[RPG] Are Illusionists subject to their own illusions

dnd-5eillusionspellswizard

In general, does the caster of a visual illusion experience the full effect of that illusion? For example, Minor Illusion can create an un-moving illusory object that seemingly everyone can see. Would this object be as opaque for the caster, or more faint, as it would appear to someone who successfully investigated the illusion?

For example, if an illusionist created the appearance of a brick wall between himself and some attackers, would the illusionist still be able to see the attackers? Or would the illusionist have to use an action to Investigate his own illusion first?

Best Answer

Minor Illusion has the following sentence, and most other illusion spells have a similar one:

If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

Given that the caster created the illusion, and should therefore be able to discern it for what it is, this suggests that the illusion will be faint for the caster. On the other hand, let's look at it with a bit more context:

If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. If a creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

This paragraph, taken as a whole, suggests that examining the illusion is what causes it to become faint, so there's definitely some ambiguity here.

So, if you're a player, the answer is, as always, ask your DM. They get to make the final decision here, and even if the rules were unambiguously one way or the other, they would still have the veto.

If you're the DM, on the other hand, it's up to you. Personally, I'd be inclined to rule in favour of the players here; it's much less likely to cause fights.