This spell is on two lists, Mentalist base Sense Control and Mystic Confusing Ways. The mystic in my party pulled it out yesterday, and it immediately led to questions. The description is:
"Target sees a nonexistent foe; must fight him until the foe is 'defeated' (i.e. takes damage that would drop the target); foe has same capabilities as target but does no damage (i.e. always misses)."
I think the most important part is in parentheses.
First question is, if the target has already taken damage (say, half HP and suffering a crit penalty) does "same capabilities" mean the illusory foe starts at half the target's HP and has the same penalty? Or does it start out at full target capabilities?
I'd say it starts at full strength, because it is not specified that it is a copy of the target, only that you need to inflict damage that would drop the target to dispel the hallucination. But I can see why some people would think otherwise.
Second question, consider the case of a target that is a spell caster whose primary spells do not cause damage, like Sleep, Fear, Hold, Confusion, or (pathologically) Hallucination. What qualifies as defeat? Personally I have different answers for the different examples I've given, but I'd like to hear what others think - including other complications or tricky scenarios.
The spell clarifies that the target needs to inflict enough damage to drop the hallucination. However, you could rule that any spell can affect the hallucination... but since they do not cause damage, the hallucination is still there and the target must still fight it. Time to bring out the kitchen knife, I guess.
Casting Hallucination on an Hallucination would not remove the original specification, which is that the target must still fight their hallucination, regardless of what the hallucination does. Casting Sleep or Hold on it would make it more vulnerable to most damaging attacks, thus making it easier to defeat.
An easier take on the spell (*much* easier, though probably less balanced) would be to rule that the hallucination is immune to non-damaging mental spells (because, as a hallucination, it does not have a mind). This prevents most of the shenanigans listed above. But it is much less fun
[I *so* love the infinite hallucination loop if the target casts hallucination on the hallucination :p]
As a side (but probably important) note, I would allow indirect damage to affect the hallucination. So, a spell that would push the hallucination off a cliff would probably indirectly inflict enough damage to "drop" it, and, as such, would defeat the hallucination. The spell does not specify that damage inflicted must be inflicted directly. This could open other options (such as using illusion to lure the hallucination into a situation where it would take environmental damage).
