Having been granted rulership over the city of Vanhoover, and confessed their feelings for each other, Lex Legis and Sonata Dusk have started a new life together. But the challenges of rulership, and a relationship, are more than they bargained for.
Lex grit his teeth as he saw the front line of ponies falter at the sight of the creature ahead of them. Its appearance was enough that, even with Sonata’s song bolstering their morale, they couldn’t help but be intimidated. Twenty feet long and almost seven feet tall, the giant fish’s three eyes moved independently, looking them over as its tentacles waved in the air threateningly.
“Keep moving!” Lex roared. Even the act of yelling caused his body to ache in protest, but he forced himself to do so. “Go through that thing if you have to, but KEEP MOVING!” The sahuagin and their attendant monsters were rapidly forming up on either side of them, gathering in from where they’d been spread out along the wharf. In his estimation they had a minute, maybe two, before their full forces would be on them.
If that happened, they were doomed. Although everypony was making sure to form a circle around himself, Sonata, Aria, and the few others that he’d kept at their center, Lex knew that their formation wouldn’t hold out for long against a concerted attack. Already, the ponies on either side of them were fighting with everything they had, barely holding their own. None of them were trained in how to wear armor or wield weapons, and it was only due to Sonata and Aria’s magic that they were able to fight effectively even with the advantage of surprise. They needed to end this quickly, or it would quickly be the end of them.
Luckily, his shout seemed to rouse the rest of the ponies around him, and they threw themselves forward, giving a loud cry as they did so. They ran towards the monster…only to skid to a halt as a large stone wall suddenly appeared directly in front of them, blocking the tentacle-fish from sight. The unexpected sight caused Lex to gape, his eyes staring at the sudden barrier in horror, trying to figure out what magic it had used and what to do about it.
The wall wasn’t very long, barely ten feet wide and just as tall, but with the greater numbers of enemies assaulting their flanks, moving their entire group around it would prove extremely difficult…and that was assuming that it couldn’t create more. Even having the pegasi fly over it would prove almost impossible in this wind.
With just one spell that thing had pinned them down, and lowered their chances of victory to almost nil.
Aisle gave a cry as one of the scuttling lobster-eels sank a claw into his foreleg.
For a moment, he couldn’t help but try to kick the disgusting thing away from him, but it only sank its claw tighter into his flesh, refusing to be dislodged. Fighting back the urge to keep trying, he instead brought his axe down on the thing, the weapon making a deep gash in its exoskeleton. Next to him, Drafty brought her heavy pick down on it as well, punching through the opening that Aisle had created in its natural armor and impaling the thing.
Although she’d skewered it right through its center, the creature seemed to be enraged rather than injured, and it flailed its claws wildly at her. Both bounced off of her armor, however, and a moment later it shuddered and went limp. Withdrawing her pick from its corpse, Drafty risked a glance over at Aisle. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be fine,” he nodded. But he barely had time to get the words out before another monster was upon them. Whereas the one Drafty had killed had been the size of a foal, this one was as big as a pony, and instead of an eel’s head on a lobster’s body, this one was a lobster with a scorpion-like tail. Gulping, Aisle braced himself, hefting his axe in preparation as the thing stopped a few feet from them, giving a low hiss. He risked a look left and right to see if there was anypony else who could help them, but other than Drafty they were all dealing with opponents of their own.
“C’mon!” taunted Drafty, pointing her pick towards their latest enemy. “I’ll pin you just like that other bug!”
Her show of bravado brought a shaky grin to Aisle’s face. “You still buzzing from Cloudbank’s kiss?” Part of him couldn’t believe that he was bantering in the middle of a fight like this, but he chalked it up to Sonata’s song having revved him up.
Drafty grinned widely. “What can I say? She really-, whoa!” Cutting herself off as her enemy charged forward, Drafty barely managed to dodge the initial swipe of its claw. She swung her pick in response, but her frantic attempt to avoid being hit left her off-balance, and the strike didn’t have enough power behind it to pierce the thing’s shell. Aisle darted in to try and help, but the thing skittered to the side as he swung his axe, dodging the blow.
Cursing, Drafty moved after it, trying a second time to bring her pick down on the thing, but as she moved its tail darted out. Tilting her head instinctively, Drafty only barely managed to avoid the sharp point of its stinger piercing her eye, instead drawing a cut along her cheek. Gritting her teeth, she accepted the hit and swung her pick again, and again the thing managed to quickly dodge out of the way…right towards Aisle.
Grunting with effort as he brandished his axe, Aisle buried it in the beast’s side, causing it to emit a high-pitched shriek that made him wince. Even so, he struggled to tear the axe free from where it was caught in the creature’s body. He paid for that a moment later as its claw struck his chest just above his armor, hitting him right along his collarbone and making him open his mouth in a silent cry of pain.
“Aisle!” Drafty yelled as she lunged forward. The thing’s tail lashed out at her again, but this time she was ready, ducking under the strike and swinging her pick. This time her aim was perfect, and the pointed end of her weapon sank into the creature’s face, piercing it and killing the thing instantly. Yanking her weapon free, she turned her attention to her friend. “Are y-”
She didn’t have a chance to finish as Aisle’s eyes suddenly widened, looking at something behind her in alarm. Drafty had just enough time to start to turn her head before pain suddenly exploded through her body, her back feeling like it was on fire. Barely noticing that she’d fallen to the ground, she looked behind her and saw the needle-toothed grin of a sahuagin, raising its blood-covered spear to finish her off.
Aisle was faster. Grasping the haft of his axe in his teeth, he wrenched it free of the lobster-scorpion’s body in a single tug. Not stopping the motion, he whipped his head around and released the axe, flinging it towards the sahuagin. Despite the desperate nature of his throw, the arc of its trajectory was perfect, and the sahuagin had just enough time to spot the incoming weapon before it buried itself in the creature’s neck, knocking it onto its back as its head was very nearly separated from its body.
Panting, as much from tension as from effort, Aisle paused just for a moment as he realized that his desperate attempt to save his friend had actually worked. Then he recalled that she was still badly injured, and rushed over to her. “Drafty! Hang on!”
“Nngh…’m ‘kay,” she muttered, trying to get her hooves under her. But just talking caused pain to shoot through her, and she couldn’t seem to stand.
“You’re fine,” nodded Aisle, despite the fact that she obviously wasn’t. “You’re going to be fine.” The words tumbled from his lips instinctively, not knowing what else to do. He needed to get her some help, but where could-
White light suddenly radiated out from behind him, where Lex and the others were gathered in the center of their group, and Aisle had just enough time to look up before it washed over him and Drafty, as well as several nearby ponies. As it did, the pain of his wounds faded, and he heard Drafty give a sigh of relief as she clamored to her hooves, also healed.
Pausing just long enough to shoot a grateful look back towards Cozy – the one who had unleashed that healing energy – Aisle quickly ran over and retrieved his axe. There were already more enemies moving towards them, and he knew that he couldn’t count on Cozy’s healing energy lasting indefinitely. Until Lex could bring the rest of his plan to bear, they were going to need to hold out as best they could.
As two more sahuagin rushed towards him and Drafty, Aisle could only hope that their best would be enough.
“I’m only going to be able to do that a few more times,” warned Cozy, looking at Lex. She could see the question on his face, knowing he was wondering what she’d done, and quickly explained. “That wasn’t a spell. Lashtada lets me radiate holy energy a few times each day. It heals the living and harms the undead. You saw me use it back when you first met us.”
“I-”
“I can pick who it affects,” she continued, not giving him a chance to interrupt her, “and I made sure to exclude you. I knew you wouldn’t want it after all that fuss you made when Sonata told me to heal you before.”
“That-”
“I’ll help keep everypony on their hooves, so you just worry about figuring out what to do about that wall!”
“You-”
Before he could say anything else, Aria spoke up. “Why are we still standing here? That wall is an illusion! Just go through it!” she whispered urgently.
“What?!” hissed Lex, his head snapping around to look at her, Cozy’s impertinence immediately forgotten.
“What do you mean ‘what’? That thing is an aboleth,” she explained. “Making illusions is one of their powers.”
Lex looked back at the wall and immediately activated his circlet, letting him see into the magical spectrum. Sure enough, it had a magical aura radiating out from it that was indicative of illusion magic…which didn’t match what Aria had told him earlier about those ‘aboleth’ creatures. “You said they had psychic abilities, not this!”
Aria frowned at him. “Making people see things that aren’t there is psychic!”
“There’s a difference betwee-, nevermind!” Now was not the time to explain to her the difference between illusions that were the product of mental tampering and those that were the product of magically creating external images and sounds. “The wall is an illusion! It’s not real!” he yelled, causing them to look between him and the wall uncertainly.
The closest pony, a unicorn stallion whose name Lex couldn’t remember, gingerly reached out a hoof and touched the barrier…and passed right through. Giving a sigh of relief, he turned to look back at everypony else. “He’s right!” he announced. “It’s not r-” Before he could finish speaking, a tentacle reached through the wall and curled around him, lifting him into the air before immediately slamming him back down with a sickening crunch. Before anypony could do more than gape, three more tentacles followed suit, smashing three more ponies to the ground with bone-breaking force, causing Cozy to immediately run forward, channeling more healing energy.
Cursing, Lex realized that they were out of time. The aboleth clearly knew how to use its illusions to gain a tactical advantage, and fighting a defensive battle while trying to counter its powers would take too long. They had to get past this thing right now.
It was time for a change of plans.
Cozy reveals the ace up her sleeve, and Aria offers some strategic insight. But both only seem to delay the inevitable.
Lex is changing the plan, but what is the plan? And what's he about to do?
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I tried using that trick with the illusionary wall in a game once. It didn't work so well. Attacking through the wall proved that it wasn't real, which gave automatic successes to all the enemies trying to disbelieve, which made the wall transparent for them.
Of course, I was just using Silent Image. Maybe the Aboleth has other tricks.
Dang Aboleth used my favorite way to use Silent Image against them. Too bad everyone but Aria failed their will saves.
8129752 The aboleth was actually using its illusory wall spell-like ability. That one doesn't become see-through on a successful saving throw (which I presume is what happens automatically when invoking the "A character faced with proof that an illusion isn't real needs no saving throw" clause for d20 illusions).
8129808 It didn't apply for illusory wall, but I personally find the way the d20 System treats figment-based illusions to be somewhat problematic. It's hard to say why exactly it is that such an illusion - of a type that's manifestly external to you, rather than being mind-affecting - suddenly becomes translucent only for those individuals that disbelieve it. If it's just bending light then shouldn't you perceive it the same way whether you believe it or not?
That it suddenly loses its potency like that is a game-ism, though I can't remember if it's one that worked that way in earlier editions. Like most game-isms, its lack of logic is made exceedingly clear when its presented in a narrative context.
8129827
I always thought that many illusions had some sort of mental component, or is at least acting on your senses, which is why you get a will save to disbelieve, and interpreted the whole will save for disbelief as that you are overcoming the spell's mental portion, which is why it disappears for you. Though Illussory Wall specifically subverts this problem, in that the spell description specifically says that it still appears solid even if you make your save, unlike the previously mentioned Silent Image, which is a dinky (if useful) level 1 spell, so it just goes poof. Also the description notes that any non-visual senses will show it to be an illusion, which may be more evidence that the spell is somehow manipulating senses.
8129827 In a way I agree, and obviously the reason it acts like that is because otherwise Silent Image would be better than Invisibility in many situations, but on the other hand, if it was creating an image of a wall entirely external to the viewers, it would be Evocation. Like Light.
I suspect the underlying mechanism for figments is that it creates something that emanates false sensory impressions. And since it's manipulating your senses instead of your mind, it doesn't count as mind-affecting? But if you don't believe in them, you can filter them out (mostly), sort of like unfocusing your eyes to see a Magic Eye picture, only in reverse.
A 10 foot by 10 foot wall appears? Earth Pony miner uses Wrecking Ball. In fact, in most battles, isnt it the opponant that has the greater force and momentum possible have the advantage, because they can just keep knocking the other guy back at least?
What Maud said in the latest episode though is going to have long lasting effects.
Magic changes rocks.
and from previous episode.
Its a rock. I threw it.
In Equestria girls, Pinkie has Exploding Candy Sprinkles.
Theyre starting to demonstrate that Earth Pony magic is canon, powerful, subtle, to be on par with unicorns and pegasi?
Trouble is, how would this, if applied, allow Earth Ponies to be spell casters, or would they go through primarily Druidic classes? It takes a lot of effort to kill off all the plants in an area.
8130020
8129876 Those aren't bad interpretations, but I don't see them as being entirely in line with what the game rule information necessarily tells us about how figment (and other non-mental) illusions work. The text flat-out tells us that figments "create a false sensation", but note that this is "not a personalized mental impression." What it's doing is creating something that seems real to one or more of your senses, even though it's not actually there. In essence, it's creating a hologram; it's playing false with your perception of the world, but there's no mental component there. That doesn't need to be an evocation spell, since "creating a false sensory impression" is essentially what illusions are, and figments - like a hologram - don't need to be independently perceived simply to exist.
That's why spells like that work even against creatures that are entirely immune to mental effects, such as undead. They would still perceive a wall to be there if they saw an illusory wall, since it's not trying to affect their mind in any way. Likewise, the spell doesn't have a Target entry, denoting that it's not affecting any creature (i.e. targeting anyone's mind) in particular; it's just there.
That's why the whole "your perception of it changes when you make a save" introduces such a dissonant element. The fact that illusory wall had to specifically write that provision out showcases the weakness of the entire idea of them becoming see-through when disbelieved. Again, I can understand why they did that, since it makes game-play much easier, but it's narrative presentation puts the difficulties front-and-center.
8130099 The thing to keep in mind is that ponies - unlike pretty much every other creature we see in the show - inherently have access to two different sources of magic. One is the magic that's specific to their tribe (i.e. earth pony magic, pegasus magic, or unicorn magic), and the other is the magic of their cutie mark. The former is the same for all members of that particular pony sub-race, whereas the latter is individualized. When seeing a pony perform a fantastic feat (and note that "fantastic" is relative to what we see in Equestria, rather than our world), the trick is to try and figure out if that's a product of their racial magic or their cutie mark magic.
For the most part, that's going to be the latter, simply because if every other member of a particular sub-race can do something, then by definition it's not going to be particularly notable to anyone who's even remotely familiar with those kinds of ponies. Maud's cutie mark is a rock, and so she can inherently utilize extraordinary powers that are rock-based in theme, which is something other earth ponies won't have access to. There might be some areas of overlap (e.g. several earth ponies have displayed extraordinary strength, much like Maud), but that's just that, an area of overlapping ability, much like how Rainbow Dash's cutie mark overlaps with her pegasus magic of being able to fly at all. This is true for unicorns as well; most of them can't perform powerful magic that we've seen, and those that can tend to have a cutie mark related to magic.
The tricky part seems to be that some ponies can evoke greater (or at least, different) abilities from their cutie mark than others can. Pinkie is a super party pony, for example, but only Cheese Sandwich can sense where a party is going to happen before it happens (i.e. his "Cheesey Sense"). Their entire "goof off" is essentially a battle to demonstrate which of them has greater prowess with their cutie marks, which is what Pinkie becomes aware of when she realizes that she's made it all about her, and not Rainbow Dash. (As a note, Pinkie's Pinkie Sense - and Maud's Maud Sense - are anomalous in this regard, since they're pretty clearly not related to their racial magic or cutie mark magic (unlike Cheese Sandwich's Cheesy Sense) hence why Twilight went crazy over the former in Feeling Pinkie Keen. To my mind, that's some evidence that the Pie family has latent psionic wild talents that pop up every so often.)
That's actually not that surprising, since - whether you measure it in RPG terms or not - some people are going to be better at what they do than others, whether due to personal training, inherent talent, or some combination thereof. It's not surprising that we've seen some earth ponies that can stand out compared to their peers, because that's never been the issue. The issue is that unicorns with cutie marks related to magic - specifically with regards to spellcasting - such as Twilight or Starlight, have a greater range of versatility with what they can evoke, since "magic" is open-ended in terms of what it can do. It's why Twilight could cast a spell to let non-pegasi walk on clouds, and even give Rarity (rather flashy and fragile) wings.
8130233 I don't think your interpretation of them being a hologram fits with the game rules, since they become see-through when you disbelieve (and also, that would specifically be evocation -- Light used to be illusion until they decided that an illusion of light would only let you see what the caster of the spell wanted you to see and not what was really there)(which, by the way, is an EVIL TRICK that would be more generally applicable if people didn't bring their own light sources n.n). That's why you need something else.
So I'm just thinking 'what would require a will save but *not* be mind-affecting?' and my first thought was 'magic eye puzzles'. So, from there, I can imagine a 'sensory impression' being radiated as a thing in itself and not through a medium like light. You can't stop receiving the information by force of will because it's coming in through the normal channels, but if you concentrate you can distinguish it from the actual information being generated by light hitting your eye, and stop seeing (only) the illusion.
Undead are a weird case. I think they just have normal vision now, but there was at least one version where they saw peoples' souls and that's why they could see you in the dark. I guess their magically animated eyes can receive direct 'sensory' broadcasts.
8130487
The issue here is that, having it be at all able to "read" someone's mentality makes it a mind-affecting effect, which we know figments are not (since they doesn't have that descriptor, and are stated to "not [be] a personalized mental impression"). So disbelieving it and having that make it turn translucent can't be an issue of it affecting your internal perception, while still allowing for the effects to be altered purely based on an individual's state of mind, since two people can see the same external effect differently based on whether or not they believe it to be real. That's a very difficult needle to thread, and is a problem that's based around the game-ist desire of wanting it to stop affecting those people that have made their saving throw.
So you do essentially have holograms that "fade out" when you know that they're holograms. How that makes sense is anyone's guess, and that's a problem, since a narrative context requires that it make sense. Hence my frustration.
You're misremembering here; the light spell was an alteration (which these days is called transmutation) spell back in First and Second Edition, before Third Edition, 3.5, and Pathfinder all made it evocation (which Fifth Edition has retained). Evocation is described as "magic to create something out of nothing," but the point of an illusion is that something hasn't actually been created; it just looks (or sounds, smells, etc.) like it has. You can point out that it doesn't really make sense to have an illusion create something visual, but an evocation to make light, and you'd be raising a good point...which further goes to show why the game rules aren't really putting simulationism very high on their priority list.
Again, I think that's a good idea, but it has problems tracking with what we're told is the case. Specifically, the problem here is that this isn't just a Will save; it's a Will save to disbelieve. We're told up-front that the salient issue of whether or not you can see through a figment is whether or not you believe it to be real. That's a problem, because that's fundamentally different from something like a magic-eye puzzle; whether or not you believe something is a state of mind regarding whether or not you hold something to be true. It's fundamentally an issue of personal opinion, rather than an optical illusion the way a magic-eye puzzle would be. Having something's visual appearance change, despite it not being mind-affecting, whether or not it's believed by the viewers is the root of the problem.
From what I recall, you're remembering the 3.5 dread wraith, which had the "lifesense" special quality. I don't recall any other undead that had this in 3.5, though Paizo gave that ability to all wraiths in Pathfinder (and oracles and eidolons can get it too, depending on what class features they take). But even then, all undead - in 3.5 and Pathfinder - had 60-foot darkvision as part of their type-based abilities (and, unless we were told otherwise, normal sight as well).
Again gets a lot of use here.
8132040 It does...but does it sound bad? The second and third uses of it in that paragraph are deliberate, as it's used to build a sense of repetition (e.g. "again she tried, and again she failed"), but that first one was used mostly because I couldn't find a better alternative.
8132625 Cursing, Drafty moved after it, trying to bring her pick down on the thing again, but as she moved its tail darted out. Tilting her head instinctively, Drafty only barely managed to avoid the sharp point of its stinger piercing her eye, instead drawing a cut along her cheek. Gritting her teeth, she accepted the hit and swung her pick futilely as the thing quickly dodged out of the way…right towards Aisle.
8132772 Hm, that might be better...my preference would be to remove the first "again" in the paragraph, because the second and third are meant to be used in repetition to establish the feeling of trying the same thing only to achieve the same (failed) results as before.
EDIT: I went ahead and rewrote the first sentence to remove the "again" there.
8130531 I can only offer 3.5 insights to this, but maybe it helps...
The way figments work (or at least used to work) were that they didn't create an object, but rather bend light in a way that makes it seem to the onlookers that there IS an object. You basically "create" a source that bends light, sending it towards the sensors (eyes) of the onlookers. However, that is only part of the effect: The bent light doesn't give you the full wall, it gives you the translucent outline. The full wall is created when the magical effect hits your sensors/eyes, which then "complete" the wall. If you belive it, it's not much different from a regular illusion. If you don't, you disbelive the magical effect clouding your senses (via external magical input), but the source of bent light still remains as the translucent wall (the resistance to disbelieve such an ability is similar to the way you use your mind to resist a Transmutation or Abjuration).
This is opposed to a phantasm, which retains the outline on the grounds that the spell still gives you the mental, mind-affecting input of a wall which you disbelieve to stop your own body from producing false sensory input. If you are immune to mind-affecting effects, you are immune to a phantasm. If you only disbelieve it, the imprint is still there, but you manage to stop it from clouding your senses.
All of this is further different from Illusion (Shadow) spells, which use a material that, by it's very nature, reacts to perception: Shadowstuff. That doesn't mean that shadowstuff, if perceived to be real, IS real. It means that if Shadowstuff isn't perceived to be real, it CEASES to be real in respect to the person that disbelieved it. Shadowstuff is always limited by the form the spell gives it. If the person it then attacks believes the Shadowstuff the be... Shadowstuff, it deals the full damage. If the person it attacks doesn't believe it, the illusion is disbelieved and the person perceives Shadowstuff to be Shadowstuff. As Illusion (Shadow) is not Illusion (Phantasm) or Illusion (Figment), the spell retains no outline and, to that person, is just Shadowstuff. The Shadowstuff reacts to the illusion crumbeling for that person. It doesn't read the targets mind to do so, but rather reacts to that persons lack of belief in it in the same way a worship-requiring item can. Thus, the Shadowstuff isn't empowered by faith anymore and only deals partial damage as it tries to sell it's effect on someone who doesn't empower it, or rather the spell that supports it. Well, normally. See, Shadowstuff is pretty powerful on it's own. There are certain cases where Shadowstuff is so highly concentrated that the faith in the spell that shapes it restricts Shadowstuff's potential to deal damage on its own. In such cases, disbelieving the spell breaks these restraints for that specific target, making the Illusion (Shadow) deal more damage than the replicated creature or spell would.
...
Or at least, that's how I came to make sense of it.
I think the devil is in the fine print there: Evocations create something that is undeniably real and magical, while illusions manipulate something existing (light or "sounds"). The illusion doesn't create a wall, it bends light via magical energy, while the light spell makes a magical light out of magical energy. A third one is Conjuration (Creation), which uses magical energy to create something nonmagical (a Fireball is still made out of magical energy, while an Orb of Fire is made out of actual fire you magically control). That's also why Evocation allows for spell resistance while Conjuration (Creation) doesn't (well, in most cases).
8151163
Insofar as I'm aware, there's very little difference between figments in 3.5 and Pathfinder. Other than eliminating the parenthesis around "It is not a personalized mental impression," Pathfinder's only change is to note that, like sight, you can't make an illusion of something with any sense unless you've experienced it directly.
Leaving aside problematic issues of how "light" - let alone "bending light" - works with regards to the physics of the game world (and this is not a semantic point, since we can easily get into issues of things like an illusory wall still appearing when you look at it in an area of pitch blackness with darkvision, which means that per se there is not visible light to bend...and since unlike infravision darkvision doesn't expressly define what it is or how it works, then it might not be an issue with another spectra of light being bent either. This is one of the problems with having a natural sense be so undefined), there's a particular issue here: this is still having your state of mind - that is, whether or not you believe something - interact with a physical sense (i.e. what you see).
Right, because phantasms are explicitly stated to be mind-affecting effects. It makes sense that their perception of it would change, because changing their mind about what it is will necessarily alter their perception of it, since phantasms produce a personalized mental image in the minds of the target (though the caster can perceive it also, which is due to them providing the magic that made the phantasm to begin with). So there's no contradiction there.
The thing to remember with regards to shadow-based illusions is that they're actually using shadowstuff - an extradimensional substance that is, don't forget, partially real - to support their illusions. In this case, what's happening is the physical version of mixing truth and lies together. Shadowstuff does, unlike other illusions, is real, at least somewhat. By using it, you can create real effects that will persist regardless of whether they're believed or not. The question is to what degree they can affect something, because shadowstuff isn't as real as full reality; the magic you're using makes it seem like it is, however.
That last part is important, because it showcases that shadow-based illusions are two-part in nature. There's the shadowstuff, and the magic that's making it look more real than it is. We know there has to be an additional component there besides just shadowstuff on its own, because if you go to its place of origin - the Plane of Shadow - while those spells are enhanced (since it's easier to gather shadowstuff when it's right there), there's no other instances of shadowy things (e.g. environmental hazards on the plane), creatures (e.g. shadows) inflicting illusory damage. If rocks fall on you on the Plane of Shadow, it's 100% real damage. When you only take a certain percentage of damage from a disbelieved shadow-based illusion, you're disbelieving the "layer" of illusion magic on top of the shadowstuff, while the real thing still hits you whether you believe it or not.
Debates like this highlight why just giving us the metagame mechanics isn't very helpful if you want to get into the "how" of the world.
The issue is how loosely the schools of magic are defines. We're flat-out told that evocation "manipulates magical energy or taps an unseen source of power" to do what it does. But the very next sentence tells us that it "creates something out of nothing," which contradicts the first sentence since utilizing existing energy or sources of power means that what you're creating isn't out of nothing, it's out of the energy/sources that you're using. Contrast that with conjuration, which flat-out has a "creation" sub-school that's flat-out described as letting you "create objects or effects on the spot." That apparently includes life energy, which has its own sub-school, despite those spells having been necromancy in previous editions (i.e. they directly manipulated one's life force).
In other words, the schools of magic work best when you don't look at them too closely, since they're more Venn Diagrams than separate and distinct areas.
8156149 (I'm putting this back here, since I don't think you meant to jump this discussion over to the current chapter.)
I can understand trying to reconcile the disparity; I'm just skeptical that it works (which is their fault, rather than yours - a bad system is a bad system, no matter how much someone tries to make it look good). Transmutations are out-and-out stated to directly affect you, and that's almost always obvious anyway by the very nature of the effect. If a spell is trying to turn you to stone, change you into a bird, or otherwise alter you, then it's not that hard to imagine that you're trying to resist it doing so (most narratives that have magic make such effects into an absolute, at least outside of truly exigent circumstances; the d20 System, and stories based on it, are more forgiving, even if "saving throws" are damned difficult to define from an in-character standpoint). But figment illusions are external to a character, and so shouldn't have that level of alteration based on their state of mind. Trying to do an end-run around that is understandable, but ultimately futile.
Right, though I don't see that as being quite as problematic, since in this case there's an instance of direct interaction that allows for a lot more leeway where expectations are concerned. Whereas a figment is supposed to just be there, and how you perceive it depends on what you think of it (i.e. the problem), a spell like shadow evocation is typically going to exist in a manner that necessarily interacts with you (e.g. it mimics a fireball), at which point you have a pretense for its magic affecting you directly, e.g. that the magic component on top of the shadowstuff is actuating the idea of "your mind makes it real." Though that gets into questions of if it should have the mind-affecting descriptor.
Can you post an example of this in action?
Nah, this is all what happens when game-ism is supported over simulationism (by a particular margin).
I really hate it when I encounter armored enemies in fantasy games, or any game for that matter so having Aisle deal the killing blow was personally satisfying. As was the timely assistance from Cozy. I seriously thought the death flag was going to be raised for a moment. Still, even with Cozy's ability to heal en masse, there's bound to be casualties and its going to hit the survivors hard.
Having Cozy cut Lex off constantly was fun to read. Shows that Cozy is at least growing more tolerant of his 'resemblance' to Sombra.
8167287 Everypony is fighting on the front lines for this one. Although Sonata is doing her best to buff everypony, and they have weapons and armor made by Lex, there's still a lot of danger involved. Luckily they're facing low-level enemies...mostly. Luckily Cozy had a hidden ace up her sleeve to keep the ponies from being worn down...at least for now. So far they haven't lost anypony, but their enemies seem too overwhelming for everyone to make it through alive...don't they?
Having Cozy talk over Lex was fun for me, too. She still finds him unnerving, but by now she's thoroughly realized that he's not a danger to her or the other ponies around him, at least not the way the sahuagin and their ilk are.
The empire had a powerful military, invading and occupying most neighbouring lands. A contingent of that army has arrived now to defeat the kraken, but who will win?