True Sight

[Carthrat]

Soon enough, we're going to hit sixth level spells, as will our enemies (if they haven't already). This means everyone will have access to that wonderful spell that we all know about thanks to Baldur's Gate 2; True Seeing.

The spell is mostly fine, except that it works on stuff above it's level 100%. Can I suggest a caster level check is involved on higher level spells? It does seem gay that you can True Sight away a Weird spell pretty much for free (and you better believe that by the time the game hits the point where stuff like that is thrown around, it *will* be on like all the time. Well. No, it won't, because it has a really low duration. Still!)

It may be in order to have a 'true sight, greater' variants to deal with such things, of course. But as it stands, it's basically 'spell immunity: illusion, all levels of it' only, well, better. There's the same issue with Mind Blank, albeit that's 8th level and unlikely to need to worry about stuff higher than it.

[Dracos]

Well, um...  It also involves spending a sixth level spell slot on 'defeat illusion'.  Isn't that kind of expensive in and of itself given how rarely that's come up?  Is illusion really that common a branch of magic?

Truthfully, as both player and character, I don't care either way since I don't use illusions and don't get the spell and also generally see a sixth level spell slot as on the off chance you're facing an illusionist to be a reasonably expensive setup.  It only really would mean 'with eight hours, any illusion can be broken' and frankly, that means the player has already broken the illusion anyway because in character they suspect it strongly enough to rememorize their spells to try dispelling it.

I haven't done a high level 3.5 campaign like ever so I guess you might have a different perception on how often illusion spells start coming up.   I would be surprised if the best use one can think of for a sixth level spell slot is 'short term immunity to illusions'.

Dracos

[Carthrat]

Illusion is a pretty freaking hardcore; High level illusions at that level feature mass invis and save-or-die spells, along with a slew of shadow/shade spells and such. Personally, I'm a huge fan of illusions in general (though Alvie doesn't use them much), so I guess it's a tossup here.

It just seems kind of irritating to have one spell nerf an entire school of magic, I guess. I'll probably keep a scroll of it handy at all times, y'know?

[Dracos]

That's a fair point.  In truth, a caster level check is probably sensible, but then what happens if you fail?  Are you left believing your spell (specifically constructed to see through illusions and the best of its kind for that) worked and there are no illusions or do you get the realization that it failed?

Dracos

[Carthrat]

Eh, it'd probably be a hidden check of some kind (half the point of illusions is that you don't know they're there, and if you know you made a check...). I'd suppose that if the spell isn't perfect, everyone casting it would know that. So, they'd be aware of the possibility of really powerful illusions that they can't see through.