The Illusionist

The illusionist was always my favorite class to play. Standard magic-users were more powerful and a lot easier – with them you just blasted opponents and leveraged your considerable utility spells as needed. The illusionist could be very powerful but only with careful playing. You had to really think and scheme how to angle situations to get the most out of the class.

The original illusionist was created by Peter Aronson and appeared in The Strategic Review in 1975. It was a standalone class and would remain so when it was incorporated into AD&D later on. By the time 2E came along it had been relegated to sub-class status where it’s remained ever since. Playing at the Word has a great write up on its history complete with pictures of Aronson’s original draft of the class.

For QuestRex I wanted to make the illusionist something I’ve wanted from way back in the day: yes a spell casting trickster, but one that leveraged mundane abilities like stealth and sleight of hand as well as sorcery. You options might vary but for my illusionists these are the talents I’d choose:

• Class: Wizard
• Alignment: any
• 1st level: Combat (x1/4), Wizardry – blue (x1), Stealth (x1/2),
• 3rd level: Stealth Casting (x1)
• 5th level: Wizardry 2 – any but red (x1)
• 7th level: Escapology (x1/2)
• 9th level: Stronghold (x1)

This will be a strong spell caster who’s able to often cast spells unobtrusively and can sneak about without the need for using up spell slots. At higher levels they gain another school of magic (just don’t take red as it’s too direct) and will be particularly wily with escapology.