I'm planning on creating an advanced Illusionist for a high level campaign. When reading through the rules for said school of wizardry, I came across this:
When you cast an illusion spell of 1st level or higher, you can choose one inanimate, nonmagical object that is part of the illusion and make that object real. You can do this on your turn as a bonus action while the spell is ongoing. The object remains real for 1 minute.
This seems ridiculously overpowered, even for a level 14+ character, given that one can combine it with the action of Minor Illusion, a cantrip, so the uses are near infinite. Is there a limit on the number of times this can be done?
For example, if a ceiling were falling, couldn't I just cast and recast all sorts of barriers and objects to stop its descent?
Can the spells combine, or is there an unexpected consequence or something entirely different? If there isn't, this campaign will be a breeze, which won't be nice for a one-shot (you can't keep treasure, so it has to be about the journey, not the reward).
Best Answer
Once per 1st level or higher spell.
The rest of the paragraph simply says when you can do this "on your turn as a bonus action while the spell is ongoing"; not that you can choose a new object each turn. All this does is mean that you do not have to make an object real at the start of the spell, you can do this on any of your turns (including the one where you cast the spell) as a bonus action. When you do this you choose the object and it lasts 1 minute but you only get one real object per casting.
Minor Illusion is not a first level or higher spell so that won't work for you. The ultimate limitation is the number of spell slots you have available to cast 1st level or higher illusion spells plus any magical items that allow you to cast such spells (items that produce illusions without specifically saying "you cast" don't benefit from this). The practical limitation is as long as this is the most effective use of your action.