Illusions, Resistances, and Enhanced Senses

[Mad_Dog_of_Fujiwara]

If a character can see through illusions, is there any way to determine whether illusion resistance to enhanced senses is more appropriate? Because I've looked at a few profiles with similar illusion-denying feats, and they seem to go back and forth between the two. Is it basically just up to the opinion of whoever approved those additions? Because that's what it seems like.

 

[Confluctor]

It depends on illusion to illusion. For example, if it's a mental illusion, seeing through that and denying it means illusion resistance. But if it's physical... Well, it needs a lot more evidence for being illusion resistance rather than simply enhanced senses.

 

[Antoniofer]

Several ilusions alter your senses, it makes you see, hear, smell, and touch things that are not real; in such cases, enhanced senses, or some forms of ESP, do not help you to avoid such illusions. Then you have optical illusions, that for practical purposes I wouldn't call illusions, stuff such pretty convincing holograms, they can be dicerned to be unreal if people have a good eye.

 

[EliminatorVenom]

Yeah, the problem is that it is a case that heavily depends on how the individual illusion works and, more importantly, how that specific character subverts it.

If a character has, like Sun Wukong of A Journey to the West, eyes that can pierce any illusion, I'd argue for it to be Resistance, as it isn't ES that apply in a general field, but rather something specifically meant to counteract illusions. But if a character is like, say, Tex Willer from Bonelli's publications, that subverts illusions by paying attention to things such as shadows, tell-tale factors such as motes of dust going through said illusion and the like, that is ES, or sometimes not even that, just an intelligence/focus feat than anything else.

It is a case by case scenario, and one of the most common ones in fiction.

 

[Mad_Dog_of_Fujiwara]

It depends on illusion to illusion. For example, if it's a mental illusion, seeing through that and denying it means illusion resistance. But if it's physical... Well, it needs a lot more evidence for being illusion resistance rather than simply enhanced senses.

What exactly is the difference between mental and physical?

Several ilusions alter your senses, it makes you see, hear, smell, and touch things that are not real; in such cases, enhanced senses, or some forms of ESP, do not help you to avoid such illusions. Then you have optical illusions, that for practical purposes I wouldn't call illusions, stuff such pretty convincing holograms, they can be dicerned to be unreal if people have a good eye.

Well, in the first example, I think we would consider that perception or sense manipulation, so I don't think that applies here.

Yeah, the problem is that it is a case that heavily depends on how the individual illusion works and, more importantly, how that specific character subverts it.

If a character has, like Sun Wukong of A Journey to the West, eyes that can pierce any illusion, I'd argue for it to be Resistance, as it isn't ES that apply in a general field, but rather something specifically meant to counteract illusions. But if a character is like, say, Tex Willer from Bonelli's publications, that subverts illusions by paying attention to things such as shadows, tell-tale factors such as motes of dust going through said illusion and the like, that is ES, or sometimes not even that, just an intelligence/focus feat than anything else.

It is a case by case scenario, and one of the most common ones in fiction.

Yeah, I get that. Two more things though. First is what we go with in cases where a character is simply stated to see through illusions without much further context, or their means of discerning illusions isn't expanded upon. Second is if we can use ES as a 'layer' of resistance when determining illusion creation potency (ie; A character can use ES to see through baseline illusion creation, but is fooled by a later illusion, so the creator of that illusion has 2 layers of illusion creation).

 

[Confluctor]

What exactly is the difference between mental and physical?

mental - done through psychic powers and illusions are made directly in the mind of someone.
By physical, I mean something that isn't mental. And its usually just something that messes with the optics and sometimes other senses of a person.

 

[Mad_Dog_of_Fujiwara]

So an illusion that isn't targeted at any one person and instead works on whoever views it would be physical?

 

[Antoniofer]

I believe a "physical illusion" would be something akin to holograms, images created through optical phenoma and that can be captured by cameras and such rather than being inventions of the mind.

 

[Confluctor]

So an illusion that isn't targeted at any one person and instead works on whoever views it would be physical?

Yes

 

[Mad_Dog_of_Fujiwara]

Hm, alright. Can physical illusions use ES as a measure of hax potency? As in, can we say an illusion who fools a character who saw through another illusion be considered layered? Or is that only for actual resistance?

 

[Confluctor]

It depends heavily on the concept, tbh. But most likely layered