Do displacement, mirror image, and blink all stack?

[azmodean]

What would the effect be if a character had displacement, mirror image, and blink up at the same time? Would the images blink and/or be displaced?

 

[Trainz]

Those 3 spells have different effects (one makes you appear where you're not, one makes you disappear from time to time, one creates many images of you), so I would say yes.

NOW...

It could be argued that the images themselves aren't affected by the displacement, I don't know about that.

 

[kenobi65]

You betcha they'd stack; as Trainz points out, they're all different effects.

The mirror images remain close to the caster and each other, so they'd blink with the caster.

I'd probably rule that only the caster (not his images) is under the effect of the displacement, however.

 

[KarinsDad]

You betcha they'd stack; as Trainz points out, they're all different effects.

The mirror images remain close to the caster and each other, so they'd blink with the caster.

I'd probably rule that only the caster (not his images) is under the effect of the displacement, however.

I agree with you because the target of the Displacement spell is the caster, not his images.

However, we had a fairly heated discussion on this about a month ago where a lot of people thought that if the caster were Blurred (or in this case Displaced), his images would also be blurred and hence would get the concealment bonus.

I don't think the targeting rules of spells support this interpretation, but other people think that the "copying of visual effects" of Mirror Image does. Effectively, they think that the images get the concealment bonus because they are blurry, not because you are under the affect of a Blur spell that gives you (and only you) that concealment bonus. YMMV.

Game mechanics-wise, it is important because if the Images are Blurred or Displaced or Invisible or Blinking, you would roll a miss chance against them. If they are not, then you would not roll a miss chance against them.


PS. Blinking and Displacement stack (i.e. you make two miss chance rolls) if your opponent cannot strike ethereal since one is a miss chance (due to you possibly being on the etheral plane) and one is a miss chance due to concealment. If your opponent can strike ethereal, then only the Displacement miss chance occurs due to both of them being miss chances due to concealment (i.e. they do not stack in this case).

 

[kenobi65]

PS. Blinking and Displacement stack (i.e. you make two miss chance rolls) if your opponent cannot strike ethereal since one is a miss chance (due to you possibly being on the etheral plane) and one is a miss chance due to concealment. If your opponent can strike ethereal, then only the Displacement miss chance occurs due to both of them being miss chances due to concealment (i.e. they do not stack in this case).

Actually, according to the description of Blink...

If the attack is capable of striking ethereal creatures, the miss chance is only 20% (for concealment). If the attacker can see invisible creatures, the miss chance is also only 20%. (For an attacker who can both see and strike ethereal creatures, there is no miss chance.)

If the opponent can strike ethereal, there's still a miss chance (just a lessened one) for Blink. The opponent needs to also be able to see invisible to completely circumvent the Blink effect.

 

[Deset Gled]

A quick mechanical note: though multiple miss chances can apply at once, they do not "stack" in the same way other bonuses do. If you have two effects that each give a miss chance, you do not add the miss chances together. You must roll each miss chance separately.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I don't think the targeting rules of spells support this interpretation, but other people think that the "copying of visual effects" of Mirror Image does. Effectively, they think that the images get the concealment bonus because they are blurry, not because you are under the affect of a Blur spell that gives you (and only you) that concealment bonus. YMMV.

The counterpoint is, of course, that you have a concealment miss chance only because you are blurry.

Because your images are also blurry, they get the same miss chance.

The fact that you became blurry because of a spell targeted at you is largely irrelevant.

 

[KarinsDad]

The counterpoint is, of course, that you have a concealment miss chance only because you are blurry.

Because your images are also blurry, they get the same miss chance.

The fact that you became blurry because of a spell targeted at you is largely irrelevant.

Except that there is no game mechanic called "blurry".

There is a game mechanic called a "concealment miss chance". Being blurry does not conceal you. The magic of the Blur spell conceals you as per "In addition, some magical effects provide concealment against all attacks, regardless of whether any intervening concealment exists.". Having a Blur spell placed on you gives you the "concealment miss chance". It is a direct effect of the magical effect as per this rule.


Ditto for Displacement. Do you think that the Mirror Images also appear to be two feet from where they actually are? Or, is it just the target of the Displacement spell who appears to be two feet from where he actually is?

A very reasonable interpretation of Displacement is that the caster is invisible while an illusion of him is nearby. Using this interpretation, he would not have any Mirror Images while displaced.

 

[azmodean]

Seems like a pretty good argument for blur, but what about displacement? You generate multiple images via MI, then each of them is displaced due to displacement... Seems like a bit of a stretch now that I look at it. I think I'll just stick to blink and either displacement or mirror image.

 

[Mahali]

What would the effect be if a character had displacement, mirror image, and blink up at the same time? Would the images blink and/or be displaced?

Displacement has no game effect on the Mirror Images. The images are displaced by the spell but when the image is hit (per Mirror Image) it disappears. The miss chance from blur applies as does that of Blink.

Blink moves the images between Material and Ethereal planes while blur distorts the image.