences can be used to cast illusions that resemble the real world experiences. The system presented here does two things, it requires phantasmists to have past experience with something to make an illusory copy, and it grades the ability of the phantasmist to mimic the source, as the phantasmist increases in level they get closer and closer to reproducing the source material perfectly. This gives an interesting advantage to the phantasmist: in the literal sense, what doesn’t kill a phantasmist makes them (and their illusions) stronger. 

Eventually those who followed Kahb Rune’s teachings formed a school known as phantasmist magic. Since magic was suppressed everywhere in the early years of Kahb Rune’s school, many phantasmist spells were dedicated to using the ability to affect the minds of victims or augment the minds of phantasmists to create combat advantages. Also, Kahb Rune created a special non-magical script for illusion spells (with help from powerful beings in the realm of Shadow), allowing phantasmist spells to be passed around with less suspicion than traditional spells.

Many of the spells for phantasmists in Bhakashal are really just formalizations of generic illusion spells. For example, one spell makes doubles of your attacking weapon so your victim doesn’t know which one is real, that could be done with a phantasmal force so specified. By giving it a name, and detailing its effects, some of these spells are manifestations of “best practice” in the illusion schools. It makes sense that when someone figures out a neat illusion that helps in combat, it would become well known, imitated, and its creator would be immortalized by having their name associated with the spell.

Statistics

Initial Ability Score Spread: INT 15 DEX 16 CHR 15

HD: d6

Weapons and Armor - As Warlock

Level Progression - As Warlock

Phantasmist Abilities

Mental Resistance

1. Phantasmists have a 10% chance per level of knowing someone is using a mental/scrying spell on them or recognizing an illusion (in addition to a disbelief save if appropriate)

2. They have a 5% chance per level of resisting or deceiving a scrying/mind reading spell, or resisting or redirecting mind influencing spells against the attacker. 

3. Phantasmists can cast 1 spell per day per level of experience, and have success/fail, reverse/harmful odds for casting all spells as a warlock, e.g. odds of successful casting equal to “to know” percentage +1% per level, reverse/harmful odds for failed casting are 5% per level of spell. Same rules as warlocks for the number of reverse/harmful results that can be resisted.

4. At different levels they get a selection of at will spells they can cast once per day, outside of their regular allocation of spells, as follows:

1. 1st level - forget 

2. 3rd level - clairaudience 

3. 5th level - clairvoyance 

4. 7th level - ESP 

5. 9th level - mass charm 

6. 11th level - mind blank 

5. Multiple phantasmists can cast the same spell and combine them, whenever they do so, they can choose to influence one parameter of the spell per additional person, these parameters are range, duration, area of effect, saving throw and damage, in each case they can double a parameter. So for example, three phantasmists working together could produce a color spray spell that had twice the range and duration. “Doubling” a saving throw means a -1 penalty per phantasmist involved in the casting.

6. Casting Illusions - There are 5 variant systems for adjudicating illusions in Bhakashal, pick the level of complexity and sophistication you prefer. All of them balance the reality of the illusion against the ability of the target to know it’s an illusion. Every system puts conditions on how damage works, and every system specifies when disbelief of the illusion is possible. I have used each of these at the table before, and all work, it’s really about the degree of “fiddly” you want. All variants share the “Basic Illusion Adjudication” system as a core, then build off that.

Basic Illusion Adjudication 

1. Illusions can duplicate monsters, NPC’s, spells and objects 

2. The Illusionist must have seen the subject of the illusion before for an extended period of time or the target gets an automatic disbelief save at +4

3. WIS and INT bonuses apply to any disbelief save

4. To disbelieve one must remain stationary and take no other actions that round. Roll a save versus spell; if successful add +4 to compatriots' saves if they can be informed

5. A successful disbelief save means the illusion cannot harm the victim, but it does not disappear, it does not become transparent and it can still hurt others

6. "Disbelieving the real" e.g. trying to disbelieve something real forfeits any saving throw and dexterity bonus to AC for the target

7. Illusion lasts until the phantasmist ceases concentration or is hit, unless otherwise specified

8. The phantasmist must remain stationary while casting, unless noted by the spell, giving them a 2 point AC penalty 

9. Illusionists can see through their own illusions

10. Illusions cast during surprise get no disbelief save opportunity until after the surprise round 

11. Anything independent with an intelligence above “non” can be impacted by an illusion:

Animals - yes

Dinosaurs – yes *

Undead - no

Demons/Devils - yes

Golems - no

Elementals - yes

Cubes and Jellies – no

All systems below share the Basic Illusion Adjudication rules.

Advanced Illusion Adjudication A

1. As Basic Illusion Adjudication above, plus:

2. All illusions get automatic disbelief saves, rolled every round of combat

3. If the saves are failed then damage, AC and THACO are as the real world equivalent

Advanced Illusion Adjudication B

1. As Basic Illusion Adjudication above, plus:

2. Illusion damage = [real world equivalent damage x (the caster’s “to know” percentage +1% per level)] - rounded down

3. Targets roll their “to know” percentage every time they are damaged by the illusion, if they fail they take damage as above, if they pass they disbelieve the illusion

4. The illusion has the AC and THACO of the real world equivalent

Advanced Illusion Adjudication C

1. As Basic Illusion Adjudication above, plus:

2. Illusions have a damage cap of 1-3 HP per attack per phantasmist level, maximum damage equal to damage subject of illusion can do

3. The illusion has the AC and THACO of the phantasmist

4. Conditions for potential disbelief save:

1. If the illusion is missing a relevant sense component

2. If the illusion is struck in combat

3. When these conditions do not apply but context indicates a disbelief save 

5. Each point of the caster's DEX bonus allows them to mitigate one type 4 b) disbelief opportunity per illusion, experience also allows the phantasmist to improve on this front: every 4 levels of experience the phantasmist may mitigate 1 further 4 b) disbelief opportunity

Advanced Illusion Adjudication D

1. As Basic Illusion Adjudication above, plus:

2. Illusions do the same damage as their real world equivalent

3. The phantasmist has to have been damaged by the subject of illusion for the illusion to be capable of damage

4. The illusion will have the AC and THACO of its subject

5. Victims get an automatic disbelief save versus illusion, modifiers are based on several characteristics:

1. Complexity of illusion 

2. Plausibility of illusion

3. Caster’s intelligence/wisdom (use INT/WIS bonus)

4. Target’s intelligence/wisdom (use INT/WIS bonus)

5. Familiarity of caster with environment

6. Complexity of environment

A -2/0/+2 save modifier model should be used, e.g. simple illusions -2 on saves, complex illusions 0, very complex +2 on saves, etc 

6. Save is made when the illusion appears, then again if context demands it

Advanced Illusion Adjudication E

1. As Basic Illusion Adjudication above, plus:

2. Illusions do damage as their real world equivalent

3. HD of creature that can be portrayed is limited to phantasmist’s level

4. Level of spell imitated is limited to spells castable by the relevant caster of the phantasmist’s level 

5. The illusion has the AC and THACO of the phantasmist

6. Number of creatures that can be created and directed to act is limited to phantasmist’s level, however, if illusory creatures are stationary and unmoving, the limit is the number which could fit in the spell AOE

7. Disbelief saves are required for targets of higher level/HD than the phantasmist, for all others, disbelief only happens if the illusion is significantly strange in some way